What wonders will it hold?

The new year is well under way, and here I am doing my first blog post of the year. Before I get too far, Lily wanted me to show you all something - a wish from her to you:

This being the start of her first full year here on planet earth, she didn't want to let the opportunity pass to wish you a "Happy New Year!" (Compliments of the $1 rack at the thrift store! Can you believe it? What a find, eh? )

We've had both a good and a bad start to the new year. It's been good in that we started it with friends at a New Year's Eve party. We had a fantastic time, and got to sleep in the next day - fortunately Chase and I made a baby who likes to sleep in just like us. :) We got to spend some quality time with our niece and nephews who were back from California, and the weather has been fan-flippin'-tastic around here! It's 66 degrees out today, sunny with just a slight breeze... We don't have days this nice in the height of spring or fall, so it's been a delightful way to start out 2012.

Those are some of the good things that have begun 2012 for us, but the good always comes with the bad... or is it the bad with the good? Anywhoo, after all of our Christmas and New Year's partying, Liliana came down with her first bug. :( She's just coming through it now, and last night was the worst night we've ever had with her - up at least once an hour between 10:30 and 5:30, at which point I finally decided that the couch was a better option for both of us than our respective beds. Add to that the pathetic bowl game the Huskers played, and you can see that the start to the New Year has held it's disappointments and struggles so far. (We may have lost, but the game gave Lily one last chance to wear her Husker outfit before she outgrows it:)

None the less, we are resilient beings, and so we press on. Today I put Lily in her stroller and we walked the dogs down to drop off the utilities payment for the month. It was so nice out, that we just couldn't help but enjoy it. And the dogs were so happy to be out of the house, they were perfect angels. Liliana enjoyed the walk too, though she enjoyed it in a different way than the rest of us:

At this time last year, I had dreams about where I'd be in a year, and they've come amazingly true - home in NE, in a house, with Chase in a counseling job, me doing a little work on the side, with our baby girl growing and teaching us new things every day. Crazy how that worked out. I wonder what dreams will become realities over the next year...