Goodbye, 2010! Be Kind, 2011.

I was never more ready to start a new year than I was this year. 2010 had it's moments of happiness and many, many blessings. It was an absolute joy to see my baby bloom from a sweet little infant to a rambunctious, talkative toddler. But 2010 was also filled with plenty of challenges, the most difficult moments to date- being a single mother for most of the year and seeing my child hurt and in the hospital.

Quite honestly, the thing I'll remember most about 2010 was that it was the year of the imaginary husband. He was deployed for seven long months and then other than the two glorious weeks of leave after his homecoming, he has been pretty much gone the whole time since. I know he doesn't like being away from us any more than I do and there are other military families out there who are enduring circumstances much worse than ours, but it has been incredibly difficult nonetheless.

Thankfully, I consider myself an optimistic person and I have high hopes that this year will be amazing for the Augustines.

So goodbye, 2010! Please be kind, 2011!

Our New Year's Eve spread. You can tell it's been an exhausting year since I didn't have the energy or the motivation to set the table nicely. Mike and Grace are lucky I even cooked. I was tempted to just order pizza.

Since Mike had duty today, Grace and I spent a quiet day at home playing with all her new toys, playing dress up, and learning to play catch. I was trying to teach her how to catch a ball properly, but the girl refused. Whenever the ball rolled away, she would chase after it on all fours, pick it up with her mouth, crawl back to me, drop it at my feet, and bark. All while wearing kitty cat ears. She cracks me up!