2009 Year in Review!

This past year has been crazy, emotional, busy, and stressful. However, it's been one of the best years we've ever had. He never said it would be easy, just worth it. And it really has been worth it. Let's kick this year in review off right with a strong January! (Ever wonder what a years worth of Facebook status updates look like? Me too, apparently I could only go back to Sept. 24!)

January

Jared and I found out that we were pregnant. It was a little surprising (since my sister had just announced that she too was pregnant), but happy! I was freaked out at first, but by the end of the month, it was okay. It was a great way to kick off the year, but stressful too.

February

Matt turned 19 & I turned 23 (AH!!!!) This month Matt also got his Mission call to Czech Prague! We were so excited. He only had a few months to prepare, but he was so excited and we were too!

March

March was a crazy busy month. I left the real estate team that I was working with and joined forces with my mom to create The Vivona-Peyton Team. It was stressful getting everything organized, but was WAY worth it. This pretty much took up our entire month, with getting signs ordered, websites set up, business cards together, combining databases, and lead generating.

April

Both of our doggies graduated from doggy training! We have certificates to prove it!! That was a big feat for us, they needed the training really badly. It was one of the best Christmas presents we've ever received! We were also blessed to see McKinley via ultrasound this month. She looked like a baby! Her fingers were so cute and long - we should have known then. It was such a neat blessing, and very exciting. IT'S A GIRL! I went to a fun 80's party at my friend Amy's house which was a blast too (I have pictures of my leggings!) where we hung out in a cemetery! (Creepy!)

May

The beginning of May, we dog sat Jared's boss' dog Aggie. She is an English Bulldog who stole our hearts. It was a lot of fun to have her at our house and was hard to send her home. My grandma and aunt came to visit this month for Ashley's baby shower. It was a lot of fun to have them here! My grandma was obsessed with seeing the "Amish country" that she had read about, so we took the VERY long drive up to Shipshewana. Thankfully, it's over and we got it out of the way so we wont ever have to go back - It was so boring! AND -the quilts were "Made in China"! Lame!

A highlight this month was taking Matt to the temple for the first time. Mom, Dad, Jared & I, and Matt all made the drive up to Chicago to visit the Chicago temple. He was so excited, and we were excited to go with him. It was such a fun opportunity.

June

I was growing more and more uncomfortable as I grew larger, but we were still able to do a few fun things. We joined our friends Amy & Derek for a fun "Puppy Picnic!" downtown, which was a lot of fun. It's always great to get together with them, especially since we can bring the doggies. We also had a couple baby showers which were a lot of fun - especially the one that my two girl friends threw for me. It was a lot of fun, and everyone decorated baby onsies for baby McKinley!

July

July was a great month! My niece Ashlynn was born on the 23! It was such as special blessing! We were also having our new floors installed, which was FANTASTIC! New carpet throughout the upstairs, and laminates downstairs. We finally had floors, and it is great! We also celebrated the fourth of July with our good friends Matt & Amanda on the rooftop of a parking garage in downtown Indianapolis. It was a blast.

August

Our last month of freedom... Matt left for the MTC (Missionary Training Center) on August 12th. It was sad and was hard to let him go, but exciting all the while. After Matt left, everyone sort of just laid low for awhile and enjoyed playing with Ashlynn. I made my very first batch of maple syrup which was SO good! I didn't know that I could MAKE syrup until I was desperate!

September

September was a GREAT month! We welcomed McKinley into the world on the 10th, and have been enjoying life ever since! This pretty much consumed our month, but was such a wonderful blessing!!!

October

This month we celebrated Mom's Birthday - she was 25 (again!). It was the girls very first holiday, Halloween! They won the "cutest costume" contest at the ward party, which was a blast. Ashlynn was a penguin, and McKinley was a mouse (perfect since her auntie calls her "mouse"). The girls were SO cute. Ashley and I took the girls to the Children's Museum and went through the happy haunted house which was a lot of fun, and the same day we went to the Halloween Festival on the east side. It was FREEZING, but we all bundled up really good and had a lot of fun. Ashlynn was blessed this month, and that was really special too, even Chris's family attended.

November

My grandparents and Aunt and Uncle all came to visit over Thanksgiving. While they were here, we (everyone except Jared) drove up to Chicago for a Friday and Saturday. Saturday was the festival of Lights parade on the magnificent mile, and it was a lot of fun. It was nice to take the girls somewhere new too. When we got back to town, my aunt and uncle went home and my grandparents stayed for Thanksgiving. I gave McKinley her first solid food (Vanilla Wafer) and she LOVED it. She screamed at me when I took it away. McKinley's baby blessing was the 22nd, which was really special! Everyone that we loved was there including Jared's childhood best friend Spencer, and his mission buddy Justin. It was so special, and so sweet!

December

So far December has been great. Jared and I, and Ashley and Chris, took the girls downtown on the 5th to the circle of lights. It was fun and we got some cue pictures. Ash even taught me how to wear my baby carrier, haha. We've had a pretty calm month so far, which has been nice. Christmas is just around the corner and then the new year - it seems like this year has just gone so quickly. McKinley now weighs 14 pounds, and is 25 inches long... Jared and I are not quite so lucky. :) P90X will be ringing in the new year with us.

This year in review didn't even highlight all of the many wonderful clients that we've helped. It's been such a special year, and so many of you have made it bright!

Happy Holidays & Happy New Year! We love you all!!!

Megan

Life's a mess, a wonderful mess!

A LOT has happened since the last time I updated the blog. I wish I had time to update every week, we're just learning how to manage our time efficiently. I have a lot of pictures to update you with, so here we go...

First, we had Halloween - We took a few trips to the Children's Museum for the haunted house, and then there was Halloween night.

McKinley and I on Halloween night, we bundled all up and sat on the porch to hand out candy. She is our little mouse, so her costume was fitting. :)

Cousin Ashlynn & McKinley in their Halloween costumes! Ashlynn is a penguin, and McKinley was a mouse. They were so cute together! They won a costume contest at the church Halloween party for the cutest costumes!

So tired!

Ashley and I took the girls to the Halloween festival on the east side of Indy. We had a lot of fun, and the girls enjoyed it too. It was really cold that day, but the strollers made it easy, and we had one heck of a time getting them into the trunk of my Honda Civic!

One day we took the girls to the Children's Museum for the haunted house, and while we were there we rode the merry go round. The guys tagged along too, hence the picture... :)

Ashley and I decided what we would be for Halloween!!! Haha!

Jared and I finally got McKinley one of those Bumbo seats to sit in. She was starting to get a flat spot on the back of her head (Apparently I hold her too much). But she is getting really good neck strength, and is sitting up really well on her own.

She constantly plays with her tongue. "Mom, look!"

Those blue eyes make me so happy.

Okay, so I have gotten a lot of flack for this but it's okay. We gave McKinley a vanilla wafer and she loved it. She liked it so much that when I took it away (because it was all soggy!) she screamed at me.

Vanilla Wafer all over that sweet little face.

These girls are best friends forever! It's so wonderful how close in age they are.

Okay, my cousin Jenny made these adorable headbands, and sent them with my Aunt & Uncle when they came to visit to test them out on the girls. They had a few flaws (the Flowers were too big) but they were still so cute I had to get a few pictures to send back with them. My Aunt, Uncle, & grandparents came out on the 18th and it has been a blast. My aunt and uncle left on the 24th, and my grandparents just headed home today.

Let me know which one is your favorite - I'm thinking about doing one of those Anne Geddes photo shoots. :)

I think McKinley liked the yellow one the best.

Here she is again, enjoying the yellow.

Oh, and did I mention she made a hat one too?? Very funny, but extremely cute.

While our family was in town, we all went up to Chicago and spent a couple of days playing. We went up and down the magnificent mile and saw all of the Christmas lights. We were there when they had their parade and lit all of the shop windows. Unfortunately, it was jam packed and we couldn't watch from the street. Thankfully our room was on the mile so we could look out the window and see the end of the parade and fireworks.

The girls all bundled up as we walk up and down the strip.

All of the girls went bra shopping while we were there (everyone but Jared came to Chicago) and the boys got tired of waiting with the babies.

The girls and I after walking ALL the way back to our room during the parade. I was SO tired!!!!

Once we got back to Indy, we had McKinley's baby blessing. These were all of the friends and family that were there to support us! From Left to right, My mom, my grandma, my grandpa, My uncle, Me, my Aunt, Jared, Ashley, Chris, Jared's friends Justin & Spencer, and my dad.

Our little family! (Time to start P90X!) We waited until Nov. to 23 to do McKinley's baby blessing so that our family could be here for it. It was so beautiful! (I made her dress, and it was so dang cute & the perfect size!!)

Last but not least, this past Friday Ashley, the boys, & I took the girls downtown for the Christmas tree lighting.

We had a lot of fun, and so did the babies. They were snug and warm against their mommy's so they slept most of the time.

Our little family at the lighting!

Ashley, Chris, & Ashlynn at the Christmas tree!

We've had a lot of fun these past three months. So much has happened and life feels like it's just flying. Jared is now working at the store in Noblesville so our lives have gotten much easier. He only has a short drive to work and home so we're getting to see him more often. My business has been going well too. We're working off of referrals now, so things are going smoothly.

Matt's mission in Czech has kept us on our toes. We don't hear from him nearly as often as we would like, so every time we get a letter it's such a relief. We found out today that he only gets his mail every 9 weeks, so it makes sense now why we wasn't answering our questions. :) We miss him terribly, and can't wait for him to meet his new niece, but we're glad he's serving the Lord.

Well, Jared is calling me for dinner so I had better go. Hopefully this is enough to keep you entertained for a few more days. We hope you had a happy Thanksgiving!!! Love you all!