Almost a year ago...

Wow - it's almost here - one full year, 365 days of being parents and having a child that combines (we hope) the best of both of us. It's been such a whirlwind that it's hard to believe a full calendar year has passed - but believe me, there have been nights and weeks when we wondered if we'd ever make it out of the newborn stage - but we survived and we made it through the first year with lots of great memories.

What a ride the past year has been. I've got some cute surprises in store for Friday, but until then we'll just start the countdown and reflect on the many blessings we have a year later - we're thankful for our little family of 5 (Emma and Cain count!), our parents/in-laws, aunts and uncles, cousins, brothers and sisters, our friends and co-workers that have weathered the changes and helped us make it through those times we thought we might not make it if we had to stay awake even one more minute, our jobs for keeping us sane and providing us insurance to cover all of Catherine Ellis's needs with worrying at all, and last but not least, our precious first-born baby girl.

So, this is what we looked like this time last year:

I was not convinced she was coming that week - I thought it would probably be another weekend before she arrived - my mother on the other hand just knew she was going to be born on April 9th - also my brothers birthday, and he just happened to be born Easter weekend on a Good Friday too! I remember laughing and telling her she was a nut - well guess who arrived the next day?