Gristmill

Brandon Ryder Groupie

Brandon Ryder was playing there later that night so Miss Callie was front and center for his sound check.

Gruene Hall

My kids are used to very structured days and over the Christmas break, they were like wild animals. So when Travis called and said his friend's friend (Aaron Einhouse) was playing at Gruene Hall one afternoon, I knew it would be a good opportunity to run/dance some energy out of the kids. They love Gruene Hall as much as I do!

Dodd Christmas

And the Dodd Christmas was at Blaine and Meghan's this year. These are some loved and spoiled rotten kiddos!

Azlynn With Aunt Robyn

Cade and GG

Baylee is always so helpful

Azlynn with her mom and dad on her first Christmas!

Cade kisses Azlynn every opportunity he gets

Santa Claus Came To Town

Merry Christmas!

Just a little update on our family in 2011...
Baby #3 will make his appearance sometime in late April or early May. So far, everything is looking great and he measures a little bigger than expected. We can't wait to meet him. I can't help but be nervous about adding him to our already crazy family but I'm sure he will fit right in.
Callie Rae spent the first half of the year at the Morgan Center. We made the decision to move her to Sts. Peter and Paul School's Pre K 3 class when school started. She loves school and learning and reciting prayers and parts of mass. She still loves to momma her big brother and help with his therapy. She is learning sign language along with him and often knows things that we don't know. We catch her messing with his feeding tube way too often. In fact, she loves to help us with everything we are trying to do. One of her favorite things is to pretend that she is a waitress. She walks around with a notebook and pen taking our orders but she is always out of the food that we want (we probably eat out too much.) Her favorite TV show is the Fresh Beat Band, her favorite movie is Tangled, and her favorite toy is her bike. She is the furthest thing from shy and will talk to anyone and everyone. She loves spending time with her family and she is so excited to become a big sister. She is enjoying watching my belly grow and tells me often how huge I am. I'm afraid she is going to be a little too much help with her baby brother because she absolutely loves babies and thinks she can independently care for them.
Cade started Kindergarten this year. He is in the special needs classroom but does inclusion with other kindergartners for things like PE. He has made great progress with his sign language and can sign 30-40 signs. He also knows about 7 colors. His only verbal word is "mama" but can make several animal sounds. He loves that he is finally able to communicate and picks up new signs quickly. He is even combining signs. We are hitting the potty training hard this year and he is doing very well. He gets private therapy in our home for OT, PT and Speech as well as at school. His attention span is increasing. His absolute favorite thing is any kind of music and he loves to dance. I wish I could say that he is outgrowing his naughtiness but he is just getting more creative and doing things like pulling the fire alarm to evacuate the whole elementary school, flushing his hearing aid down the toilet, etc. He is also still very hard on his feeding tube. I get a call from the school nurse or his teacher at least once a week. But overall, he still maintains his sweet disposition and will accept and give hugs and kisses (closed mouth ones!) anytime of the day. Cade knows there is a baby in my tummy but I'm pretty sure he has no idea that one will soon be in our house.
Shane worked for GeoFill Material Technologies for the majority of the year and spent lots of time traveling back and forth to Dallas. In October, a job opportunity became available working under his brother for EOG Resources. He is now working as a lease operator in the oil field in south central Texas. Shane seems to love outside work but he loves working with his brother and buddies even more and I think he likes staying close to home. He is helping his parents build their new house Stockdale as well. He still maintains many hobbies such as hunting, fishing, golfing, etc. and a very active social life.
I am still at Christus Santa Rosa- NB working in labor and delivery and nursery and I still love it. I work full time which means I work three 12 hour shifts a week. On my days off, I catch up on house work, sleep (it's hard work making a person,) and enjoy shopping without two kids in tow... exciting, I know. The kids keep me pretty busy otherwise so I don't have much time for anything else (as you can tell from my blog progress...)
We feel very thankful for all of the blessings in our lives this year. We hope 2012 continues to be good to us and to all of you. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone!

Krug Christmas

Poor Allie took an iron stocking holder to the head. There was plenty of blood but I think that her mommy took that hit harder than she did.

Sunnye got to experience our crazy Christmas

Aren't they cute????

That foot on the left belongs to a 2 year old. Emily is going to have to special order her shoes as an adult. 

They could have played in the paper all night