New Year, New Decade

It took me awhile to write about coming into a promising new year and leaving a wonderful yet hard old year. I had to sit, reflect, and meditate about what I really wanted to say. I have really learned a lot in the past 12 months and I am ready to take what I have learned and run with it in this New Year and decade. I feel good! I feel better than I felt in a while now.

2009 was awesome...I continued to watch my amazing beautiful baby boy grow and flourish into this smart fun little boy and I married my best friend. Our "celebration of love" was absolutely perfect and I want to relive it over and over and over again. We have some amazing family and friends who really helped and made our day perfect. I can't thank them all enough! Since our wedding we have really grown as a couple. We have had some hard times that have brought us closer and stronger in all aspects of our marriage. It was a great year that I will forever cherish BUT I am happy to bring in a new year and start fresh with lots of goals and motivation.

My little heart is filled with excitement for all the adventures that 2010 has in store for us. Drew and I have sat down and set goals for ourselves individually, for us as a couple, and as a family. I feel so happy, excited, and blessed about all of our goals & wishes. I'm going to share some of our goals but we are keeping some a secret.....sorry!

Our wishes and hopes for 2010:

• That we live in the moment
• To continue to stay peaceful and respectful to all living things
• That we see the joy in all things
• To continue to be a guide, to nurture, to protect, and to unconditionally love our son
• To love and be kind with all of our hearts
• To show our son all the beauties of the world
• To continue to love each other unconditionally with respect and understanding
• To always remember to cherish the relationships we have with those who do love us unconditionally.
• That our passion and love for photography continues to grow in our business

Our goals for 2010:
• Staying fit....I have promised Drew that I will teach him how to do yoga. I, on the other hand, have started running! I will blog about my triumphs and tragedies on this!
• Continue our journey of sustainable, organic, healthy, local foods.
• Buying a house or at least starting the process. We want a house on some land so that we can have a little farm, grow some wine grapes, and build a photo studio. I really want Ayden to grow up on a farm (even if it's small). We are in search for the "perfect" place now!
• Continue my 2 month process of organizing and rearranging our home and life.
• Keeping Ayden on our new routine for him. It is going great so far and I am positive it will help with some milestones he will be reaching soon like.....
• Potty Training!!!! We started this process about a month ago and it's going pretty well. He is making improvements everyday with it. I'm hoping that he will be potty trained a little after his 2nd birthday.
• Becoming a doula. I have a strong passion for wanting to help women with emotional support, encouragement, and wisdom throughout labor, birth, and the postpartum.
• Continue to build our marriage and family with communication, understanding, respect, appreciation, and love. We are really making sure our "please and thank-you’s" are constant so that Ayden will see and hear it. He has already started and it’s adorable.
• Savings!!!! A fund for Ayden, house savings, travel savings, savings for more photography equipment, and I am starting my 401k!
• More travel this year! We have some plans!
• To learn how to knit and crochet. I am hoping my Aunt MaryJean will help me with this.
• To show our appreciation to our loved ones more!
• To have date nights more. It's good for us!
• To continue to work towards finishing school and starting our careers!
• To keep our house peaceful and full of love!

Wow! We have a lot of goals! I am confident that we will reach all of these. We are motivated more than we have ever been. I will keep you all posted on our successes and hard times while we work towards these goals.

Happy New Year and decade everyone! May 2010 fill your hearts with all sorts of love and peace.

Be well,
Alyson

"I will be your home. I will be your guide, I will be your friend always on your side." -Renee & Jeremy