Julie and Alex take a trip to Florida

Julie and Alex decided at the last minute to accompany Julie's parents to Florida for Justin Buhler's baptism (Julie's sister Kristen's family). Justin is Alex's cousin, and only 3 months younger. They are good buddies and haven't seen each other in a long while. So on New Year's day, we took off for Fort Lauderdale. The thing is, the Buhler's didn't know we were coming with Julie's parents... it was a surprise! Hee hee! And we DID surprise them!! Hopefully it was a good surprise.

We attended the baptism, toured Fort Lauderdale, and then took off for a few days at Walt Disney World in Orlando. It was a fun week spent with the Buhler's, my parents, and most especially with Alex. I really got some really good one-on-one time with him. It was so much fun being with him and getting to know him better!

Alex and I were hiding and surprised Kristen

Did I surprise you?

Alex and his cousins

Justin's baptism

Touring Fort Lauderdale beach on a very cold, windy day!

Alex loved chasing the seagulls

Alex and Mom
We wanted Florida to be warm!!

Julie was feeling sick that day.... I got a bad migraine!

We saw a guy wrestle crocs!

We went on a boat tour of Fort Lauderdale

New Year's Eve 2009

After coming back from Columbus, a bunch of our holiday company left to go back home. We said good-bye to the Empeys, Gary, and Grandpa Millett. But my parents stuck around and partied with us on New Year's Eve. We made waaaayy too many yummy snacks, and played Mexican train all night long until we rang in the New Year with egg nog.

Our New Year's Eve snacks

Eating and playing games

Watching the countdown and the ball drop in New York on TV...

Toasting a New Year -- 2010!!

Julie and Joshua - happy but tired.

Columbus and Carter's Baptism

My sister Kim and her family live 3 hours south of us in Columbus. Her oldest son, Carter, who is only a few weeks younger than Alex, got baptized a few days after Christmas. So, my family, and everyone who came to visit us for Christmas, drove down for the baptism on Sunday morning. I'm grateful that we live within a few hours driving distance from the Browns so that we frequently have a chance to attend some of their important family events, and vice-versa.

The next day we went bowling, out to eat and then games at Kim's house. It was a fun getaway.

The Brown Family

The Dyals with Carter

Julie is Carter's favorite aunt!!! Hee hee...

A luncheon after the baptism

A kiss for our baby sister

The whole gang after bowling

The only 3 girl cousins (3 out of 13).

Browns, Dyals and Empey cousins

Christmas Day 2009

Christmas Day was spent opening presents, eating our traditional Christmas breakfast, playing with our new toys, lounging around in our new PJ's, eating our Christmas dinner, and playing games. We were so happy to have our extended family with us this year. It made the season much more fun and bright!!

So excited to go downstairs to see what Santa brought!!

Dyal kids with their Santa presents

Maddie's presents from Santa

Christmas breakfast

Grandpa and Mom working on a puzzle

The day after Christmas we went glow mini-golfing with everyone and then out to eat. So much fun!

We got into groups of 4 --
This was the first group of golfers

The second group

The third group of golfers

Dad is making a putt.

Christmas Eve 2009

A few days before Christmas, we had a rush of visitors come to our house in Canton. Julie's parents, her Grandpa Millett, her brother Gary, and sister Erin w/ her husband Spencer and baby Maddie. We had a full house, but a great time celebrating Christmas with everyone!

On Christmas Eve, we went to IKEA for breakfast, then we broke off in groups to see a movie - "The Princess and the Frog" and "Avatar". Afterwards, we went back to the house to get ready for our Christmas Eve festivities. Julie, Erin and Mom got our snacks ready, while Jessica planned the Christmas Eve program, with a little help from Spencer. We all got matching Disney PJs... so cute! Then it was time to put out the cookies and milk for Santa and go to bed.

Our group at IKEA for breakfast

Cute Maddie!
Logan sure loves Maddie. He tried to help with her a lot.

Mom and Erin helped me with our Christmas Eve snacks

We ate our snacks and watched "Bedtime Stories".

Logan loved hiding around the house with Maddie

Our whole group with our matching Christmas Mickey PJ's, with embroidered name. Cute!!

My cute match-y Christmas kids!

Josh and Julie

Julie w/ brother Gary and sister Erin

Gary, Dad, Mom and Grandpa Millett

We sang Christmas songs....

... and took turns playing piano.
(Jessica, Spencer, Alex, Josh, Erin, Grandma Williams)

Putting out cookies and milk for Santa...
(and carrots for Rudolph!)

Christmas Picture 2009

This is our Christmas picture this year, sent out in our Christmas cards. My cute little Santas!!