Midland Welcomes George W. Bush home!

Yesterday the kids and I went to Midland's Welcome Home Rally for G.W. or "Gdub" as Aaron calls him. We waited for 5 hours with around 30,000 others! There were musicians and some other entertainment so it went by relatively fast. I am thankful we had the opportunity, I was trying to stress the historical value to my kids. Not sure if they grabbed hold though, this morning Maddy asked "When is another President going to come to Midland" when I tried to clarify that GW wasn't the president when he came she said, " I know! But went is another president that isn't the president anymore going to come to Midland?" I smiled and said, "Probably not ever that is why I wanted to make sure we went yesterday." I hope it sticks with both my kids. The whole day was fun and different.

As we waited in line to get into the plaza people from Monster Energy Drinks were there and handing out free Monster cans. So I broke down and told Jake it was his chance to try it. He is always wanting to try energy drinks and I always say NO!

Finally a little after 4:30 GW's plane flew over

And a little after 5 (it takes awhile to go from the Midland Airport to downtown) he arrived and spoke! All in all, it was a great experience!

Christmas and Everything After

A few days before Christmas Jake and Maddy split a Gingerbread house and decorated it.

Christmas Eve my sister, her boyfriend and my kids all made lots of cookies (which were eaten in 3 days!)

We had an early dinner and went to our Christmas Eve service at church

Then came home and let the "OPENING" begin!

Christmas morning we opened our Santa presents and stockings. Yes even the dogs got presents! Then we just hung out, well, I cooked but it was fun. I had a 5 foot dish washer to keep me company (my mom) we had a good time.

My family left the weekend after Christmas. The kids and I enjoyed our week off, we played with friends and ate the gingerbread house (yuck)

New Year's Eve we watched the movie Elf as a family and then put the kids to bed and just hung out and went to bed at 12:15. . . much like most families/parents I am sure.

Christmas is Coming!

Well it's the day before Christmas Eve! I had decided that this year I just had to make tamales. I needed to try it, and see if I could do it! They turned out OK, but next time I will probably change a few things. I haven't decided yet if that will be next year or tomorrow!

My sister had a wonderful idea, she and her boyfriend took the kids shopping for presents for everyone! And they are also going to get more stuff for cookies. . . which will be another post later today :D . . . maybe. . .

Here they are about to go on their expidition! Buddy and Linc are BRAVE, very brave

Christmas Light Tradition

It has become a tradition to put the kids to bed early one night in December and then 10 minutes later rush in and tell them that we are going to look at Christmas lights! This is fun for all 4 of us, the kids love the surprise and think it's funny to go to the car in pajamas and no shoes; and we think it's fun to surprise them. We take hot chocolate and this year we had glasses that you put on and it makes every light a star or snowflake. So this was our Friday Night on the town.

The Beginning of our journey

The end of our journey!

Maddy's Christmas program

Last Sunday the Pre-K/Kindergarten classes at our church sang a few songs during the service. Maddy actually had a part and sang Away in a Manger with 3 other girls. I did get a video, but not of the whole song, since my main objective was to take the pictures. Aaron did get a full video of the program so we'll have that. I asked my mom if I should even bother posting a video of part of the song, and she said I should. . . so here you go!

O Christmas Tree

Friday we went and bought our first real Christmas tree and put it up! We finished decorating the inside of the house and then Saturday we decorated the tree!

Sunday we took our Christmas card pictures.

Thanksgiving and Bonus Material!

I feel like I could post 3 separate things, it's been awhile since I have felt I had something "bloggable" and now it's flooded the Hunter house!

Thanksgiving was super! We were able to spend it with our great friends Chris and Lesley and their family. Lesley's brother and his wife (also good friends of ours) live here and Lesley's parents were here. Aaron's good friend, Matt, from Rocky Mountain College was able to come (he is living in the panhandle of Texas right now). It was great to reminisce with him and I know Aaron had fun doing guy stuff and talking about guy things with him.

Friday Aaron, Matt and Chris put up our Christmas lights and then put up Chris' lights. I think they look good, even Matt said they look professional. We have some small Christmas trees to add in front of the pillars, but I still have plants there! The trees are getting so big they block it now, but the whole front of the house has a string of lights on it.

Friday evening Jacob and I came back from an errand and he slammed his thumb in the car door! It had latched and as a reaction he yanked it out! He screamed, "I'm bleeding, I'm bleeding!" and we finally got him inside and over the kitchen sink and I took one look at it and said "We need to go to the ER" I can't say how thankful I am that Matt was still here!! He stayed at our house with Maddy and Aaron, Jake and I went to the ER. Well, Jake slammed his thumb at 9pm, we walked into the ER at 9:20, saw the nurse at 10:30, had an X-ray at 11:30, 2:00 I sent Aaron home to get some rest and be there in case Maddy woke up and started panicking (we think she would have just panicked and not awaken Matt) Jake and I saw the doctor at 3:30, Jacob was stitched up at 4:30 and we were discharged at 5am! During the hours and hours that we waited Jacob was in high spirits, he was showing everyone his thumb when they asked what happened, and telling everyone he was like Luke Skywalker (when he gets his hand cut off). This trip to the ER validated why I never like going to the ER! I must say that the care we received was super! The doctor was more patient than I was, and was very contentious! Praise God it was just 3 stitches! We are still praying that it will heal right, it's still not pretty to look at.

Aaron and Matt went hunting Saturday morning at 6:30am, yes just 90 minutes after Jake was discharged! Chris and Rick (Lesley's brother) picked Aaron and Matt up and they went quail hunting until about 2pm. Then Matt had to leave.