Bring on 2010!

I'm pretty amazed at all the amazing things that happened to our family in 2009. Whereas 2008 hadn't been very kind to us (moved twice that summer, Blake was laid off, I had a miscarriage), 2009 was what I referred to as "the year of all things long awaited." I finally finished my master's degree, after 7 years! Nate started walking--something we had been working hard for, for so long. And we added a precious baby Georgia to our family. It was definitely a challenging year, but God blessed us beyond measure.

We spent New Year's at my parents' house and visited my Granny and Papal since we didn't go there for Christmas. And I would like to point out that I was the only one to stay up until midnight! Blake and Nate went to bed at 10, followed by my parents. Georgia is her mama's daughter--a night owl--and stayed up until about 10 till midnight but in the end couldn't hang. Pathetic, people! :)

Some pics from New Year's Day. Check out these chunky legs! I love em!


This is the blanket my aunt Audrey made for Georgia. (One of them, she made two gorgeous blankets.)

She so badly wants to chase after Nate!

When Nate was Georgia's age (5 months), he knew exactly what to do for the camera. As soon as he saw it, he'd start cheesing. Then all of a sudden recently, he won't smile for a picture and will rarely even look at the camera. This is the kind of pictures I get of him, the little stinker. Here he is trying to pull Granny out of her chair.

Practically laying on her and Georgia.

Oh, and one of his most popular moves--hand in front of his face. With Papal.

This is as good as they get, people. :)

Georgia is still trying to understand the whole camera thing. "What is this flashing shiny thing you hold in my face all day, mama?"

Hey, look! Georgia is getting hair! It has grown so much in the past week! My dad said she had more hair this morning than when she went to bed last night.

I forgot to tell the Duke story on here. The week before Christmas, Georgia and I were in the kitchen, and Nate was in the living room playing with trains. Out of the blue, he says, "Mama, where's Duke?" Duke is one of Nate's trains, one of about 30 in his collection. I said, "I don't know, why don't you look in your train table ... under the couch? in your bag?" After about the 50th "Where's Duke?" I came to help him look. I asked what color he is. Nate said, "He is brown, and he is yellow." Okay, brown and yellow train. We looked everywhere, and Nate was starting to panic. I called Blake, and as soon as he said hello, Nate said, "Where's Duke." Blake, thinking this was some sort of game, said, "I don't know, buddy, where is Duke?" I got on the phone and said, "No, really, where's Duke? We can't find him anywhere." Blake made a few suggestions, such as in the drawers of the train table, in the truck, and in the Christmas tree. Ah! Great ideas! I did find Stanley the train in the Christmas tree, but Duke wasn't in any of those places. So I told Nate that Daddy would find Duke when he got home. As soon as Blake walked in the door, Nate asked, "Where's Duke?" So he and Nate went looking all over the house, and still couldn't find him! Finally, Blake said he thought we might have left Duke at Granna's house when we went there for Thanksgiving (3 weeks earlier). I called my mom, and as soon as she answered, Nate said, "Where's Duke!" My mom said, "What? Nate, is that you?" Nate said, "Do you have Duke?" After I explained what was going on, my mom told Nate that she had in fact found a couple of trains after we left and she had put them in the car to bring to us when they came for Christmas. Nate said, "I need to talk to him." I told her, "He needs proof of life." :) So she had to go out to the car and take a picture of Duke and email it to me. I showed Nate the picture and left it up on the screen where he could see it all evening. He kept walking over to it, smiling, and saying, "There's Duke!"