I love looking back on the year that has passed. It’s really neat to see what I went into the year hoping to experience and accomplish, and seeing how God led the way and cared for me every moment.

With that said, here are some highlights and thoughts from 2017!

Jimmy and I made a quick trip to Upstate New York to celebrate my aunt’s birthday in January. It was really nice to see some of my extended family and I think it was Jimmy’s first time visiting Upstate NY!

In February, Jimmy and I celebrated Valentine’s Day together! He surprised me with a gourmet meal that we cooked together. Now that I look back, February was a good food month because I also shared my recipe for mint dark chocolate chip cookies. I need to make those again!

March brought along a big change. I left my job as a household manager for a family I had worked for for over two years and began working for my family’s real estate brokerage. This was such a huge switch up for me and a total answered prayer. I have been able to do real estate work mostly from home and also do tons of pet sitting.

Another big change in March: I changed the name of my blog from Allie’s Life to Living My Full Life!

April brought along my sister’s bridal shower, which was super fun! I made the cupcakes and cookies for the shower and loved every second of that. Most of all, I loved seeing Hannah so happy ❤

In May, we celebrated Jimmy’s birthday and my parents, sister, and I ran/walked a 5k with their dogs and one of my pet sitting clients.

I hadn’t done a 5k for such a long time, but that one was special to me because it supported an adoption agency in the Pittsburgh area. Adoption is something I think and pray about constantly.

May was pretty busy, now that I look back. Jimmy and I planted our garden and spent an afternoon at our church packing meals for I.D.E.S., which was an amazing experience.

Summer began the start of a busy season of pet sitting that hasn’t let up to this day! I actually do more pet sitting than real estate work, which was totally unexpected. It has been a big blessing to spend time with animals all day, every day.

June was a big month: my sister got married! Hannah and Josh had a beautiful and emotional ceremony at our church and the reception was at Josh’s house. It was a day to remember forever ❤

Jimmy and I also celebrated three years of marriage and I turned 25-years-old in June! Want to hear something crazy? I was blogging when Jimmy and I hit our three year dating anniversary back in 2011. Cray cray!

In July I posted about our bathroom renovation, my sister got her first puppy–Indy, Jimmy and I were in a Fourth of July parade, and we went camping with Josh and Hannah!

August was another big month because we brought home Mavis! Looking back on those posts, I realize how little she was!

I also remember how hard it was waking up three to four times a night to let her out to go to the bathroom. Whew, so glad her bladder is bigger these days! We also started puppy training classes with little May May at the end of August.

September was a little rocky, as Mavis and I were attacked by our neighbor’s dog. Mavis went through a really tough time of being afraid of other dogs and being touched by people after that incident. I also was bit during the attack and found out the dog wasn’t up to date with its rabies shots.

That was kind of a mess and caused me a lot of anxiety (not the bite, but Mavis’ fears). We kept bringing her to training and I took her along with me to each pet sitting visit (and still do!) and that helped her so, so much.

I just looked back in my archives and realized we survived another attack in September… Jimmy and I got stung by yellow jackets while mowing and weed wacking our neighbor’s lawn. Ow!

The good thing about September was that we celebrated Malcolm’s adoption anniversary! Jimmy and I still look at each other nearly every day and say how legit Malcolm is. He’s the coolest little guy 🙂

I made a lego cake in October, Jimmy went out West, and I met my friend’s baby! I think Mavis also graduated puppy level I classes in October.

In November I worked on updating our master bedroom a little more (I need to do another update–I finally got a bench!), we had an amazing Thanksgiving with my family (and alllllll the dogs), and Mavis passed her AKC S.T.A.R. Puppy test!

Jimmy and I started out December with a staycation, which was so relaxing! I shared why Christmas is so special, and we celebrated the holiday with Jimmy’s family!

That brings us to now. Whew, what a year it was! I see so many ups and a few downs, and it’s helping me see just how blessed 2017 truly was. God is good, and I cannot wait to see what He has in store for 2018!

Tell me about your year!