Good-bye 2010!

The last day of the year is here! 2010 has been really good to us.

• We went on a trip of a lifetime to California
• We had some great weekend getaways to Lake Geneva 
• I got a promotion at work 
• I've lost over 100 pounds and kept it off 
• Michael's business is thriving in a bad economy 
• We celebrated 2 years of marriage
• We became an aunt and uncle for the first time 
• Our families are healthy and we would have had a hospital free year but Michael broke that streak last week! 

We have a lot to be thankful for and I think 2011 is going to be even better! I hope everyone has a safe and Happy New Years Eve. We are going to be celebrating with friends and family close to home tonight. I am making some appetizers and a dessert for tonight's festivities.

2010: The year in review

As 2010 comes to a close, I wanted to look back at all of the things we've done in the past year. It's certainly been a busy one! It's amazing how you forget all the little things that have happened along the way. That's why I blog, I will never forget now!

January

New Year's Eve

We celebrated New Year's with all of our friends, this is us just after midnight

I also hit my first weight loss goal of 50 pounds lost!

February

 My mom taught me how to finally use my sewing machine!

My finished table runner

We hosted the super bowl and I cooked up a storm

Superbowl cake pops

We went to Lake Geneva for Valentine's Day

I hit 60 pounds lost this month!

March

 Pierogi fest with the Dworianyn's

We celebrated Ken's birthday!

My cousin Andrea and her husband Chris had their twins' baptism

Me with the newly baptised Cole

The weather broke and we got to go for our first walk of the year

We colored Easter eggs

Our finished eggs

I hit 75 pounds lost this month!

April

 Outdoor Easter basket blessing with Michael's family

Arla and Teddy hosted my family's Easter brunch

Michael and I on Easter

We showered Tif for the upcoming arrival of Baby Jacob

We had our first dress fittings for Arla and Teddy's wedding!

We surprised Mom with a new outdoor gazebo for her birthday and Mother's Day!

May

 We discovered the Wheaton French Market and it soon become a part of our Saturday routine

We planted our garden

We celebrated our 2nd Wedding Anniversary with a dinner at Ruth's Chris

We showered Arla and Teddy at their first bridal shower

We showered them again a week later with Teddy's family

I hosted Arla's bachelorette party in Lake Geneva

June

 We got our house painted and began our master bedroom re-design

 We celebrated the Blackhawks winning the Stanley Cup

 We took a cooking class at the Viking Cooking School

Our nephew Jacob made his grand entrance!

I became an Auntie for the first time!

Arla and Teddy had their wedding rehearsal in candlelight because the power went out!

They hosted an amazing rehearsal dinner at Clara's

They had a beautiful wedding and became husband and wife!

July

We celebrated 4th of July at Arla and Teddy's

I chopped off all of my hair for the summer

We had a California adventure beginning with the San Diego Zoo

We had an amazing dinner at Island Prime and got to see Michael's cousin Anthony

We hung out in Disneyland

 We played with dolphins at Sea World

We saw the "World of Color" at Disney's California Adventure

We drove up Highway 1 towards Monterey and San Francisco

 We stopped at beaches and beautiful sights along the way

Ragged Pointe state park

We spent a relaxing day in Monterey 

We ate and shopped our way through San Francisco

August

We completed our Master bedroom re-design

We also completed our travel wall

We finally got together to celebrate Dad's birthday that was in June!

 Michael installed his first screen door on our house

 We got a new couch in our family room

September

 Arla and Teddy hosted us Labor Day weekend for a barbecue

 We hosted Michael's family for a seafood boil on Labor Day

 Baby Jacob visited our house for the first time!

We went to a baby shower for my cousin Chris and his wife Sara

A little over a week later, baby Ava arrived!

Rich and Tif hosted their annual pig roast

I got a promotion at work and finally got an office all to myself!

We celebrated Michael's birthday

We celebrated with his whole family at Weber Grill

We went apple picking with Rich, Tif, Baby Jacob and Tif's parents

We had so much fun at the orchard

October

We celebrated our 5th annual Oktoberfest!

 We snuck away for a romantic weekend in Lake Geneva, it was 80 degrees!

We got to baby-sit Jacob while his parents went to a wedding

 We celebrated mine and my sister's birthday at Goebbert's pumpkin farm

Michael and I didn't get to feed the giraffes like we did last year, we are definitely going on a weekday next year!

We carved our pumpkins

 Porkchop was the cutest spaghetti and meatballs ever!

November

 We made hundreds of ravioli with my family

 We celebrated Thanksgiving with our families

We continued our family tradition of putting up my parent's Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving

 We went to the Platt Hill holiday open house

 We took our Christmas card pictures

December

We set up our new Christmas tree and all of our Christmas decorations

We did a lot of baking!

We made lots of cake pops

I tortured Porkchop with his annual Christmas photo shoot

 

 We went to Michael's parents annual Christmas party

 We had our first snow!

Michael scared me to death with a call from an ambulance

I helped Michael at work since he has a bunk ankle

 We had an amazing Christmas with our families

We got to experience our first Christmas with our nephew and spoil him!