Hamblin Christmas

Lyman surprised Mark with a new camera.
Mark was so surprised and thrilled about his new gift.

I love spending Christmas day with our Hamblin family. This year was so relaxed and fun. The kids played nice with their new things. The adults had fun visiting. My two boys took naps so I had a very relaxing time.

Sean was up the whole night before Christmas with a tummy ache. The poor little guy is allergic to peanuts and must have found some during the celebrations leading up to Christmas. He spent his Christmas day sick and exhausted. I rocked him to sleep and he took a nap on this beautiful new BYU quilt that my sister-in-law Lacey made for Mark's parents.

How fun to spend Christmas with these two!

Claire helping Grandma get lunch ready.
I don't know how many cups of Grandpa's slush she drank.
Claire knows that if she wants anything she just has to go ask Grandpa!

Sharing new toys with cousin Trevor.

I am posting lots of pictures from our Christmas day. These are always fun for the kids and I to look back on.

Christmas Morning

Luke was adorable the whole day. He crawled around playing with everyone's toys.
He was happy, sweet and snuggly.
He learned how to pull himself up to a standing position this weekend.

The pillow pets were a huge hit!
I can often hear Claire saying,
"Look Mommy, I can turn it into a pillow, now it's a pet."

Sean is very happy with his new train.

The whole family has enjoyed playing with the new doll house.
I am pretty sure the boys spend more time driving cars and climbing in it than Claire does.

Mark's pancake breakfast

Christmas Eve

Dinner at Grandma Luke's

Singing with my two Grandmothers

2010

December 25, 2009~Look how much our little family has changed in a year.

January~
My baby Sean turned one year old.
We were asked to add baby boy Hamblin to our family.

February~
Claire and Sean became good buddies and started playing together.
We began the legal proceedings for Luke's adoption.

March~
We began preparing our home and older children for the addition of a new baby.

April~
Arches trip with Grandma and Grandpa Hamblin, Aunt Kara and baby Luke in utero!

May~
The birth of our youngest son Luke Robert. I was given an ID bracelet and was with him in the nursery. I will never forget wheeling my son down to the nursery and the intense realization of what was happening. This little boy would spend two short days in the care of people that loved him and then would come home to my family and my home and my life.

Bringing Luke home from the hospital to meet Claire and Sean.

June~July~
Adjusting to life as a family of 5!
These kids spent the summer outside and in the pool.

August~A Big Month
Mark graduated and began teaching at BYU.
I celebrated my 28th birthday with a trip to Lagoon and a surprise party.
I reached my weight loss goals!
Claire potty trained!
We settled into life knowing that we would be here in Provo for the fall semester.

September~
Playing and eating in Grandpa Hamblin's garden.

October~
Our flock of birds for Halloween.
Daddy flew out on 5 trips for on site interviews in October and November.
It was an adjustment for him to be gone from us for so many trips.

November~
Snow!
Christmas!
Fun!

December~
Finalizing Luke's adoption

Baby Luke was sealed to our famliy!

2010 has proven to be a year full of stress, anxiety, unknowns, adjustments, new experiences. It has also been a year of great faith, love, beauty, gratitude and immense blessings. We started the year out unsure of what our future would be with the adoption pending, Mark graduating and seeking a job. We end the year with finalizing Luke's adoption and going to the temple. Alas we still are unsure of our financial future. We look forward to 2011 with faith in Heavenly Father's plan for our family. I long for understanding of why our family has been given certain trials and what we might learn from them. I hope that 2011 brings less stress and more joy or at least more recognition of our blessings. Claire, Sean and Luke remind us daily of our Heavenly Father's love for us.

Pieces of Christmas

Sometimes it surprises me that I am the mommy to 3 of the sweetest children.
Christmas with these three angels was pretty special.
Our living room was complete chaos.
It was great.

Kara presented us with this beautiful artwork that she made. These are my children's faces surrounded by love and the temple and beautiful things. I am humbled by the care she put into their specific features. I love Sean's eyebrows, Luke's lips and Claire's watchful eye over her little brothers. I think of the hours spent studying and created this masterpiece. How special for our family.
Kara just completed her first semester as a college student with flying colors.
We are so proud of her!

Thank you to our special secret santa! We don't know who you are but you know us very well. We enjoyed the extra fun gifts under our tree.
Thank you for loving our family!

7 months~new tricks

Crawling on his knees~look out, he is Fast!

Sitting up~he likes to clap for himself

Crazy smiling

Snuggling, loving, playing with his favorite big sister

Sitting at the table in his new seat~eating everything, just cut his 6th tooth

How many kids do we have?

Making Mom and Dad smile!

We had the greatest time being in the temple with our three children.
Mark and I were filled with love and joy and happiness.
We have a very special little family.

Sean Mark

Our little almost two year old brings us so much joy!
Here he is helping me cook pink mini wheats so I can get dinner made
and
playing with his little people farmhouse.

Posing for the camera when it is way past his bed time.

Sean has been coveting Claire's toddler bed for a time. He learned how to climb out of his crib last week and earned himself a new Lightening McQueen bed.
Sean really wants to be a big boy and is very happy to have his own place to go to. He loves to lay on his pillow and read books.
We are very happy for him.

Sean is a bit confused about sleeping in his new bed. Mark was up with Luke last night around 2am. He watched Sean walk down the hall and stand in the living room. He looked around for a couple of minutes and then ran down the hall and went back to sleep in his bed. This is going to take some time for him to get used to. Our success today was that when he was sleepy he climbed into bed and fell asleep. I'm so proud of him.
PS Luke is happy to finally have a crib!