What Will 2012 Hold?

As we begin a New Year it is a great time to reflect on the previous year and make wishes and dreams for the coming year.

2011 was a great year in the Perillo home....we spent the first full year with our second daughter, we watched Jolie grow and develop into an amazing little lady, we reached some major personal goals, and we had a good time along the way. Now don't get me wrong 2011 wasn't all sunshine....we saw the health of my Grandmother decline, I had major surgery and a hard recovery, Jolie did several rounds of lung issues, we both suffered through some difficult times at work but we survived to tell the stories and the good by far out weighted the bad.

As we enter 2012 there are a lot of things on the horizon, we know for sure there a changes coming for our household. Avery starts school tomorrow so that changes things, hopefully for the best as we will have one drop off and one pick up until Jolie goes on to another school in the fall. There are big changes coming for me (unfortunately I can't share in this public forum yet but I promise I will soon). We are awaiting Jolie's acceptance letter to the school we applied to for her in the fall, we have already heard she was accepted but to see it in writing will make it our true reality. We are very excited about Jolie graduating from her VPK program as she is truly thriving in it, she is reading really well, does double digit addition and subtraction and this semester she will begin in multiplication. I know I am totally biased as her mother but she is just so smart and so beautiful, she really is something special and I feel truly blessed to be her mother, I can't wait to see her continue to grow and mature. Rich has settled into his career nicely and things are looking up there so as I said we are going into 2012 with the greatest of hope for an amazing year.

With the dawning of a new year I find myself looking forward to the promises of the new year but also setting some goals for myself, resolutions makes it sound negative and part of what I want to accomplish this year is keeping a positive attitude. So in 2012 I plan to work on having and keeping a positive attitude, being a better wife, mother, daughter, and friend, I want to build a better relationship with God, I want to share my relationship with God with my children more, I want to walk a more righteous path and remember that good or bad the Lord has a plan for my life. I know I have lofty goals for the year but I hope to put the effort into reaching them everyday, and on days when it all seems impossible I will remind myself of the reason I made these goals and that is my wonderful husband and beautiful children, they need me and deserve the best of me.

I hope that you enjoyed your New Years Eve last night, we had a really chill, really quiet night but it was fun. We stayed home, I cooked a nice dinner filets and all the fixings, then we put Avery to bed and my cousins came over, we just hung around talking, laughing and watching Dick Clark's Rocking New Year's Eve on TV. We toasted with a little bubbly at midnight and went to bed shortly after. I have to say I have begun to love our quiet NYE's at home...they have Ndola some what of a tradition over the last few years. Jolie is in NC with my parents still, the are hoping for snow sometime tomorrow and Tuesday so they won't be back until later in the day Friday. They too had a quiet night in last night as well, in fact Jolie started watching Nina's countdown on Sprout (for those of you without children it is an educational kid's TV network) and was passed out by 10. Jolie is having a great time up there and I know Avery has liked being an only child for a few days and being the center of Mommy and Daddy's attention. I am off of work tomorrow, however, Rich has to work and Avery is going to school for the first time so tomorrow will be pretty busy and I have a few small projects I want to get done around the house while I have some quiet time to do them then it is back to work on Tuesday.

Happy New Year, may it be your best year yet!!!!

Welcoming 2011.....

So how did you welcome 2011 this morning/last night? Well Rich and I had the simplest New Year's ever and I loved it!!! Here is what we did, silly me didn't take any pictures not that there was really anything to take pictures of. We had a GREAT dinner that we made of filet and lobster tails, they were amazing! I had never cooked just lobster tails before but thanks to google I quickly found instructions and they turned out perfect. My MIL joined us for dinner as well, it was nice, we opened a bottle of bubbles, each having a glass, that might have been my favorite part! Jolie went to bed about 9 or so, thank goodness she had a busy day and the crazy amount of loud fireworks going on outside didn't seem to bother her. Rich, Avery and I went to bed around 10, Rich and I watched a little TV and were quickly asleep but about 11:15 or so Avery got up with a vengeance, she was feisty! So we feed her, rocked her and watched the ball drop on TV while listening to the neighborhood fireworks, Rich and I shared a quick kiss while laying in bed holding our 2 week old baby and it was then I knew I was already succeeding in my New Year's resolution and that was to be more simple and focus on family and I did just that last night. 2011 is going Tao be about more for less for me this year...it is going to be about having more of the important stuff and less of the fluff. Did you make a resolution this year? Is it one you have made before or is it something different? What are you going to do to keep it?

In other news of the day Rich got a much deserved break to go golfing today and is spending the morning doing that with his bff golf buddy Scott and while he was gone my Mom came over to see me and the kids and with her help Jolie and I put away all the Christmas decorations inside and out. I feel like my house got bigger with the decorations gone, we even got a few
Valentine's decorations put up, although I am going to make a quick dollar store trip after
Rich gets home to see if I can find a few things to add to our decor for V-Day, although I assure you it will be simple. I also want to make an advent, countdown to Valentine's tree
thing so I a, going to look for a few supplies for that too, will make a post about that
project when I complete it. I feel like I am so much more productive now with two kids, I have really found my groove and I have to say I love it! I have to say though I have a great support system with my parents and my husband that make it possible for me. Plus I have an amazing little three and half year old helper that is just too cute! Hope your New Year's Eve and Day were as good as ours and that you too are enjoying family as much as we are in 2011!