farewell 2008

Its been way too long since I’ve posted on the blog and so I couldn’t let 2008 come to an end without looking back on what a year its been. Consider this my little online version of a holiday update letter.

Its strange for me to think that this time last December I didn’t even know we’d be parents this year. We went out to ring in 2008 with friends and family and later that week Tim left for a business trip and was gone for our 3 year anniversary. January flew by and then in early February I spent a week in Mexico City for work while Tim was off to Vegas for another convention. After that we celebrated Valentine’s Day and my promotion at work and by the end of the month we knew our life was changed forever. We kept our secret for a few weeks and then only told close family.  At that point we didn’t know if Henry would be a boy or girl, what he would look like, or if he would be healthy, we only knew that we loved him with all our hearts and that if all went well we’d be a family in late fall.

In March, my sister and I surprised our brother with a visit to Notre Dame for St.Patrick’s day and then spent a couple days in Chicago. In April we got to see teeny tiny peanut-sized Henry for the first time, welcomed my cousin’s son Jacob, and shared our news with everyone. In May it was back to ND for my brother’s graduation and in June I was back in Mexico. However this time was not for work but rather a (mostly) sunny cruise to celebrate Dad’s 60th. A couple weeks later we learned we were having a healthy baby boy! July was a bunch of summer fun and working on the house. In August Tim’s family had a beautiful baby shower for us and over labor day weeekend my sister got engaged! September brought another beautiful shower, this time elegantly thrown by my mom and sister. At the end of September I went back to Chicago with my mom to visit my brother and do some shopping for the nursery. By the time October began, we were so excited and counting down the days to Henry’s arrival, and a few weeks before the big day, my coworkers had a wonderful surprise baby shower. Before we knew it, two weeks before in fact, Henry decided to come racing into our arms.

Since then, life has been a blur of diapers, tiny clothes, teeny fingers and toes and tons of snuggly baby kisses. Henry arrived just in time for Halloween so he has celebrated just about every major holiday by visiting friends and family. We love being parents and are getting quite used to functioning on very little sleep. I can happily say that 2008 has been one of the best years for our family and I’m looking forward to 2009. I plan on continuing to blog about our family and post countless pictures of our little Henry, plus its a resolution of mine to include a bit more about art and design. Look for one recurring theme to be the design of my sister’s wedding and invitations – she has a bunch of great ideas so it should be plenty fun.

I wish you all a happy and healthy new year!