A Year In Review - 2010

I have to start off our 2010 year in review from a picture from 2009, Christmas Day actually! That was the day we found out we were pregnant with Asher! What a WONDERFUL way to start out the new year!

We started out January with a fabulous 1st birthday party for Caleb! He had a blast playing with his friends and loved his first cupcake! Needless to say, he takes after his momma and his love for sweets!!

In February we celebrated my 30th Birthday!! I was SOOOOO excited to turn 30 years old, as I was completely ready to move out of and let go almost everything that happened in my 20's(with the exception of meeting and marrying Aaron and giving birth to Caleb)! For my 30th birthday I got to go on my first (of many) scrapbook retreats, even though I didn't actually go until April. I had such a blast and am so grateful for Aaron being willing to stay at home with Caleb. During February Dallas received over 12 inches of snow!! That made the start of my new decade perfect! Caleb got to experience snow for the first time and actually liked it!

30 and fabulous!

Caleb's first experience with snow!

My dad got this awesome snow suit from one of his trips to England, a genuine Ferrari snow suit at that. Needless to say, I was COMPLETELY bummed that Caleb didn't fit in it! As I was putting it on, I was reminded of the famous scene in A Christmas Story and I found myself laughing so hard I was crying! Caleb didn't mind at all, clearly, as he had that big smile of his on his face the entire time! Hopefully it will fit Asher this winter!!

March was the month of the iPhone. Caleb learned how to use my iPhone, or at least the little kiddie games on it and immediately turned in to his father! He really enjoys the learning games and I'm completely convinced that the iPhone has been a huge contributor to him learning his ABC's and counting 1-10 in English and Spanish!

April wasn't too eventful. Daddy and Caleb were sick the weekend that I went on my scrapbooking retreat and we started packing. I was extremely exhausted during this pregnancy so I honestly didn't accomplish much in the spring!

Caleb LOVES reading his books, he always has. Notice the massive pile of them next to him on the floor?!?

Caleb learning how to blink on command, pretty funny!!

May was a BIG month for us! We moved back to Richardson which was wonderful being so close to church and for our Square One Playgroup, and CALEB STARTED WALKING!!! Within 10 minutes of being in our new place Caleb just started walking on his own! Such an answer to my prayers of wanting him to be walking before Asher arrived! Caleb proved to adjust very well to the big change of moving, in fact he was pretty giddy when we moved in to our new place!

June was pretty uneventful, except for Caleb's first train ride with his friends Noah & Haley, and multiple trips to our community pool! Oh boy does he love the water!! I moved in to my 3rd trimester in June and thankfully it started out great! June did give me my absolute favorite picture of Caleb and I EVER!

In July, we headed north to Branson, Missouri for a family vacation! Ben & Julie had just moved back to St. Louis, and Mom and Dad wanted to continue our new family tradition (which I CLEARLY didn't have a problem with) of taking a vacation each summer! We stayed at Big Cedar Lodge, which if you've never been, you need to go, it's absolutely gorgeous and overlooks Tablerock Lake! We went swimming, ate amazing food, went shopping, fishing and relaxed probably more than I ever have on vacation! It was absolutely FABULOUS!!!

August proved to be a bit of a difficult month for me. With my due date set for Sept. 1st, I was totally convinced I would go early, just like I did with Caleb, but Asher had a plan of his own! My Mom came in town to help me with Caleb (and housework, thanks Mom, you ROCK) the week and a half before I was due. And don't even get me started on the Texas heat! I definitely prefer my 3rd trimester to be in the winter!

September was by far the best month of the year! Little Asher made his grand appearance September 9th (with a little help from some pitocin)! I never thought I could love another child the way I love Caleb, but the Lord answered my prayers with an overflowing cup of love for my sweet baby boy! Becoming a family of 4 was definitely the highlight of our year!

October was such a fun time! We spent countless hours at the park and the mall play areas. I even had a first "I'm a mom of two" moment when Caleb decided to walk out of the play area at the mall while I was tending to baby. Scared me to death! Needless to say, I now park myself right next to the exit of every play area we go to, just to make sure he doesn't escape again!

November was a busy month, celebrating Thanksgiving, a trip to the Children's Museum with Amy & Luke, Noah's soccer games, Caleb having his first encounter with eggs dipped in ketchup and LOTS of playtime with a borrowed kitchen and mommy's headbands! Asher continued developing and spent hours upon hours making us laugh with all of his silly and cute facial expressions! At two months old he weighed 14.5 pounds and seems to be growing in length faster than his little clothes can keep up! I'm almost positive most of his weight is carried in his massive thighs (thank you daddy for passing this down), oh how I LOVE me some thunder thighs!!

In December, we celebrated Christmas with Aaron's family in Houston, as well as Aaron's 30th Birthday! We went to eat at Benihana's and they gave him a hat, ice cream and sang to him, it was awesome (I even have a picture to prove it)!! Asher proved to be pretty average in adjusting to new places. We had to "help" him out a little with his diapers the first few days and our overnight away was pretty rough, but other than that he did great! Caleb thoroughly enjoyed hanging out and playing with his older cousin Corbin all week, and of course, loved the gifts he received from everyone. He did fabulous sleeping on the floor in the same room with us and slept in pretty much every morning except Christmas! One of my favorite things was when he would wake up in the morning and climb in to bed with us and cuddle! We definitely need to make this more of a habit at home! We LOVED having Omar, Vicki, Corbin and Josiah staying with us at Grandma and Grandpa's house all week as well!

Caleb thought it was funny that he could see himself in the ornament at Tia Bitsy's house when we went for a visit. He kept giving himself "loves" (kisses) on the ball, it was too cute!

2010 proved to be a year full of joy, laughter, a few challenges, continued provision from the Lord and lots and lots of fun! I can't wait to see what the Lord has in store for us in 2011! Happy New Year to all of you and God Bless!!

Be Blessed and Encouraged!

There's a 1st For Everything!

And today, our first was Caleb unrolling the entire roll of toilet paper at Grandma & Grandpa's house! I walked in to the bathroom to find Caleb had unrolled the toilet paper and was repeatedly flushing the toilet. After rolling up part of the toilet paper, I had a revelation..."let's take a picture of this first and put it on the blog!" So, there you go! Our picture of the day! Not sure how I got him to stand there and smile, but thanks Caleb!

Be Blessed and Encouraged!

Christmas 2010

Our Christmas started off WAYYY earlier than we expected, 6:30am to be exact! Caleb was accidentally woken up and never went back to sleep, even after climbing back in bed with us! Asher, however, did fall back asleep with me until about 8:30, so that was nice! Anyway, once we were all up, we played with toys and such since Omar and Vicki and their boys went to spend the morning/lunchtime with her family. Caleb ended up taking his nap at 10:30am, and slept on Aaron in the rocker the whole time! WISH I had gotten a picture, but I ended up falling asleep as well! Needless to say, none of us really got going until at least 1pm! We got the turkey in the oven around 3pm, and once that was done, it was time to open presents. Caleb didn't really understand what was going on, he just wanted the wrapping paper off of his new toys! He made out like a bandit and we will be driving home with legos, TONS of Thomas stuff, including an automated train track, a set of wooden trains (Thomas), a Lightening McQueen "shaker" car, and SOOOO many more things! His favorite of the day was one of the trains from the track set, where you pushed a button on the top and it played the Thomas theme song. He must have played it at least 25 times today!

Caleb and Corbin have been having a blast playing together and Corbin is doing so well sharing with his younger cousin! Asher and Josiah did fabulous, except Asher had a little trouble with spitting up, and went a good 52 hours since his last poopy. Needless to say, the "present" he left Aaron today wasn't that pleasant!

Funny story...We got both sets of parents a digital frame for Christmas (thanks to a steal of a deal on Black Friday) and loaded them up with pics of the boys. Unfortunately, our memory card made a little mini trip to St. Louis with my parents frame! Since it was the card from our larger, nicer Canon, we couldn't just use our memory card from our Sureshot, so Aaron went out and picked one up Christmas Eve morning. I knew I would forget to pack something, and sure enough, I forgot to pack the camera's battery charger, YIKES!! So, we went through all the trouble to get a card so we could use the nice camera, and the battery ended up dying before we even opened gifts! Such a bummer!

We had a late dinner, but a fabulous one at that! A nice 20lb turkey, dressing, potatoes, green bean casserole, pumpkin and apple pie! We are stuffed, and I definitely look forward to leftovers! I always ask myself after Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner, why I don't make this meal more often since it's my favorite one of the year! I guess if I made it too often, I wouldn't enjoy it nearly as much the two times of the year that I get to eat it now!

We also celebrated Aaron's 30 birthday today! I was the first person to wish him a happy birthday at 12:06am, just as we were going to bed last night. And I think Corbin was next. I can't imagine how hard it must be to share your birthday with Jesus, but it seems to me that it gets a little easier every year. I am so thankful and blessed that the Lord created such a wonderful, loving, patient and leading man! He truly loves the Lord and our family more than I could ever have hoped for and I just love him so much! Happy Birthday sweetie!

Here are the only pics we got today. I'm semi-bummed, but thankful we at least got a couple action shots!!

Caleb's Christmas Sock Monkey PJ's! I think they might become a tradition, considering he had sock monkey pj's last year too, just in a different print and color!

Rosy cheeks chillin' with daddy!

Josiah and Asher became best buds today! It was so cute!

LOVE this pictures of the two youngens!!

SWEET Josiah! You are such a honey!!

Caleb playing with Corbin's old toy truck. All you do is push the button and it goes! He LOVED it!

Laughing at Corbin!!

"The stockings were hung by the chimney with care..."

Josiah all tuckered out on momma!!

Asher hanging out with grandpa!

Caleb playing on his new thomas train track, with a 3 musketeers gotee!

Clean up time!

All smiles!!

We are infinitely blessed by all of the gifts we have been given, but are the most thankful for the gift of the Son, Jesus! We have so much to celebrate, but I was so sweetly reminded today that the gift of salvation is the greatest gift I could have ever received and accepted. As we were driving to Houston yesterday, I was listening to Chris Tomlin's Christmas CD and found myself crying such tears of overwhelming joy at the priceless gift God has given me. Salvation. I am so thankful and blessed to know Christ, to trust Him, to pursue Him (even though not perfectly), and to attempt to love the way He loves me. Thank you, Lord, for the gift of your Son, and the power of his birth, death and resurrection. May I be humbly reminded daily, of the greatness of this gift. Help me to honor you and love like you love.

As Linus so graciously put it 25 years ago...

"And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, 'Fear not: for behold, I bring unto you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the City of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.' And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God, and saying, 'Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.'"

That's what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown.

That's what Christmas is all about friends and family! Merry Christmas!

Be Blessed and Encouraged!