Before we jump ahead and share our 2016 goals, it’s always good to look back to see how we did with the previous year’s list of goals…

Personal Goals

• Keep Mike my top priority even after Emily arrives. We may get a chuckle about this from some, and we know that there are going to be times (a lot of times) when our sweet baby is going to need all of our attention and be our highest priority, but it is our desire to always keep our marriage first in our family. We love what our pastor always says, “the best gift you can give your children is healthy marriage!” I don’t feel like I can cross this one off completely – it’s something that I’ll be working on the rest of my life. There were definitely times when it seemed like Emily was more of a priority than our marriage, but we’ve been learning a lot about what a strong marriage can look like with a baby and are excited to continue to pursue this goal of putting each other first. 
• Get back to my pre-baby weight by July! Here’s to hoping! – I did! However my clothes still didn’t fit great and I was far from comfortable in my own skin until after I did a month long eating and workout plan and I actually got down to 8 pounds lighter than my pre-baby weight!
• Create our new post-baby budget and keep to it. We actually did! 
• Pay off school loans and continue to save for our next home! We paid off a lot of our students loans this year, which was great, but by deciding to move forward with our next home earlier than we had originally planned, we did not pay off as much as we would’ve liked. Once we get settled into #mishcasa, we plan to get back to paying off those loans more aggressively.
• Read more – it seems like this is a goal for me every year, but I have so many books I am getting excited to read that it’s time I really make it a priority! I would say that I read more, but definitely not as much as I wanted to.
• Make healthier eating and lifestyle decisions – So far I’m 3 for 3 on using my new Ninja blender to make healthy breakfast smoothies – loving this new start to my day! – I did this for a while post-baby but those Christmas cookies got the best of me!
• Not fill up all of our weekends off – this is something that tends to happen every year. We try our best to keep at least 1 weekend off from shooting each month, but so many times we end up filling all our weekends off with travels and getaways (something we absolutely LOVE doing), but we know we want to and need to make sure we are giving ourselves some time at home for rest and rejuvenation! – This was our best year yet with making more time for ourselves on our weekends off and we loved it!
• Watch less TV (after we finish making our way through Gilmore Girls on Netflix)! Boy, did we ever cut back on TV!! Especially after having Emily, we’ve been so busy with her that we’ve hardly watched any TV since she came along. We’ve kept up with the latest season of Shark Tank and Modern Family, BUT we have not yet finished Gilmore Girls.
• Meal plan and only go to the grocery store once a week – this is a hard one for me. Guys, I’ll be honest…I really need to do better with this!
• Slow down! Those who know me well, know that I am always on the go, always working on something…always busy. I really want to take time this year to slow down and live in the moment – not always looking forward to what’s ahead, but enjoying the day at hand that God has given me. I am continuing to make strides with this one and have definitely noticed a difference this year.

Business Goals

• Outsource – last year, I outsourced my accounting and monthly bookkeeping (best decision ever)! This year, we are going to make the transition into outsourcing our editing to allow more time with Emily – as much as I hate to “give up” this part, I know it is going to be necessary. I did it, and it was the best decision for my business and my family!
• Continue to hone in on our shooting and editing style – we really feel like we learned so much this past year about our style, but there is always room for refinement. I feel like we are definitely in our groove as far as style goes!
• Offer mentoring sessions for up and coming photographers – I wouldn’t be where I am today without the people and mentors I had to get me started and keeping me going. This past year, I was approached a handful of times about offering mentoring sessions, and I am excited to make that more of a priority this year! I did not end up offering any official mentoring sessions this year (I don’t know when I thought I was going to have time for that with a new baby haha), but I was able to help some friends out with how to get started into photography!
• Continue to build better and deeper relationships with our couples and other photographers in the industry! – I definitely want to continue to do this!
• Get featured more – it’s hard to keep up with submitting weddings and sessions in the heart of wedding season, but I would love to add it to my monthly “to-do” list. – The thing is…in order to get featured more I would’ve had to submit more…a goal for the off-season!
• Oh, create that monthly to-do list I mentioned above (i.e. track mileage, submit weddings, etc)! – Negative.

Spiritual Goals

• Daily quiet time – I always love and cherish my morning quiet time of reading and praying when I make the time for it. I did pretty good with it this year, but there is always a desire for growth and improvement. – I was doing this and LOVING my time each morning before Emily, but it was really hard to get back into the swing of things post-baby with unpredictable sleep, eat, play cycles. However, after the Pursuit conference this past October, I made a commitment to get in the Word more, and I’ve been loving it more than ever!
• Keep a prayer journal – I started one when we were going through all the cancer/surgery scare last fall, and have already loved looking back and reading how God brought us through that. I hope to keep up with it this year.
• Grow deeper in my faith. – I feel like I have been ever since I’ve been really digging into the Word more, but it’s something I always want to be striving for!
• Choose to be joyful…everyday!
• Glorify God in everything I do – in my business, in the way I love Mike, in the way I serve others, in the good times and in the hard times!

So, how’d I do? I think I did pretty well consider the whole life-change that happened with Emily coming into the world. I have a lot I still need to work on and want to work on, and I’ll be sharing those things and my 2016 goals with you all on the blog on Monday!