Ringing in the New Year...

Happy New Year!

It's a blue moon...

And I'm ready to celebrate...

with these fabulous people...

Goodbye 2009, Hello 2010...

Whew! 2009 has been quite a year! We've had so much fun with our family and friends. Here is a look back at some of the things we did this year...

Payton attended Camp War Eagle with his friend J.J.

His basketball team won the league championship. Go Stingers!

Our little lady turned 2 years old!

Payton graduated from 5th grade (with Presidential honors for maintaining straight A's all 6 years) and moved on to middle school.

P-Dub got his braces on.

Played 7 on 7 football during the summer league.

Go blue!

Had lots of fun in the sun during our trip to Hawaii.

Where we went to John and Beth's beautiful wedding.

And enjoyed lots of family adventures including zip lining through the rain forest.

(Aawww, they sure do love each other!)

Ryan floated, and kayaked, and boatballed and then did it all some more!

Went on some family float trips.

Like father, like daughter.

Spent lots of time with good friends.

Ate a lot, talked a lot.

Laughed with the ladies.

Went on girl's trips.

Dressed up in ridiculous outfits all in the name of fun.

Celebrated the holidays with friends and family.

Ate way too much Japanese food (that girl LOVES her miso soup!)

Payton's football team had an (almost) undefeated season and won the city championship. Go Yellowjackets!

Spent lots of time with Nanna and Poppie.

Celebrated Halloween together.

Took Elyse on her first fishing trip.

And for her first haircut.

Elyse got to spend lots of time with her BFF, Kynzie.

Picked pumpkins at the pumpkin patch (and even made it on the local news).

Said goodbye to some good friends. (sniff. sniff.) We love you Douglas family!

Worked, worked, and worked some more... (heehee, can't you tell from the pic - my team works hard, but we play hard too)

Went on a ski trip to Breckenridge with Nanna and Poppie. Elyse skied for the first time (with Poppie's help) and Payton snowboarded for the first time.

And of course... Payton qualified for the Junior Olympics in both the 100m dash and the high jump.



We have had an amazing year! We are so, so blessed to have had so many opportunities and fun times in 2009. Can't wait to see what 2010 has in store for us!

Off the Chain...

One of Payton's Christmas gifts this year was a pair of basketball shoes that he customized himself. He did a really good job and is so excited to get to wear them in his first AAU game of the season in a few weeks.

Go Willis!
Arkansas Hawks
#5
Let's hope these shoes bring him lots of good luck this season! I'm hoping that they'll give him that little lift he needs so he can slam dunk! Ha! Go Payton!

Meet Eliza...

95% of the time we have the pleasure of being around...

Our sweet little Elyse Claire (or EC as she refers to herself). She is a sweet thoughtful, caring, sharing, polite ("Peas", "Tank you"), giggly, ticklish, singing, wonderful young lady.

But the other 5% of the time is not so pretty.

Meet Eliza...

When Eliza comes to visit things are not so peaceful. There are cries. Screams. Shouts of "No!" A little body throwing herself on the floor. Legs kicking. Tears flowing. Her teacher at school says that she is "exerting her independence". She is definitely testing boundaries and seeing what she can get away with.

We now have time-out. And thankfully it seems to work for her. I'm not big on spanking, never have been. I know for lots of people out there it works great, but for me I just have found with both my kids that a time-out and consequences that fit the behavior works well. And I'm comfortable with that. Hopefully that will continue to work for us, but we'll see.

I'm just hoping and praying that Eliza packs her bags and leaves soon. I want my sweet Elyse back...

A Very Merry Christmas...

We had a wonderful Christmas this year and really enjoyed spending time with our family.

On Christmas Eve day Papa came over to exchange gifts with us. He gave Payton some money to pick out new shoes (yes, that boy is obsessed with shoes!). And Elyse got several cool toys including large letter beads and play ice cream cones.

That afternoon we traveled to Joplin on Christmas Eve to spend the day with the Duggers. We had the traditional oyster soup along with some other delicious food made by Nanna. The kids had a blast playing together and opening gifts. Elyse got some dress up clothes, dolls, and all sorts of other fun toys and some cute clothes. Payton got some new Jordan sandals to wear to basketball games (by the way, he's barely taken these off since he got them) and plenty of other Nike clothes. He is one stylish guy now!

Family pics

Elyse and Poppie

Note to Reader: You will notice that there are a disproportionate number of pictures Elyse and Payton in this post. I promise it is not because I favor one child more than the other... rather it is because of this...

I guess I have to work on my "secret" picture taking skills. Have to snap the shot before he notices it's coming...

Alex and Elyse

Cousin Alex was lookin' so cute in his Christmas sweater! What a handsome little guy.

Katie and Elyse in their matching Christmas dresses. What beautiful little ladies.

Sweet girl

Me and my handsome hubby

Elyse was helping Nanna cook

It was sleeting and snowing on Christmas Eve, so our visit in Joplin was cut short as we rushed to get home before the weather got to bad. The drive home was pretty bad. The roads were slick...we passed so many cars that had run off the road. By the time we got to Rogers, the snow was coming down so hard that we could barely see. It was not a fun drive, but Ryan was very careful and got us home safely.

Once home, the kids went straight to bed while Ryan and I stayed up to help Santa assemble some things. On Christmas morning both the kids were so excited to see what Santa had brought. Payton got some new clothes and two new PS3 games that he's really been wanting. Elyse got a castle...

Note to Reader: I realize that she is wearing her dress from Christmas Eve. She slept in her Christmas dress because she just loved it so much!!

Once she saw her castle, she was in heaven. She didn't even open any other presents that morning because she was having so much fun playing princess.

Payton also got some really cool new basketball shoes from Nana. They were personalized just for him. They were his AAU team's colors, had a hawk on the side (Arkansas Hawks is his team), said 5 on the tongue, and had Willis printed on the back. They are so cool!

P-Dub opening presents

Trying to decide which one to open next... Decisions, Decisions.

Meanwhile... Elly is still playing in her castle. Oblivious to all the presents under the tree. :)

Cool dude.

We ended up getting about 3 inches of snow. So after opening gifts and eating a yummy breakfast, we headed outside to play. Payton had gone over to his dad's for more gift opening, so it was just the three of us.

Bbbbrrrr!

Checking out the snow. She didn't want her mittens on so her little fingers got chilly.

Sweet little hand prints.

We had such a wonderful holiday and we are so, so blessed to have such a wonderful family. We love you guys!