A Note from Hank

Being on facebook and reconnecting with old friends makes me realize how I really haven't been a good friend at times. Don't get me wrong, I never betrayed or did anything to any of my friends, but I casually let them slowly slip out of my life without even realizing it. I wish I had the self confidence to think that people want to be my friend, I really miss a lot of the people I was Great friends with when I was younger. I will try to be a better friend and keep up better with the people I consider my friends. If you don't have a facebook page I suggest you get one, I have reconnected with so many people that I haven't thought about in years, that were once my best friends in life. I am thankful for all of you!!!!!

Hank

Random Announcements

So the other day I had picked the boys up from my parent's house after volleyball and we were heading home. The boys were giving me a rundown on what they had for dinner. The van grew quiet for a minute, and Tres looks over and me, and says, "I don't like brocolli anymore, Momma." Now this is news to me, cause brocolli has been his favorite veggie since diapers. When I asked him why, he said, "Just cause."

Then Bryant, who is listening from the backseat pipes up, "But I DO like brocolli now, Momma!" And he gives me the biggest cheese ball smile. He will eat two pieces now at dinner and thinks this is a full serving.

Ava Sophia could live off of salad and brocolli right now. She loves that stuff!

Family Milestones

We actually commemorated the Presidential Inauguration by measuring the kids on the door frame. Each of them are taller. Tres looks like he has grown the most and informed me that he has grown because he eats all of his lunch.
Sophie News:
*Sophie likes to play 'Shoo-Wee!' She takes off her shoes and socks and sticks her foot to her face, or yours if you are close by, and says "Shoo-Wee!" Then she just giggles and chuckles and gets a big kick out of herself.
*When she gets in trouble we call her Ava Sophia.
*She 'talks' constantly and we are starting to understand a good bit of her words. She has added teeth, poo poo, juice, snack, please, thank you, I don't know, and a lot of others to her vocabulary.
*She likes to tell secrets now too. They are unintelligible, but so very cute.
*She loves to play babies. She carries them around, puts them 'night, night,' even tries to bathe them in the toilet (Clorox spray to the rescue!).
*She loves to eat salad, broccoli, eggs, apples, fruit snacks, and chocolate. She likes to be independent when she's eating though, so don't try to feed her, just give her a fork and watch her go at it!
*Her hair is getting longer and thicker, but it still looks like a fuzz ball when she first gets up! So cute.

Bryant News:
*Bry loves school and playing with his friends. The first thing he reports when I pick him up is who was at school and whether or not he ate all his lunch.
*He is getting taller! Tall and skinny.
*He won't let me fix his hair 'handsome' anymore. Handsome to him, apparently, is combed over to the side. So every morning when we go to fix his hair, he tells me not to fix it handsome and inspects it when I'm done.
*He will play with Sophie for hours! Kitchen, movies, blocks, cars. He gets on her level and she eats it up!
*His speech is improving drastically.
*He is counting down the days until he is going to Tres's school too!

Tres News:
*He can read anything if he tries. We can't spell out things anymore like t-o-y... he knows now. We can still get away with spelling some things really fast, but he picks it up most of the time!
*He is loving and affectionate.
*He is also getting taller! Taller and thinner. He is such a little man, now.
*They love to play Wii, but most of the time when Tres gets home from school, they go into their room, close the door and play Lego's or something for a good hour. They watch about an hour or less of TV a day.
*He is so animated and descriptive and makes me smile sometimes when I probably shouldn't.
*He falls asleep so fast! He says he's tired and he means it, so get that boy to a bed fast! :)

Speed Limit Change

So just when I thought we were gonna slow down and settle into a routine of cleaning, school, and volleyball, my Dad came over to help us convert our storage room in the basement into a new bathroom and a proper laundry room. This is a view of the room from the garage area. This door will be sheetrocked over.

When we first moved into this house, over a year ago, the laundry was in the kitchen. My dad helped us then move our laundry out into our garage area and convert the space in the kitchen into my pantry! I love my pantry... so big and full of storage opportunities! But this is how my laundry has been for a year now...It's functional, but not pretty! :)

Now, the entrance to the laundry room has been cut through the family/toy/office room. We've spent the weekend rearranging shelves and sorting toys (again...and I'm sure again soon, too).

On Friday, one of Dad's supply houses delivered a tub and shower unit and my Dad got it in place and did all kinds of plumbing stuff that we don't need to understand as long as we know it works!

We also spent part of the weekend gathering materials for the bathroom and laundry... you know: tile, doors, vanities, etc.

Here's how it's gonna look:



I'm excited! Now we won't have to trek upstairs to go potty and when company comes over, they have their own bathroom instead of having to share one with a 6, 4 and 1 year old.

I am blessed to have a plumber daddy!

So instead of slowing down to Light Speed, we are now at Warp Speed 5. Going slow is for slackers, right? Sigh.

The Short Version!

I'm never going to catch up on my blogging if I don't do this, so please enjoy our Christmas in pictures!

We were truely blessed this year. We spent time with our families and loved every minute of it.

Here's a short list of gifts...

Tres: bike, guitar, Wii, Bible, Camera, Disney Pix Stix (MP3 player)

Bryant: bike, drums, Wii, Bible, Camera, Disney Pix Stix

Sophie: Princess TV, Holiday Barbie, babies, Grocery Cart, Pots & Pans, Food

Blessed, blessed, blessed. We are not defined by our stuff, but we are truely thankful for all that we received.

My favorite Christmas memory from this year will have to be coming home from my Mom's house on Christmas Eve. The boys realized that they forgot to make cookies for Santa. Thank God I had some break and bake cookies in the freezer! So we rushed inside and got to baking! When the cookies were in the oven, we came downstairs to track Santa and make sure the boys would get in bed on time. Once the cookies were ready, we were putting them out on a plate, and Tres said, "Mom, Santa can't have them all! Cause tomorrow is Jesus' birthday!" He and Bryant decided that we had to put cookies in the cookie jar for Jesus. Then we brought out the Bible and read about the true meaning of Christmas... our Savior, Jesus. I love to think of Him as a baby. Think of Mary cuddling Him and caring for the One who would ultimately deliver her.

I love Christmas for many reasons... one of them being that my kid's know what it means. Do they enjoy getting stuff from Santa? Absolutely. But don't we all?

By the way, Bryant wouldn't leave his bedroom door open cause he didn't want Santa to come in his room! Ha!

Christmas Slide Show

Proverbs 18:10

"The name of the LORD is a strong tower; the righteous run to it and are safe."

So how do you react when things in your life don't seem to be going all that smooth? I tend to want to stay in bed... pull the covers over my head... and avoid talking about it.

But that's not what God wants us to do, I think. When I read this passage of scripture, it seemed to come alive in my head. I could picture myself running to Jesus and finding safety...

I could picture myself running to the refuge of my church and devouring the teaching and finding health and happiness.

I'm a happy person, generally. But I get dragged down by life just, as I'm sure, everyone else does. The constant grind of life... cleaning, cooking, errands, diapers, money for this and money for that, unexpected expenses, etc. etc. etc.

I'm leaning on the Lord heavily right now. As it should be, after all... he is a strong, fortified, reinforced, unflappable, rock solid, and heavy duty tower of protection for me. My own personal God Force Field!

Notice anything new?

Embarrassed, Much?

So I have this picture in my file and didn't post it before because I thought I looked a bit too goofy... but I gotta be honest and say that I post pictures of Hankie that he may not like, so I'm trying to be fair!

The night before my surgery, Hank and I had free passes to see 'Seven Pounds,' so we dropped the kids off for their overnight stay at Grandma's early and headed to see the movie. It was pretty good. I mean, I didn't cry or anything... but it made you think. It was odd in moments... jellyfish... that's all I'm gonna say.

The next morning, I was up and getting ready by 4. We were at the hospital by 5:30. They took me back almost immediately and I got in my nice fancy hospital gown and waited for the meds. I'm telling you, the whole thing went so quickly and smoothly that I didn't have much time to think about what was gonna be taking place. After they started my I.V., they let Hank come in and give me a quick kiss, and that is literally the last thing I remember... them wheeling me out of the room. They must have started the meds that quick. Cause next thing my foggy brain recalls is waking up in recovery and requesting some pain meds. Hank was there and anxiously pacing, as usual. Once I got the pain meds, I knew I wasn't gonna be up long cause I was struggling to keep my lids open (review above picture). I knew that we still needed a few items for the boys that we had not been able to find for Christmas, so before I fell asleep, I told him what to go look for, where to go, and he was off. He came back a few hours later, and I was just starting to rouse again... I sent him on another errand. He said at some point, I also requested a Snickers (random), but I don't remember that. I was just thankful and relieved that he was finding the things we needed.

Jennifer and Eric came over and visited for a few minutes, since they were at the hospital getting their 4D ultrasound for Corban. I vaguely remember, but thank you guys for coming!

I do sort of remember my doctor coming in and telling me that everything went fine. They said that after surgery, they noticed blood in my cath bag, and to be safe scoped my bladder to make sure their was no internal bleeding. Thankfully, everything was clear.

I slept for about 2 days straight. I was pretty much detemined to be back in action by Christmas though, so I took minimal pain meds and made myself walk around when I would rather not have.

I'm so glad it's over! I'm only slightly sore now and pretty much back to normal! Isn't modern medicine fascinating.

Company Bake Off

Every year, Hank's company has a Christmas party that includes a bake-off with cash prizes. We try so hard every year to place! A couple of years ago, we came in fourth with a chocolate peanut butter pie. This year carrot cake, red velvet cake, and peanut butter pie were not allowed. That made it more interesting to me!

So I made A Chocolate Buttermilk Cake, which was a recipe that my grandmother had... I'm not sure just how far back this recipe goes, but it is rich and good! But this one wasn't the winner.

Denis Phillips made an Ooey Gooey Cake. This one is a cakie cream cheesy with pecan kind of dessert. She made the decision to make this one on the day of the contest, so she got up early and started baking. Even though she cut it close, she ended up entering this one cause it was still warm and, well, ooey gooey.This one came in second place with a $400 prize!! Go Denise!!

I plan to post these recipes on the recipe blog once I get this one fully updated!

Polar Express

My Mom got us all tickets to go on the Polar Express this year. She got all the grandkids matching pajamas and we all met at the Depot in Calera for the ride.My brother Matt, sister in law Kayla, and my two adorable nephews Tyler and Brody. Me and my clan. Hankie had to work extra that day, which seemed to be a running theme up through Christmas Day. We boarded the train and the kids immediately began looking for Santa. When the train ride began, the Polar Express story was told over the loud speakers. When we got to the end of the line, Santa's workshop was all lit up and Santa, Mrs. Claus and some elves came aboard the train. Sophie was just fine waving to Santa from a distance and saying 'ho, ho, ho," over and over.

And all of the boys did just fine seeing Santa up close and personal.Sophie was not quite so pleased to meet them. Neither was Brody for that matter!

After we saw Santa, they served us cookies and milk and passed out Polar Express ornaments to each child.
It was a really fun Christmas memory. And I loved that it was our whole family. If we do this next year, Hankie definitely has to come!