So long 2009... Bring it on 2010!

We had some dreams come true in 2009. Back when Richie and I got married in 2003, we went on our honeymoon to a local/affordable place just a few hours from home. We said at that time, that we'd take a cruise for our 5 year anniversary. At that time, I almost didn't belive we actually would do it, but we did! We saved and saved and saved (all my mileage reimbursement checks from work) and we finally had enough money to pay for our whole trip... We set sail on our 10 night exotic southern caribbean cruise one year ago tomorrow. We originally didn't plan to have a toddler in tow (when we started planning in 2003), but we took Laura along, and I wouldn't have done it differently looking back now. We had such a great time! ...and how many kids can say they traveled by sea at 15 months old?

We got to meet baby Neleh June who came just late enough for us to see her as a fresh newborn. She was due while we were away, but she made her mommy wait until we were back before she decided to come out. Laura loves her new baby cousin "Ella June" as she now calls her.

In February we met a great man. His name is Dave Ramsey. No, we didn't meet him personally, but we signed up for his "Financial Peace University" to try to get our financial life on track better. It hit me that we have (had?) no plan for college savings for Laura and that the way we were "doing our budget" (Who am I kidding? WHAT BUDGET?) ... there was no spare room for college savings. We had too much debt. Heck, at that point we couldn't even see a plan for how we would ever afford to have 2 kids in daycare...

Speaking of which - we'd already started trying to get pregnant with baby #2 at that point...

In March we did our first written budget and lived by it. We started paying cash for things like groceries, household repairs/improvements, clothing, gifts, medical copays etc... I refused to use cash for paying for gas though because it's rediculous to not use pay-at-the-pump when you have a toddler in a carseat.

We paid off our van. All $4,700 that was left of it.

18 month old Laura got her first haircut.

April - Laura stopped using a bottle :) That sure simplified life! Laura started learning her body parts and was getting a lot more vocal.

May was not a good month. I cried a lot.

My grandma Brown passed away.

Richie had a nasty case of painful shingles.

The external hard drive crashed taking with it all of our photos since 2005. Ugh. My heart aches for those photos. I have managed to gather a few from friends and family and what was posted her on the blog and the few that I had saved to cd (like Laura's birth!). Now we save onto 4gb jump drives so if one goes bad - we'll only lose a couple months, not a ton... anyone have a better solution?

June - Richie and I celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary. That morning, Richie saw a (postive) pregnancy test lying on the bathroom counter. Baby #2 due February 2010! Only took 5 months to get pregnant this time instead of the 8 like it did with Laura.

We (Richie!) put an addition on the house. The rickety old covered porch off the dining room got a facelift with windows all around. That closed in porch has seen more use since it got a facelift than it did in the previous 6 years we've lived here!

Jenna left daycare. Laura was super duper sad.

We planted trees to replace some of the 18 or so trees that have been removed from our property since we bought the place. We put in 3 cherry trees and a maple. Now we're just waiting for them to grow up so we can harvest some cherries and have pie.

We threw snowballs. Lots of snowballs. (Dave Ramsey speak for throwing extra money at debt).

July - Laura first started showing interest in using the potty. We had a couple weeks towards the end of the month where she did really well, then we had a weekend away from home (picnics) and she lost all interest.

We learned that our good friends Rachel and Eric were expecting another baby too... in January! Laura and Logan are close, and hopefully these 2 new kidlets will be too.

I was feeling the effects of the first trimester - tired all the time, but not as easy to nap this time around as Laura wanted me up and playing when I wanted to be down resting.

August we transitioned Laura to the toddler bed because my growing belly was getting squished getting her in the crib.

I had a scare and thought I lost this baby on August 13th. Ultrasound proved otherwise and baby was just fine! I felt the new baby moving for the first time later that week.

September

Laura turned 2! So many changes in the past 2 years.

We found out we're having a boy. Laura wants to name him Towel. We have no other names in the running yet.

Still throwing snowballs and using coupons to lower our grocery bill. Sticking to our budget and saying "no" to stuff we don't need. Purging the house of "stuff"... including Laura's eight tubs of outgrown clothing!

Laura has her first crush. Bill. He's our neighbor. Married, father of 4 kids and all Laura can talk about is Bill Bill Bill.

October

Laura sits forward facing in her carseat now.

Jenna is back at daycare. Laura is happy.

Richie did some remodeling in the basement... tore down all the old dark brown paneling and sheetrocked the walls and ceilings. Everything looks fresh and new and bright down there now!

I pinched a nerve or something in my lower back and have been dealing with pain for roughly a month. Not sure if it's from carrying Laura or not, but it hurt.

November

I'm swelling already. People told me it'd be different this time around since I'm not pregnant during the summer. People were wrong.

Laura started showing more interest in potty learning again...

December

Busy doing up a new room for Laura - painting and cleaning/clearing out. Purging yet more stuff.

Laura is in awe of the lights of the season.

I feel safe to say that Laura is potty trained (for #1 anyways).

We met our end of the year financial goal ... won't go into specifics, but we paid off a 15 year 2nd mortgage (that we've had for 3 years), our van, and a school loan. Now we can afford to have 2 kids in daycare.

Here's to 2010...!