Au revoir, Hasta la vista, Arrivederci, 2009!

And in other words, "Goodbye!" You will be missed so dearly! When I think back and read about all the happy memories you gave to me, I feel so blessed! How could so many good things have happened to one person in one year? Amazing! Miraculous!

So how do I end an incredible year on this blog?

Well, I have decided that the most appropriate way to end this year of blogging is with a prayer of thanks and supplication for continued blessings in the coming year! Here goes:

____________________________________________

Dear Lord,

You have blessed our family so much this year with steady jobs (in the midst of economic chaos), a beautiful new house, happy vacations, great health (even in these times of swine flu epidemics), many happy and cherished memories together, and most importantly, Your love and mercy! Thank You with all my heart!

Although we may have had our trials and tribulations this year, I honestly cannot remember much about them! There are just too many good things to remember! Thank You for no regrets!

Tonight as we welcome in the New Year with our precious family, please help us to look forward to the coming year and all the treasures that await us! It is so easy to dwell on the past when the past is so pleasant, but You did not create us to dwell in the past! You created us to move forward each day to accomplish Your will for our lives!

With thankful and grateful hearts, we ask all these things in Your name, Jesus! Amen.
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Here's to a better year than ever! May God bless us all!

Video: Christmas Morning

Video: A special video of Evan waking up on Christmas morning to his Mommy and Daddy singing to him! Then, he heads downstairs and spies all his presents from Santa. He tells us about everything he sees!







Video: Evan gets a "real" dinosaur!

Home for Christmas!

Our Family Christmas


For Evan's 3rd Christmas, we continued our tradition of spending Christmas Eve and Christmas morning at home but with one special addition. Nana and Papa arrived on Christmas Eve to share in our festivities. Daddy, Mommy & Evan went to the Christmas Eve service at our church and enjoyed some wonderful Christmas music. After the service, we came home to a nice family dinner. Daddy had made his special pasta bake, and we had some cheesy bread with oil and balsamic vinegar for dipping. After dinner, Evan helped Daddy make some special cookies for Santa, and of course, we all had to sample them. ;-)

After bath time and teeth brushing, Daddy, Mommy & Evan cuddled in the bed until Evan fell asleep...and Mommy and Daddy fell asleep too! Fortunately, we woke up to "help" Santa perform his duties! Daddy was still kind of half asleep when he started downstairs to begin putting together Evan's presents, and I heard a very loud bang on the stairs. Ooops! Not good! Yes, he was okay, and Evan slept on!

After setting out his presents, including his new bike and bouncy ball pit, we headed back to bed and were soon dreaming of sugarplums and Christmas delights! In the morning, we woke first and started getting ready for the Christmas festivities. Daddy went downstairs to prepare a wonderful Christmas breakfast while Mommy finished getting ready. Mommy was almost ready when the pitter patter of little feet entered her room! He looked so cute in his little Christmas pj's! I kept him in our room until Daddy could come up. We sang "We wish you a Merry Christmas" to him before we started downstairs to see what Santa had brought! He saw and named everything Santa brought him before he even got downstairs. Daddy videoed it all!


The tree is loaded with presents!



Daddy helps Santa put Evan's bike together!





Santa Claus came!



Evan wakes up to singing on Christmas morning! Don't you just love Christmas pajamas?



Evan tries out his new "jumpy thing" and ball pit! Yes, that is what we told him to call it! Do you know a better name for it?



A Dinosaur. He's pretty cool. He growls, walks, wags his tail, purrs when you scratch his back or under his chin, plays cool dinosaur jams, etc.


Evan got his very own digital camera!



Daddy helps Evan open his new drum set! We are in the market for another one, sadly, because these were missing the drumsticks! :-(



We let him use his sticks to his xylophone to play with it!



He got even more goodies in his stocking, including the new Ice Age "dinosaur movie" and some new coloring books.



Mommy gets a special present from Daddy!



And Daddy gets a special present from Mommy! Don't you just love that she wrapped it in the Shrek paper...so festive!



Daddy helps Evan ride his new bike! He kind of skipped the tricycle stage so he has to learn to pedal! Unfortunately, Christmas was rainy so he couldn't take it outside!



Christmas breakfast was so yummy!



Discovering a new way to play with the "jumpy thing"!



And another way!



Christmas with the Hudsons/Reeses!


Grandma and Aunt 'Omi came up for their usual Christmas visit!



A sweet picture with Grandma!



And a sweet picture with his Aunt 'Omi!


After Christmas breakfast with Nana and Papa, we packed up the presents and headed to Grandma's (actually we had lunch with the whole family at Great-Aunt Dava's). Eddie's family is getting bigger and bigger. We have had three new babies born since September so Christmas was a real baby-fest this year! You know how much Sherry loved that!



The Reese's are together for Christmas! Papa James is an "adopted" Reese!



Evan and his cousin Lilly had a lunch "date"!



Cousin Robert's first Christmas!



Sherry enjoyed holding all the babies!



We had to watch Aunt 'Omi cause she would have tried to sneak cousin Eliza home with her! :-)



Sherry tried to get a sweet picture with cousin Eliza, but cousin Jason tried to mess it up!



We had to let cousin Jason get attacked by the babies just for meanness! :-)



Great-Grandpa gets to hold cousin Robert while we took this 4 generations picture.



Cousin Marian poses for a picture with her baby boy!



Cousins Nathan, Cecilia & Eliza visit all the way from Utah. Lord, please bring them closer to "home"! Amen. ;-)



Finally got my sweet picture with Baby Eliza!



Aunt 'Omi gives Evan a special present!



Eliza's 1st Christmas photo shoot!



And we can't forget about cousin Mason!



Great-Grandpa gets to hold Baby Eliza!



Great-Grandpa's tree was loaded with presents for Evan!



Evan gets another dinosaur. He loves dinosaurs!



Aunt 'Omi dressed Evan like a cowboy! He loves his red cowboy hat!



And cowboy boots too!



Cutest cowboy EVER!



Oh boy! Aunt 'Omi had to get him his first shotgun too!




Grandma gets a special present from Evan!



Yep, this cowboy likes to clean!



Great-Grandpa and his special cowboy!


Christmas with the Smiths!

On Sunday after Christmas, Uncle Paul's family came over to our house for the Smith family gathering. We enjoyed a simple meal together, opened presents, and just enjoyed some family time. The kids enjoyed playing together since they hadn't seen each other in a couple of weeks. The highlight of the day was the boys getting Panther's helmets and jerseys and then playing football and tackling each other! So cute!


The "Smith" family just keeps getting bigger!



The kiddie table! Guess who was pouting and didn't want to eat?



Baby Reade eats his Christmas dinner! I have really never seen a kid eat baby food so well! He loves it!



Papa reads us the Christmas story!



The kids all sat with Uncle Paul and Aunt Jessica! This is what their family will look like when they have another kid...probably in about a year and 3 months! ;-)



Baby Reade gets to open the first gift!



Evan and cousin Lanny are off to the races to see who can tear into their present first! They both got the same things from Nana and Papa to make sure there would be no fighting!



Emma looks so pretty and lady-like here! She has grown up so much!



Evan opens his favorite Christmas present...a Panther helmet!



The boys look like TWINS! I really did have a hard time telling them apart in these pictures with their jerseys and helmets on! Lanny is on the left and Evan is on the right!



Already tackling each other!



Uncle Paul tries on the helmet! Funny that he can wear a helmet made for a 6 to 9 year old kid! Lucky for Aunt Jessica that his kids all got his small head size!



Sweet cousin Reade got a cute puppy to teach him lots of new things!




We got "The Hangover" from Uncle Paul and Aunt Jessica and cannot wait for the laughs that are sure to be had!



Sherry reads "Let's Go, Panthers!" to our little fans!



And we had to go outside and play some football, of course! Look at that perfect throw by Evan the future quarterback!



Evan the runningback!



So cute in his Panthers jersey and helmet and sticking his chest out like a little man!



Lanny checks the field and prepares to make the pass!



Evan strikes a pose for the camera!