2011....the highlights

Here are the highlights from 2011....

January:

My best friend's wedding! Candice married Micah, and it was great to celebrate such a joyous occasion!

Best picture: my boys doing dishes! 

February: 

Ryan turns 1!!

March: 

We are enjoying our time in San Diego and our new Zoo pass. 

Ryan takes his first steps! :) 

I celebrate my 28th birthday! 

April:

Ryan's 2nd Easter and enjoying time at the beach! 

May: 

We continue our family date nights: one night was a picnic at Balboa Park. Jason goes to China for three weeks. Ryan and I went to Fresno for a week, and then I had two weeks of family come and help me with Ryan while I worked full time! 

Jason and his friend; Dave: off to China. 

Auntie Heidi watching Ryan while I work. 

June:

Jason comes back! I finish my teaching year, and thoroughly enjoy going back to being full time mommy! 

Emily and Ellie come and visit us for a weekend! So fun! 

My wonderful Aunt Patrice and cousin Andrew come for a week...the boys are enjoying some Chipotle! 

I love this picture! 

July:

We find out Ryan's going to be a big brother! :) 

Jason and I celebrate 4 years of marriage! We went to Melting Pot..yum! 

We also had Heidi, Josh and Darrin come and visit us so we can celebrate Darrin's birthday together. 

August: 

We had more visitors! Candice and Micah come and visit, and so did my Aunt and Uncle. :) 

We also made a couple trips to Fresno: We celebrated Grandma's 80th birthday, and met some sweet new babies! 

9 weeks prego! 

September: 

Jason starts his 2nd year of law school. 

October: 

Two of my best friends and their new babies from Fresno come down and stay for a few days: SO FUN!

college friends and our sweet boys :) 

20 weeks prego! We found out that we are having a baby GIRL!

Ryan was the cutest little guitar for Halloween and had so much fun going trick or treating for the first time! 

November: 

Ryan got his first hair cut! 

before

After

My big boy!

December:

Jason finishes his 3rd semester of law school...only one more year left! Jason turns 29!! whoa! :) We have a wonderful and needed vacation to Fresno and love seeing family and friends during Christmas. 

What a great year we have had where we have seen God's provision more than ever! We are looking forward to this next year and are so excited to meet our first daughter and see where God places us with Jason finishing school. We continue to pray for wisdom and perseverance, and are so thankful for God's guidance. Welcome 2012 :)

Christmas Day 2011

This Christmas was wonderful! We celebrated in Shafter, CA with Jason's whole family together. We only get Mom and Dad Ekk every 3 years when they are on furlough from Portugal, so we were very much looking forward to this year. We all stayed at Heidi's house and had a perfect day together. 

We arrived on Christmas Eve, and enjoyed a night with all of us in one house. We have a tradition of getting Christmas pajamas on Christmas Eve...here we are sporting our new pj's. 

All of our stockings hung! :) 

Jason was such good dad and spent 2 hours putting together Ryan's Christmas gift. :) There's nothing better than giving gifts, especially to children!

 Christmas morning was spent having a wonderful cinnamon roll breakfast, opening stockings and also attending church together. Jason and I were given the gift of being able to sit together through a whole church service while Grandma Ekk was given the gift of hanging out with her grandson in the cry room...although he wasn't crying...just wanted to play. :)

Merry Christmas to my little guy!

opening stockings :) 

Layla was very festive

Ryan got playdoh in his stocking...loved it! 

saying 'vroom' in his new car :) 

After church, Ryan went down for a nap while we had Christmas lunch with roast, veggies, salad and all the fixings. It was so yummy! 

After Ryan woke up, we opened gifts. Ryan was more interested in tearing apart the bows...but it was so fun and great to give gifts in person this year! 

Thankful for celebrating our Savior's birth together as a family!