2009 Highlights

We had a wonderful, crazy, busy, blessed Christmas. I hope the rest of you did too. Sadly, our camera battery died on Christmas Eve, so I have no pictures to show for it. :( I'm a little depressed about that.

Since 2009 is coming to a close, I thought I'd write out several highlights from the year.

-Welcoming my sister Courtney, and her husband Jeremy home from their honeymoon.

-Maternity leave and learning how to be a family of 3 with our newborn Elliana.



-Getting to have the same months off with my sister Jenn, who also was on maternity leave.

-Our short but fun trip to Phoenix, Arizona to watch my Uncle Andy and Aunt Christina get married.




-The birth of our nephew, Nehemiah Duncan. He is SO cute!!



-Watching Elliana's unique relationship with each of her cousins. She loves all of them.





-Watching my mom come full circle, and eventually recover completely from her Guillain-Barre syndrome that hit her last year around the holidays.

-All of the healthy births of our friends and family. There was definitely a baby boom this year.

-After working long and hard, Caleb comleting his Masters degree. I'm so proud of you, babe!

-4th of July




-Enjoying Caleb's family cabin. His parents have dreamed of a mountain cabin for so long, and their dream finally came true this summer.




-Our trip to Washington for a family reunion on Caleb's Mom's side of the family.




-Various visits from out of state friends.



-Seeing Wizard of Oz onstage at the Candlelight Dinner Theater.




-Beginning this blog. :)

-Going to the Brad Paisley and Dierks Bentley concert with my sister-in-law, Shamree.

-God providing a way for me to be a stay at home Mom!! Thank you Lord!

-Watching Caleb's volleyball team and their very successful season that eventually lead to State where they took 2nd in State!




-Beginning the What's For Dinner blog with my sisters.


-Our first Halloween with Elliana (she was a bunny).



-Celebrating the first homes bought by Caleb's brother Josh, and his wife Shamree, and also my sister Courtney and her husband Jeremy.

-Thanksgiving.

-All of Elliana's milestones, and celebrating her first birthday. God is so good.




-The honor of getting to sing a solo for our church's Christmas Eve Service.

-Christmas day, spending time with my family and singing and worshipping with my very talented sisters and cousins.

-Spending the days after Christmas with Caleb's family at the family cabin.

Whew! I think that covers all of our highlights (or most of them). We're headed to Jackson Hole to spend some time with some long time friends. We'll be there over New Years.

Happy New Year everyone!!

Family Christmas Picture

Now that we have sent all of our Christmas letters and pictures out, I wanted to share our Christmas picture with everyone here on the blog.

I really enjoyed designing it but I was sad that we could NOT get Elliana to smile. Oh well, that's her on the right inside the hanging ornament. At least she's smiling in that one. ;)



Merry Christmas everyone, only 5 days left!

Happy Birthday Elliana Faith!

Today my baby girl is one year old. I can't believe how this last year has flown by.

The fact that she is one year old today has made me do a lot of reflecting on her birth-day last year.

I was so eager and ready to meet our baby. I had been told multiple times by the Dr. that I would not make it to my due date. Yet there I was, one week before my due date, huge and uncomfortable and December 15th was very near.

It wasn't just that I was huge and uncomfortable, but I had a wedding to attend, one that I couldn't miss- my sister Courtney's wedding was set for one week after my due date (December 21st). I had to be there, and so did Elliana.

So, my Dr. called me on the 10th of December and informed me that if Elliana had not been born by the 15th, she would induce me. My Dr. was very against inducing but given the circumstances, she was willing -hesitantly willing.

Caleb and I made plans for the 14th of December since it would be our last day as a married couple with no children. We were going to sleep in, go out to breakfast, watch a few movies, just have a slow, fun day together.

Then the morning of Sunday December 14th came early. I felt a "pop" and I knew my water had broken. Sure enough, there was water everywhere. At first there were no contractions, but after about 10 minutes the contractions came. They came hard and right on top of eachother. Caleb was frantically running around getting things ready and I told him that we needed to get to the hospital fast!

The drive to the hospital was long. The roads were snowy and icy and my contractions would not let up or slow down. Inside I knew this could not be normal. They tell you that labor is painful, but I knew that the contractions were not supposed to come like this.

As we got to the hospital doors, I told Caleb that I needed to push. I'm sure he did not believe me. ;)Either way, he parked the car in a no-parking zone and ran in to get a wheelchair. He wheeled me as quickly as he could up to labor and delivery. He announced to the nursing station "she's in labor". Then I quickly chimed in with "I'm ready to push". Again, I don't think anyone believed me.

So, the nurses hurried me to a room where they quickly helped me on the bed so they could check where I really was. They announced "Call the Dr, she's at 9 1/2". I'll never forget Caleb's response. "What?! I'm sorry, did you say 9 1/2"? After they assured him that was correct, he made a few phonecalls and told family to hurry.

The rest is a little fuzzy to me. The Dr. got there in what seemed to be like no time and they gave me an epidural to slow things down. I pushed for probably about an hour but Elliana's heart rate was slowing down and she just wasn't coming out no matter what they tried. So, they called for an emergency c-section. I was really hoping I would not need a c-section, but at least our miracle baby was finally here!

She was born on December 14th, at 1:01 PM and was 5 lbs, 15 ozs, and 18 inches long. She rocked our world from the moment she was born. Instantly we knew that although she was tiny, she was strong and determined. Even as a newborn baby she tried to pull herself up and out of the hospital scale.



Here are a few pictures from her birth-day:




She had her Daddy wrapped around her fingers from day one!


Here are a few pictures from her birthday celebration.

She loves her cousins on both sides of the family.




Here she is opening gifts with Mommy and Daddy.




Here is the cake I made. It's not the most beautiful cake, but hopefully I'll get better with each birthday. ;)


And of course, here she is enjoying her first piece of cake. I thought she would attack it but she was so prim and proper at first. After a while she really got messy.




Elliana, you are our outoing, funny, bubbly, happy, determined, strong, sprited baby girl and we love you SO much!! You bring us SO much joy! We love you and Thank God every day for you. Happy Birthday Ellie!

It's Beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

I've been so excited to show my Christmas decorations! I've had them up since right after Thanksgiving but I haven't had a chance to get pictures on the blog until now.

I guess that's what happens when you're planning your daughter's first birthday in the midst of Christmas season craziness. ;)

I love how my house looks at Christmas, it seriously makes me want to cozy up next to the fire, drink some eggnog and listen to Christmas music with my family.

Here is the wreath that hangs on our front door.



Here is our Christmas Tree, it's in the corner of our living room. Can you believe that this will be our 5th Christmas as a married couple and we still don't have a star or an angel for the top of our tree?! I seriously just need to go out and buy one on sale after Christmas this year. Right now we're just using a cross ornament for the top. =)


Here is our mantle with lights and stockings and all.


In the center of our mantle, we have a small manger scene. I like this one because it's so unique.


Here is one of our Christmas stocking hangers.


Here is Elliana's stocking. My sister Courtney made it for her. Didn't she do a great job?! I just love it.


Here is our other manger scene, the reason for the season. I love this one because it's almost identical to the one we had when I was growing up.


Here is our beautiful Christmas table cloth.


...and our centerpiece at our dinner table.




I think I got everything.

Can you believe Christmas is almost here?!