I’ve seen a few bloggers do posts like this in the last few days, and I love it for a few reasons. It’s a great way for me to look back in a few years and remember what my year was like. It’s also a great way to point out some favorite posts from the past year to any new readers!

January

I wrote about my struggle with pregnancy weight gain and accepting my new body shape. I started eating in the style of the Real Food movement, something I am still doing today. I started answering questions on Formspring, and kept doing so even when it felt like everyone else was dropping out. To date I’ve answered almost 3500 questions! That’s a whole lot of talking about myself :). Baby was going to arrive in a few moments and I knew the time would go by in a blink, so I started thinking about the post-partum period.

February

I talked about Good/Better/Best, and I’m still working to do better each day. We stressed about what we would name T1. I admitted that I pee my panties a little bit sometimes. We had a snow day in Dallas (very rare) and I went exploring in a wooded area near my house, coming frighteningly close to getting lost!

March

I gave you a tour of our apartment at Villa Miranda in Dallas. I made baklava for the first time, something I would most definitely like to do again. My stomach exploded with stretch marks, a part of my pregnancy that is still with me to this day. I had maternity photos taken by my friend Bethany! I devoted a post to my caring and devoted husband. I was showered with love at my baby shower. This was an exciting month, but the highlight was most definitely finding out that we were moving to Chicago!

April

I wrote about how I had been preparing my body to have a baby. I tried live blogging general conference, something I’d like to do again in the future but probably won’t happen now that I have a baby to entertain! I was getting so little sleep that it started to consume my thoughts, which of course led to a post here on That Wife. I wrote one final letter to T1 in embryo. Finally, T1 arrived! I wasn’t producing enough milk, which starved our son, and so I started supplementing with formula and wrapping him in a biliblanket to treat the jaundice which resulted.

May

I posted the story of T1′s birth, and tried to answer your birth questions. I wrote about how we are paying for our expenses while at business school, even though TH isn’t currently working. Stopped breastfeeding. Ignited a whole lot of controversy why I wrote my interpretation of the LDS views on mothers working outside the home. Highlighted ways that blogging had made me a better person. I had the first of many awful OBGYN appointments. My diet changed once again as we drastically cut back on the amount of meat we consume.

June

We used cloth diapers! I wrote candidly about what post-partum recovery is like. Let’s stop using “retard” and “gay” is derogatory terms! We buzzed T1′s hair, which made you all a little crazy. I realized that mommy blogging kind of sucks sometimes. Yet another sucky OBGYN appointment. That Food Diary was launched. I showed what it’s like to take care of a 4 month old. We had a little family outing at the Dr. Pepper Festival in Dublin. I took a little break from blogging.

July

I fed the missionaries, which was a big deal because it was my first experience trying to cook a meal for guests and manage a baby at the same time. I caught on to the idea of voting with my food dollars. We flew to Washington for T1′s baby blessing. T1 had two notable firsts, swimming and laughing. I became obsessed with the farmer’s market.

August

I’m a baby-wearin’ mama, and changed my eating habits even more drastically. We found an AMAZING apartment. Sadly, this caused us to give up cloth diapering. I spent time with e-friends at a pool party at my apartment building, a soda shop in Dallas, and in Boston.

September

We moved to Chicago and suffered through weeks and weeks without internet. I was able to spend some time with long-time reader Sophia and the Chicago bees. I attempted to save money and dye my hair myself, which was most definitely not a good idea. I grossed a whole lot of people out by creating a placenta print and posting pictures of the process. I came to terms with being a self-taught photographer. That Wife Book Club was launched! We struggled with juggling our baby at church, and I talked about postnatal cuddling. No internet was stressful, but TH not having a passport weeks before we were set to leave for Europe was most definitely a low point for us.

October

We went to Europe!!! (A trip I still need to post about in full.) I stressed about greeting my in-laws with a kiss, they introduced T1 to solid foods. I advocated for less helicopter parenting. T1 dressed as the Sleep Bandit for Halloween. My parents came.

November

T1 gained two teeth. I dressed up as the housing bubble and TH was a mortgage backed security for a University of Chicago MBA party. I officially lost 25 pounds. I attempted to go to Ikea alone with a baby, which was a very bad idea. We spent Thanksgiving in Washington after the wedding of TH’s best friend brought to the Pacific Northwest.

December

We want to shave T1′s hair yet again. I finally finished revamping my Jenna Cole sites. I pulled off a holiday party for That Wife blog readers, with about 10 people in attendance, and vowed to do that no more than once a year. I posted my thoughts on motherhood so far, T1 started crawling, I spoke in church, we joined some CSAs, and I showed what it’s like to run around after an 8 month old all day. We didn’t buy T1 anything for Christmas, and we decided we won’t be telling him Santa is real. We flew to Utah for 7 days and spent some time at a house in Heber City with my parents, we were spoiled by the amount of gifts we received and I felt a little guilty because I am so fortunate. Our entire family loved this way of spending Christmas enough that we’re considering repeating it next year.

Two years,

New baby,

40 extra pounds of me around the house,

And yet…

He still looks at me like this. Like I’m the best thing that’s ever happened to him.

I think I’m the lucky one.

Here’s to yet another year of choosing each other.

The 1st Anniversary

Seems apt to post these photos while I’m in Poland!

There was a rock concert going on in the background, but based on this picture you never would have known!

No better way to eat fair food than while standing up.

Hot husband.

His job was to choose the food.

My job was to take the pictures.

Sadly, I do not really like Polish food.

Oh wait, this I liked.

We walked around and looked at the junk.

I hope to be coming home from Poland with a shirt like this for T1.

I practiced “shooting from the hip”, literally, holding the camera at my hip and shooting strangers.

The best moment of the evening by far was the moment when the T1 Fan Club formed. All of the women in this booth gathered and literally started cooing at him from behind the pierogi.

He wore his Polish pants at Taste of Polonia. I bet he’s wearing him right now, in Poland, as you read this!

Think he was ready to go home?

Toward the end of That Husband’s paternity leave he came in one day and told me that he was going to be taking a call from work. My first response was “What!?!??! They are not supposed to be using up part of your time off to put your nose to the grindstone.” When he told me what the call was for, my attitude rapidly changed. It was that call, the one that would determine our financial future for the next few years, and possibly would determine whether we packed up all of our belongings and moved to Chicago for business school this Fall. Exciting!

Source

TH’s work has what is known as the business school offer, which means they will help with the cost of business school if the employee in question will agree to come back and work for the company for a set period of time after they graduate. They only extend offers for those who are attending specific MBA programs, so TH was very careful in his decision regarding where to apply to school, focusing his energy on the applications that were most likely to lead to an offer from Company X where he works.

When the University of Chicago gave him a “yes”, we knew that the offer was more likely but nothing was for sure until it was for sure. I lay down for a nap, and when I woke up TH came in and told me that he had received the offer. TH will walk away from his MBA experience with a degree in hand and no debt to weigh us down and stress us out awe will be able to cover all of the costs with a combination of the offer from Company X and our savings. In return for this generous offer he agrees to return to Company X and work for a few years. As I understand it they are willing to do this because it means they are able to have employees who have not only an MBA but significant experience in consulting.

If this offer had not been extended we were still undecided whether we would go for sure, as taking on the amount of debt required to earn an MBA was something we really wanted to avoid. Between the offer and our savings TH will be able to stop working completely for two years, focusing solely on school, and hopefully acting as babysitter every once in awhile while I venture out of the house on Jenna Cole shoots (okay I haven’t told him I’m hoping for that part yet but it might work, right?). We consider ourselves very lucky to be in this situation and we are really looking forward to enjoying our time as a family in a new city without the pressure of TH attempting to balance school and work life while I try to juggle the waters of motherhood and owning (and building!) my own business.

So now I can say it’s officially official. This August, we are absolutely moving to Chicago!

Happy Friday!

Love,

Baby That Husband

and Baby That Wife.