Getting ready for Christmas

It has been a busy few weeks since Christmas.  Very productive, though.  The Monday after Thanksgiving Jeremy took the day off we were able to have a day date and go get some Christmas shopping done.  We had a yummy lunch at Hu Hot and then hit some stores and got most of the kids' presents.  Since then I've been able to finish all the shopping and have mailed out the Christmas cards and pretty much finished our Christmas prep.  I wrapped a few presents yesterday and Kylee has been wanting to open then ever since.

Jeremy has been working up in Cresco this week; which is about 2 hours away.  So we haven't seen much of him.  On Monday we had Gena and Sarah and Tyler Perry over for dinner.  Sarah's husband was out of town too so we got together and hadd dinner and  Family Home Evening.  Tyler is so cute and talks up a storm.

On Friday was the yearly Nativity Celebration at the church.  There are so many nativity displays to see-it seems that every year there are so many new ones too.  The hit for the kids was the Lego one and the Veggie Tale one.  I just like seeing all the different ones from other countries.  Then we dressed up and had our annual picture taken as the Hodson family nativity.  Maybe someday I"ll appreciate these pictures, but this year I looked horrible. 

On Saturday there was a Jazz Celebration at Price's school.  It was to celebrate the end of the fall section of Kids on Course.  Price did ceramics and we got to see his many creations.  The other group of kids did Orff (which is like a xylophone) and dance.  So we watched them perform and then there was the Ray Blue quartet that performed.  They were a  jazz band and it was really fun to listen to them.  Definitely something we woudn't have done otherwise.

more T-day fun

We love going to Indiana for thanksgiving for many reasons.  Some include: my sister does most of the cooking and I get to lounge and the kids go and play with their cousins and are out of my hair.  Love it!

We had a great dinner and it was super yummy!  After dinner we went outside and had a fun four-square tourney.  I haven't played four-square in forever.  It was so fun!

On Friday we went to the Bouncin Barn and let the kids run around and get their energy out.  There were tons of those bouncy houses for the kids to play on and all sorts of fun stuff to do.

Later we did the Price family tradition and took the kids to the Dollar store and let them choose a few toys.  Price chose a magic kit and has been dazzling us with his tricks ever since.

 The girls got "Princess wands" and put on shows and had a great time with them.  It's amazing how excited the kids get about going to the Dollar Store

We left Saturday morning and went home through Nauvoo so we could go to the temple.  It was a quick holiday, but was fun and relaxing.

Thanksgiving Fun

We had a great Thanksgiving!  I'm sad that it went by so fast and now it's back to real life and starting to get all of our Christmas prep done.

We went to Indiana again this year.  Our yearly tradition of fun.

On Thanksgiving morning the adults when for a run.  Only in our family do we go for a run before stuffing our faces; but at least I didn't feel as guilty.  We then took to kids over to the stadium at Indiana State and played a little game of touch football.  The football coach is their neighbor so the kids played and even got to wear the real jerseys.  The weather was so nice.  It was a great day to get out and run off some energy.

 Kylee had to pose for her picture too.  Love her funny little smile. 

 Brynlee and her jersey dress.  She was a great little football player.  Running after the ball and getting in on the action.

 I loved how Jeremy and Price were walking off the field together.  Such hadsome guys!

Fall Hike

We went on a hike, wait it's Iowa, it was more of a nature walk.  The weather on Saturday was BEAUTIFUL.  It was 70 degrees and sunny.  So after teaching Pump and cleaning up the yard we went out to the Sac and Fox trail and went for a lovely walk with the Andersons.  We brought along the dogs and Gary too.  It was so nice and the kids could run and play and get all their energy out.

 Liah with her moustache necklace that she bought with the money she earned from babysitting for us.  She is so sweet and good to our girls (and to Kinnick as you can see).

 Kylee just idolizes Liah.  I thought this was the cutest pic of the two of them with Mo.

I love fall in Iowa.  Today is rainy, but yesterday was so nice and it was great to get out with the family and enjoy being outdoors.  We brought along the stroller for Kylee but Kinnick ended up using it just as much as her; what a spoiled dog!

Random pics

The other day Kylee put on shorts (as usual), but I told her it was too cold for shorts and that she needed to go put on pants.  And this is how she came out of her room.  I guess technicall she did what I asked.  Sometimes I wish she had a sign that said "I dressed myself, I would not let my mom help me".  then people would understand why she looks the way she does.

 The girls love getting their pictures taken.  Here they are in their jammies with their stuffed animals.

We've had a fun, busy week.  On Tuesday we went to "Family Club" at the school.  We had dinner (lasagna, salad and breadsticks).  Then we played the boardgame Sorry! After that we went into the gym at jumped roped, hula hooped, played basektball and dodgeball.  It was such a fun night and the kids were tired when we got home and went right to bed.  A successful night.

The kids had their Parent/Teacher Conferences this week.  They are both doing really great.  Price is rocking it in math and is really well behaved at school.  I guess that's why he lets loose at home; he holds it in all day and goes wild once he's home.  Brynlee is doing great too.  She's reading on a first grade level and learning a lot.  We were afraid that she was being too quiet at school and not talking or making friends.  Her teacher assured us that she is well like and very chatty.  She actually has gotten in trouble a few times for talking too much.  Is is bad that I'm not mad about that, but actually happy that she is being social?

They've started this new program at the YMCA called Livestrong.  It's for cancer survivors and is getting them back to working out and increasing their fitness.  I trained a in September to become an instructor.  The first class started this week and I am volunteering to help with it.  So Friday I went and helped while they were doing their fitness assessments.  It's just testing the participants to see where they are physically as the program begins.  We also had a speaker come talk about breathing.  She is a yoga instructor and came and showed different breathing techniques; like calming breaths, energizing breaths, etc.  It was really interesting and helpful.  I'm excited to help with this new program and hopefully in the future will get to actually be one of the instructors.

After Livestrong Jeremy and I had a date night.  I know, miracle of miracles we actually went out to dinner by ourselves and had a great time.  We went to Parlor City.  It's down by the New Bo Market.  It's an area of town that is slowly coming back since the flood.  There are a few restaurants/bars there and we had to park a few blocks away.  But the food was pretty good.  We had fried pickle spears (my new fave) and a cheeseburger where the cheese was in the middle of the burger.  The only bust was the "frips".  We thought they'd be like waffle fries, but they were just homemade potato chips.  But they came with a yummy french onion dip.  We also had some VIP seating.  we were right by the kitchen and the bathroom, not the most ideal seats, but it was a fun night out.

Halloween

It's about time I put up our Halloween pictures.  Man, I'm behind.

We had a really fun Halloween.  Gena came over for dinner.  We had mummy dogs, gooey eyeballs and vampire blood.  Then we took the kids trick or treating while Gena stayed here and passed out candy.  It was fun to be able to go as a family.  We can finally wait on the side walk for the kids while they run up to the doors.  It's nice to have kids that are getting older and able to do more for themselves (and to help around the house too!)

 Kylee is a dragon.  Brynlee was a fairie, Kinnick was a cowboy and Price was an army guy.  Love those serious faces he makes.

Carving Pumpkins

Since the pumpkins at Bloomsbury were ridiculously priced and rather large we decided to go to Wal-mart instead.  What would a Hodson family fun day be without a trip to Wally World?  So we got some reasonably priced pumpkins andd went home to carve them.

The kids drew the faces on them and Jeremy and I carved them out.