It's December 31st, 2009, and Sean and I are sitting here on the couch, watching the 30 Rock marathon on TV, discussing our New Years Resolutions. While his resolutions are a bit more broad, mine are a bit more specific. I would like to work on de-cluttering each and every room of my house, and throwing lots and lots of junk away. I would like to cook one new meal each week. And I would like to start blogging more... consistently. So I figured I'd end 2009 with a wrap-up post from the month of December, then try my hardest to keep up with posting in 2010!
Our month of December has been filled with so many new activities, playdates, birthdays, and holidays. Some highlights include:
Playing with Jack & Molly after Sadie's birthday party. We haven't seen the Doyles since August, but Molly & Sadie jumped right back into best buddy-hood once they saw each other again!
Meeting up with the Doyles in Portland for a little Children's Museum/lunch date, 
Decorating cookies at Grammy's house,
Smiling a lot!
Surprising Grampy at school for lunch during his last week of teaching before he retired,
Crying hysterically when within 10 feet of Jolly Old St. Nick,
Dancing with her buddy Will at the Mother's Club Christmas party,
Learning how to use an umbrella,
Going to see Sesame Street Live,
Throwing a surprise bowling party for my dad's 60th birthday (and decorating my first cake!)
Going for sled rides!
Sadie's Birthday Party
We had a birthday party for Sadie and her friends the week before her real birthday. Since she loves her music class at Itsy Bitsy so, so much (www.itsybitsyzone.com), we did her party there. It was a blast. She had about 20 friends/cousins there, and we had a mini-music class, then went into the back room for pizza and cake.
Auntie Winnah held Ruby for the most part of Sadie's party, and seemed to enjoy all the music and instruments!
Dancing with the scarves with Mama.
One of Sadie's special birthday party guests- her friend Molly who was home from Canada for the holidays!
All of the cousins enjoying the party- Maggie, Kelte, Sadie, Ruby, Cali, & Patrick.
Sadie's birthday cake. Homemade by her Mama. My second "detailed" cake that I decorated. It was so fun to make it, and even more fun to see her reaction to it once it was done!
And just like that, all the hours and hard work that it took to make the cake, the kids (and adults) devoured it!
Christmas Eve
We had our second annual Christmas Eve brunch at Grammy & Grampy's house again this year. Grammy had bought all of the kiddos new pajamas that they all wore. Here's a picure of 5 of the 6 of them (minus Maggie)- Cali, Ruby, Sadie, Patrick, & Kelte.
After brunch, we headed home for naps. After naps, we decided to take our chances and bring both girls to church, which ended up going much more smoothly than we could have hoped for! From church we headed to Eric (Sean's cousin) & Christen's house for Christmas Eve dinner which we do every year. Here's a pic of most of the cousins there.
Matthew, Sadie, Molly, Ruby, Mason, Grady, Patrick, Sophie, Cali. Missing Maggie, Kelte, Bruce, Katelyn, & Riley.
Christmas Day
We continued our tradition of taking a picture of the kiddos as they woke up on Christmas morning. Sadie in her crib tent/cage, and Ruby in her swaddle.
Sadie raced down the hall, and was completely stunned when she found all the toys Santa had left for her!
Here's one of her favorites, her new Sesame Street playhouses.
Another favorite: her princess dress-up clothes, jewelry, and shoes:
The girls and their stockings:
All day every day Sadie just says, "Hold Ruby!!!" and she just wants to hold her for about 15 seconds, before she pushes her away and says, "Mama have her." It's very sweet.
After spending Christmas morning at our house, the girls took naps and we headed over to Mimi & Papa's house to continue the festivities.
Sadie had a blast playing with Ogan (Em's boyfriend) and Auntie Winnah! We will all be so sad when Em moves to Utah in the beginning of January.Sadie's REAL birthday
We had the family over to our house for pizza and cake number 2 on Sadie's real birthday. We had taken down all of the Christmas decorations and tree ornaments the day before, and re-decorated the tree as a "birthday tree" with balloons.
Naturally I made Sadie yet another homemade cake, this time not quite as snazzy as her one from the week before though!
Here is our cutie patootie little 2 year old, wearing her "I Am 2" shirt that was actually mine back when I was a toddler....
Ruby and Auntie Winnah got some good quality time together during the party!
All in all, it was a wonderful 2009 for us. Hard to believe that this time last year we were not yet thinking about a second child, and now what a presence Ruby is in our lives. And so hard to believe that our once tiny little 5lb 14oz baby girl is now a big 2 year old! It's been a great year, and we hope for 2010 to bring us more joy and happiness. Happy New Year!
