Ok ok... so I am finally jumping on the blogging bandwagon!  Since Charlie and I are about to add a new addition to the family, I thought this would be the easiest way to keep up with us.  (Note to readers - I write like I talk and am not concerned about grammatical errors or spelling so please bare with me)

I figured I would recap 2010 but first I want to tell you about my amazing husband. On January 5, we will have been married 3 years and together for 9 years.  He is an incredible man of God and I consider myself blessed beyond words to be his wife. It has been a wonderful, wonderful journey and we are so excited to add Miss Annie Grace to our family in just 8 short weeks!  Charlie has actually been talking about having children since we were in high school.  All through college (while I was daydreaming about his proposal) he was talking about how awesome it will be someday when we are "grown up" and start having kids.  Well... here we are, all "grown up" and about to start our family!  We joke about being all grown up all the time.  I was talking to my cousin Blake the other day and he said, "Man that Toys R Us commercial has it right when they say "I don't want to grow up I want to be a Toys R Us Kid!"  This of course was after Charlie had come into the bedroom two days prior and sung that very same song to me!  All this to say we are very excited to be where we are in our lives, but we are both just big kids at heart - life is just too short - agreed?!

So a recap on 2010:
This year started off a little rough because of the fact that my Mom accepted a job in Del Valle as Middle School Principal and moved away from me!  I struggled because now my Mom and Dad were both temporarily gone from Kerrville.  I am thankful for the fact that they both have wonderful jobs, are still in love after 27 years of marriage and we actually get to see them a lot more than we thought!  We've made some fun trips to both Galveston and Austin and I am comforted in the fact that there home is here waiting for them to retire.

Charlie and I both started the year off taking classes.  Charlie is working towards finishing up his last few classes to sit for the CPA exam and I have decided to go in a different direction and work towards getting a Bachelor of Science in Nursing.  There is a great program through Texas Tech that allows students with a degree to obtain a second degree BSN in just one short year after completing all the pre-requisites - so that is what I started working on.  Anatomy and Physiology - what a change from marketing and crunching numbers in accounting, but it is fascinating and I love it!  I spent the month of February and March attending class on the weekdays, working full time and driving to San Antonio on the weekends (Saturday and Sunday 8-5) to complete a required nursing assistant course where I completed 58 clinical hours at a nursing home.  What a challenge!! I was so relieved when that was over.  I got to practice some of my nursing/caregiver skills during this time when my Mom had a freak accident and fractured her humerus which was extremely painful for her and hard for me to see her like that.

April started Charlie and I's crazy schedule where we started being gone almost every weekend attending friends weddings!  We traveled to Sealy, Dallas, College Station, and had 4 weddings here in the Hill Country.  I never mind because I am a sappy romantic and LOVE weddings!

We love summertime and spent many days at the river taking the dogs swimming, went on a camping trip, to Wimberley, visited friends in Dallas, Austin..etc.  And - the best part, we found out we were pregnant! My 5 year old cousin, Bailey got to announce to the family by gathering everyone around and saying she had an important announcement to make.. she said "Katie's pwegnant!" (tried to spell that like she said it - it was adorable!)

Charlie and I had been trying for about a year to get pregnant and during the time that it happenned, I had been in a rigorous boot camp training so I fully believe now that working my body out hard has something to do with my success in getting pregnant!  I found out I was pregnant on June 23rd by taking a pregnancy test and sent a picture of it to Charlie at work on his phone.  He, of course didn't believe me since we had so many negative ones in the past.  It was confirmed 2 days later when we got in to see the doctor - we were thrilled!!!!

August was a hard month as Charlie's grandpa "Grandy" was declining in health.  Charlie truly describes him as the best grandpa ever never missing anything that he was involved in growing up.  He passed on August 29th but we all celebrated that he is with the Lord and not in any pain.

In September, Charlie got to attend the Emmaus Walk.  This was a 4 day retreat from the world where he really got to focus on his relationship with the Lord.  He wasn't allowed to have a cell phone, watch, computer...anything!  On the very last day, he got to read encouraging letters from family, friends and co-workers and he was blown away.  He came home from that weekend with open eyes, an open heart and hungry for more.  He met some amazing men at the retreat and continues to stay in touch with them.  What a blessing this walk was for him!

Also in September, my wonderful mother in law took the Givens Family on a vacation to Disneyland in California!  We got to spend 3 days there and then went to San Diego.  The hotel we stayed at - The Grand Californian was amazing.  I think I could have spent all of my time there, but we had too much to do.  Disneyland was incredible! On most of the rides it was like you were watching a play.  San Diego had the greatest weather and was so relaxing - we all had a great time!

The last couple of months have been filled with lots of fun!  Baby showers, Christmas shopping, decorating Annie's room, Thanksgiving and finishing up school for this semester!  We are definitely ready for this new adventure.  I will post pictures from throughout the year now!!