Wrap-up of 2009

Here's what the end of 2009 looked like for us:

December 19

Jackson turned 1!!! WHAT? It came upon us so quickly. I think that the first year of his life was the fastest year in my life. He's just growing up so quickly and I'm trying to soak in every moment. Above are some pictures from his birthday... although most of the pictures are on my mom's camera since (of course) we ran out of memory on our camera in the middle of taking some pics. Jackson was a lucky boy and got 2 birthday celebrations. On his actual birthday his grandparents came over to celebrate and the next day we all went over to his grandparents to celebrate with extended family. He LOVED the chocolate cupcake... he kept sucking the icing on the top of the cupcake instead of actually eating it... it was hilarious. After we sang happy birthday to him we all started clapping and shouting praises at him and he just soaked it all in... he even started clapping along with us with a big smile on his face. He didn't quite get the part of unwrapping the presents... but definitely enjoyed playing with all the presents his grandparents gave him.

December 23

(I love this picture... he just looks so old sitting there "reading" his book)

We drove out to OR. Normally it takes about 13 hours (give or take). The way there took 16 HOURS!! We had to keep stopping to give Jackson a break from his car seat. He handled the road trip pretty darn well without any major meltdowns. On the way back he was just sick of the whole thing and had a tougher time sitting in his car seat for such a long time... so there were a few more tears... who can blame him? We almost started crying ourselves ;)!!

December 24

Christmas Eve in OR was filled with caroling and recreating the nativity scene.


Notice my cute Christmas Minnie ears? Mark's mom got them for us girls to wear... she's pretty much Mrs. Santa Claus... staying up into the wee hours of the morning wrapping presents, making cinnamon rolls from scratch, etc., etc. to make sure Christmas is wonderful for her family.


Mark was Joseph (a very handsome one I might add), Natalie was Mary... Leah was baby Jesus, and every one else were wiseman or angels.


December 25

Santa must really love the Bevans family(we found out Mark's mom is very close friends with Santa...bosom buddies as she says) because he really drops off A LOT of presents... for A LOT of people (see picture below). As you can imagine we spent HOURS upon HOURS opening all those presents! I had never seen so many presents before until I spent my first Christmas at the Bevans house... I still did a double take when I walked out into the family room! It is crazy, but lots of fun!

The amazing Bevans family Christmas tree on Christmas morning!

Here we are! This isn't just a pose for the picture... this was how we sat while opening presents. Remember Mark comes from a family of 9 kids... 7 of those kids were home for Christmas plus all their spouses and children... all in 1 living room opening a million presents!

Jackson and I smiling for the camera! Don't you love Jackson's goofy smile!?

Our niece Leah- this is pretty much how we all felt after unwrapping

occasionally gives this goofy smile... I love it! all those presents... completely overjoyed and totally exhausted!

It was a wonderful Holiday season and a great way to end 2009! I still have some more updates, but after this long post I'm taking a break! 2010 is going to be a GREAT year... I can feel it!