Happy Holidays Everyone!

I tried to send out a letter and card to eveyone but didn't have much time. So if you did get one I am sorry! Here it is! :) Hope everyone is enjoying their family and friends!

Here is our family letter:

Christmas, REALLY, it’s that time again? Wow I can’t believe it! 2008 has flown by. I guess that means it’s time for the McLaughlan Christmas Letter.

So many exciting things have happened this year, a lot of milestones. Our little family has been very blessed. The biggest blessing has been Austin.

Austin was born February 10th, and life hasn’t slowed down since. I can’t believe our little baby boy is 10 months old. He is like a little sponge, he learns something new everyday. A few days ago he took 3 steps (I don’t know if they were on purpose or accident but it was very exciting). He has been crawling ever since he was 5 months old. He loves to clap, wave, and say “ba, ba.” His latest thing is holding both hands up in the air and saying “ta, da” – which is “Touchdown”. We had to teach him that one because every Sunday he and his daddy go to Grandpa Dan’s house to watch football. You might notice on our Christmas card that Aaron and Austin have matching Tony Romo jerseys. Austin has been a very healthy boy from day one. The first thing his doctor said about him was how strong he was. He rolled over for the first time at 10 weeks old. We have been very blessed, he has only been sick once (*knock on wood*). I’ve also been told that he is a “ham”. Pull out a camera and he gets happy, that might be due to the fact that he has had a camera in his face since he was born, thanks to his mommy. Austin has been such a wonderful blessing to us, we are very lucky he was sent to our family. We took him to see Santa and he cried the whole time, makes me a little happy because I’d rather have him growing up with the true meaning of Christmas and not have it be centered on Santa.

Aaron stays busy with work…and of course he makes time for his golfing. He participated in 12 tournaments, and took first in 5 of them. He loves his golf. He can’t wait until next season so he can start to teach Austin. He even took Austin a few times this past year, Austin slept most of time. Aaron loves being a daddy. I love to watch him play with Austin makes my heart melt.

As for myself I have stayed pretty busy. Between the family and my photography I’ve had my share of sleepless nights. Sometimes I feel like I have two full-time jobs. My little photography business has kept me really busy lately and I think I will get licensed next year. For those of you who have never seen my photography you should check out my Photo Blog: http://mysticmemories.blogspot.com

That is another joy of mine, blogging. Many of you might not know what blogging is but I keep a pretty updated blog of our little trio. If you’d like to know what we are up to during the next year you can always check in on us at: http://mistyandaaron.blogspot.com we love comments so feel free to leave one. And if any of you have a blog that we don’t know about please let us know, we love to see what everyone is up to.

We also finished (besides some fine tuning) our basement the beginning of the year. We love it, and plan on living here for a very long time! If we could just get the pluming under control we would be set. We’ve had a few problems lately with flooding and main water lines breaking, that’s always fun.

But what will be really fun is leaving for vacation! We will be joining the rest of Aaron’s family for a fun filled trip to Florida…and I hear there might be a surprise cruise. Aaron and I have been looking forward to the trip for 2 years now since we were unable to go on the cruise last year because I was 8 months pregnant. Sunshine and beach here we come.

Well that is about it for us. We hope this letter find everyone in good health and high spirits. As always we appreciate the friendships and family support we receive. We love you all and hope you have a wonderful holiday season.

With Love – The McLaughlan Trio
Aaron, Misty, & Austin