AfterVictory.com

For our seventh year blogging, we shifted to posting lots more photos and videos rather than text-heavy entries.  We still write some though, including the Ted is x months old postings:

Ted is 21, 20, 19, 18, 17, 16, 15, 14, 13, 12, 11, 10 months old

The Ted of the beginning of 2009 is much different than he is now.  In January he was learning to clap, getting up at least once a night still, and army crawling around. So strange to think that he’s developed so much in just a year. In January we also had a quick visit from Auntie Christine.

Ted logged more hours in the air in February when we flew up north to celebrate my 30th, seeing all sorts of friends and family, and it was lots of fun.   Ted also started real-crawling in February, which was a mode of transportation he would embrace for just about a month.

In March, we took Ted to his first car show.  He also figured out how to stand up on his own, which would have been the biggest accomplishment of the month, except that  he then figured out how to walk.  And walking would have been the biggest accomplishment of the month, for real, except that Ted turned 1!  We had more family over then to celebrate.

In April Ted celebrated Easter with us here at the ranch.  We then flew up north (again!) for Grammie Cass‘ birthday and for a friend’s wedding.   Both good times.   Ted also said “car” and “ba” for the first time.   In May, lots of Kate’s family came down to visit us for her birthday, which was also a lot of fun.  I don’t think that many people had ever slept in this house at one time (unless the previous owners had gigantic pajama parties). May also started a certain dance craze.

In June we headed out west (well, western North Carolina) and visited the folks at Forks of Ivy to see their amazing new house, take a hike in the woods, and introduce Ted to the world of pancakes.  In July we drove up north for the Forth of July week.  Then some folks came down to see us, first Auntie Christine flew down to surprise us, and then our friends Jay and Erin swung by on their road trip.  We do love visitors!

In August we didn’t fly anywhere, but my dad stopped by for a visit on his way down to Florida. We also returned to Western NC for another visit with Ted’s Great-Aunts there. Ted continued his interest in music all month long. He also focused a lot of time learning new words.  In September we flew down to Florida to see my folks in their new house.  Ted had lots of fun hanging with my folks, swimming and going to Disney.

In October, Kate and Ted flew up north for cousin Jack’s second birthday. October also marked Ted’s second Halloween and his first trick-r-treating.  He did a great job in getting a full bag of candy for himself, and passing out candy to the neighborhood kids.  We also went to the local airport and Ted got to shout “helicopter” at actual helicopters.

In November, Auntie Christine came down for a quick visit.  Ted became obsessed with stickers and trucks, and helped his mom make Turkey thanksgiving cards.  December was busy as well.  There was the parade in town, a holiday train ride, and another trip up north to celebrate Christmas with family.  We got to see Auntie Kristen and Uncle Josh’s new house while there too.

Website traffic

Here’s a chart of AfterVictory.com website traffic, comparing 2008 to 2009 visits. Click it to see a larger version.

Visits declined this year compared to last year by about 15%.  I think this can be attributed to a couple of things.  First, last year was crazy exciting, as we had a newborn baby who was cranking out the cuteness seven days a week (not that he’s any less cute now :) ).  Second, we’re not posting quite as often, and people check the site less as a result.   A small decrease in traffic might also be tied to people using RSS readers (like Google Reader).

Since we make no money from the site, and do this as much for ourselves (to keep track and remember things) as we do to keep our friends and family informed, less traffic is neither good nor bad.  We do really appreciate everyone who comes to read and for all the comments.  It certainly motivates us more to keep things going.

Previous year’s annual reports:

2008
2007
2006
2005
2004
2003

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 3rd, 2010 at 9:32 pm and is filed under Annual Reports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.