We wish you a merry birthday!

So, exactly one year ago, we had a son. I still can't believe I had a child on Christmas! It still feels weird. For those of you who have never heard about Jack's birth- here goes... I went into labor around 2am Christmas morning. I looked at the clock and said in my head- I can totally make it until tomorrow. Around 6am I woke Steve up for Christmas and informed him that today might be the day- my contractions were steady at 20 minutes apart. He looked at me and said- "not today Rachael- its christmas!" Like I didn't know- he probably thought I planned it... Anyway, after all of the festivities I was still keeping them 20 minutes apart and I was starting to think that I could will baby Danger (that was his name until he was born) to stay in for another 15 or 16 hours. Liz went down for a nap and I laid down to enjoy our new Harry Potter movie. By the end of it contractions were about 7 minutes apart. I continued on in my denial, insisting that we at least eat Christmas dinner before going to the hospital. My brother and sister in law looked at me like I had two heads, as did my husband, but were too afraid of a woman in labor to object. They made Christmas dinner in record time. Since I couldn't eat it anyway, I opted for a shower. Bad idea, I could barely get out when I was finished. At this point, and not before, I decided I was being ridiculous and asked Steve to take me to the hospital. It was about 6pm and I was no longer worried that I wouldn't be able to wait, but worried that I had waited too long for an epidural! Luckily I hadn't. Everything went super smoothly. I got checked in, got my drugs, my sister in law came to watch and Jack was born perfectly at 7 lbs 10 oz, 19 1/2 inches long at 8:40pm. He was so tiny and perfect, and the best Christmas present I have ever, or probably will ever recieve. It was only later that I learned that his name- Jonathan- means gift from God.
Well, I fretted about it for an entire year. While I was still in labor last Christmas, I wondered how we could possibly celebrate a Christmas birthday. And while I am positive that he will never remember a moment of it, I think we did okay! Now, despite the fact that December 25th was both Christmas and my son's birthday, we have surprisingly few pictures, but this is what we got... Liz helped me decorate Jack's cake. It was chocolate with chocolate frosting. After Liz's 1st birthday we learned that rainbow chip cake does not show up well in pictures and we learned our lesson. Liz was allowed to use whichever sprinkles she wanted and in any quantitiy.... I think it is absolutely beautiful...

Does it look like Jack has sprouted an abnormally large 3rd hand to anyone else?

Enjoying a taste of frosting. There have to be perks when Mom is making your birthday cake.

Liz enjoyed all of her stocking stuffers! What a little princess. We fought against pink and girly for a while, now we have just embraced it. Her favorite gift from her stocking was, however, her tiny Book of Mormon. She yelled "my own scriptures!" and proceded to 'read' from them every scripture that she has memorized. I was pretty proud of her.

So this is the ONLY other shot of Christmas morning we got. Oh well.... Jack is enjoying a mint flavored tennis ball intended for Max... oh well again...

The rest of the family came over later that day, but Jimmy, Stacy and Malcolm were a little bit overwhelmed from the excitement of the day. Wish it had been my kids, they took a 15, maybe 30 minute nap!

I am not really sure what I am telling Ang here or why it was funny, but Steve insisted that I put this in. "Its a great picture," he says. Do you ever get the feeling that people are not being 100% truthful with you?

Jack loved his cake. It is about the only event of the day that was well documented. Here is only starting to understand how cool birthdays can be.

So tired! Being the birthday boy is hard work...

Apparently that is enough!

Ashton was giving Liz a piggy back ride... then Stacy was giving Ashton a piggy back ride... It is a good thing those girls are skinny...

A few days later... things are back to normal.

So, New Year's Eve I woke up with this hare-brained scheme that hiking would be so much fun. Never mind that there was snow in the mountains... never mind that it wasn't forcasted to get above 25 all day... never mind that we had two very young kids... this was going to be fun. And it was... for me. I thought it was absolutely gorgeous!

Observe the beautiful waterfall through the trees. Steve tried to cross the stream for a better shot, but the rocks were covered with a sheen of ice.

So, to make a long story short, I loved it, Liz cried the whole way, Steve sprinted back to come pick us up in the car, and Jack decided that after Liz being so upset that he should be too and I ended up carrying both the kids back to the car... Lets make this a New Year's Eve tradition!