It was not at all easy to go through these and pick out 11 (December's not over yet) favorites from the year... mainly because they're on 3 different computers right now! I must get organized. :-) But the other reason is that it's hard to separate what may technically be a good photo when it's up against a photo that has more emotional meaning to me, and let me tell you the emotions finished first almost every time. So others may not agree with these, but they're my favorites... for one reason or another.
January - My youngest received a karaoke machine for Christmas (yes, I'm a glutton for punishment). She was all in pink, with her new pink robe in her pink room with her pink microphone and singing her heart out... who could resist.
February - She'd gotten mad at me, I can't remember about what, but she'd gone outside to be alone. I hate it when they're mad at me, so I went out to try and tease her out of her funk, but this was the look I got. I swear this child went right from "cute", bypassed "pretty" all together, and moved straight on to "beautiful" in the space of a minute. By the way, I had her laughing soon after this - lucky for me, she's as ticklish as they come.
March - A true example of how "emotional photos" mean more than those that are more technically perfect. This was our new 12 week old puppy's first day home. My dad and I had driven 13 HOURS the day before to go pick her up, and while I questioned during parts of that trip if I really could have found a miniture schnauzer we liked closer to home, one look on my girls faces and the pure sweetness that oozed from this puppy made me realize that she'd found the right home indeed.
Okay - reality check, it wasn't all "sweetness". Her first week home she actually ended up spending the night with her grandparents, because she CRIED all night - and someone around here had to go to work in the morning!
April - SOCCER! You should be surprised there is only one soccer picture in this bunch, because percentage wise about 70% of the photos I take during the year are at my daughters soccer games. This is a favorite though - she'd just scored a goal in the last game of a tournament that her team won, and at the end of the game, each teams coach awarded a player on the opposing team a "Player of the Game" patch. Yep - she got it!
May - It was now time for First Communion, but I think this one was more excited than her big sister. She is ALWAYS up for a new adventure, and she lives life with the same amount of enthusiasm that you see in this photo.

June - Belly Button (yes, that's really his name) is the neighbors cat but spends a LOT of time at our house, and had decided to wait out the hot summer on my new park bench in the shade of our front yard. He and the bench made for a very pretty picture. By the way, Belly Button and our puppy are in love. They're very sweet together when D stops being a puppy for a second and let's BB snooze - evidence seen here and here.
July - I am here to tell you that unfortunately bullies are alive and well in the 4th grade. This is one of my daughters best friends, she has a bit of a high maintenance personality, but when it comes right down to it, she is a really sweet kid - and pretty too. Well this year has not been good to her, she's very smart and has been the subject of a popular bullies attention. Her mom is beside herself, and it just breaks my heart to see what some of these kids have to go through in school.
August - (Okay, is this like a marathon post or what?!) This photo just proves that dogs DO smile! Of course, with a life like hers, what's not to be happy about?
September - Her first lost tooth - I seriously could not get over the tongue sticking through; I think this is one of my favorite all time photos of her. We were hanging out on the deck of my parents lake house because as much as this little one adores her puppy - she's still not too fond of other dogs and there was one visiting my parents yard at that time so she refused to go down by the lake, but instead enjoyed the view from her comfy chair up top.
October - It turned cold all of a sudden and this one immediately latched on to the fact that she could now finally have hot chocolate again! She will bypass candy bars, cookies, and all other form of sweets, but give her hot chocolate and she's your friend for life. Speaking of friends, someone I've known for years lives in Alaska and told me she didn't realize there was a "season" for hot chocolate, which made me crack up - because in Alabama there is definitely a season for this drink, the temp has to at least be below 65!
November - As mentioned before, we went to Arkansas to visit my brother and his family for Thanksgiving. I love this photo of him up on a mountain for a lot of reasons. First, he's a photographer too (we're a house divided - he uses Nikon, I use Canon), and is rarely in front of the camera, so I got a lot of shots of him doing his thing. But, he's also "Nature Boy" and has found his dream job working as a manager for the Arkansas state park system, so I think this photo with the camera around his neck, the blue sky behind him and the giant rock he's standing on - actually says a lot about who he is. (admittedly, this photo is much better seen LARGE)
Sigh... that's the first recap of this year. There will be another post to show a composite of the year in pictures, but these are my favorites from each month. I hope you enjoyed walking down memory lane as much as I have. :-)