i heart ... 2009

my favorite pictures of 2009

(and it should come as no surprise

that most of these are pictures of my nieces & nephews!)

january

thomas just learning to crawl

clayton & samuel

clayton, paulina, & natalie

february

clayton - the boy with the golden feather!

natalie on the trampoline

clayton finding out he was going to be a big brother again

i've never seen a baby who loves books as much as thomas!

and i'm so happy thomas has a big brother like ammon

who is happy to read to him!

valentine's day party

natalie, brennan, kaitlyn, paulina, & sierra

march

ammon's ginormous orange

sierra through the kaleidescope

ava & paulina

natalie's birthday

april

thomas jefferson attends his first political rally
and totally gets into it!

a visit to my cousin jennie's family

jacey, jaren, jayton, & jackson

may

paulina

my beautiful sonoran desert

have you ever seen a baby so joyous to pet a dog???

thomas

my sister-in-law rebeca's graduation

here comes air force one!

and lookie here...

see who flew in on air force one

to personally congratulate rebeca on receiving her doctorate?

sisterly love

natalie & paulina

memorial day bbq

more sibling love...

clayton & ava

kaitlyn gets beignets for her birthday

thomas' first trip to the library

june

cooling off at nielson's frozen custard

kaitlyn, brennan, & ammon

this is all i've got for june.

i think i was just too hot to take pictures!

july

ava

paulina

ammon & thomas reading, again!

thomas & noah

august

thomas, noah, & samuel at our family reunion

the punk rock show!

brennan, sierra, kaitlyn, & ammon

caleb & ammon

thomas on the saddle from sundown ranch

shelby

noah & ammon

caleb & sierra

stephanie & shelby

sierra - always with a flower in her hair

clayton

clayton - the spy!

eli & ava playing peek-a-boo

september

i love that smile!

thomas

kaitlyn & ammon

a kiss from thomas

brennan

october

(this photo needs no introduction!)

samuel scrambles an egg for me!

noah with a goatee

(or a mishap with a suction cup!)

caleb

caleb is my favorite artist.
oh, and renoir too.

shelby

samuel

oops! i mean, count dracula!

ammon, sierra, kaitlyn, thomas, & brennan

clayton, ava, & natalie

paulina



november

cowgirl kait

veteran's day parade

ammon & natalie

natalie flying her flag for veteran's day

paulina

samuel, clayton, noah, & caleb

samuel

caleb & shelby watching the fountain

all of my nieces & nephews!

when we all were together at thanksgiving time

i took this picture for our christmas present to my mom.

my cousins and i have a picture like this
from when we were children
and i wanted to recreate it,
but by this point in the day the children were so over
having their picture taken!

ava & clayton

paulina, natalie, & ava

thomas & clayton

eli

thomas playing wii.

doesn't he totally look like he knows what he's doing?

he doesn't!

he just copies what his brother & sisters do!

december


this is the first time i heard natalie read!

like, really read! not just for pretend!

natalie's ballet recital

look at the shadow of thomas' eyelashes...

i was driving down the street & look who i saw...

my niece kaitlyn & my cousin summer

bruiser!

a missing tooth and bandaged head.
(clayton)

first a bruiser,

and now a monkey!

the missing tooth & bandaged head are making more sense now!

paulina being her crazy self!

anyone who knows her knows just what i'm talking about!

ava

eli the hedgehog

ava & ammon

as joseph & mary

my new kitty

lucy!

... and that's the end of 2009!












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i heart ... christmas

here is the story of my christmas.

'twas the night before christmas when all through the house...

...lots of people were (there's not an appropriate word that rhymes here

so forget the rhyming thing!)...

lots of people were gathering to celebrate.

we always spend christmas eve with my dad's side of the family.

and we always begin the evening with lots of good food...

my dad & his brother brian

i made
martha stewart's triple chocolate peppermint trifle

which i've been waiting all year to make for christmas eve!

sierra, breanna, & brennan

after eating we just hung out for a little while.

it was nice and relaxing.

and it gave everyone a chance to chat -

because that's what my dad's family likes to do the most!

seriously!

super seriously!

look where thomas found santa?

this child loves santa!

we were having a debate over

what this creature was on eli's head.

someone said hedgehog.

i vote for that.

clayton & ava

kaitlyn & eli


after eating and hanging out

it was time for the nativity.

the most important part.

here come the players:

ava & ammon

look at this shy little lamb

(ha! don't be fooled!)

thomas


after the nativity we had numerous musical numbers

which were so awesome

and helped everyone to feel the christmas spirit

(but there is no way i can show all of them here

because there were so many!)

but i will just show you the final musical number.

scroll down further for the video.

can you guess the song?

last but not least,

eli received his stocking!

this is a very important event in our family.

my nana makes every new baby in the family a stocking

which is presented to them on christmas eve.

when it's presented we all sing

"hang up the baby's stocking".



aaaahhhhh,

christmas morning!

finally!

first we ate brunch...

... which is one of the best meals of the whole year!

creme brulee french toast, spinach quiche,

biscuits & gravy, fresh squeezed o.j.

and these amazing sticky rolls!

then the chaos begins

with the children opening their presents first...

...then finally it was the grown ups turn.

after all the presents were opened

then we played with the presents!

especially this one.

it's called floam.

clayton gave it to natalie,

but she shared it and we all enjoyed it.

it felt so good to squish it through my fingers!clayton, natalie, sierra, ammon, & kaitlyn

clayton, natalie, & thomas

thomas loved squishing it, too.

sadly christmas day always has to end.

the children were getting sleepy.

so were the adults.paulina

eli



but happily

there are always plans for after christmas.

it's the only way to not fall into a post-christmas depression.

i have to have something exciting to look forward to.

like,

our annual cousins soiree at matta's!

a few days later,

i was invited to go with stacy and her girls

to see "meet me in st. louis" at broadway palm. stacy, brennan, kaitlyn, & sierra


and another thing to keep my spirits lifted

is this new little gift i received on new years eve.

meet lucy!


and finally,

new years eve.

i don't have pictures of the partying

only pictures of the goodies i made.

the food is the most important part anyway, right?

i made these candy cane kiss brownie bites
and in case you're wondering,

yes,

i loved them!

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i heart ... living near family

this is why i love living near family.

while i was out driving around

doing some christmas shopping

look who i saw.

these cute girls!

my niece kaitlyn and my cousin summer.

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i heart ... christmas sprinkles

i went into sprinkles today.

i told myself i could have one cupcake.

one.

so of course

i got two.

eggnog spice & vanilla peppermint

so now do you understand?

it was impossible to choose one and not the other!

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