Farewell 2009, you sure were good to us!

As 2010 begins, I wanted to take the time to reflect on what 2009 was for our family by highlighting a few of the fun times.

• To set the pace for 2009, we rang in the New Year from our comfy couch while watching the NYC ball drop on the television.
• Two weeks into 2009 Sarah Jane and I watched George finish the Disney Marathon and had a blast at our first trip to Disney while celebrating our Anniversary.
• We watched history in the making on 1/20/09 as President Obama was inaugurated.
• George and SJ had a blast at their annual trip to the Daddy Daughter Dance.
• Sarah Jane had her Ears Pierced!
• Sarah Jane and I decorated the streets and followed along the 26.2 mile course to watch George as he was running the Albany Marathon.. SJ even crossed the finish line with him.
• We watched some of our dearest friends get married and SJ had a blast as their flower girl.
• Those same friends came to town for our Annual Easter Egg hunt at our house, along with about 100 of our closest friends. It was a blast!
• Sarah Jane lost her first tooth!
• We celebrated Easter at George's Mom's house with his Grandmother. It was lots of fun hunting eggs in the front yard.
• We were excited to get to celebrate George's Grandmother's 88th Birthday, none of us ever thought we'd see that day. She is such a blessing to our family.
• We took a road trip to Music City and watched George run in the Country Music Marathon. Afterwards, he passed out in longhorn's... scary!
• We danced the night away after another one of my child-hood friends from Alabama married a Georgia boy like mine in BEAUTIFUL Chapel Hill, AL and SJ enjoyed being their flower girl too!
• Sarah Jane gave the opening speech in her Pre-K graudation!
• George's mom retired from teaching school and the whole Houston family took a trip to Mexico beach to celebrate. The kids had a blast ghost crabbing... and to the best of my knowledge, no one but me got sun burnt!
• Our Church had it's annual Vacation Bible School - SJ loves it and looks forward to it all year!
• We celebrated Cole's 6th Birthday at the bowling alley in Valdosta.
• Sarah Jane took her ear rings out and we decided not to put them back in.
• We got to see some of our favorite people that we have missed the past 4 years. It was a blast to get to spend some time with them. We're so glad they came to their senses and moved back to the South! :)
• George played softball for our church team. We had lots of fun hanging out with the people in the bleachers and watching Westwood play ball.
• We had 2 fourth of July celbrations. One was here in Albany at the Marine Base and another was down in Seaside at George's dad's place. Both of them were amazing, but the one in Seaside was SPECTACULAR. It's a must see for 2010.
• George and I both failed miserably at our blogging attempts to take a picture a day everyday for 365 days.
• We cashed in a race prize that George had won and took SJ and the nephews out on a boat at Lake Blackshear for the day... they had a blast tubing and George and his brother loved ski-ing. I failed at that miserably too.
• Thanks to Dave Ramsey's cult like influence over George and his inspiring him to try not have a car payment...We had 5 cars during the month of July (A Jetta, a Honda Accord, 1971 truck, a Stationwagon of some sort, and a CRV) We ended up with the Accord and the CRV, neither of which are paid for yet. However, they will both be paid for before 2011.
• While I was out of town at my Mom's - one of the many cars that we had that month didn't work, and George decided to ride his bike to work --- he was hit by a car! You can read all about it Here. It was terrible. Scariest day of the year, by far!
• With George as her coach, Sarah Jane finished her second triathlon!
• Sarah Jane started Kindergarten. She was so brave, but I cried all day.
• We celebrated one of my bestie's 30th birthday with a 70's throw-down at our house.... complete with Disco Balls, Black Lights, bell-bottoms and afro's.
• ...then We found out our family of 3 would soon be a family of 4.
• Sarah Jane started and finished her 1st year of cheer-leading! She was Outstanding!
• We got to take another trip to see the Ellis family while George participated in the Augusta 70.3!
• We welcomed George's brother and his wife's 4th baby into our family ... Maxwell James. It was an honor to be asked to be his Godmother.
• Mark's Melon Patch was a blast again this year... even if it was rainy!
• George and Sarah Jane did the River Front Run together. They were awesome!
• I was in Atlanta to shoot a wedding and since our hotel was covered, the family tagged along. We spent the whole next day in the ATL at the World of Coke and The Georgia Aquarium.
• We Trick or Treated with all of our Albany faves in our friend, Michele's, neighborhood and we went to a great Halloween party at a friend and co-worker of mine's house. This year SJ was Hannah Montana... who knows what she will be in 2010.
• We hung Christmas lights on our house on November 4th!
• We found out that our new addition will be a BOY... George Raleigh Houston will be joining our family in April.
• George, Sarah Jane, and I got to celebrate Thanksgiving with my family in Nashville. It was super fun to have him there with us - it's rare that he gets to make the ride b/c of his work schedule.
• To celebrate SJ's 6th Birthday we took a trip to Disney world one more time. We visited all four parks and even stayed for Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party. It was a great birthday celebration / "Babymoon".
• We celebrated our last Christmas as a family of 3 and took one last trip to Nashville to see my fam before Raleigh makes his grand debut.

....which brings us up to date. Tonight, we are going to be a little more adventurous and ring in the New Year with friends.

I am sure that I missed a few things, but for the most part... that was our year. I can't believe that it came and went so fast.

I don't have any resolutions for this year. I just want to take in the little things, spend as much time as I can with my family and friends, try not to sweat the small stuff.... and as always, blog more.

I hope everyone has a great New Year!