Christmas 2011

Christmas 2011 began on December 18th when we got together with our fabulous sons and beautiful daughter-in-laws.  We enjoyed dinner, gifts and a game of Apples to Apples that went into a tie-breaker between Kristen and me - she won.  Great times!!!

Next, on Christmas Eve we spend some time with our Cassidy family.  It is always great to see Debbie, Britney, Jared, Julie, Mike, Barb, Mikey, Nichole, Patrick, Ophelia, Pat, Liz, Karen, Dave, Katie, Susan, Chris, Steve and Taron.  And of course Dad and Margaret!!  Thanks everyone for making Christmas so special :).

 Barb and Ophelia,

3 pretty ladies,Liz, Ophelia and Nichole

Our happy family.

Patrick loves to hear stories,

 this one is about Captain Underpants :)

Debbie opens the album Margaret made for her with Kevin and Kristen nearby.

David and Patrick got along well

Dad - 81, Margaret and Susan

Then on Christmas Day we got together at Randy and Sue's for our traditional Hoffner get together.  Our Tucson Hoffners didn't make it up this year and were sorely missed, especially because we want to see Dale ride the unicycle.  

There was some basketball,

David and Tegan relaxing,

3 of 4 brothers (missed you Dale),

Alan showing his skills,

Beautiful sisters,

two cousins,

Lanie and Eric with Steve looking on,

all of the greats except Lanie and Deklan.  

This generation got to sing Happy Birthday to Jesus, took turns at the pinata and enjoyed cupcakes thanks to Lisa and Zach.  I am looking forward to hearing them remember this in 10 years.  Thanks for stopping by :)

Thanksgiving pictures

 

We had a GREAT time playing with the kids at our Hoffner Family Thanksgiving.  There was a picnic, a sailor, capture the flag, red rover, and lots of good food!!!

Kyle got to come home for 21 days, then he is off to Guam, God Bless.

 Alan, Dane and Jett

 

Kevin, Tensley  (9mos) and Kristen

 

Me and Deklan (16mos)

 

Jett (3yrs) and Great-Grandpa

Alan got the kids to sit for one minute :)

Teda getting captured by Dane (5yrs) 

 

Tegan (4yrs) and Teda (6yrs)

 

Laney (6wks)

Red Rover

 Dallas (2yrs)

 Carson (2yrs)

 Dallas and Jett

Deklan walking to David

Christmas Drops

Woo Hoo!!!  We got our first Christmas drop tonight :)  Thank you Cindy, Phil, Sarah, Trevor, Dane and Dallas.  It was fun to see you and we hope you had fun too :)

We are going to be the proud grandparents of Noah Ryan Hoffner in January 2012!!!!  Thank you Ryan and Julee.  We are praying for your growth (physically as well as mentally) :)  We know that you are going to be great parents, and when you need help remember you have tons of it really close by :) 

Kristen's Graduation

Our beautiful daughter-in-law Kristen graduated from ASU on Saturday, May 14, 2011. We are so proud of her and Kevin (for his support which he can't reveal in front of his parents :). Now she is an official Elementary School teacher!! Nice job Kristen. We love you.

We went to our nephew Brian's wedding yesterday, March 17, 2011. It was really beautiful, the wedding as well as the bride :) All of our kids got to attend Yea!!

Skin Cancer update

Went in for my quarterly skin check-up and the fabulous Dr. Ko took 4 biopsies and froze 6 other areas on my arms. Three biopsies were fine but on one he had to go back and take enough skin for eight inner stitches and 8 outer stitches. I am itching a lot... hopefully healing and not allergic reaction to bandaids :) I'll get some photos on tomorrow when I can clean it.

We got to watch Deklan for a few hours tonight :)!!! He and Al are watching the Suns lose in Detroit.

Have to postpone the Creative Memories weekend due to very sad news in regard to my consultant's family. Her sister-in-law passed away Wednesday. Not a good time for celebrating with friends working on photo albums :(

Hopefully all will heal and be ready to get together February 11-13.

Beautiful niece Camille's baby daughter is due Feb. 13th so I hope she will wait until I get home to arrive (Camille, see what you can do to hold off on that delivery because, of course, it is all about me!)

Kristen got assigned a school/classroom for her student teaching that begins later this month. She will be in a 7-8th grade math class in the Peoria School District. She is going to be a great teacher for these kids because she believes 13-14 year-olds are people too :) I think she hopes to get a younger grade when she gets a job, but I will stake my 30 years experience on the fact that she will be great wherever she goes. Love you Kristen!

Next weekend I am going to my annual Creative Memories retreat in Flagstaff and as I was looking through my photos, choosing which ones to print from 2010, I decided on 568 pictures. This does not include Kevin and Kristen's over 200 wedding photos that I already have. I think I have my work cut out for me :)

Happy New Year!!! 2010 was a great year as we added a daughter-in-law to our family :)

Kevin and Kristen

Date Night December

I am so thankful that Lisa and Zach continue to date each other after 8 years of marriage. Not only is it good for them, but it is soooooo good for us :) We get to have Teda, Dane and Jett over for a few hours (we are actually up to about 24 hours). Here are some pictures of them eating dinner while watching tv, something they "don't do at home". We have to find fun things any way we can. They also get to "camp" on our floor on an air mattress and are of course welcome to climb up with us if/when they wake up in the night. Dane is a really heavy sleeper but Teda usually comes up every night. Once, while she was sleeping, I took her hand and held it for a really long time. When I mentioned it in the morning she said that she was trying to get away from holding my hand. She wasn't really because I remember that she was holding onto me too! Winter daylight hours are really hard on Jett. Here is a pic of him trying to stay awake just after dark at about 6:30pm.