Happy New Year!!!

I can't believe it's almost 2010.  This past year has flown by so quickly, my head is still spinning! 2009 brought a lot of great things into our life like Paxton Everett. And also a lot of trials we had to get through.

I started the 2009 out pregnant with a tiny little boy.  He was born January 10th at 7:18am.  My parents, Jon's parents and Ally were all there with me to endure the pain of labor... or the humor of labor.  I'll never forget Ally recording me applying my make-up while on the birthing ball, having regular contractions.  I'll tell you what, pain meds make me a little more loopy than usual.  After 10 hours of labor, out little boy was brought into the world extremely quick and to the surprise of the nurse who literally had to catch him!

When Pax was 6 months old, he contracted a virus in his blood which was later diagnosed as Salmonella.  We spent 4 very stressfull days in Children's Hospital and then had 5 days of very painful home treatments.  It was a very frightening experience for us as new parents, and our entire family.

 I then contracted the virus myself and was not able to return to my job at BD's Mongolian Grill until the virus was completely gone from my system.  It took nearly 2 1/2 months to be cleared so I searched for a new job, outside of the restaurant industry.  I found myself a great job (thanks to Rachel) at Gymboree, a Children's Clothing Store.  I never thought I would enjoy retail, but it is a great part time job! Plus the discount is amazing:)

Paxton has brought so much joy to our lives and the lives of our friends and family.  He has grown physically and menally in the past 12 months.  So far he has done everything ahead of schedule.  Sitting up at 4 months, crawling at 6 months and walking at 10 month.  He is currently learning how to climb up and over anything he can.  We cannot imagine our lives without our sweet and fiery little boy!

Jonathan is in his final year of Nursing school at Wright State University.  He will graduate Novemeber 20th, 2010, and will walk in the commencment ceremony! I am planning to throw a HUGE party, because we both deserve it and it is a huge accomplishment.  His plans are to work in the field for a few years and then decide if he would like to pursue a Masters Degree as a Nurse Anesttst, Nurse Practicitioner, or as a Professor of Nursing. 

Our entire family is doing great as well!  Jon's sister Kim and her entire family made the journey up to Ohio this summer.  We got to spend a lot of time with the Spotts' family, especially our sweet neices.  They are all such beautiful, smart, fun young ladies.  Our biggest adventure was going to King's Island.  Bruce and I had TONS of fun riding roller coasters and getting sick on kiddie rides.  And I think I emotionally trumatized poor Mallory on the FIREHAWK.  

The entire McDonald family had the priveledge of coming home for Thanksgiving.  All of our neices and nephews have gotten so big, and so smart!  They are all fantastic kids and I'm proud to be their Aunt! 
The real reason we all go together is to see Rob before he gets deployed to Afganistan in February.  Jon is very close to his big brother and I am close to Amber as well.  We are so proud of Rob for serving his country and also of his family for supporting him as well.  We got to spend 10 days with their family.  We laughed and cried together often.  It was a perfect week!

2010 looks like it's going to be a stellar year!  Paxton will be 1-year old on January 10th! We are looking forward to watching him grow and develop.  We are also trying to plan when we would like to have baby #2!  Right now, the plan is for the baby to be born sometime around March/April 2011. Things may change, but hopefully not. So I will hopefully pregnant by May or June 2010.  Expanding our family is going to an adventure for sure!

One of my big New Year's Resolutions is to blog about our family more! So keep an eye out for more frequent updates!