our henry home: best of 2009.

on this last day of 2009, what better to blog than a sampling of posts deemed the best of the past year? the kids have grown A TON, i met my goal of nursing for more than a year, i started teaching, landon celebrated his last 20-something birthday, we celebrated two years and three christmases in san angelo, the blog turned 4-years-old, we DIDN'T have a baby or get pregnant...the list goes on.

following are some of the highlights, monumental and every day.

january:



grayson has rsv.

my thoughts on nursing in public.

grayson is adorable.

president barack obama is inaugurated.

february:



landon turns 29.

ellie is almost 2. then she's 2. see?

march:






i'm gonna have a nephew!

God speaks through esther.

i start subbing in ballinger.

april:





i miss my girl.

i post 18 easter pictures, not in a slideshow.

may:



i get a teaching job!

sunday morning cooperation.

june:





we worry about gray.

the kids' first slip-n-slide.

grayson's OK!

laura gets married.

july:





happy independence day!

august:



gray turns one. (more here, here, and here.)

i get a typewriter from a mystery gift-giver.

i become an aunt!

i started teaching.

september:



"such a time as this" is confirmed.

i fear blog death.

october:





landon and i celebrate 4 years.

scott and kelly are remodeling a fabulous oak cliff house.

my first classroom, in pictures.

i'm a halloween skeleton.

november:





on my 27th birthday, God calls me to write a book!

december:





the 6th-graders have a snowball fight.

i made it through the semester!

channeling peter pan.

holiday baking with ellie.

most evident to me as i scrolled through the busiest year on record (i only posted 163 times) is that God is so faithful. He is working constantly, and He is teaching me more than i could ever convey in words on the internet.

even so, thank you for reading what i have managed to get out this year.

happy new year. best wishes for 2010.

even more inspiration for ellie's big girl room.

love this dresser-scape. yes, i said dresser-scape.

am SO-100-percent-no-question going to do these jars. i've been wanting to start this with ellie, and these jars are perfection for the idea.

grayson wielding a golf club. (watch out, tig.., er, yeah, nevermind on that.)

(**christmas pictures coming soon! promise!**)

more inspiration for ellie's big girl room.

stolen from ohdeedoh, of course.

i like this method of storage with the jars. the rest of the room was too over-the-top, which is why i only pulled this photo. i have those polka-dot tins from ikea.

these next three are all the same room. i am leaning toward ivory/cream/eggshell or very pale, creamy yellow walls. that bed is so stinkin cool. the mom made it, of course.

art collage greatness.

love the curtain ties. ellie has white curtains so i'd probably do the opposite and tie them with a colored piece of fabric.

dreaming.

it's 2 o'clock in the morning, and i've got myself worked up with dreams.

it's that thing that happens at the beginning of each new season, dreams for improvements and growth.

though we are not changing seasons, still smack dab in the dead of winter, we are just days away from 2010.

and my mind is whirling. my heart is pumping. inspiration abounds.

and prayer begins now.

oh, Lord, please guide my family and me. inspire and anoint us to focus on You as we dream and plan for the coming year. be our inspiration. bless our efforts. we want to grow in Your image. our best intentions fall futile without You as our center. amen.

landon and i plan to sit down over the next few days and make some goals for the next 12 months, including financial ones similar to what tsh posted at simple mom a short time ago.

new year's resolutions may sound trite and cliche, but what are we if we stop growing?

dead. that's what.

here's to tonight's dreaming of growth and the hope for its realization.

indulging creative impulses: extravaganza of sweets.

today, ellie and i set out to create an impressive list of holiday treats. 

here is what we made:

the tipped (tumped, if you're my daddy) over jar is fiddle faddle, my gramma's recipe; the chocolate-topped one is mock toffee, a family must-have this time of year; the round iced one is a chai tea egg nog cookie, a new family must-have; the red sprinkled one is a vanilla sugar cookie; the jar of creamy goodness is cinnamon honey butter and the stocking-shaped one is a cinnamon peanut butter dog treat with cream cheese yogurt icing.

this stuff... oh.my.word. it is so yummy. and these jars! aren't they quaint? i have six jars of this heaven, and i have to deem who is worthy of its glory. you can spread it on anything bread-like. that is, if you're going to try to resist just eating it with a spoon.

like i said, ellie helped. here she is stirring the ingredients for the candy-carmely-goodness part of the fiddle faddle.

here she is covering a vanilla sugar cookie with green sugar crystals.

oh, here's gray's contribution. such a helpful one.

and here she is mushing the dough for doc's treats before cutting them with cookie cutters.

i was showing off my mountain of sweets to landon, and he complimented me on it. i said, "remember, i made these with my daughter." he gave me a funny look and said, "that is so crazy -- that she's old enough to do this kind of stuff with you."

it is crazy. crazy awesome. 

she's such a good helper. she does a really great job. aside from trying to eat all the popcorn before we made the fiddle faddle and refusing to let me place her cookie cutter when making the dog treats. 

she is also still working on the patience of letting the food cook. she kept saying, "let's make cookies!" the whole time we were making them. they didn't look like edible cookies yet, and she couldn't help but wonder, "what's the holdup??" 

i am quite exhausted now, and i have laundry that must be done before i hit the sack. but this is a good kind of tired. full. satisfied. and i don't mean in my tummy. that part's just a bonus.