In January we began the potty training journey. Nothing real serious, but figured we'd start introducing the concept. That progressed throughout the year and we are nearly there. Bradyn pretty much goes #1 on the potty all the time and only wears a diaper at night. We are still working on #2, but are having some success here and there. :)
In February we decided to head up to Chicago to the Museum of Science & Industry for Valentine's Day. Bradyn enjoyed exploring all of the exhibits especially the farm stuff. Tractors, Combines, and Cows oh my!
In March, there's always Madness at the Mazanowski's! We LOVE college basketball & all the March Madness festivities. This year we started the madness by taking a trip down to St. Louis for the MVC tourney to watch ISU play. It was a gorgeous 80 degree weekend down there, so we got to spend a lot of time outside enjoying the arch, feeding the fish and Union Station and watching lots of basketball! Mom and I even stopped on the way down at Walmart in Litchfield 
to buy flip flops and tank tops because as we drove we watched the temperature increase degree by degree all the way down and once it hit 77, we thought we would be too warm in what we were wearing.. and wanted to get an early tan. ;) The following week we all filled out our brackets. We included Bradyn in this fun again and had him pick his bracket by team logo. Of course he didn't do very well, but we had fun filling it out!
The beginning of April, Chad had a work trip out in Vegas and it just so happened to be the same weekend as the NCAA Final Four, so as long as one ticket was already paid for, I went ahead and met him out there and made a weekend of it! We had a great time laying in the sun poolside & watching 
basketball at ESPN Zone. We also ran across some country music awards and watched the red carpet walk and saw lots of stars! I even got Taylor Swifts Autograph, but ended up giving it to a couple to give to their 9 year old daughter. I'm so kind. Also in April, we welcomed a new baby to the family, Bradyn's new cousin Kyla Rae Mazanowski was the first female Mazanowski born in 80+ years!.JPG)
May is always good for camping so we went for Mother's Day. Bradyn had a blast throwing rocks in the water, running and splashing in mud puddles after a rain and watching the boats at the marina, "ANOTHER ONE!" "LOOK, ANOTHER ONE, IT'S MOOOOVING!". May was also Bradyn's big birthday month! He turned TWO on May 22nd, which was a 
Friday and I would have missed the majority of it because I would have been traveling home from a work trip out to California that whole week before. Soooo we ended up making a vacation out of it. Since my ticket was already paid for, Chad and Bradyn flew out and met me in San Diego, so Bradyn got a little extra special 2nd birthday treat. We took him to Sea World and to the San Diego Zoo. He 
had a blast watching Shamu, the dolphins, and all of the other animals. "Shamu, Shamu, Shamu!" We also had a good time hanging out at the beach too. Since we were gone for his actual birthday, we had his party the weekend before. He has been very much into trucks, busses, stop signs and all other things that go, so we had a "Things That Go" Theme party for him. Seemed appropriate. It was a beautiful day outside and we had a great turn out and he got lots of great gifts.
June was also great camping weather, so we went again for father's day. We went boating with my dad, which was the first time that Bradyn had been on a boat. At first he wasn't too sure about it, he became very quiet and mellow. Perhaps that was because it was naptime, we hadn't been out that long and he fell asleep. Once he woke up, he was rarin' to go and by the end of the day he was jumping into the
water to us from the back ladder. We also had a fun time getting ready for the 4th of July this year. Bradyn and cousin Zach enjoyed watching Poppy light off old fireworks in the driveway and watching them go "pop pop pop", "do it again poppy!" He also enjoyed the sparklers too.This year we went camping down in Shelbyville for the 4th of July and were hoping to see a great fireworks display over the lake.
Well the weather put a damper on that real quick because it rained most of the weekend. The fireworks were cancelled pretty much everywhere around us. We got the wild idea that if we left...NOW...we could make it to St. Louis to see their fireworks. It was a 2 hour drive, but hey, spur of the moment trips are always memorable ones right?! Off we went in a hurry to St. Louis and ended up getting there just in time to watch the fireworks over the water. It was short and sweet and started sprinkling on us on the way back to the car. It was a zoo trying to get out of the traffic afterwards, but what else were we gonna do besides sit in a rainy tent or camper at the campground right? Since all of the 
fireworks in the area had been cancelled on the 4th, we were able to catch some rescheduled ones over Lake Decatur the next night. We met up with my brother and his family & dad too and watched a GREAT display over Lake Decatur. Beautiful. "Boom Boom Boom" said Bradyn. In July we also went to the Peoria Air Show with Grammy & Poppy. We lucked out and had great outdoor seats at a restaurant and had a great 
view of all of the planes. It was fun watching Bradyn get excited about all the planes and how they were "upside down!" Wow, July was a busy month because we also went to the White Sox game as a Father's Day present to my dad (a little after the fact), and welcomed another Mazanowski to the family...another new cousin... Miles Steven. We also put Bradyn in swim lessons which he absolutely loved and can't wait to get him going in the next class. It was more of just an introduction to the water and he mastered everything very easily 
because he had already spent all summer in the water. He even jumped off the diving board once, but it was a great way to expend some energy a few nights a week.
Ooooh and the big boy bed.... The transition started in July. It was a piece of cake... at first... He went probably a good three weeks sleeping in his big boy bed no problem. He would roll over and just go to bed.. I knew that was too good to be true. After a weekend up north with Grammy & Poppy, it began a rough 3 weeks for us. I don't know if that had anything to do with it, or if it was destined to happen anyway, but we had to pull out all sorts of bags of tricks and finally after being persistent and consistent we were able to break the bad habit of getting up multiple times. My favorite memory of this experience though was one night when I was at my breaking point at about 3 am I was sitting in the hallway crying out of frustration and exhaustion and Bradyn looked at me and said, "give me a hug mommy." Then continued on to say, "mommy, stop crying, go to bed." and pointed me in the direction of my room. I will never forget that moment. LOL
August was another busy month. We took Bradyn to Bears camp in Bourbonnais where he got to meet Staley, the mascot. He enjoyed jumping in the bouncy houses, playing football with Daddy, and taking a train ride with mommy around the grounds. 
August is also the time of year for Fairs and Festivals. We had fun with Bradyn's friends at the Katie's Kids open house (for their second location), riding rides at the Logan County Fair, and chasing balloons at the Lincoln Balloon Festival. Then there was the Mt. Pulaski Fall Festival the beginning of September as well. 
August & September were great weather months and we spent a lot of time playing in the yard, going on bike rides, wagon rides, and walks on the Constitution Trail. We are so glad to have such a nice place to walk and ride so close to our house. Also in September was Bradyn's first REAL choo choo train ride. My mom 
and I took him on the Amtrak up to Chicago. Then Chad met us up there later that evening with the car. We played at Millennium Park and danced to our reflections in The Bean, took a water taxi ride over to Navy Pier and walked around a bit, then took the EL back to the hotel where we met up with Chad. The following day we went to visit all of the animals at the Brookfield Zoo.
October is always fun with the fall festivities building up to Halloween. Bradyn wanted to be the Tin Man this year, and he convinced mommy & daddy to be Dorothy & Scarecrow. It was pretty cute. Bradyn really enjoyed running through the fields at the pumpkin patch looking for the perfect pumpkin. "This looks like a good one." "Here's a good one." "Look, another one." I shake my head everyday because I would swear that there's a 4 or 5 year old tagging along beside me. After we brought the pumpkins home we 
had fun carving them. Bradyn lasted about 30 minutes then was done, so that left Chad and I to finish the carving. Bradyn was sooo proud of his pumpkin though when it was all done, and he enjoyed lighting and blowing them out each night. Also in October was Bradyn's first school field trip. The kids got to ride the school bus to Miller Park Zoo. I got to go along with them, and I must say it was the cutest thing ever and I look forward to many more opportunities for field trips with the kids. I don't know what they were more 
excited about, the bus ride, or the zoo itself. ISU homecoming was in October as well. Chad met up with a lot of the guys from college. My friend Moy came down to visit for the day as well. This was the first time Moy had ever seen Bradyn. They clicked right away and had a great time together. Now every Chinese guy on TV is "Moy." A nice day trip to Lake Bloomington, the Katies Kids Annual Weinie Roast, the Hahn Family Weinie Roast and lots of play time in the leaves rounded out October.
November brought us some scary news, we found out that my dad had to have open heart surgery. All of a sudden after some tests they determined he had a bad valve and had to have it repaired or replaced, but wouldn't know which until they got in there. Yikes!! Talk about nerve racking and throwing in the unexpected. The surgery ended up being in December. Aside from that I concluded the accounting chapter of my life. After 8 years of accounting experience, I finally gained the courage to walk away from it. I didn't love it and couldn't see myself doing it forever. I had the opportunity and support from my family and friends to just go 
for it, so I did. The plan isn't necessarily to stay home forever, but I doubt I will ever go back to accounting. At least not at this point. I'm exploring other things such as photography, would like to do something with that and kids, so my part-time job at Portrait Innovations is fitting me just perfect for now and will allow me to spend some extra time with Bradyn in his early years. Enough about me though. Back to November. Of course there was Thanksgiving and all the preparations for Christmas which leads us to December.
December was Dad's surgery, so the first few days of that were a little stressful and emotionally exhausting, but he made it through everything in great time and with great success and it ended up they were able to repair his valve, so he is on to a speedy recovery. Once my mind was at ease that everything went well with dad, we were able to sit back and enjoy the holidays. We went to see the festival of lights in Peoria twice, saw Santa twice "I want James. and dishes. and puzzles. Please?." and had four total Christmas gatherings this year. It was a great year and lots of fun watching Bradyn enjoy every minute of it!
A few things I didn't include above, but that rounded out the year for us were some fun times with great friends and family. We had two weddings this year, my friend Erika got married, so that was a fun time with some old Kraft buds, and then Chad's family friend Greg got married, so that was a crazy time with the Mazanowski brothers and sisters-in-law.
I think we were the life of the reception and found ourselves busting a move on the stage. Ooops :).
We also went to many concerts (well I did anyway). Chad came with me to see Creed and to see Daughtry, then I went with Mom to see the American Idol Tour where we got Danny Gokey & Adam Lambert's autographs and also saw Heart & the Bangles at the State Fair. All that and more...throw in the birthday parties, baby showers, baptisms, and halloween party, new years party, booster benefit, sand volleyball league, indoor volleyball league, Chad's softball league....and whatever else we could squeeze in a day.
Overall it was a pretty stressful year for me personally with work and travel and starting to get the itch to get outta there. Things got a little rough, but the fun times we squeezed in along the way kept me smilin'. Bradyn is always good for a smile too. No matter how rough of a day it was, he always has a way of cheering me up. He's a great kid and it has been a complete joy watching him grow over the past year. He amazes me everyday with how coordinated and athletic he is, how smart he is, and how polite and cute he is. If I had to describe him in a few words I'd say he's a very caring, loving, curious, courageous, smart, and tall little two year old whose favorite color is yellow, loves the movies Wizard of Oz, Mary Poppins, and Annie, and loves to eat "Noonles"! Can't wait to see what 2010 has in store for us!
Thank you everyone that was a part of our 2009 and making it a great year. Let's do the same for 2010!
We continued the family tradition of Happy the Elf (Elf on a Shelf). Happy visited us everyday between Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve flying away each night and finding a new hiding spot each morning. Bradyn absolutely had a blast and cracked up at each new place he landed! 
We also enjoyed the Festival of lights in Peoria twice this year. Bradyn had such a fun time the first time we went that we went ahead and went back for round two. He also went to see Santa for the second time there. He again had an entire conversation with him, reinforcing his desire for James, dishes, and puzzles. He stayed pretty consistent with what he wanted which made it easy for "Santa" to know just want to get him. 
Bradyn really enjoyed decorating the tree & got super excited about his long lost Wizard of Oz ornament that he hadn't seen since last year. He loved making Christmas cookies with mommy & daddy and leaving them out for Santa on Christmas eve.
After all the preparation, it was finally time for our Four Christmases. First stop: Grandma Netter's house. Last year we started a family tradition of a "gag gift" which is a silly Elf Hat & whoever opens it (first of course) has to be the elf who passes out all the presents... Well my brother passed it on to my mom, so mom was the elf with the help of Bradyn & Kyleah. 
The highlight of Christmas this year was watching the kids thoroughly enjoy themselves opening presents in a hurry to see what's inside. Another highlight at mom's was to see her surprise when she opened the gift of a picture of all 6 of us that we had taken without her knowing. She LOVED it...and cried. :) Happy tears of course. She also loved our gift to her of a weekend in St. Louis for the MVC basketball tournament. We had such a fun time down there this past year so we decided we might just need to make it an annual trip.
Next stop: Home! Christmas morning was great this year. Bradyn woke up about 8 and came into our room and said, "did Santa come?" 
So we went downstairs to see.. I think he was expecting Santa to actually be sitting on the couch because he peeked around the corner and said, "Nope, he didn't."
This year I also started a new tradition for Bradyn... I carried it over to my family, it's something my mom did for me and my brother. It all started with a Santa Piggy Bank and each year when we pulled out the Christmas decorations, we put a penny dated that year in it. My Santa bank now has 30 pennies in it!!! I double checked the dates, and sure enough, one for each Christmas I have celebrated. Bradyn had such a fun time dumping the pennies out and putting them back into my bank over and over again that I decided to check to see if I could find another Santa bank for him. When in doubt.. check Ebay!! :) Found it! Now Bradyn's Santa bank has 3 pennies in it. Shake Shake Shake.
Last stop: Wisconsin. This year we decided instead of exchanging $50 gift cards with Chad's brothers and not having a clue what to get his parents, we would go on a weekend getaway to Blue Harbor Resort in Wisconsin. We all shared a presidential suite overlooking Lake Michigan. It was a snowy Lake Michigan, but still beautiful. 
We had a blast playing games, watching the 4 babies play together, and splashing around at the indoor waterpark that was in the resort.
We did an small exchange with the kids, so it would still feel like Christmas, but for the most part this Christmas it was just about spending time together and having fun as a family. It was a wonderful time and I can honestly say, I forgot how much fun waterslides were!! WHOOHOOO!
Aside from the social aspect, I also learned a great deal about life, culture, and diversity. Never before working at Kraft had I ever been asked the question, “what are you?” Seems as if everyone wanted to know the answer to that question though. “What do you mean, what am I?” A person. A girl. Little did I realize at first that they wanted to know if I was German, Italian, Polish, Irish, etc. Ahhhhh. Ok, in that case, I’m German. I guess. I think. Hold on let me call and ask. HAHAHAHA. Again, being from a small town that is a 99.9% white community, I had never been exposed to anything different. I can now proudly say I have friends that are black, white, Indian, Asian, Mexican, Polish, Irish, and learning how different some cultures are has been a wonderful awakening. 
In my three years at Nestle, I learned a whole new aspect of accounting that I hadn’t seen yet, Cost/Manufacturing accounting. The experience at Nestle provided some great opportunities, allowed me to meet even more great people, and possibly one of the most rewarding experiences was the opportunity to help build a playground for underpriviledged children in a neighborhood in California. 
The job at Nestle definitely kept me busy and challenged and there was never a dull moment. The problem was that I was working too long of hours and traveling too much. Everytime I turned around, I was somewhere besides home. I definitely racked up the frequent flier miles and got to see some places I probably wouldn't have otherwise and met some great people along the way, but it just wasn't ideal because I was missing out on too much of Bradyn's early years. In the past three years I've been to California dozens of times, Boston multiple times, Portland, Nevada, Utah, Texas, Indiana, Wisconsin, New York multiple times, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Chicagoland area too much to count.
