Thanksgiving Recap....caught up.

Okay, this will be brief, but it is the end of the "catching up!" from 2008. From here on out, hopefully just posts from the current year! Right before Thanksgiving, we got the pleasure of seeing some of our great friends, The Stewarts, who were driving across the US to their new home! We were priviledged to be a "pit-stop" along the way. The kids had as much fun as we did, and they fully enjoyed the sleep over with their buddies. The only complaint was that it was too short! We miss you guys!

Thanksgiving was held in Dallas at Brent's parents house : ) It was so much fun to get to see them and their new home that his Dad had basically rebuilt from scratch, and also really fun to get to see our cousin Grey, whom we love so much! Cousin Grey is so much fun, our kids decided he should be at every family event! Seriously. Grey did you hear that? I suppose we will have to yeild to Riley and Jaden, and of course the other Leonard Crew. I will pass it on, but know that you are wanted in the NWA sector of family gatherings. (Grey and Colin on the jungle gym). The kids enjoyed their new neighborhood with all the walking/biking trails and just getting to be in good ole Texas weather in November.

It was so nice outside. The picture above is Colin riding over a bridge on his bike. It was Fall. Enough said. My favorite season of all. We lived it up with Grammie, Papa, and Grey, and played games until late into the night usually. This year it was phase ten (a roll over from India-thank you Aunt Lenore again!!!).

While we were there, we also got to see our sweet little niece Gina, and my sister in law Ruth and her new husband Roy!

They were married while we were away.

Here are the two big sisters (Gina & Audrey with their baby brothers)! Aren't they cute!

We also had the special priviledge of meeting their new baby boy, Angel. He was sooo precious!

The visit was short because some of the kids (cough, not saying whose, cough, cough) were being terrible because they were shorted a nap. Okay it was mine. When you set your kids up for failure, you can't be suprised when they fail. Sigh. Oh well, it was still great to get to squeeze my niece and see Ruth again! We had a huge spread for Thanksgiving and we were reminded just how blessed and thankful we were.

Christmas 2008...still catching up

Christmas eve! Clark and Colin (aka superman)

It was so great to be back in the states for the holidays! To me, there is no better season than the crisp feeling of fall and start of winter! I love it! It is so theraputic for me! We truly had a wonderful time basking in the glow of Christmas. Some of our favorite things were seeing nativity scenes celebrating our Saviors birth everywhere instead of tall stone idols. We especially loved shopping for trees without Buddha's on the top! So fun!! We listened to holiday music, and just revelled in our thankfulness at how much we were glad to be home in our own wonderful house and in the Land of the Lord on His birthday!

Brent and I felt like elves getting to shop and pick out the perfect presents for our kids. Brent and I even went on a DATE!!!! (and after that several dates!!!) We decided that we would eventually have to come back home because those kids really grow on us, and it is probably illegal to let 16 year old girls parent your kids forever, but MAN it was awesome to get out, hold hands, have coffee, reconnect, reconnect some more, and just be together and thankful for each other. We always have fun together, especially in India, but there is nothing like an official date, and have your favorite person in the whole world all to yourself and know your kids are having the time of their life with fun sitters! Ahhh. Bliss. Where was I?

Oh yes, Christmas!! Anyway, we lived up and enjoyed everything with a new fervur. On Christmas Eve, we had the pleasure of Brent's parents coming up (Rod & Bonnie) to spend the holiday with us : ) The kids were so excited to have them here! (Rod on Audrey's bike! So funny!) We had gone shopping before they came and found the perfect "texas" snowmen stocking holders for them that matched ours to join in our craziness.

We stayed up late Christmas eve getting all the fun stuff ready for Christmas morning. We had the traditional sticky buns and egg gravy with toast and sausage! The kids woke up later than usual because they had been up so late the night before, but when they did get up, there was lot's of screaming ; ) Christmas was awesome!

We opened stockings first (another Wells tradition) and then had breakfast! The boys main present was a train table with a train set and large stuffed animals to lay on for movie time or reading. The girls big present was a digital camera for Audrey, and for Korrin a dress-up outfit complete with wig and dress.

Both of them got the stuffed movie animals too.

The kids got all sorts of goodies from Grammie and Papa too(including Brent and I ) so we all enjoyed the time together to the fullest. We were so blessed!!! The next day, the whole family went to a huge indoor family game park and the boys (Colin, Brent, and Rod) raced each other in race cars, and the then the girls raced each other(Audrey & Korrin)! We found out that day that my Mom was doing very poorly and decided we needed to leave for Little Rock immediately. We left as soon as we got home from the game park, but truly had a wonderful Christmas and felt so thankful and blessed.

Catching up...

Well, I have missed so much information on here since we have been back from India, sooo I have decided to catch up slowly. Here is a photo of my siblings and their kids. This photo was taken after my Mom's funeral celebration. It was a bitter-sweet day. It always seems weird to say it that way, but it really was. Mom is has full memory now, hand in hand with my Dad and at the feet of the King!

In this photo, my brother Mike and his wife Debbie are on the far left with their daughter Alex, my younger brother Thom is next with his wife Susan, youngest son Kyle, oldest son Derrick (who is more like a brother than nephew, which I might add is NOT on drugs even though the picture might allude to it! I am SOOO sorry Derrick! This was the only picture I had and your eyes are half closed!), and then my whole crew is on the right! I love you Tedford folks! (Especially you Derrick, sorry again)! For those of you who don't know, my oldest brother is 18 years older than me (he might kill me if he knew I put this in here!), and my younger brother is ten years older than me. They are both actually not much older than me in spirit, so go figure...we are all old foggies (are you kidding, if measured that way, I am around 21)! Moral of the story here is for those of you complaining that your kids are a little spread out, try having THREE "only-children"! My mom was a brave woman! I think I might cry if I had a baby when my next kid was already 10! Little did she know that her daughter would grow up to be one of her best friends : ) I would say that paid off for both of us. She was going in to get her tubes tied when she found out she was pregnant with me!! That was probably a rough day. Thanks for taking the high road Mom!

Snow Day Pictures...

Just some chilly pictures of our snow day! Korrin decided after just a minute that it was a bit cold outside and opted for a seat next to the fireplace instead : )

Clark , Audrey, and Colin huddled up for a quick picture...

Colin about to land a snow/ice ball on the camera. The kid has amazing aim!

Rollie Pollies

Today we had our first real good snow that was deep enough to sled in! The local schools were closed so I decided to call it a snow day for us too! The kids bundled up and put on layer after layer to keep warm. I giggled at the sight of Clark because he was waddling with way too much clothing. He still managed and made out okay and put one foot in front the other.