Happy New Year, friends! With every New Year comes a new set of goals, new dreams and new adventures! It’s one of my favorite times of the year to really reflect on the past year and start planning what’s to come. This past year was full of travel, adventures, excitement, fear, learning, the worst day of our lives and the best, and lots of growth and trusting in God!

So, let’s take a look at 2015, shall we? It’s no secret this is going to be a big year for us as we welcome a new mini addition to our little family. While it seems so far away, we can’t believe that I am already going to be in my 3rd trimester by the end of this week! What?! Anyways, with such a big change coming our way, it’s going to be more important than ever before to make sure I am keeping my priorities straight, and like my good friend, Meaghan, always says…making sure you are being intentional about how you spend your time: when you are with your kids…be all there, and when you are working on your business…be all there. This year, my Day Designer planner helped keep me focused and got me started with my 2015 goals by breaking them up in different life categories. Let’s take a look at what I’m hoping to accomplish this year:

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!”
• Get back to my pre-baby weight by July! Here’s to hoping!
• Create our new post-baby budget and keep to it.
• Pay off school loans and continue to save for our next home!
• 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!
• 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!
• 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!
• Watch less TV (after we finish making our way through Gilmore Girls on Netflix)!
• Meal plan and only go to the grocery store once a week – this is a hard one for me.
• 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.

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.
• 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.
• 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!
• Continue to build better and deeper relationships with our couples and other photographers in the industry!
• 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.
• Oh, create that monthly to-do list I mentioned above (i.e. track mileage, submit weddings, etc)!

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.
• 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.
• 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!

That’s it friends! We have so much to look forward to this year and cannot wait to make our way through this list of goals to help make 2015 the best year yet for our marriage, our faith, our family and our business!