Shoaf Visit and Keeping Up with Ansley

Sunday night after we went to the Curtis's house, we headed over to Ryan's parents house to visit with the Shoaf's.  Larry and Betty Shoaf  are some of Pam and Rick's BEST friends and have been friends for many many years.  We try to get together with them over the holiday season, because their kids and grand-kids live in New Jersey right now (Aaron works for the FBI in Manhattan...whoa!)  but they were ALL able to be here for the holidays.  It was really fun to see them and visit, although I realized I NEVER took any pictures of them or their kids...way to go me!

Larry and Betty got Brynn this cool puzzle shapes thing.

And then the girls started SHOWING OFF!  HAHA!  Ansley's big thing this Christmas has been to "read" the Christmas story.  It is ADORABLE!  Well, Brynn loves to watch her big cousin and DO EVERYTHING Ansley does, so then it was Brynn's turn to tell the Christmas story (which Pam said sounded like Brynn was "speaking in tounges!"  HAHA!)

Then Ansley was singing her Christmas song and Brynn was trying to mimic all the motions!

Hanging out with Uncle Kyle...

How cute is this?
Pam put on a movie for the girls...Ansley got a pillow so of course Brynn needed one too.
And then we had to referee how the blanket was going to be laid over them because they both
wanted it.  HA!

But DON'T let these pictures fool you...I think Brynn might have laid there to "watch" the movie for all of 37 seconds?

Brynn LOVES LOVES LOVES Ansley sooo much!  The funny part is they both literally jump up and down and get so excited when they first see each other, and then two seconds later they are arguing over a toy.  Oh well, I guess that's true love!  

Curtis Family Get-Together

You know there are those friends that you've had for years.  They are the ones who are there through thick and thin...you celebrate every significant milestone with, go on vacations with, etc.  Growing up, our family was privileged to have several families who we were very close with.  Throughout the years we have celebrated birthdays, vacations, and lots of memories.  Now, we have celebrated weddings and babies together!  It has been a tradition for MANY years that we all get together close to Christmas.  We ALWAYS have it at Mrs. Lisa's house and every year there is a theme - this year it was "Candy Cane Christmas."  Mrs. Lisa goes all out with her beautiful decorations and everyone usually brings the same food year after year.  I LOVE our family friends so much!

Playing Pac-Man with Mark and Wyatt...
for the record this vest is a JOKE!  Mrs. Lisa saw Ryan wearing it on Facebook for the Ugly Sweater Party we
had and said "I HAVE THAT VEST AND I LOVE IT!"  We decided that Ryan and Mrs. Lisa would both
wear it to our Christmas celebration! HA!

Brynn, Frankie, and Wyatt!
For the record - Brynn ate SO MUCH BETTER at the kid table today than the other night!  HA!
It might have had something to do with the fact that all the moms were sitting RIGHT there!

Mrs. Lisa (rocking that awesome vest!) explaining the theme of this year.

We were looking back at pictures from years (and years and years) past and it is just crazy how we have all
changed so much...we were laughing at some of the different boys (and girls) who have been there through
the years and how now we are all (almost...Billy is just in college so no pressure yet Billy!) married!

There is usually a reading of some sort that we all have to participate in.  This year's reading about the Candy Cane
was pretty short, so only one person had to do it.  This was Curt's first year as an "official" member of the
family Christmas so he was voted to do it.  Let's just say he made the reading quite interesting! HA!

This was the first year that the "kids" got to sit in the "adult" room!  Mrs. Lisa said "the kids groups keeps expanding
and the adults are definitely not going to do that!"

One tradition is that we ALWAYS have to take a huge family friends picture!
(With the timer, which always makes it more fun and interesting!)

Take 2 - you can see Sloane a little better in this one, right Em?

There were several new additions this year...Mark and Emily had Sloane in March, Erin and Trey had Colton in July (look at Trey...this cracks me up...Colton was asleep in a back bedroom so Trey used a Cabbage Patch Doll as a stand-in...HA!), and Erin and Pete had their FIRST baby, little girl Zetta Mae, in November!  Lindsey and Curt are holding Frankie...I know they aren't ready to have kids yet, but I think they look like naturals!  HAHA!

The Pingel, Curtis, Jones, and Hildebrand Families of 2012!

Second Annual Cookie-Decorating Party

On Saturday evening we drove to Zalma (a tiny town about 45 minutes away) to my Uncle Bruce and Aunt Tina's house to get together with my mom's side of the family.  Last year we decided to have a girl's cookie making party, and this year we decided we'd let the boys come too!  It turned in to one giant family get-together.  For some background...my mom has two sisters (they are twins).  Tina lives in Zalma and her kids are Erika and Jared.  Erika has three kiddos and lives in Dallas, and Jared has two kids and lives in Jackson.  They were all there!  (Except for Jared's wife Kelly, one of my best friends, who is a nurse and had to work.)  Then the other sister is Gina.  She lives in Bolivar (near Springfield, MO).  She has three kids.  Ty just married Morgan this summer, Tarah is getting married to James this coming June, and Tori is in college.  They were ALL there too!  It was so fun to see everyone and we had a blast (which you will soon see in the pictures!)

Lots of the girls decorating (or eating as in Brynn's case) cookies and snowmen.

No joke...this little lady has a major sweet tooth.  As my cousins can tell you, she was trying to eat
ALL the candy!

Kelly and Jared just had baby Paxton this July.  Brynn LOVES to see babies!

Erika and I created this masterpiece thanks to Pinterest!

Don't let this cute picture fool you...Brynn looks so big sitting at the kid table, but she
CANNOT sit at a kid table and eat.  She gets up every two seconds...oh my!
But having lots of fun with two of Erika's kiddos...sweet Ebby Lee and Nixon.

And then the festivities began!  Erika and I thought it would be fun if we had a little family game time...well when we put our heads together it usually ends up in hilarious mass chaos and this was no different.  We played a little game that involved panty hose on our grandparents heads, and lots of balloons!

Explaining the rules...there are two teams, each team has to blow up 20 llittle balloons and stuff them in the
panty hose, and then grandma and grandpa have to put them on and the team has to sing Rudolph to win!
What you can't see in this picture is that behind the couch are Ty, Ryan, and Tab making fun of us!  HA!
And Mallory - I totally got this idea from your blog post last year!

Erika put everyone's name in a cup and was announcing the teams...

GRANDMA'S TEAM WON!

I say they both get to win for being such good sports!  We had a blast playing!

 Then the boys headed downstairs while the girls had a little pow-wow.  My mom said she had an announcement for all the girls in the family.  Every other year Beth Moore does this Scripture memory conference.  You have to memorize 24 verses in the year and check in with Beth Moore's blog twice a month.  If you do it all year, you get free entry into her "Scripture Memory Celebration Conference" which is in Houston, TX next January.  We are all going to try to do it and go to the conference together.  Everyone was on board and was so excited!  This should be such a cool thing to do as a family.  And of course, it wouldn't be a normal family get together if crying wasn't involved...thanks Mom!

Erika's newest baby, little Bowen, is less than a month old.  Of course Brynn wanted to kiss all over him!

These are our Scripture card packets that we work on all year.

Things started going downhill...HA!

4 generations of Hency girls!
Look out Beth Moore...this crazy family is coming to see you in ONE YEAR!

Right after (and during) this picture Brynn started having a little meltdown.  You know the kind where your child is tired and therefore anything they want (and don't get) makes them cry and throw a fit?  That was the kind...well it was getting late and everyone was leaving anyway, so we quickly made our exit!  HA!

We had SUCH  a fun afternoon/evening with our family (and we also got to watch Mizzou beat Illinois in the big "Braggin' Rights" game that was on TV)!  Woohoo!  WE LOVE YOU GUYS!!

Christmas Decorations 2012

I know this is going to be a super boring post to most of you, but since I make my blog into a book, I want to have some pictures of how we decorated the house for Christmas this year.  

This is the extent of the kitchen...

Door to the garage has our Christmas cards.

I LOVE our new stockings (she spelled Brynn's name wrong but sent me a new name-tag so I can fix it).
Probably the best part??  See Brynn's stocking holder?  Yes, we NEED to go buy a new one for her.  The poor camel from the Nativity scene is having to do the job.  I am going to try to look after Christmas when they are on sale and see
if I can find one that coordinates with what we already have.  HA!

All we are keeping under this tree are the two little Nativity scenes of Brynn's and a box of books.

Let's just say my days as a kindergarten teacher have paid off in the Christmas book department! HA!

When you come in the front door...
see my homemade trees?  Lindsey and I had fun crafting them...but this is a project
that looked a lot cuter on Pinterest than when I actually got done with them.  They are just scrapbook paper
around styrofoam cones.

ONE DAY I dream of having a cute little tall skinny tree right here (actually I dream of it being
in a NEW house) with all our B ornaments on it.  But for now, this thing will have to do.  HA!

Guest room has a little tree.

Our Mizzou basement has some fun gold Christmas stuff...

As a tradition, my mom gets us the new "Danbury Mint" Mizzou ornament every year.
I put the most recent ones on here and the rest go on the tree.
Brynn LOVES to look at these and say "airplane, car, tree, etc.)

Then I thought these pictures really weren't giving an accurate portrayal of my house.  I DO love to keep it picked up all the time, but there are usually a few messes to be found.  See below...mom, I know you are cringing at this clean laundry that needs to be folded...can you imagine all the wrinkles??  HA!

And while I WISH we would pick up the toys every night before bed, sometimes it just doesn't happen...

Brynn's tree, which is also serving as her night-light right now.

Camera flashes just amaze me.  It was REALLY dark in here when I took this picture...(see above pic)
but with the flash this is what the picture looks like.  I just can't believe it changes the picture that much!

Sleeping beauty...
I took these pictures on Saturday morning before we headed over to my mom's to have breakfast with
Lindsey and Curt, who had just gotten in town super late the night before.  So...it was TIME to get up, but
somebody was STILL ASLEEP!   Precious!

I just LOVE our little house.  Even though there are things I WISH we had (a PANTRY, bigger closets,  etc.) it is just the perfect little house for us and we thank God for the blessings of our home!