2012, Here We Come...!

I cant believe it's the last day of the year!!! Total craziness. This year has just been a whirlwind of amazingness. Obviously, Anistynn was the highlight of our year. And guess what? She'll probably be the highlight of next year, too ;) 

We've been taking it kind of easy today. I took down most of the Christmas decor (I will finish it tomorrow), we ate pizza, watched Due Date, played with Anistynn, and got together some late Christmas packages for my best friend in Canada. Tonight, we're going over to my aunt and uncle's house for New Year's. We'll probably play games, munch goodies, and of course, ring in the new year! I'll post pictures tomorrow from the festivities. For now, I'll leave you with some pics of baby girl in her festive New Year's dress:

Thank you, 2011, for blessing me with a beautiful daughter! Here's to 2012 - watching baby girl grow and learn - bring it on!!

Twist Of Sadness

Today was a really fun day, although sadly, there was some terrible news. But I'll get to that in a little bit.

So back in October, Tony and I celebrated our one year anniversary. Tony took me out that night, but he also gave me a voucher for a pedicure (and another one so a friend could go with me)! It was so sweet. He also purchased it for a place I had never been to before so I could try something new. Well, I went with my friend, Dana, and we had such a good time! We loved the place - it's in this tiny blue house (it used to be a residence) called Sparkle Beauty Bar. It's super cute and I loved it because all the employees speak English ;) It was nice to be able to talk to them and understand them. Dana and I got Peppermint Martini Pedicures (Dana had her toes polished sparkly red and I had mine polished dark purple in honor of Tony since it's his favorite color). It was nice to sit back, relax, and catch up. Then Dana went off and got a manicure (nails painted pink) and I got acrylics done (French tip, but instead of plain white, I got a pearl tip). I really hit if off with the owner, Melissa, who did my nails. She's so cool; I've definitely found a new place to go get my nails done at now :) So Tony done good ;) After we were done, Dana came back with me and spent a little time with Anistynn. 

After she left, Tony and I packed up Anistynn and took her up to my parent's house where she was going to spend the evening with grandma and grandpa. Tony and I went on a date night to the Spaghetti Factory and to see The Descendants. It was a really good movie because it was pretty realistic but it was also depressing too. It was a nice night out. It was even better because we didnt have to pay for any of it! About a month ago, I purchased a movie ticket deal (2 movie tickets on Fandango for $12) from Savemore. It was recommended through this blog that I follow, This Beautiful Frugal Life. She always sends out great deals, so I didnt think anything of this. Well, as it turns out, Savemore is one big scam. They charge you and dont send you your deal (gift cards, vouchers, or codes). Some people are lucky and they do get what they paid for, but for the majority, it is not that way. It's really sad for customers and vendors alike. The lady that runs TBFL didnt know (as she had purchased some of their deals in the past and had received hers) and was deeply apologetic. She posted a status on her page a couple weeks ago apologizing again and asked if anyone had any problems with Savemore via her page. I commented and said I never received the movie tickets and that I was hoping to have a date night out with my husband using them. She responded directly to me and then sent me 2 Fandango codes to use and a $50 restaurant gift certificate for the trouble so that I could have that nice date night out. Sooooo sweet of her. We did have a great time!

The sad news of the day was that Lia's kitty, Shadow Walter Way, passed away tonight. I'm not sure exactly what happened, but it seemed like he had a punctured lung or something. Apparently, you could hear the air coming out of him :( They took him to the vet but it was going to be $400 just to run some tests and it didnt look very good anyway. So they had to put him down :( :( :( It's super sad. We will miss you, little Walts!!

Revisit

As we're nearing the end of the year, it makes me reflect on all that has happened this past year. Around this time last year, I got pregnant - even though I wouldnt find out for another 5 weeks. Little did I know how much my life would change in one year. Here are a few memorable things that happened in 2011:

~ Tony and I both got professional websites up and running for our businesses (his photography business and my pet sitting business).

~ I found out I was pregnant during the last week of January.

~ I got horribly sick the first week of February... and it remained like that for FOURTEEN WEEKS (although I was nauseous through my entire pregnancy, those first 14 weeks were the toughest. I was finally prescribed Zofran and I was at least able to function).

~ I celebrated my first Valentine's Day with my husband.

~ At the end of April / beginning of May, Tony and I took an 18 hour road trip (36 hours round trip) to Durango, Colorado to visit his side of the family. The day before we left, we had our anatomy ultrasound and found out we were having a baby girl (even though her legs were closed tightly... we were given a 98% chance that we were having a girl)!

~ Our growing little minion became Miss Anistynn Grace (I came up with the name after my favorite actress, Jennifer Aniston, and Tony came up with spelling. Grace was always a name I had wanted for a middle name had I ever had a daughter; no special reason, I just love it.).

~ Celebrated Mother's Day by throwing up in the car on the way to lunch at the Charburger; baby girl was reminding me that indeed soon I would become a mother.

~ Celebrated Father's Day by having a picnic at Eagle Creek.

~ Tony was laid off in June from his job of over a year and a half. It was scary, but luckily he was only out of work for 2 weeks.

~ In July, Tony found a job doing the same thing (warehouse manager) at a different company, which turned out to be much healthier for him. Better people, better boss, better hours, less stress.

~ We did not get to go to Wallowa Lake this year as I was 8 months pregnant and Tony had just started a new job. 

~ We made the decision to move in August and ended up moving into our new place 3 weeks before my due date. It was stressful at the time trying to get comfortable in a new place when something huge and life-changing was also about to happen, but ultimately, it was the best decision. Our old place had too much space for our little family of 3 and this place is nice and cozy. Plus, we're saving $500 + a month, so that's worth it. We can put more toward our baby and more in our savings accounts.

~ At the end of August, we found out that baby girl was in the breech position. It was difficult because the safest way for her to come out was to have a C Section. In my birth plan, I had written down that I wanted to exhaust all possible safe options before having to have a C Section. So it took a little bit to wrap my mind around it but I was lucky because I had that time. At least it wasnt an emergency C Section.

~ On September 16, 2011, our world changed forever when our little Anistynn entered our lives. She was beautiful, healthy, and perfect. We are so blessed to have her in our lives. She is an amazing baby.

~ In turn, I survived having surgery and being in the hospital (plus going to all my doctor's appointments successfully) - something I was terrified of and always have been - so that was a real accomplishment on my part for me.

~ We celebrated our first holidays (Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas - soon to include New Years) as a new family of 3 :)

~ We traveled by plane (Anistynn's first flight) to Durango, CO, for a week so that baby girl could meet her daddy's side of the family.

~ Baby girl will be 3 1/2 months old at the end of this year and she has already grown so much. She's learned a ton and is so smart. She's a laid back baby who is a great sleeper. She has an adorable smile and I could cuddle with her all day. She is my everything, a part of me and Tony, and is the most important thing in the world to me - I would give my life for that little girl. 

It has been a truly life changing and amazing year and I am so blessed by what I have. I never ever take anything I have for granted and I recognize all my blessings every single day. What a wonderful life I have. I will never let that slip my mind even when times get a little tough. If we have each other and our health, nothing will stop us. 

Of course, thinking about first being pregnant at this time last year makes me think about being pregnant.... Obviously, being pregnant wasnt a walk in the park for me. Now that may have just been because it was my first pregnancy or maybe because I was having a girl.... ;) I mean, you can look back at my blogs and see that for the most part, pregnancy didnt mix well with me and I didnt have an enjoyable experience. I didnt have what some call the "pregnancy glow." But I did enjoy some parts - seeing her on the ultrasounds, hearing her heartbeat, and feeling her move. Boy, was that little girl active! Might explain some of her behaviors outside of the womb ;) I still feel like she will be an athlete or a dancer or something. Anyway, despite her really acting up at night and kicking me all to pieces, I enjoyed it. I loved feeling her in there. It was so alien, yet so wonderful. I felt like I could really protect her. Now that she's on the outside, I can only do so much, but while she was in there, I had almost total control. I always said I wanted 2 - 3 kids (and while I still hope to put at least a year or more between her and another child - I want to spend time with her, give her attention, and just enjoy who she is) I know I probably want to be pregnant at least one more time. BUT I just got my body back and I still want to heal completely, as best as I can, inside and out from the C Section before I put myself through pregnancy again. 

In the meantime, I guess I just have to put up with this postpartum hair loss crap. Ugh. Seriously, I feel like an animal with a bad shedding problem. I run my hand through my hair and I just pull out clumps. When I blow dry my hair, my blow dryer just blows it out!!! I hate it. The books say that it really starts around 3 months postpartum (so I'm right on the money) and can last all the way up until my child's first birthday. Lovely. I guess that's what I get for retaining most of it during pregnancy (which was nice, I have to admit). It's not like I'll go bald, but my goodness, what a pain.

Anyway, basically, I'm thankful. I'm thankful for my eventful year, my wonderful and hard working husband, my healthy beautiful baby girl, our home, our families, and our health. 

Aimee

Today was Tony's mom's birthday. As most of you know, his mom, Aimee, passed away in 2009 from cancer. Although it is not a positive thing, it is something that Tony and I share as my mom passed away from cancer when I was 6 years old. At our wedding, we lit a candle in their honor and let it burn through the whole reception. And as you may remember, we just received a quilt for Anistynn for Christmas which was made by Tony's Nana, Suzanne (Aimee's mom), that contains the fabric that Aimee picked out for Tony's first child. It is very special for that reason. I know it's hard on all the Hermesman kids (as it would be for anyone) but I just wanted to take this moment to remember her. I'm sad that she wasnt able to meet her first granddaughter, but I know that's one of the reasons why we have such a happy, healthy, beautiful, baby girl. She is one of the special angels watching over her (other angels include my mom, Tanna, and Tony's aunt, Laurie). 

I'm so glad I got to know Aimee before she passed away. I feel lucky in knowing that I was able to meet her, since Tony ultimately became my husband. In fact, she took me to pick out my wedding dress, so that was another special addition to our wedding. She also bought me the flower girl basket that was used, so there were nice little touches everywhere. 

She is certainly missed and will always be remembered. So here's to Aimee!

And as a part of Aimee lives on, here are some new pictures of Anistynn!

She was helping mommy blog last night.... And she got her new Bumbo seat today and loves it!! She does so well with holding her head up. She "loves her uncle" and she proclaimed it when we went to see Puss In Boots tonight, which was hilarious, by the way.

So Strong!

Baby girl has been getting so good at holding her head up lately. She usually holds her up pretty good when we're holding her; and she was doing really well on tummy time about a month ago. I used to give her tummy time every day but then December came along and our routine got a little messed up. She didnt get as much tummy time as I would have preferred. Needless to say, she's back at it and doing so well! Such a strong girl! She loves lifting her head in general though; she even lifts it when she's in her car seat haha. She just wants to be up and look at the world. She hates laying like a baby anymore; she has to be sitting up. The only time she likes laying down is when she's sleeping. Looks like we've got a little mover on our hands!! So here are some pictures from tummy time today (along with a few other cute ones):

I also got to go to dinner with one of my best friends, Katrina, tonight. That was fun. She's moving to Idaho so I will miss her :( But I wish her safe travels!