Joshua Hawkes

On December 21, at 4:54 PM, our baby boy was delivered safe and sound via cesarean. We have named him Joshua Hawkes after Sarah's great-great-grandfather. It will be neat to someday discover the connection between these two and find out why we felt impressed to give him this special name.





Joshua weighed 6 lbs. 8 oz., was 18 1/2 inches long, and scored a perfect 10 on the cuteness and perfection scale. He has these big, dark, sweet eyes that we can't stop gazing into. We are so thrilled to have him join our family!





The pictures should tell the rest. Forgive me-- they uploaded out of order, so they are not chronological. Enjoy!

A visit from Aunt Lisa

His poor skin started having a hard time by about the third day.

Getting ready to go home

Rachel ready to hold her baby brother

Emma

Matthew and Elizabeth

Joshua next to his 7-month-old cousin Samuel

Is it possible to take the perfect family picture in less than 50 shots?

For our family, no. That would take about 150 shots. But if you look through some of our "outtakes", you definitely get a good feel of our family. Some of the best poses and expressions by individuals were on pictures that were horrible for the rest of us. Oh, well.



Elizabeth looks so sweet. Emma was sensitive to the sunlight. By the way, the dark, shadowy figure is Brent.

Something had to be more interesting to look at than the camera!

This was the only picture with Rachel actually smiling.

Elizabeth and Emma posing on a tree stump.

Rachel thinks that it's cute to squint her eyes shut for pictures. This happened over and over. Notice Elizabeth dancing in the background.

This shot cracks me up. It was getting cold, and it looks like Brent is checking his watch. My eyes are shut. But the kids are sure cute!

I think we were just tolerating the camera for this one.

And, finally...the final selection for our 2009 family picture:

Pictures of our New House

If you are willing to overlook the inevitable boxes and clutter, we are happy to take you on a photo tour of our new house in Cedar Hills. We are slowly getting more settled as the days go by, but still have a long ways to go. Enjoy-- and feel free to stop by and come on a real tour!

Family Room

Extra basement bedroom: our catchall for hobbies, crafts, and storage.

Matthew's bedroom (kind of a mess at the moment).

Basement Bathroom

Basement Family Room: play area

Basement Family room




Elizabeth and Emma's bedroom

Elizabeth and Emma's bedroom

Master bathroom

Master bathroom

Master bedroom

Master bedroom

Main bathroom

Master closet

Future baby nursery

Pantry-- I can fit much more than my old one. Less trips to the basement food storage--hooray!

Hall linen closet

Rachel's room

Rachel's room

Living room

Living room

Looking from kitchen toward front entry (pantry is on left)

Looking down basement stairs from kitchen

Laundry room and half bath off of kitchen. I am SO excited to have an actual laundry "room" and not a laundry "dungeon" squeezed in a dark corner of the basement behind the water heater and furnace! It is so much easier to keep clean. Ah, the simple things that go a long way toward making me happy...

The kitchen, aka the heart of our home.

Off the kitchen/dining room, looking toward the garage and laundry room doors.

Dining area

We feel so blessed to have this house! It is so much bigger than our last one, and we are loving the new neighborhood. I am thrilled with the overall layout of the house; for example, I have visibility from the kitchen into the family room (our last house had a big wall separating the kitchen and living room)! There is also much more storage space, and plenty of bedrooms and bathrooms.

We have spent the last few weeks trying to unpack, organize, harvest tons of fruit on the trees in the backyard, make necessary repairs, and clean the house since it wasn't in perfect shape when we moved in. Our backs are both sore, but little by little, it's feeling like home.