Happy Birthday, Jenseylove! You deserve more of these per year than I would know what to do with. So at least for today, I'm going to try to remind you how incredibly appreciated and wonderful you are! :)
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Even though she's still sick today, we're all going to do our best to make it an absolutely wonderful day for her. (And by we, I mean we're all going to make sure she gets more blog post loving than she can handle! *inspired cheering sound!*)
I love you to the moon and back, Nathanial. :)
Everyone leave Nathan some birthday love and tell him how great he is!! <3
Last personal post for a little bit. :)
Our New Years Eve celebration came after one of the most hectic times of the year for us. I was running on empty, starting the year with a million things on my to-do list, and feeling just completely burnt out. The best medicine for me was taking New Years Eve off and having a calm, refreshing night off with my best friends. We had pizza, hung out, and drove to our secret spot to launch some fireworks. It ended up honestly being the best new years eve I can remember, and I owe it all to the best friends ever.
Lorie Marie. :)
Jonathan!
:)
Nathanial, my love.
I know I'm a little behind, but I hope you all had a wonderful start to 2010, as well. I have pretty darn high hopes for this year, and so far, so good!
Shortly after Christmas, some of the family came up to stay at a real dude ranch not to far from us, so we got to meet up for an afternoon.
Once I found out they were staying at a dude ranch, my mind was racing with hopes of being a part of a real-life version from Hey Dude. :)
Not surprisingly, it was quite different from the tv show, and it was more of a glorified cabin rental place with horseback riding, fishing, and archery thrown in. Anyway, the kids had a blast, and this is what we were greeted with as we were driving in- our 3 sisters hanging on a fence in Twilight shirts. It made me crazy happy (minus the Twilight shirts.)
While the gentlemen fished...
... We ladies chatted. :)
I was never raised with grandparents, and one of my favorite things about getting married was adopting such a great group of grandparents that love me like they've known me my whole life. :) This is Al, Nate's step-grandfather, whom I just adore.
Kat. :)
Austen being Austen. :)
This picture officially makes me miss being a kid.
Nate and his brothers & sisters. :) (And no, we didn't pose this...)
Next up: A really quick New Year's post, promise. :)
So right after Jessie's Graduation, we headed home to photograph Sarah & Aaron's wedding, and then back down to South FL to celebrate Christmas with the in-laws. It was a really crazy, stressful time, but it was great to spend so much time with family.
We're so incredibly blessed to have a dog that loves car rides. :)
Things kicked off with Jessie's graduation party!
I love the family I got when I married Nate, and a lot of that has to do with this little munchkin, another beautiful sister-in-law. :)
Don't we have the cutest siblings?! Seriously. The only thing cuter than ridiculously adorable triplets-in-law is throwing Huck Finn into the mix. :)
Speaking of... He had quite the adventure while we were away- One of his birthday gifts was a life vest! We take him to the beach on occasion, and I'm so afraid a tiny wave will come and sweep him away. We threw it on for a test drive in Nate's Dad's pool...
... Huck was not at all excited about this decision.
But he eventually figured things out and swam like a champ!
I like to think it gave him a little more confidence than he had before. :)
This year, we decided to get Nate's family one big gift, instead of shopping separately for the 5 kids + Mom and Dad. We got them Rock Band, and like I suspected, the box was the biggest hit at first!
Eventually everyone got into it, and we've heard it's still a hit! :)
Whew! Still reading? :) Then we headed over to Nate's Mom's house for Christmas with that side of the family.
This is Tara the cat, whom I've lovingly re-named Pinwheel. She's a bobtail cat, which means she has a really short tail, and it just kinda flops around in a circle like a pinwheel. :) She gave us all quite a scare when she snuck out the front door while we were visiting, causing us to go on a great rescue to find her. After a few hours of searching, she ended up being under the air conditioning vent right outside the whole time. It was a Christmas miracle! ;)
Nate had fun putting bows on unsuspecting family members...
Gotta love gift reactions. :)
We gave his aunt & grandma little copies of our wedding album, which was a huge hit. Here's Aunt Ann realizing what her gift was-
And Grandma. :)
After that, we were pooped and headed home to enjoy a quiet anniversary & Christmas. :)
So the next 4 posts are dedicated to what we did over the holidays. I know, I know, it's a little behind schedule, but better late than never, right? :)
To kick things off, we headed down to Miami for my smart, gorgeous sister-in-law's college graduation. If this photo doesn't sum up Nate and Jess, nothing will! :)
Sissy-in-law & Mom-in-law.
Jessie was beaming!
I looooove that their guest speaker was The Rock. Random fact- There are only 2 degrees of separation between us and him!
Jessie & her handsome boyfriend. I thought it was precious that they got to sit next to each other during the ceremony. :)
Congrats, Sissy! We're so proud of you! :)
