happy new year!

Happy New Year to all!  I truly cannot believe it's 2010.  Dan and I graduated high school TEN years ago.  Where has the time gone?  We welcomed the new year in a low-key sort of way, we went out to a nice yummy dinner at Pompei (Thank, N&K for the great gift certificate!) and went to Target (my favorite place :) and cuddled on the couch and watched the Hawks game.  I barely made it to midnight but stayed awake long enough for Dan to exclaim "It's 2010, we're gonna make a BABY this year!"  (We've been waiting a LONG time to say that.)  Being a mother has been my dream since I knew what a mom was and the desire to start a family has been on our minds for as long as we've been together.  One of our goals for the new year is to remain patient...ahhhh, the ever elusive gift of patience....Anyone willing to share the secret to it? School is all-consuming and it's only the first day, so it's my hope the next two quarters will fly by at warp speed and June will be here in a heartbeat.  We have to remind ourselves when our impatience weighs down on us that we are going to school to make the best life we can for our family.  All our hard work will pay off when we can have our little babies crawling around and have the luxury of time and financial security to enjoy every precious moment with them.
Anyway, New Year's Day we celebrated a belated Christmas since Matt and Dee were on the cruise.  We had a great time! Dan and I picked up Grams from Friendship Village and she was so happy!!! Normally, after twenty minutes outside of Friendship, she starts complaining to go 'home.'  We picked her up at 3:30 and she was happy as a clam til 9:30!!! It was a Christmas miracle! :)  It was so nice to have her there, talking up a storm, playing with her baby and puppy and just making us laugh all night long.  Christmas actually felt almost 'normal' because we could all be there, including our lovable little Grams.  She just melts my heart.  Mom worked so hard to cook us an incredible feast of chicken vesuvio, beef tenderloin, tortellini, the works.  She is such an awesome mom!  Here are some pics from the day:

Grams and her baby and new puppy from Ann & Jim

One of these things is not like the other..... :)

Obligatory self-portrait...that's how we roll

Mom & Kik's awesome personalized Bears jerseys  Bruno for life, britches!

Kiss the cook! Look at that chicken vesuvio! YUM!

Two Dans and a Matty

Dad & Son!

I love my mama!!

Brody & me!

The two funniest ladies around...i love my Auntie Lori!

Auntie Kathy & Grammy Grams! So cute!

Look at these tree guyz!

What a wonderful Gramma!

Family!

Happy New Year to all! May this year bring us all the gifts of health, patience, happiness and abundant love.  We are so fortunate to have such an amazing family and network of hilarious and supportive friends.  We struggled a bit this year and will until school is complete...we could not have made it through this year without the love of our parents (feeding us, clothing us, laundering our stinky clothes).  We are so so blessed.  We felt terrible that this Christmas we couldn't give gifts like we love to do normally, but we PROMISE, we will give you the BEST gift of all very, very soon...in the form of a chubby, happy little grandbaby.

LOVES!
D&D