2011: A Year in Review

Sometimes it can be overwhelming: how much God blesses me.  I'm married to my best friend, we have a beautiful son, we love our jobs and a T.J.Maxx was just built in Abilene.  Or I just discovered it.  Either way, it's spectacular.  You may not feel that last thing fits in with the others, but then again, you may not understand my love for discount shopping...

It's safe to say that, of all my years (1986-present), 2011 has taken the cake.  To be fair, since Koby and I started dating in 2007 every year after has been the best so far.  (I think that says a lot.)  I'm a firm believer in visual aids, so here's some proof that 2011 was pure heaven.

In January I painted the fox picture that would be my first subconscious indicator that the Blob would be a boy.  We celebrated Koby's birthday in Abilene with his whole family at Lytle Land and Cattle and we began the search for a new house.

House hunt successful!  During Super Bowl weekend in February, Koby and I took a leap of faith and made the move from Sweetwater to Colorado City.  I began to experience insatiable hunger.

Ah, March, you were a great month.  We found out that our little baby was a baby BOY while surrounded by family and friends at Knox's Gender Revelation party... it's probably one of my Top 5 memories of all time.

Koby and I departed on a Tennessee vacation (birthday present courtesy of Koby's thoughtful parents) the day after our party.  We really appreciated the FOLIAGE in Tennessee (it was green) ... actually it was just nice to see trees as well.  Definitely a place we want to revisit.

In April I noticed that I was becoming stupid, we unveiled KNOX as a name possibility, and I turned 25.  Oh, and I looked like this.

May brought the end of school and the next day my best friend Belinda got married.  It was special to be a part of her wedding day and I felt accomplished not to have keeled over in all my heftiness in the 90 degree heat.

My husband also scored his dream job in May.  Joy abounds!

In June I taught the 'Daring Drawings and Curious Colors' Art Camp at the Grace Museum for the second year.  It's one of my favorite summer-time activities.  I dare you not to laugh as you read about how one of my little campers felt on 'orange days'.  Ah, and I began to be very impatient to meet the Knox man (who was still unnamed) and Koby ever-so-happily said farewell to his temporary time in the oil field.

On July 10 Koby and I celebrated our one year anniversary.  I don't really have any good pictures of that because every time I'd set up the self timer on the camera and then try to 'run' away, my waddling would shake the house, thereby shaking the camera and messing up the picture.  We lived each day thinking "any day now" ... and Knox finally came one day before his estimated due date.  The 20th of July, 2011 changed our lives.

August meant back to school - Koby started his first year of teaching at the Elementary school as the P.E. teacher, working also as the 7th and 8th grade offensive coordinator for the football teams and as an assistant to the varsity football team.

In September, Koby and I found ourselves juggling infant-raising, careers and coaching.  We also visited Midland when Koby was in friends' Derek and Kim's wedding.

BUSY was the theme of October.  I traveled to Alabama to be in my high school friend Helen's 'dream wedding' status-worthy ceremony and suare, then Knox and I visited Abilene for ACU's homecoming celebrations and he met some of my DT sisters.  Koby and I also enjoyed festive dress-up days at our respective jobs.

Koby and I spent Thanksgiving in Throckmorton in November.  I think it's pretty cool that we can all get together to do things like take four generations pictures!

Aunt M (Melissa, who hates being called Aunt M) had some basketball games in Abilene the weekend following Thanksgiving.  Koby, Knox and I watched the games with Poppa Layne... I'm so glad Knox was there for some games during Melissa's last ever season of basketball!

In December, Knox turned 5 months old and somehow escaped the stomach virus that got Koby, his dad, our childcare provider, her husband, two of the kids at Knox's daycare, and me... thank goodness.  We traveled to Graham and Throckmorton for Christmas and since I'm too lazy to re-upload those pictures, you can make an easy click and see them a few posts ago.

Phew! Did we really cram that into 365 days?! This post took me surprisingly longer to put together than I'd anticipated but it was completely worth it - I got to relive the highest points of an incredible year. The Andrews' have big dreams, ideas and hopes for this upcoming year: I think it's going to be unprecedented in joy and love.