The Year of 2014 - Life in Instagram

It should come as no surprise to you all that our year revolved around the birth of our first born baby. Our little girl Emma. She flipped our whole world, and this blog, upside down and for the better. I'd like to do a recap of all the fun things that happened in 2014 and of course some of my favorite posts from the year as well.

January

January we heard our baby's heartbeat for the first time! It was such a magical sound and none anyone can describe. Those little bumps of sound are the most magical thing! I also shared a really cute baby shower gift and a nice bean soup recipe. I also made plans for our upcoming gender reveal party also.

February

February we found out that we were having a baby girl, and also threw a party for our family to let them in on the secret also. I made lots of cute things for that party also, that I of course blogged about in the coming months.

March

We announce her name Emma Jean and the meaning behind why we chose it. We also packed up our tiny apartment to move in with family to save some cash for her arrival, but I posted about our little apartment too.

April

April was a big month for us. We bought a vehicle to transport our little one in and we started our labor classes, which meant that the time was nearing and I had my mini panic attack! I also shared my plans for her future nursery and all the projects that I wanted to do.

May

In May I was showered by all my wonderful friends and family with gifts galore for baby Emma. My mom's and cousin did amazing work. I also had my very first Mother's Day and it was such fun!

June

June was a whirlwind month of prepping and planning for lil Emma's arrival. Our neighbor gave us a wonderful preview of our little ones face in a high def 3D ultrasound. We did a mini maternity shoot and my hubby took some pretty amazing photos. We packed our hospital bags, and ran amuck just having daddy and mommy time before her arrival

July

July we welcomed our precious angel into the world and talked about my labor and delivery story. We celebrated Independence Day and just enjoyed being parents to a perfect little girl.

August

In August we took our first long roadtrip out of state to visit family. We were home bodies for most of the month though, just learning how to be parents and we loved every second.

September

We welcomed two more little girls into our family with the additions of my nieces Kaitlynn and Evelyn. We took lots of photos of Emma and soaked in every bit of time I could before I returned to work.

October

October we took our first trip to the pumpkin patch and found the perfect pumpkins! Mommy and grandma also made Emma's first Halloween Costume and we experienced her first Trick or Treating outing also. We also moved into our own apartment again and started becoming a family of three (with a fur baby) again.

November

Emma celebrated her first Thanksgiving and learned how to play cards also. She rolled over and had many new experiences this month!

December

Since we are still in the midst of Christmas recovery I haven't even looked at our photos yet. We went and saw Santa and got the BEST Santa photo ever! We went on our first ever Disneyland trip and celebrated Hanukkah as well. Our first Christmas was special and we are excited to share all that and NYE with you also. I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas/Hanukkah and look forward to sharing everything with you all in the New Year!

Love to you all from The Kimball Family

12 Months of Instagram

I was a longtime holdout on getting an iPhone. I thought that my blackberry was THE way to go. Well, after battling with the crackberry for months, I decided to make the change last year and switch over to the Apple product. I can't believe I held out as long as I did. I love it! With this smartphone came another social media.....Instagram. I never thought that it would be something that I would get so addicted to, but to be honest.....it's my favorite one! Just above Pinterest. I am not a crazy poster, but I do post anywhere from 2-6 photos on any given week. It could be more or less depending on what interests me. Since were coming up on the year mark, I figured it would be cool to go through a year in my Instagram. So that's what I did here. Compiled 12 of my favorite photos from the last year that were uploaded to IG.

// October: This was taken at my very first basketball game. Lakers, 10th row center baby! // November: Thanksgiving Day with the family and yummy pies! // December: Bokeh of my Christmas Tree. That was fun to do. // January: I made a quilt for my best friend for his 30th birthday. This was taken when he received it! // February: Our trip to Catalina Island and our zip line adventure! // March: City Walk and Saddle Ranch where we road the mechanical bull. // April: We bought a beautiful succulent to sit on our patio. // May: A camping trip to Lake Piru with our neighbors for Cinco de Mayo. // June: Visiting family and the Fresno zoo with our goddaughter. // July: Our surprise 30th birthday! // August: Paint balling for our brother's birthday. What a blast! // September: A trip to Lake Tahoe, Carson City and Reno for our 6 year wedding anniversary. We bought cowboy hats! //

We have had quite a fun and eventful year! It's so great to be able to have wonderful memories with my hubby and all our family every year. Our lives are very rarely boring that's for sure! I cannot wait to see what the next year has in store for us, as well as IG. If you'd like to please follow me on Instagram. My user name is: dianekimball07. I think it's really important that you and your S.O. find things to do together that create memories. It keeps you active and always together. Trying things that are outside of your comfort zone are a must as well! What do you and your S.O. like to do?

Instagram Stalking - Tuesday Topics

I think that Instagram stalking has become my new favorite past time. It used to be lurking on Facebook, but as we all know, fads die out and my new one is definitely IG. Before I got my IPhone, I used my IPod to post favorite photos, but shortly after I entered the world of Apple and the craze that is IG. I'm not a crazy poster, at least I don't think so. I usually only post about 2-3 times a week, but I have still managed to wrack up a decent amount of photo's on my account. When it comes to my favorite people I stalk follow, I'll admit that I have a couple of shameless celebrities on there (the cast of the Jersey Shore and Pretty Little Liars) but I also follow blogger celebrities like Dooce and MODG and several YouTube vloggers like the SacconeJoly's and It'sJudy'sLife. It's fun to look into the live's of others to see that they are the same as you. Normal people just dealing with day to day life. Also because they post cute and adorable photo's of their children doesn't hurt either.

When it comes to family and friends, I love to see snapshots from their lives! I think it's completely better than Facbook, because honestly I scroll to find the photo's anyways! Who are your favorite IGer's?