Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

I vividly remember how I felt at this exact time last year. I was 6 months pregnant and bursting with anticipation for our daughter to arrive in a few short months. Chris was knee-deep in his MBA program. We were living in my inlaws' basement with no bedroom for our pending arrival. There were no job prospects in his horizon and with the economy in its funk we had no idea what blessings or misfortunes 2009 would bring us. You could say that the future was one enormous question mark. I remember playing out every possible scenario in my head, i.e. "what if we have the baby, and Chris doesn't have a job yet and I have to go back to work while he looks for a job?"... "Who would watch the baby?"... "What if he gets a job and we have to move somewhere awful and start our family in the middle of nowhere?"... "What do we do for insurance if neither of us is working?" and on and on and on...
Here it is 2010 and I am almost brought to tears thinking about the blessings and opportunities that were handed to us this past year. I honestly feel like this was a year of miracles for our little family. Our beautiful and spirited Lily came to us in March and just as my maternity leave was about to expire, Chris was given the opportunity of a lifetime when he received funding for his start-up company. I remember stringing my boss along telling him that I was definitely coming back after I had the baby and then praying earnestly that I wouldn't have to...and then literally the day I was due back at work Chris was hired as a consultant by his team of investors, and then a short while later they signed the deal to invest in his start-up. I remember fretting constantly (and driving us all crazy) about what I would do with Lily because she wouldn't take a bottle and fearing the logistical nightmare that commuting and working and caring for Lily and Chris' job hunting would cause. And I remember the utter elation, relief, and gratitude we felt when we realized that our hundreds of prayers had been answered and not only did Chris' deal come through, but I wouldn't have to go back to work and with the equity buyout by the investors we would have the opportunity to buy our first home in our beloved Salt Lake, which is home to us, and where we'd always dreamed of raising our family. This truly was a year of miracles for us and I must say that I was a little sad to see 2009 go...
We are counting our many blessings at this time and we consider you, our friends and family, to be huge blessings in our lives.
We love you all and wish you wonderful things in the new year!!
Happy 2010!!

and Merry Belated Christmas too!!

Yes. This is a dog bone. We decided this year that Santa got Lily's gifts mixed up with the dogs'. Lily was mesmerized with the dog bones and would throw a tantrum when we tried to take them from her... and the dogs were mesmerized with the tinker toys...

The wrapping paper and ribbons came in second to the dog bones

Ruby pouting and whining about having to share her bone