Our first Christmas as a family of 3

We had a fabulous Christmas with our family in Washington. Josiah got to meet many of our WA family for the first time and we spent most of Christmas week just hanging out in Yakima with my parents. We finished some last minute shopping, played games, watched football and Caleb and I even got a date night.


Becky and Steve gave us a great camera that is way better than our old little camera. We should be able to vastly improve on our pictures from now on. Thank you, Fields! Becky is a professional photographer in WA and generously gave us a hand-me-down. We are so thankful!

At 5 1/2 months, Si is learning to sit up but still needs support. He is such a strong boy and is starting to be able to get around pretty well by sort of thrusting himself forward either on his stomach or back...really trying to get those buns in thier air so he can crawl. I know he is going to be so active and we'll likely have some frustrating days between when he really wants to be moble and when he can actually coordinate it all together.

The Mocks arrived on Chistmas Eve. I am so glad we got so much time with them. Casey has done an amazing job of "talking up" the Fields so the girls really feel like they know us even though they are growing up so far away. Caleb and I plan to talk up Josiah's cutie-pie cousins as well in hopes that our kiddos always feel bonded as a family; even 1500 miles away.

Caleb and Si got some bonding time here in the basement when they and their football game were banishd in favor of Curious George's Christmas Program. I think it is clear that Si is a lot more interested in haning out with daddy than watching the game.

2nd cousins! My mother and her sister Francie have a combined 8 grandkids to date. We finally got all the families together and one very brief opportunity to line the kids all up on the couch. Josiah is in good company here as the third baby born this summer alone! So fun to get our growing families together! From Left: Charlotte Hansell, Isabelle Mock, Josiah Fields, Liam Heideman, Claire Mock, Gage Heideman, Jake Heideman, and Hunter Hansell.

My parents had a blast with their favorite Isabelle, favorite Claire and favorite Josiah in the whole world! They worked very hard to get a Christmas picture with these three cuties...still waiting for it to come in the mail :)

Our family is so very blessed!

Christmas Eve is when most of the presents get openned at the Hovis house and a picture almost exactly like this gets taken each year, like it or not.

Si made out pretty well in the gift department and for the most part we made it home with it all. One of our suitcases was 49.5 pounds. We think we've found a great new tradition that we learned about from some friends to help our kids learn that Christmas is not all about presents. It is so important to us that Josiah and any other children we raise in the future understand that Chirstmas is about Jesus, not Santa. Some friends shared with us that they give their daughters 3 gifts. The girls know that they get three gifts because Jesus received 3 gifts when he was born. I like it. I look forward to all the space-saving traditions that we can incorporate into our lives that will assit our growing family to continue living in an 1100 sf home.

We come to the end of 2009! It has been a big year for us! We have started an incredible journey as parents and feel so humbled as we remember what a huge responsibility and blessing it is. We said again today, as we do so often now, that we just really didn't know that our hearts were big enough to love anyone as much as we love our son!

2009 brought us some of the biggest joys and greatest challenges that we have ever experienced. We are so sure that God has placed us here for such a time as this. We look forward to beginning 2010 with purpose! To live this life to the fullest. To love well and to be faithful with each new experience we are blessed with.

Happy New Year!