Welcome to the Big Event!

Happy New Year to you all!  To celebrate the year to come, I am inviting you all to join me all month long for a big celebration of newborn babies and newborn cloth diapering.  I have invited some really amazing bloggers to join in on the fun, so make sure that you are checking in with them too.  We all will be talking about cloth diapering a newborn baby.  We all have had our newborns or are just about to have a newborn.  Every week you will find some great information about newborn cloth diapering and you will also get a chance to read reviews about some amazing newborn cloth diapering products.  There will also be fun giveaways on each blog.  There are easy links to everyone on my sidebar.  Also, check out my Event Tab to see links to my sponsors too.

May the next year bring you much joy and prosperity!

Happy New Year!

Well, here we are coming into a New Year.  Where did the last one go?  It seems that 2010 has been a full year for my family.  We've had amazing joys and extreme hardships.

Our year started with a joyous celebration as I was nearing the end of my pregnancy at 31 weeks and celebrating my 29th birthday (yes, I'm that young).

We had a startling revelation when we found out that my son had a heart arrhythmia and we had to see a Neonatologist who thought I should deliver in my 36th week....but we made it to 39 exactly and he came beautiful and healthy with no heart problems.

My daughter celebrated her 'Golden Birthday' (she was 8 on the 8th) with her first Ballet and Tap performances.  The next day a Mad Hatter tea party in the park with all her close girlfriends.  Then both kids were baptized that weekend.  Wow!  Talk about a huge celebration!

The summer passed in a blur.  We had fun in the sun and enjoyed family bonding time.  My husband was put on the graveyard shift at work, so it was different juggling all the different schedules but it was nice that he was home at night with the kids.

Then school started and my husband was forced to the swing shift.  It was not ideal for time with our oldest, but it let him have more personal time with our youngest.  We pulled up our boot straps and made the best of it.

Fall came in and we had a wonderful time.  Our daughter learned a hard lesson in telling the truth, but she is just so smart and kind-hearted that it didn't take long to set in.  Halloween is my favorite!  I had a boo-tiful ghost and a sweet little puppy in my house!

Thanksgiving gave us a new meaning of how to be thankful.  I had recently started this blog with high hopes of what will come of it.  We are blessed with amazing families that are so supportive.  My husband had the misfortune of losing his job on Thanksgiving.  Luckily, our family was here, so we were able to work through the shock.  We remembered the meaning of the season and are so thankful for our health and our happy families, no matter what our hardships are.

Christmas came and we were able to participate in our Church's cantata.  My husband and I are both singers, but with our work schedules and then kids, it makes it difficult to be able to perform.  We decided to take the opportunity to share what we can during this newly found time that we have.  Even though we have been working hard trying to figure out where our path is going to lead us, we were still able to travel home to see family over the holidays and spend time with our children that we normally wouldn't have.

We know that things are going to be difficult starting off this next year, but we also know that as long as we have each other....we will be just fine.

Here's to looking forward to the New Year.  May it bring you peace, joy, happiness, contentment, and love!

Prepping for the New Year

Christmas Day has past.  As we are picking up the last few scraps of paper off of the floor and finding new homes for the goodies and pictures that were received over the last week, this is also time to reflect on the last year to make way for the next one that is soon approaching.  I am not a big 'New Year's Resolution' type of person.  The way I see it is instead of making a concrete plan of what to do in the next year, I prefer to look back and remember what it was about the last year that I would want to change.

I know that this will come as a surprise to most of you, but in my previous life...the early years of Trophydom... I worked in an Automotive Repair facility.  Yep.  I didn't 'turn a wrench' (well, often).  I was the Office Manager.  I worked with people in the role of Service Adviser.  I ordered and inventoried parts.  I set up the schedules.  Pretty much all the behind the scenes stuff that made the shop run smoothly and kept the guys working on the cars.  The perk?  It was the family business!  I loved going into that shop everyday to work alongside of my Dad.  I was also a huge advocate then of women in the automotive business.  Did you know that 80% of the customers for automotive repair are women?  We did.  While I was there, we were working on curriculum for a Women's Car Care class and as time goes, I will share tidbits on car care with you all.

This time of year is typical for car maintenance to go by the wayside.  Between the hustle and bustle of the Season, gifts to buy, places to go, it is the thing that often gets ignored.  But, this is the most important time for you to take good care of your vehicle because of the harsh weather and the added miles.  So, for your New Year's Resolution, I am asking for you all to call your favorite local independent repair facility and get your car in for it's much needed maintenance.  Don't have a favorite independent?  Check out iATN....they are the International Auto Technicians Association.  It is a website full of great independent repair facilities; worldwide!  It's a great resource to find a good technician that you'll be able to depend on.