2008: The Year in Review

I think I did this last year, but I was reminded by Alicia's post at how much fun it is to reflect back on the year you've just lived!

2008 has pretty much been ALL ABOUT THE BABY - go figure!!! She is our love, our lives and what our world revolves around now. This year was full of many firsts as we celebrated becoming a new family.

In January we attended the wedding of Randy and Katie which was a nice break from the norm. We also said goodbye to Don Dunn, my brother-in-law's father who passed away after a long bout with lung cancer. We spent much of the month in prep mode. Organizing our spare room to prepare for the baby's arrival. We bought new furniture and had lots of sorting to do of all the clothes we had been given.

February was more of the same. Here is my belly shot from Valentine's Day. I was 28 weeks here, 12 weeks away from my due date of May 8th.




March was a much busier month than I knew it would be! Don came through his second back surgery very well which was a huge relief. My company had a big round of layoffs which was very scary. We hosted a BBQ at our house with some friends and neighbors and we said goodbye to dear Cooper. The beginning of the month brought SNOW to North Texas. What a treat!

On March 28th, I was surprised by a doorbell ring and my mom, my sister, Toby and Heather were at my door!!! They flew in to surprise me for my baby shower the following day.

So blessed by many friends and family that day.

This belly shot was taken at 34 weeks and is the last official belly shot I have. I had plenty of time to take more, right??

Or not. April brought the early arrival of Harper Belle Hanes. Born at 35 weeks, 1 day she weighed in at 5lbs 2ounces on 4/4 at 2:16pm. Severely low amniotic fluid forced her delivery by emergency c-section after being checked at a routine appointment.

Because of her early arrival, she had a 10-day NICU stay which was the hardest 10 days of our lives, by far. After a rough start with some trouble breathing, she then had a bit of a tough time keeping her temperature up.

One of my favorite pics. Our little sea creature so tiny compared to Daddy's hand.

On Sunday April 13th we were finally able to bring her home! So tiny in her crib but she had worked really hard for this day. Such a relief.

May brought my first Mother's Day and Mimi's first visit to come meet Harper!

Which means June was Jon's first Father's Day!! He finally got his long-awaited grill. I went back to work this month and Grandma and Grandpa began watching Harper 2 days a week while Jon was a stay-at-home dad 3 days out of the week.

In July we celebrated our 2nd wedding anniversary. Here is us on July 29, 2006.

And July 29, 2008.

In August Mimi came to visit for a second time. I also barely survived another round of layoffs at work and began working in my new department, which would turn out to be a huge learning experience. Our foundation was repaired and left lots of scars all around for us to remember it by.

In September Jon's schedule got switched back to nights. It's a blessing in disguise because while it's nights which is tough on his body, he now had weekends off which meant much more time together! The last week of September we started Harper on solids, 1 week shy of her 6 month birthday. She wasn't sure what to make of the whole thing but quickly caught on!

October was a very fun-filled month. We took Harper on her first plane ride and visited all our friends and family in Las Vegas and California. I also turned 30!

On my birthday

Meeting Auntie Wendy and Uncle Kevin
Hanz and Debbie

Amy and the clan: Noah, Sydney and Holly with Harper.

In November Harper took her first "big" bath, which means she graduated from the sink to her ducky.

We also celebrated Harper's first Thanksgiving.

December of course meant Harper's first Christmas and all the other adventures it brought with it: meeting all the extended family at our family Christmas parties and hosting Mimi and Poppy at our house for the big occasion!!

What a year!!! We really look forward to what 2009 has in store for us!