another year gone by...

It's hard to believe we're here again -- the last day of the year. This year seemed to fly by for me...in fact, each year gets faster & faster somehow.

Most of you know that I scrapbook, but I don't typically do a chronological scrapbook for the year because sometimes there's not a lot going on in certain months. Other months may be chock-full of stuff. I may not have a scrapbook for the year, but I do have my calendar. I thought I'd just give a run-down of how this year went for us:

• Jan 18-20: my Mom & Dad came to visit for the weekend
• Feb 14: found out my brother & his wife were going to have a little GIRL
• Feb 15-17: in IL to celebrate Jeff's grandparents' 60th wedding anniversary
• Mar 31-Apr 3: my good friend, Elizabeth, stayed with us for a Wilmington conference
• Apr 15: I celebrated my LAST tax deadline in the accounting industry :)
• May 2-4: in Lexington for my sister-in-law's baby shower
• Jun 1-7: we went on our FIRST CRUISE to the Western Caribbean!
• Jun 20: we celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary
• Jul 25: MY NIECE, CORA BETH MCAFEE, WAS BORN!
• Aug 4: I started my new job as the Worship Assistant at Scotts Hill Baptist Church
• Aug 19: we celebrated 1 year in our new house
• Aug 29-31: in Lexington for a "family" reunion with old friends
• Sep 19-20: we took a trip to Wake Forest to visit with friends
• Sep 27: Jeff and our friends threw me a surprise party for my 30th birthday!
• Sep 28: I turned 30
• Oct 16-18: in Ocean Isle Beach for my 2nd annual Scrapbook Retreat
• Oct 24-26: in Lexington with my friend, Cheryl, to visit my parents
• Oct 31: Jeff turned 33
• Nov 7-9: my Mom & Dad came to visit for the weekend
• Nov 27-30: in Lexington to celebrate Thanksgiving with my family
• Nov 30: Cora Beth's dedication
• Dec 5-7: my Mom & Dad and brother & his wife with Cora Beth came to visit
• Dec 24-26: in Lexington to celebrate Christmas with my family
• Dec 27-30: Jeff's brother, his wife and 2 kids came to visit

Yeah, so it was kind of a big one for us...celebrating 10 years of wedded bliss (with a cruise), the milestone of reaching 30 years old, the first grandchild in our family born...

God blessed us with so much this past year and we're looking forward to the great things He will do in the new year. 2009. Wow. May you all be blessed this coming year.

Just wanted to leave you with a couple of shots I got of Cora Beth celebrating her first Christmas. I used a texture overlay on each one...kinda cool, I thought.

Merry Christmas to all...

I pray you all have a very blessed Christmas with your friends and families -- from our home to yours...

the "eyes" have it...

As I stated on my other blog, I have been remiss in blogging lately, being that I've been a bit busy with things of the Christmas persuasion...

But I thought I better get this posted before Christmas gets here because I know I'll have TONS of photos from that weekend. My mom & dad, my brother & sister-in-law and the baby all came to visit last weekend. It was so nice to have them all here -- they came to see one of the 6 Christmas program performances that our church held. And it was Cora Beth's first trip to the coast! Of course, it was too chilly to take her out to the beach but that will come soon enough. I did get lots of photos of her inside, of course. She's changing so fast and getting such a personality now. She smiles lots and lots now. We had so much fun with her here and I was lucky enough to catch this shot of her -- my fave of all time (so far :). Perfection, if I do say so myself!

growing so fast...

I've not had much time to myself this week since our church's Christmas program is opening tomorrow night and will run through the weekend (6 performances). I've been working some long hours, but it's easing up some now since we're almost there. If it ain't done now, it ain't gettin' done! :)

Jeff and I drove to Lexington last weekend to be with my family for Thanksgiving. We had a great time with everyone but I was pretty disappointed with the fall foliage both at my parents' house and in Seagrove. Thanksgiving came so late this year that all the leaves had pretty much fallen from the trees. I don't know...I had hoped for some good photography time, at least in terms of God's creation, but that didn't really happen.

I did get some really good ones of my sweet niece, Cora Beth, though...here are a few of my faves: