New Year's Eve

Well, it seems that every other NYE we are having a quiet one b/c we know that it might be a long night...meaning not up having fun and toasting the new year, but up nursing, rocking, bouncing, and praying that everyone else in the house also sleeps when we want to. :) Although after she FINALLY went down last night, Hadley had a great one and only got up once to nurse, really, since 6:45am doesn't count as a nighttime feeding to me.

The stars have aligned and both girls went down for naps within 10 minutes of each other at Morgan's usual nap time. I am so excited I don't know what to do with myself even though I should be showering and then working on a nap. Meh...procrastination at its best. I swear after this post I'm doing the whole shower/nap thing. I swear.

So...I've noticed on Facebook that many people are posting that they're not sad to see 2011 go and are looking forward to a better year in 2012. I'm so thankful that our family really doesn't have to post that this year as 2011 has been pretty good to us. We've been blessed with our second daughter (just in time for a tax deduction, woo! - although that's totally not the point), God pointed us to staying in our home for now, and we have only 5 more months until we're financially at a point where we can feel less tied down with bills and are not able to consider ourselves debt free by any means, but definitely able to start really making some headway with some investments we've been putting off until other things have been covered. That, and when this change in finances take place, I've been promised a cleaning lady. I can totally do this for 5 more months if it means I get a cleaning lady in the end. ::seriously almost salivating at the idea:: And for the record, I made sure it was the WEEKLY kind of cleaning lady too. Not just the every other. Less for me to worry about? I think so.

Other things to think about...I'm sort of sad to see 2011 go. It was such a year of anticipation with the arrival of Hadley...and not knowing if we were going to be selling our house...and watching Morgan grow into an even bigger big girl it's not even funny. Don't get me wrong - there were definitely some downers to 2011, but I'm going to leave those for 2011 to worry about and look forward to this coming year. Some of the things I'm REALLY looking forward to in 2011...

1. Summer 2011. Twogirls. 
2. Significantly less summer hours at work. As in working 6-8 days/month to 1/2 DAY/month. Well, I suppose that just means July. June is a close second and August we start back at least half way through if not earlier, so let's just leave it at "significantly less work."
3. Tommy & Carrie's wedding! I get my last SIL and I couldn't be more excited. She's a wonderful addition to the family and a perfect match for Tom. And Morgan gets to be a flower girl again and hopefully she won't cry down the aisle the whole time like she did for the last one (disclaimer - she was 9 months old) :)
4. Another niece/nephew to arrive end of July/beginning of August! Yay Trav & Tab!
5. Watching my girls grow. I can't tell you how much joy this brings me. My heart bursts every time they do something new. (ie. Morgan serenading the entire post office this morning with ABCs and Twinkle Twinkle...Hadley now tracking things in her line of sight...Hadley being THREE WEEKS OLD today...when did this happen!?)
6. Working on the Adam and I side of things and being more open to the idea of babysitters (not family) and spending more time with him. Especially on the golf course. I truly miss that time with him. 

So, thank you, 2011, for all the wonderful gifts that were bestowed upon me and my family. 2012, you have a lot to live up to and I'm not worried for a bit that it's going to be another bang up year for the Schmidt clan here in Iowa. xo