Long time no see!

It's been forever since I last updated. I'm sure all of you have been on pins and needles in anticipation wondering what on earth we have been up to. Well, December just about does me in every year with Hunter's birthday, planning a party, shopping for Christmas, decorating, throwing a Christmas Santa party, traveling and celebrating. It's exhausting but fun! I think I am just now recovered from it all. It's taken me over a week to get my house back to some semblance of normal.

Let's see.... where to begin? I got a new camera (thank you Santa for my early Christmas gift!!) and have loved taking pictures with it. As a matter of fact, I am just now uploading them onto the computer and it is taking forever since the files are so much bigger. This could be a little bit of a glitch for me since I like to take tons of pictures and then choose. Oh well. I will figure it out.

We celebrated Hunter's 4th birthday with a party at Kiddie Park. He had a blast and his friends did too. As luck would have it, that day was particularly cold and windy, but we made do and have hot chocolate for everyone. Really, the kids didn't seem to notice and since the park is shaded by trees, the wind wasn't too bad. Those pictures are on my old camera, so they will come later.
The next day was his school program. He was a cow!

Then, we had our 1st Annual Santa Party. Really it's our 3rd, but the first 2 parties were part of Hunter's 2nd and 3rd birthdays, so it was our 1st time to just do Santa party without his birthday. We had so much fun having everyone bring their kids over to see Santa, play, eat lots of yummy desserts and visit. It was hilarious to see the different reactions to Santa.


Christmas was such a thrill this year with a 4 year old and one year old. I love the anticipation and the excitement. More importantly, Hunter really seemed to understand the Christmas story and loved talking and asking about Jesus. He's been very insightful lately about Jesus and God and the stories we are reading.

Opening stockings...

Blake was beyond excited with his splash table. The boys had so much fun splashing in the water and Blake ended up soaked from head to toe but happy as could be. It was so much fun to watch.




Christmas day and night was spent at my parents' house. We gave my parents bikes for the lake house. They were so excited!

The Stouffer Grandchildren


We traveled to Waco that weekend to celebrate with the Jones side. The kids had a blast and it was wild and crazy as usual.
Dana (the true miracle who we were so thrilled to spend Christmas with) and her 6 grandchildren.

Whoa.. loaded down with gifts!






On a side note, the other day, we were driving through the neighborhood and saw a tractor digging up the street to work on some water lines when Hunter said, "I know what they're doin' Mom. They're lookin' for the debil (devil)." I couldn't help but laugh. Where do they get these things??