December

It is crazy to think that we are finally wrapping up 2011!

1. All of our construction is finally coming to an end. What started in April passed the final inspection. So we are now clear to "officially" move in!

 2. December is a busy month for birthdays. We have Aunt Stephanie, Cousin Cordell, Cousin Gavin, Aunt Emily and Tenley.

3. Soccer season is officially wrapped up. We had our soccer dinner. Which is always a fun time to get to reward the girls for all their hard work during the season. And of course eat some good food!

4. The young women in our church had a baby shower for Tenley and me. And wouldn't you know it I forgot my camera. We got alot of cute stuff and restocked some of our baby supplies!

5. Around Christmas we have a tradition of spending the day at Grandma Hodges house making and decorating cookies. It is a fun time for the adults to get together and visit and bake and also a great time for the kids to get together and eat/decorate cookies.

6. Another thing we do around Christmas is that our church has a Christmas dinner. Which is always fun. They usually have some kind of program and we get to sing songs and eat great food.

7. Dec. 18, 2011 Tenley Ellen Hodges joined our family. (See the next post for her story!)

8. Jeff finally got some new glasses. After walking around for a few months with a broken nose piece he finally got a new pair of glasses. And of course they make him very handsome.

9. Since I was still recovering from my c-section my mom and Jeff got to take the kids to the library to see Santa and the Grinch. While they were there the grinch hit my mom in the head with a tennis ball. Little did we know that Kestley would be talking about that for many months to come!

10. We had to take Tenley back to the hospital her 1 week check up. She was almost back to her birth weight and had no signs of jaundice which is interesting because both our other kids had it.

11. For Christmas eve this year we went over to Jeff's parents' house. We had a wonderful dinner, the kids dressed up for the nativity and we read through the scripture story of the nativity and sang some songs that go along with the story. I can't say I recall alot from that night as I was still recovering from my c-section and had some pain killers in my system. But I recall opening buddy gifts and mine having something to do with hello kitty and very large pink footy pajamas. Thanks Mike.

12. Christmas Day my parents came over in the morning and watched the kids open gifts. Then I sent them all to church while Tenley and I took a nap. Later that afternoon Jeff's parents and my parents came over to our house and we had a nice dinner. It was much easier then us dragging everything to one of their homes.

13. Some of our really good friends moved away a while ago. (We still aren't over it!) And they were in town and came by to visit. It was so good to see them and get the chance to catch up. You know they are great friends because we sat and visited and our kids played like they had never moved away. For dinner that night we decided to go out. So we went out to dinner with 7 kids. We got some interesting looks but we all had a blast.

14. My brother Cal and his son Cordell came to visit. Trey was so excited to have a cousin to play with. I think he drove Cordell crazy wanting to be his shadow for a few days. But Cordell was a trooper and it kept them both entertained.

15. Over Christmas break Trey's preschool class had homework. They gave the kids a paper-white plant to grow and document over the break. So I set up a ruler on the wall and we took pictures of the plant everyday so we could watch it grow.

16. I made these signs for Christmas gifts this year. Each Sign has 3 changeable wooden plates for each holiday. These are just a few of the holidays.