Christmas 2009

Christmas was a lot of fun this year. It was very busy with Holden's birthday the day before but I knew that would be the case. First it was off to Grandpa Gerald's house on Christmas Eve, then Christmas morning at our house with the kids, then to my mom and dad's for Christmas night and then off to Grandma Mary's the day after!!!

On Christmas morning we waited until 11 to get Adi from her mom. In the meantime, it was a beautiful, sunny morning and Holden wanted to head outside to play. Once sissy got here we opened up stockings and then our gifts. Adi got lots of crafts, clothes and nail polish stuff. Holden got balls and tractors!! The gift that was the biggest hit though, was the one from grandma, grandpa, gran, and gramps - a motorized, ride-on jeep!

The Jeep!

Grandma and Grandpa's House

Check out all of those stockings!!!

Zander-man!

Gracie Girl and her new princess umbrella

Holden liked walking on the box and "jumping" off

A scrapbook kit!

Lots of new books!!

Adi dressing up in Gracie's new dress-up clothes!

Gavin dressing up in Gracie's dress-up clothes!!

All of the kids piling into Gav's 'Cars' car tent.

Grandma Mary's House

Hula Hoop fun!!!

Holden's 1st Birthday!

Our baby boy is 1! Has it been a whole year already? What a challenging, fun, hard, exciting, and very special year it has been. Our little baby is a little boy now. It's bittersweet for mommy. I love watching him grow and learn new things every day, but it is going by really fast.

We had a really fun dog party for his 1st birthday and invited all of his (and our) friends. We decided on a dog theme because it seems Holden has liked dogs from day one. He's been around them from the time he was in my tummy - listening to them bark and me yell at them. Lance wanted to do a baseball party but we have lots of time for that. We had puppy dog coloring books for the guests to color in, a dog pinata that even Holden took a couple of whacks at (with mommy's help), stick the paw print on the dog game (like pin the tail on the donkey) and paw print cupcakes that the kids got to eat out of dog bowls! Oh, and Holden loved his first birthday cake -he has our sweet tooth for sure!

The Birthday Boy!

His first birthday cake!

Sharing with mommy!

Lauren (neighbor) and cousin Gavin eating their

cupcakes in the dog bowls.

Jacob (neighbor) and Graysen (neighbor)

Sissy!!

Cousin Evan!

Wow! Mom and dad, check out my cool ride-on tow truck!!!

Auntie Kimberly helping with gifts

Everyone wants a turn on the tow truck

Rilyn and Gracie showing some love...so cute!