Positive Thinking - Highlights of 2011

I've been doing a lot of random thinking lately. I've already been thinking about New Year Resolutions (which I normally don't think about until sometime mid-January!). I've been thinking about money issues - that's my main to-do list for the weekend, to write a budget out of all our incomings and outgoings, groan, not looking forward to that one! I've been kicking myself reflecting on my recent weight gain - I'll probably write a post soon, but it's proving harder to write about it than it is to think about.

But for now I want to focus on the positives - the highlights of 2011. I didn't start sharing photos of Izzy and Toby on the blog until about half way through the year, so I thought this would also be a good opportunity to post some new-to-the-blog photos from the earlier months.

Because my memory is not so good, I decided this would be much easier if I tried to remember highlights month by month. Conveniently I started this blog on January 1st 2011, so I'm hoping it will be a good memory aid!


January:

Toby's 1st birthday - of course. Same as we will this year, last year we celebrated over 2 days as Toby's actual 1st birthday was Izzy's 1st ever day at school! The way we worked round it last year must've worked though, as Izzy wants to follow the exact same schedule for this (or really, I guess, next) year's celebrations!

The birthday boy - he looks so serious!!

New Birthday Bear + Bear Birthday Cake :)

February:

We booked our honeymoon - I also tried to start a weight loss challenge which, inevitably, failed. The honeymoon was a success though!! :)

I received my first ever Goodness Direct order, and tried Conscious chocolate for the first time - haha, maybe this is something that only a blogger would see as a "highlight", but I hope some of you understand! Conscious chocolate is amazing, definitely a love that has lasted since then!


March:

Pancake Day - a day when I just ate pancakes? Yup, that was a good one!

One major low in March was Izzy being in hospital - such a scary time, but I'm so glad she came out the other side just fine.

Brave little girl with lots of new teddies

April:

Mothering Sunday - including receiving a cute poem for Izzy, and making a delicious parsnip and maple syrup cake to share with all the family.

Easter Weekend - including Good Friday hot cross buns, delicious carrot cake smoothie, Easter breakfast at the beach hut, and Easter buffet at my Mum's house (including Creme Egg Cupcakes, yum, I'd forgotten about those!!)

Ready to eat!

Izzy doing a good job of being a waitress

Toby liked hot cross buns

April also saw my Mum & I going to Exeter Food Festival which was fantastic. I'm already looking forward to going again next year!


May:

When I think of May, the main thing I think of is that it is Liam's birthday and my birthday. Our birthdays are only 3 days apart so we usually celebrate together, and this year my sisters gave us a night away as an early wedding present so it was a lovely celebratory weekend!

Birthday breakfast in bed. If only this happened more often!! ;-)

We also celebrated 2 years since we got engaged, so it really was a month full of happy times!


June:

June was quite a quiet month, but I did take part in a blog swap organised by Jemma at Celery and Cupcakes, which was great fun!


July:

On the 2nd of July, Liam and I got married!! We also went on honeymoon to Barcelona which was amazing. All the posts about the wedding and honeymoon are linked under my Wedding tab, so you can find them there if you want to read more.

We finally printed out some wedding photos to put in a frame about a week ago...better late than never!!

August:

Izzy's 5th Birthday was on the 1st August. She actually had her party the weekend before, at the end of July, as the weekend after we went on holiday to Woolacombe.

It was quite chilly whilst we were in Woolacombe, but Izzy and I braved the outdoor pool once!!

September:

Liam got himself a new job in September. He actually found out on the same day that Izzy started back at school, so it was a day full of celebrations.


October:

In October, we went away for a weekend in Bath, including a trip to Love Food Festival. I loved this, although having the children with us meant it wasn't quite as relaxing as the food festival I went to in April!!

October also included half term, and Halloween. We celebrated with rainy day activities, a spooky trip to Crealy, and spooky fun at my Mum's house.

November:

November was another quiet month, but we did have Liam's Graduation ceremony to go to. Such a great day, despite the rain! :)

December:

This month has been the busiest yet! We went to Bath for a weekend, to visit Bath Christmas Markets (and my Dad!!) and ended up buying lots of Christmas decorations!

I took part in the blogger Secret Santa, thanks to Laura at Keeping Healthy Getting Stylish.

My littlest sister celebrated her 16th birthday. We went out for a really nice meal to celebrate, including a huge dessert tower to share!

I did lots of baking in the run-up to Christmas, ready to give away as gifts.

I looked back at Christmas 2010 and then celebrated Christmas 2011!

Christmas 2010

Christmas 2011

Whew, I'm exhausted just looking at this last month! Luckily we've had a quiet few days this week to recover from it all?

What were your highlights from 2011? What are you looking forward to in 2012? I have a busy first week of 2012 to look forward to - my sister's birthday, Toby's birthday and my Mum's housewarming party are all happening next week!