2012: A Look Back & Forward

As we begin a new year, I felt it would be fun to take a look back at 2012 and a look forward to goals and plans for 2013.

 

Here are the top 3 things that happened in 2012 for us:

1) TRENT! Not only was him actually entering the world the biggest event ever for us so far, but every event afterward has been made exponentially better by him being there. He’s just an awesome kid and we can’t wait to experience so much more with him.

 

2) Jobs. I started a new job after my six weeks of maternity leave and Brett started working from home in order to take care of Trent. This was definitely a big transition that has completely affected our thinking in regards to everything else in our lives. I’m not going to lie…it scared the crap out of my money-safeguarding self to get rid of an entire salary, but we wouldn’t have it any other way. A small price to pay for the biggest of rewards.

3) Our Disney trip. This is here because we usually take several trips throughout the year, but since I was either pregnant or we had a young baby for the entire year, we only went once. But this one trip was very important for us so we could get maternity photos that radiated our love for Disney too. It was an iconic trip, our last one with just the two of us (for a long time anyway). It meant that me saying “The next time we’re here, we’ll have a child with us” was finally true after saying it so many times before. I can’t wait to take Trent for his first Disney trip and so many more times after that!

 

Some things I am super excited about for 2013:

DISNEY!
Our annual passes have burned holes in all of our pockets. Not only have I disliked not going to Disney World recently, but I also don’t like wasting money, which is what I feel is happening when we don’t use our passes. We still save money after the first trip, but I am so ready to start going again after taking a mini hiatus to let Trent get old enough. I strongly believe that you can bring children of any age to Disney World as long as you have the right mindset about it, but every time we scheduled a trip this past Fall, we got super busy and cancelled. We also wanted him to get better about being in the stroller, and I think even in just the past month he has warmed up to it and doesn’t cry every time now.

So now we are just waiting for the weather to warm up and the crowds to go away, but we’ve already started looking at dates for the Spring. When we attempted to schedule our December trip, we were sort of last minute on it and were having trouble finding restaurants with availablity, so we need to get the ball rollin’ on planning out this next one. I also started looking at our Fall trip too. Geez, tell me to plan a vacation and I plan 2!

I hope to include you guys in our trip planning process. I already have a post ready that discusses how we plan our Disney trips, so be on the lookout for that. Big things are planned in regards to Disney and this blog.

Trent
This could probably be on the list for every year in the future from now on. I am just looking forward to experiencing everything with him, like Spring festivals, summer in the pool, trying to teach him to swim, his first birthday, all the holidays and all the fun little activities that make up our days. I already look back at how fast he’s grown these past 6.5 months and it’s crazy to think that by the end of this year, he’ll be walking and talking (I sure hope so!). Oh man, and wouldn’t it be nice if he was potty trained? I don’t know what the average age is for that, but that sure would be sweet! Or at least I could train him to only make stinky diapers when he’s home with Daddy so I don’t have to change him.

No longer pumping/breastfeeding
This won’t be until June when he’s a year old, but I look forward to not having to schedule things around “feeding time”, especially when I want to start working out or accomplishing things during my lunch break….which is almost impossible to do currently. Not that I want to be away from him, it’s just that I don’t want to be confined to the couch. I wonder how our nighttime routine will change, because once he’s not eating during the night, we will probably transition him to his crib in his room.

 

Not looking forward to?

Taxes
Not only am I dreading doing our taxes from this year, since Brett was self-employed for half of it and we were figuring out the ropes when it came to what we needed to do. But now we’ll have an entire year to account for next year, so I need to get the ball rolling on the tax-organizing train so that I’m not dreading this again next year. Photography is such a random business, you just never know when and how much business you will have. You can kind of guess the seasons, but even those aren’t year-round. This makes tax-time super fun. Ummm, in this case fun = nightmare.

Getting 79 hours of CPE
As a CPA, I am required to get 80 hours of CPE (Continueing Professional Education) credits every two years to maintain my license. In 2012, I only took a 1 hour lunchtime session, since I was unable to do much of anything else due to always needing to pump. So now I get the fun task of making up for it this year by the end of the year. And half of the year I still won’t be able to do much either. Maybe I can find an accounting conference at Disney World to go to.

 

Goals for 2013

Basically, my theme for my 2013 goals is MORE. I want to workout MORE. I want to eat better MORE often. I want to be outside MORE. I want to take care of myself MORE. I want to be MORE organized. I want to give Trent MORE kisses (is that even possible?). Ok, I think you get the point. It’s about just improving a little in every aspect that I can. I feel like several aspects of my life were put on hold this past year, rightfully so, and now it’s time to pick back up. Lets do this thang.

Also, as far as the blog goes, I would venture to say that the theme MORE could work here too. I want to create MORE videos. I want to talk about photography MORE often. I want to interact with everyone MORE. MORE giveaways? I hope so!

I have so many ideas swirling around, but in typical Mommy-brain fashion, it’s sometimes difficult for me to follow-through, so I hope to get better at that.

If my Fall 2012 Bucket List is any indication of how I do on following through on these things, well…I guess only time will tell.

 

What about you? Do you stay far away from the resolution hype or do you set goals for the upcoming year? If so, share them in the comments and go get ‘em!

 

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