2011 was a great year for our family. We welcomed baby Daniel, started Pre-school, and bought a new house! I can not even begin to write how incredibly blessed I have felt this year and the contentment that we have had as a family. It has just been an overall great year. The year started out with us living in an apartment and trying to survive the first trimester of pregnancy! We also experienced first hand the ice storm that hit Atlanta. The entire city shut down for almost a week. Both of our offices closed for 3 days and you literally could not leave your house. By mid week I was beyond stir crazy so I tried to walk to my car only to realize there was no way I could even walk in our parking lot! In February we decided Atlanta was for sure the place we were going to call home so we started the process of looking for houses. I do not remember a single thing we did in March other then continue to survive my pregnancy and I started to get REALLY busy at work!
In April we had 3 Easter Egg hunts (1 at Emma's school, 1 at our apartments, and 1 at my brother's country club). She was not a very good egg finder because she would let the other kids just pick them up if she thought they were going for the same one.
In April we made a trip to TN to celebrate my sister's 18th birthday. I love the below picture of Emma Kate.
In May we celebrated Mother's Day at the Melting Pot which is a true gift of love from Jeff. We used to eat there a lot then Jeff got sick one time after and now can barely mention the place without feeling sick again! He did a great job sitting through Emma Kate and I enjoying our fondue :)
We also took another trip to TN to celebrate Jenny's graduation.
In June we finally were able to move into our new home. It was a short sale and was touch and go for a few months on if we were going to get it or not. Two weeks after we moved in I caught our kitchen on fire! We spent the rest of the month with cleaning crews in our new home and replacing all of our appliances. In the end, it worked out to our advantage because we were able to do a lot of work to the house that we wanted to do it just happened on a much quicker time table then expected! We LOVE our home and I am so thankful to have a place of our own again. I also turned 31 this month and we had a fun date weekend attending the U2 concert in Nashville with some friends. 
We had so much fun this summer playing outside and swimming in our neighborhood pool. It is an AWESOME pool with a water-park slide. By the end of the summer Emma was starting to swim by herself and LOVED to go down the slide by herself as long as we were at the bottom to catch her.
July continued with lots of swimming, I had my work baby shower, Emma attended a baby and me class, and I went to NYC for work. It was such a fun trip. While I was there I also went to see Wicked. I stayed on Park Avenue and so much fun exploring the city for a couple of days.
My feet looked this most of the summer.
August was a big month for the McKenzie family. Emma Kate started Pre-School and LOVES it. At her parent/teacher conference her teacher raved about her. I was most proud of the fact that her teacher said she was a great friend and is always willing to help her peers out and is very encouraging to them.
We also did some more swimming and I hit what we call "contest" at my office. Part of hitting "contest" includes an all expense paid for trip to Cancun that Jeff and I will enjoy the week of Valentine's Day!
We ended the month of Aug. (Aug. 31st) welcoming Daniel Edward McKenzie into the world!
The month of Sept. was busying just loving on Daniel and playing at a local park.
October was another busy month that started with Emma Kate turning 5 years old! I have no idea how my first baby is 5. She is a true delight and keeps me and her daddy laughing and on our toes every day. I am so thankful for her. The below picture is her with one of her best friends Tia.
I also took doughnuts to her school on her actual birthday and read a story to her class.
In November we made our first trip to MS with Daniel so he could meet his great grandmother. On the way there we broke up the trip and stayed at the Enloe's one night. We celebrated Thanksgiving with my oldest brother and his family and the week after that I started back to work. 
December was busy with all the normal Christmas festivities that I already wrote about on the post below. We had my family Christmas in Atlanta during the 2nd weekend which ended with a trip to the ER for Daniel. We attended both of our work Christmas parties. We had Emma's school Christmas program which was the talk of our house all month :) Christmas weekend MiMi and Paws came to stay with us to celebrate with us Christmas morning.
Our first Christmas as a family of 4
We are so excited about what 2012 has in store for our family. In this current season I feel beyond blessed and honestly can not think of one thing I would change. 
