2012 Re-cap

This has been by far the biggest year of my life! If you think getting married is serious business try having a baby! That's just what we did and boy was it life changing. In a good way of course! :) I think other events happened this year but it will be hard for me to come up with many things that don't revolve around baby! Let's take a look...

{JANUARY}

We went to Maui for our babymoon.

My friend Carrie threw me a gorgeous baby shower.

{FEBRUARY}

I had another lovely baby shower.

We got the keys to our new home.

{MARCH}

Blair Olivia Bushman was born five weeks early...

...the same day we moved into our new home.

{APRIL}

I celebrated my 28th birthday as a new mom.

I celebrated my 1st blogiversary.

Blair had her 1st photo sesh.

{MAY}

I celebrated my first Mother's Day.

Blair was dedicated to the Lord. 

Blair had her first beach trip and wore a bikini. :)

{JUNE}

We re-landscaped our front yard.

I wore a bikini for the first time post baby.

{JULY}

I started using cloth diapers.

Blair had her 3 month photo sesh.

{AUGUST}

We spent a lot of time at the beach.

{SEPTEMBER}

Blair had her 6 month photo sesh. 

I started making my own baby food.

{OCTOBER}

I began my shoe challenge.

We celebrated B's first Halloween.

{NOVEMBER}

I ran my first half marathon. 

We celebrated our first Thanksgiving. 

{DECEMBER}

I made the famous Peanut Butter Balls.

We celebrated our first Christmas with baby.

here are the rest of our Christmas photos

As you can see pretty much everything in our life revolves around baby now. But I guess that's what is supposed to happen when you have a baby! I used to blog about fashion, recipes, vacations, indoor decor etc. but am finding more and more this has become a full blown baby explosion over here. Which, quite honestly, I have found people really like! So while I will still attempt to write about non-baby things, it seems that the baby is what keeps people coming back for more! Here's to a fabulous 2013!!!

I have to say that B really surprised me with how well she did with Santa. I thought for sure we would have a repeat of our Halloween photo shoot here. But she loved jolly St. Nick! She would turn around and look at his beard. Santa's little helper (photographer) insisted that we get a family photo as well. I tried to avoid the silly props but did not win that battle...

I think that wraps up (pun intended) our first Christmas with baby! Lots of fun and looking forward to it next year!

 

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And the moment you have all been waiting for... Christmas Day Re-cap! Oh, we had so much fun with B on her first Christmas. We opened gifts as a family and then spent the day at my parents house opening more gifts. We ended the night at Matt's parent's house with a yummy dinner and (surprise surprise) more gifts. :) B didn't quite seem to understand the concept of opening gifts but did really enjoy playing with her new toys and some of the wrapping paper.

not quite as good of a helper as i wanted her to be

diggin it

the birthday boy!

oh how pretty mama looks in the AM...

ugly christmas sweaters

playing with dada

kisses from her puppy

quality time with her auntie

Oh what fun we had! B was severely spoiled since this was her first Christmas and her Mama got some really wonderful gifts too! Let's just say a few more shoes got added to the Shoe Challenge (which BTW is finished except for the stilettos. Waiting for M to take me on some dates...) and maybe some more clothes too (the Loft had a 50% off sale! Santa couldn't resist!).

Today I am having breakfast with a good friend of mine and tomorrow I'm having lunch with another good friend! Lots of fun seeing friends whom are normally out of town. M even has his Dupree BFF staying with us for a few days. The more the merrier!

Christmas got the best of me as far as blogging responsibilities goes. But for good reason! On Christmas Eve we had 30 people over for a sit down dinner. It was busy but very fun. It just so happens that Christmas is also Matt's birthday. Double whammy! B had a GREAT first Christmas and it is true that Christmas is more fun with kids of your own! Here is a re-cap of our Christmas Eve...

hanging out with cousins

eatin' broccoli and chicken with grandpa

family photo :) (skirt and top both from the Loft)

practicing standing

opening gifts with M's family

Since I have an overwhelming amount of pictures from the last five days of activities I'll be doing what any lazy smart blogger does and spreading out the cheer throughout this week. Hey, bloggers need a Christmas break too! ;) I'll be featuring Christmas Day this week along with her first visit with Santa. But if you follow me on facebook or instagram (natalee1219) you already know how that went. :)

I hope you all had a great Christmas, especially those of you with kiddos of your own!

Lately I've been reading a lot of about the tradition of wrapping Christmas books and having your kiddo pick one every night to read. Super cute idea but I can't say I've been diligent about it with B this year. Next year for sure. (I keep saying that about everything...) However, being an ex Kindergarten/First grade teacher means I have quite a little stash of books already. Here are some of my favorite Christmas books that I have been reading to B and look forward to sharing with her in years to come...

hoping to add this one to our collection someday

and this one

These books would put any kid's library off to a good start! This weekend we are hanging out with my brother and his wife and getting last minute Christmas plans in place. B plans on visiting Santa on Saturday and hopefully it goes as well as this did.

BLAIR LOVE