Awkward Family Photos

I am calling this post Awkward Family Photos. Kim and Bryce started it because of a well-known show (Ellen Degeneres, I think she said) that does this. She says it's hilarious and I believe her because I was about rolling on the floor watching the two of them. (I sprinkled them throughout to spread the joy.) Bryce then "posed" with his brothers which was a treat also. Not all of these pictures are awkward but they are most assuredly family. And I laughed too hard not to post them.

Caroline and her BFF

Tickle train!

Bethany, Hannah, Leah and Alexis

Caleb, Zach and Micah
I am putting this picture here because Laura said to Mom and I, "Let's show our bling rings." So she set up the camera and we all put our hands out and then she said, "Smile!"....

and we did! We all laughed so hard. How awkward!

I do love my sisters. I wish they had all been there.

This is what started it all.

The crazy Hewlett boys!One more...

Party-ers

My sister Tracy and her husband Mark have been married for 25 years. It's weird to me to even say that. 25 years! That's a long time!
They decided to have a fancy party at a club in Iowa City.

It was fun for us to be able to dress up and really have somewhere to go because we don't do that. Ever. But that's okay because it's not really our style and why would I want to fight it?

We danced and we boogied.
We boogied and danced.
Well some of us did. The boys had their own brand of fun.
Okay so maybe he had just a little bit of a good time:)

Happy New Year!!!

Our New Year's tradition is to ring the church bell, here in Walcott, at midnight. This year we had a large group since we had our Christmas celebration on the same day.

Trey was first in line.
Noa was happy to ring the bell:) Zach had a turn too.

Happy New Year!!

The Past Few Days...

...have been filled with exciting Christmas activities.

We spent all day on Christmas Eve decorating cookies. Dave instituted the making and coloring of the icing and then the rest of us decorated.

Then that night we went to my Grandma Grell's for her annual party. This ledge is a gathering spot for children year after year. My cute little Great Niece Noa. We got to go to our church on Christmas as a family this year for the first time in, well...ever. Then on Christmas morning we opened presents at home and then went to Dave's parents' for more celebrating and opening.
Trey read the Christmas book this year.
Zach shared a few pages of his 9 page paper he wrote for school that outlined the life of Christ and made the case for him being the Savior. It was very appropriate for Christmastime. We were all imressed with Zach and how well-spoken he is and unafraid to share his faith. From the Bears family to yours-Merry Christmas

Cookies!

We are having a good Christmas break. The kids were done with school on Wed. and had an early out so we made buckeyes!

Then on Thursday we started when we woke up and went until 5:30 p.m.

We made Oatmeal cookies.

And sugar cookies (decorations to come later).

And almond bark with peppermint.

And cinnamon rolls. Lots of cinnamon rolls, but no picture.

I had also started some chicken noodle soup in the crockpot so I wouldn't have to cook supper.

I have to say it was all a little easier thanks to my new toy. Dave couldn't wait and gave me my Christmas present early. He's really bad about that. Can't keep a surprise to save his life. But it did make the cookies easier. I'll admit it!

Fall Family Photo Shoot

I have been wanting to do this for two years.
I've been thinking about our outdoor spaces and visualizing us getting pictures done with different backgrounds.
Something always prevented it coming together but it finally worked.
We had a guest speaker at MOPS who has a photography business and will come to your house.

I said "Sign me up".

We had a lot of fun and got some great shots.

Now for my favorite one of the day:)

First Day of School

Since the children have been in school for an entire week now, I feel like it's time to post their first day picture:)

Leah once again decided she better get right in there. And made a comment about her dress.

The middles have enjoyed getting into the swing of school and like their teachers.

A new development for Walcott School this year is air conditioning in the building--everywhere but in the cafeteria and the gym. Dave jokingly made the comment that the people in acedemia wanted it that way so that the kids wouldn't say their favorite subjects are lunch and gym anymore.

Alexis stays after school to practice volleyball while Dave coaches. Next year she will be able to play on a team so this is a good way to expose her to it. Dave says she shows some promise so we shall see.

Yesterday we had a significant event happen in our little town.

RAGBRAI came through Walcott! (The Des Moines) Register's Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa. It was awesome to see all the riders and get to talk to them, hear their stories and where they are from. The kids and I volunteered in the pop tent at Victory Park. It started off really slow, for the first two hours we didn't see anyone but then it got super busy and we had a ton of fun. We even got cool green shirts to show we were volunteers.

On Friday night, Alexis and I took a photo trip around town to see the sights. Not sure why we had a giant horse and giraffe in our town, but we did.
Tracy and Mark came through with their Tall Dog pack and sat in front of Mom and Dad's house for awhile. It was great to see them and hear stories about this 7 day ride. They did an awesome job and I'm so proud of them:)

The Contest

Pigs must be flying.

Hell must have frozen over.

David Huntley now owns a cat.

Most people won't get the significance, but Heather? Teri? Can you believe it? It's true. Not an indoor cat, but an outdoor cat. (Does that matter?)

We have a mouser!....we hope.

Just getting the thing from the farm where it was born to our house was an adventure.

We weren't sure if it would even stick around but we've been feeding it and it's still here, in our garage!

So after we thought the thing would actually stay around, we figured it needed a name. We decided to set out a jar and some paper and anyone who wanted to, could enter a name. We only had 8 entries. Zach didn't actually write one down but I told him that Kitty Poopy Pants would not be an acceptable entry.

Lexi wanted Cute Cat and Cutie Pie.

Trey thought Scardy Cat would be a good name. True enough.

I entered several. First I wrote down Kitty because that's what Dave has been calling it and I didn't figured he'd write it down himself. Then I wrote down Fraidy because all it does is hide, Tiger because it is striped and The Mumford because I love that name! We could call it Mumsy for short. I also wrote down Silver Bullet because it's gray. All the kids loved that name, we laughed about it for quite sometime.

Leah only said one thing when we asked her what she thought the kitty should be called. Duck. Well okay, then. I wrote it down for her.

Phase Two, they could write down anything, but then the parents would get to pick two names we liked and then the family would vote on those two.

So at supper tonight, we read through all the names and had a good time with it. Dave and I laid out all the names and each took turns picking out one that we didn't like. So in that way, we narrowed it down to two. Fraidy and Duck.

And the winner is... Duck!!!!

I love it. We'll probably call it Ducky. And Trey just couldn't figure out why. It doesn't make sense to call a cat Duck!! But that's what I like about it:)

And someday, when it's not such a Fraidy Cat, I'll get a picture of it.

My Short Story

Decided to do something fun on the fourth with everyone home. So we went to Wild Cat Den. Hadn't been there in a really long time.

Took this family pic.

Took this pic of the girls.
Battery died. But we hiked in spite of it. The end.

Firecrackers

We saw fireworks on the third this year. It was a rather impromptu decision by me. Dave would never chose to sit outside in the hot and stickyness if he could help it since he stands in the heat all day long, everyday. So when I was at my parent's house and my dad mentioned the fireworks in Dixon, I said, "Do you want to go with the kids and I?"

It was the perfect thing because I knew my kids wouldn't want to miss out but I also knew it wouldn't be fun to have Leah there with it getting so late. So Dave and Leah stayed back and the rest of us enjoyed some ball games and some AWESOME fireworks.