Top 12 of 12

Another year is coming to an end. Which means my little baby is another year older and more of a toddler, than a baby. I can't believe the growth she has gone through. This was the year she was really climbing and running. Repeating everything I said. Wanting to listen to Justin Beiber songs on the radio, true story. I turned one of his songs the other day, because well he's not my favorite, and she said, "La la la la love me" and got angry til i turned it back. I've lost house, TV  and now radio control. We learned she loves olives, which comes from Jon. She hates miracle whip and loves ketchup, that's from mama. Finally, she learned to call me mommy and Jon, daddy. Before, we would just respond to whatever, so she never had to actually call us anything. It's nice to hear, "Hi Mommy" now. That's just a bit of what I'm going to write about in my reflection of the year post coming in a few days. 

As for photos, this year, was the year of the iPhone photos. I have a ton of phone photos, but not so many dslr photos. And that's ok, I wanted to be apart of her experiences this year and capture them with a simple phone picture, than be behind a dslr. It was still hard to choose only 12 though! And these are chronologically by date because that's what makes sense to me brain. 

This first photo was from back in March. She loves to go through my makeup and play with everything on my vanity and jewelry box. I think it's really cute watching the girly side of her and brushing makeup on her face, brushing her hair, or wearing 10 bracelets. This was her playing on my vanity. 

"PanO" is what she calls the piano and loves to play it. We don't have one, but when she goes to her great grandma's house, it's the first thing she jumps on. It's great that she loves music. I was never patient enough to learn anything. We may have a mini Beethoven on our hands. 

One thing I never got to post about because there never seemed to be anytime, was our roadtrip to New Jersey in June. It was Alexis's longest road trip and she did amazing! Every few hours we would stop somewhere, usually try to find a McDonald's play place, and let her run around. This was the best one we found, I think it was in South Carolina. I just love how Jon plays with her. 

The reason we went to NJ in the first place, was my cousin was getting married and she asked if I could photograph her wedding. So, obviously yes I would love to. They set it up, so there was another photographer shooting the reception and I could relax with my family and have a good time, which was very thoughtful. This is my cousin's mom, who is hysterical, and some little girl and Alexis with her, I will lay down where ever I want, when I want. Tani got a kick out of it. Bad influence on the other little girl though, she tried laying down with her and she got in trouble with her mom... oops!

We were so close to NYC and Jon had never been, so we couldn't go home without going. The day we decided to go it rained the whole time, but it made it memorable. Alexis again, did amazing. We got to see the Statue of Liberty. 

In August, we had the district convention in Orlando and planned a long weekend there. Alexis loved these fountains and I love this photo of her playing in them. 

The beach was a big highlight for her this year. I think it was the first year she was able to enjoy it and next year will be even better. We live 10 minutes away from our beach, I tried to make sure we went quite a bit more than we usually go. Just seeing the beach through her eyes was incredible and she was not afraid, never really is of anything. {I just wanted to sun bathe on the sand, those days are gone for awhile}

Her first pig tails! 

This photo cracks me up. It looks like it should be an old family painting. That's my grandma, mom and dad. We decided to have dinner outside and Alexis was hungry! She was reaching for that bowl of green beans, "gimme gimme". It's too funny. 

Can't really say much about this next one, except I love when she holds my hand. 

The Fair! We always go to the county fair every year. It's always been a ton of fun and Alexis actually rode a ride! She wanted to ride it, which was even better. She would still rather eat a pine cone than cotton candy, so we're working on that. 

To top it off, the number 1 thing to do - Swing! This face just says it all!

There is my top 12 photos of 2012. I will be writing a reflection post here soon with my thoughts about 2012!