It was fun just going through all of my pictures and seeing how the boys grew each year and how our family kept growing.
I hope you all have as much fun as I did looking at these past pictures!
~Bethany
Christmas 1999
No digital camera yet, so forgive the grainy scanned in photos. I was still a young single mom at this time, in addition to the following year. It was 2001 when Billy and I had our first Christmas together as a new family (we were married by then too).
In these photos, Alex was 10 months old.
Christmas 2000The second year that I was still a single mom. Alex was 22 months old. I didn't have any other Christmas photos this year (that I could find) other then these two photos that were taken at Walmart:
Christmas 2001
The first Christmas that Billy and I were married and spending together as a family with Alex. Alex was almost 3 years old (his birthday being in February) and I was pregnant with Brayden at the time, due the day before Alex's 3rd birthday! (He ended up being born 2 days after Alex's birthday thankfully!)
Christmas 2002This year Brayden was now a member of our family, he was 10 months old and Alex was almost 4 years old.
Papa John played Santa this year! It was a lot of fun!
Christmas 2003
This year Alex was almost 5, Brayden almost 2 and Owen was growing in my tummy! His birthday is in April, so he had a ways to go still before he would join us.
Great Grandpa Ernie reading Twas the Night Before Christmas, our Christmas Eve tradition.
Brayden checking out his new shopping cart, which he thought was TOTALLY cool.
Alex digging his first big boy bike!
Christmas 2004Another new member of our family! Owen was now 8 months old, and Alex was almost 6, Brayden almost 3.
Their first Santa picture! We loved this Santa and missed him when he left. :(
All of the boys posing together - can you believe Brayden's long hair?!
Owen's cutie patootie Christmas outfit. The shirt says "Santa's Little Helper"
Christmas 2005This Christmas Alex was almost 7, Brayden almost 4 and Owen was 1.5 years old. We also had another new member of our family! But not a two-legged member....a fuzzy black four-legged one! We had a bright idea to surprise my grandpa Ernie (see Christmas 2003) with a puppy for Christmas. Well we chickened out but still had the puppy, so we decided to keep him.
Sadly, we didn't realize it at the time but the puppy who we named Merlin, had a serious birth defect. He lived a year before we had to have him put down. :(
Merlin - 2005-2006
The boys Santa photo with the Santa we loved again!
Owen's turn to put the tree topper on!
Christmas 2006
This Christmas Alex was almost 8, Brayden almost 5, and Owen 2.5 years old. Yet again, we had a new member of our family in the oven (well not literally!). Baby Billy was busy growing in momma's tummy. And he also had a February birthdate, so he was just a couple months away from joining us!
Okay FIRST I have the share my terrible Santa photo. This was the first year that our favorite Santa was no longer working at the mall. We missed him, but thought we'd give the new Santa a try. As you can tell, it didn't go so well. Besides the horrible photo quality (I didn't touch this up at all so that you could see how the photo was in its original state!), and the weird look on Brayden's face....Santa himself looked very angry. I don't think he was having a good year. Perhaps Mrs. Claus was giving him a hard time. As you can also tell, Owen is missing from the picture. He refused to sit on new Santa's lap.
This was the last year we went to the mall for a Santa photo needless to say.
(To see the angry glare from Santa...click on the picture to see it full size)
SO I took my own family photo to send out with Christmas cards, the first year I started taking the boys' photos for Christmas. (The first of many since we have since boycotted the mall Santa haha)
Alex on Christmas morning, giving us a thumbs up. I guess he liked his gift!
Owen also liked his gift. Here he is dancing with Barney!
Christmas 2007Big year! This year we added TWO new members to our family! Baby Billy was now 10 months old and we decided to try it again with a four-legged furry friend. I had to talk (big) Billy into it, but after he saw her he couldn't resist anyway. She was supposed to be a Christmas morning surprise for the boys, but he couldn't wait so he brought her home as soon as he saw her at the animal shelter. She was part of an abandoned litter. The sweetest little thing too!
We named her Lady, and she's healthy and still very much a part of our family.
Okay so this year, Alex was almost 9, Brayden almost 6, Owen 3.5 and baby Billy 10 months.
"Lady" at 8 weeks old.
Our family (minus mom and dad) Christmas picture
Brayden helping decorate the tree:
Christmas 2008...
Pictures to come! And yet again, a new member of our family soon to join us in the new year. Most likely another February birthday too! haha
But no more four-legged friends. Three cats, two geckos and a dog is plenty!
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3 comments:
Great Idea! Now I'll have to dig into my books to scan some in ;)
I never knew you were a single mom! Billy treats Alex like he's his own...I just figured you'd adopted him. I think you're even cooler now:-)
Thanks! :)
Well Billy came into the picture just after Alex turned 2 yrs old. So he has been pretty much his only father figure since he can remember. His biological father was only involved briefly in the beginning, and then here and there throughout the years but not enough to be considered a "father" at all. It's sad. But at least Alex has a dad anyway in Billy!
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