Christmas Recap Part 1

I am so behind in blogging. It took me a long time to pare down the photos and edit some of them.  I literally had hundreds of photos to go through!

The family spent several days together beginning with a campfire which included roasting hot dogs and s’mores.  The photos aren’t very good because of the low light(darkness!)but I am including a few anyway.

After the campfire we set off fireworks for about an hour.

The kids had great fun.  Creating memories and possibly some traditions if the weather cooperates each Christmas.  When the grandkids look back at their Christmas memories these are the kinds of things they will remember more than what gifts they received.

More December Birthdays

The Hodge family as well as Steve and I got together to celebrate Heather and Nathan’s birthdays (ages 7 and 37). 

Here is Nathan on his birthday and then opening gifts.  It is so fun to see the smiles as they open gifts and enjoy the spotlight on their birthday.

And Heather…..

She got some Twilight gifts from Tiffany.

And the always perfect gift of $$.

So thankful to God for the two of you!

Spelling Bee

There was tension in the air as the kids entered the cafeteria before the Rock Prairie Spelling Bee.  Ty was representing his 4th grade class in a group of 21 third and fourth graders.  He competed through the 9th round and ended up 7th out of 21 spellers.

We are so proud of Ty.  He spent a lot of time studying the more than 400 possible words and he did a great job.

Happy Birthday Nathan!

Wishing you a very Happy 7th Birthday Nathan Ryan.  You are such a joyful spirit and we love your smiley face.

Looking forward to celebrating with you today and this weekend.  Love you most first!

Happy Birthday Austin!

We celebrated Austin’s 16th birthday with family recently.  It is hard to believe that he is 16 already.  Seems like yesterday that he was born. He was so loved and we all hardly put him down his first month.

Here are a few photos…some from the past(I still need to scan photos from his very early years).

Age 2.

9th Birthday

Austin, Age 16….enjoying one of his favorite desserts.

Happy Birthday Austin.  We pray God’s abundant blessings for you this year.  We love you!

Alexander Photos

While the Alexanders were here over the Thanksgiving holiday we took some photos for their Christmas card.  They wanted something different so we had a little fun with their photos along with the traditional shots.

This will make a fun Christmas card!

Thanksgiving 2012

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday celebrating with the Hodge and Alexander families.  We had dinner on Friday so it was their second feast of the holiday.  Following are some photos from our day.

Our delicious vegetable tray arranged by Shauna.

Didn’t quite get everyone in a photo but did pretty well on a busy day.  Already looking forward to Christmas when all my girls and their families will be here to celebrate.