new.ness

it's 2011! and i won't waste time making exasperating exclamations of how the last year flew by. i will however, take a moment to reflect on the days of my 2010 that i am especially thankful for and fond of:

• january 5th: we found out we were having a baby girl
• march 3rd: i received the Sacraments of Confirmation and Eucharist during the Easter Vigil
• april 9th-11th my friend vanessa and her husband greg came for her birthday visit, we defied our claustrophobia and rode to the top of the st. louis arch and rewarded ourselves with a tour of the anheuser busch brewery!!
• april 30th: our b-e-a-utiful and amazing daughter was born, miss mollie claire. she weighed 6 lbs 7 oz and was 21.5 inches long. and was practically perfect in every way.
• may 31st: we celebrated mike's 27th birthday, st. louis style, and took 4 week old mollie to see the cardinals vs. reds game :)
• june 20th: we celebrated our one year wedding anniversary by sharing leftover frozen cake, old champagne and our favorite wedding day memories. followed by a viewing of our "first date movie" you, me & dupree
• june 25th: i celebrated my 25th birthday!! (yayy for lower car insurance!!)
• july 3rd: we celebrated the marriage of two of our two dear friends, lance & lara trudell and had the wonderful privilege of being a part of their wedding party and beautiful day!
• july 16th-18th: we attended the steubenville conference in springfield, mo
• september 3rd-6th: my youngest brothers, tim and mike came to visit and we spent the weekend visiting the zoo and science museum (both of which are free)
• august 8th: mollie was baptized. with my best friend allison and mike's best friend lance as her godparents.
• october 4th: mike started his new job as a branch manager for us bank!!
• november 22nd-28th: we traveled home to paducah, ky to visit family for Thanksgiving and throw my mom an epic surprise 50th birthday party

we enjoyed an amazing end to a spectacular year with a great holiday season, and can say that all in all we were blessed with a happy, healthy 2010!

i don't believe in new year resolutions, but i do like the idea of making the life you want to live by setting goals accordingly.

that being said, here's one of my goals for 2011....

this year for Christmas i received:

The Canon EOS Rebel XS

so, goal número uno:

get better at photographically documenting life. get to be best of friends with my new piece of equipment. and fully learning it's potential!!

and in the mean time.....here are a few of the *amateur* pictures i've captured thus far.....

...the result of a little creativity and momentary boredom on Christmas afternoon
my beautiful baby girl happy after her evening bath
funny faces in the tub
(great) grandma & grandpa hoffmann, rich & liz, mike, mollie & i

Christmas morning excitement!

loving a visit with nana!
more bath time fun
this is my brother joe. i love the way she lights up his face *heart melt*
he loves her

this is the precious son of a good friend of mine

this is a baby picture of my dad. notice any resemblance?
my boo and myself too bad she doesn't love me ;)
cousins!

i have a lot to learn. but i'm excited!

i can't promise that my posts this year won't be heavily weighted with pictures. but i do promise to post.

happy 2011 everyone!!

blessings