Thursday, December 27, 2012

Christmas 2012

We had a truly wonderful Christmas this year! As always, I find myself spending the few days after Christmas really taking in how blessed Rob and I are. While some people spend the holiday alone (which I can't hardly think about, it makes me want to cry) or even just away from their families, Rob and I are blessed to get to spend it with BOTH of our families. We spent Christmas Eve with his family at his grandparents house in Hutch. Most of his cousins and his sister were with their in-laws this year so it was a much smaller group than usual. But it was fun to all be around one table for our meal that night. I didn't take my camera and thought I had a few pictures on my phone but I didn't. Next year I will do a much better job of documenting the festivities!

To kick off the Christmas weekend, Hyde Park hosted their annual Luminaria! I LOVE the luminaries and have SO many great memories walking around with friends, welcoming people to my parents house, and more. It is a truly beautiful night and a true Hutchinson tradition. Joe arrived home just in time to help light candles.
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 He brought friends to help out, too. I tried to get a picture of them lighting bags, too, but it turned out blurry. I thought it was still kind of pretty though. :) IMG_0433

 My parents' corner on the night of luminaries. photo (7)

 As we have every year we went to First Presbyterian Church's Christmas Eve service. We have been doing this since before we were even married...just not together. It was at this Christmas Eve service that Robby first saw me handing out programs (and still could tell you to this day exactly what I was wearing!). I love reflecting on that every year. :)
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After church with our sibs...just missing Ruthie and Ryan (and Savs!). image_2 (3)

After Christmas Eve service, and after dinner at his grandparents, we headed back to my folks to spend the night and next morning. Joe will probably kill me for this, but oh well. :) I love just hanging out in the living room with my fam!

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My parents' living room has a lot of golds and yellows in it giving off a very gold/warm glow in all my pictures. At first I was going through and correcting it, but then i decided I kind of loved it. That is how the room felt, very warm and cozy. So the first couple ones are "fixed"...the last few are just straight off the camera. :)
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 My parents getting ready to open one of the boys Christmas gifts...Taboo!!! We played a lot of Taboo over the next 24 hours.

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Matt's first Christmas with our family! :) IMG_0442

 As always, my mom read the Polar Express and my dad read Twas the Night Before Christmas to us. I love this tradition. Even as I'm writing this I'm chuckling just a bit because I think of recently when at a baby shower you were asked to share a favorite holiday tradition. She said this one and mentioned that at one point her and my dad asked if we wanted them to keep reading and we of course said "YES!" She said, "So now if you look in our window on Christmas Even we're just a bunch of adults sitting around reading children's books." Still love it.
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The boys really wanted to open a present, so Bets and I picked one for them. Needless to say, we got them these hats. Love this little photo series even if I did have the wrong focus set on my camera for a few of them. :)
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Joe loves his hat!
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BEST FRIENDS!
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Blurry Christmas Jammies. IMG_0460

On to Christmas morning! IMG_0470

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We are so spoiled and we know it. IMG_0474

Rob's gift from my brothers. :) IMG_0476

The boys were very proud of their Christmas shopping and wrapping this year! :) IMG_0477

Note the arrow that says "Cute Brother" and points to a picture of Joe. I said "Wow did you save that just for this?" and Joe said "No! I found a whole stack of them in the living room!" To which my mom said "NO JOE!!!! I was saving those!!!!!" Oh well...so we have no evidence of Joe being in the Hutch paper. Whatever. :)

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They even found a picture of Matt's brother Jak to wrap one of his gifts in! :) IMG_0480

 Boo is such a helpful dog. :) IMG_0482

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Another Christmas tradition...the Christmas Tree shaped cinnamon rolls! As always, whoever finds the pickle gets to pick the first cinnamon roll (this was a VERY big deal growing up!).

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We enjoyed a delicious Christmas lunch (beef tenderloin...YUM!) before heading over to Wichita. IMG_0503

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Again, I didn't take my camera to my grandparents or to Rob's parents that night. Christmas photo fail. I will do much better next year. MUCH better. I promise. Hope you all had as wonderful and blessed Christmas as we did! :)

Saturday, December 8, 2012

Baby Joe is 18!!!

My littlest brother is 18 years old!!! WHEN DID THAT HAPPEN?! I still have vivid memories of the day he was born. My parents never found out what they were having, so I found out I had another little brother at gymnastics that day. We went up to meet him that night, then my Mimi made us sloppy joe sandwiches in honor of his arrival!

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 He completed our family in the best way. My mom always said she wanted six kids. My dad wanted two. We joke that "they compromised at four." But all of us know why they really stopped at four...because once Joe was born my mom just knew, this was it. Our family was complete. As my dad said after they announced it was a boy "the balance of power has been restored!" But really, Joe was just the perfect end piece to our family puzzle. I look back at family pictures before he was born and it just doesn't seem right...if all four kids aren't in the picture...it just isn't right.
 
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He is the true baby of the family, we all dote on him, but he loves us back just as much. Being the baby, I'm pretty sure his feet didn't touch the ground for the first two years of his life. We just wanted to hold him all the time and even today that resonates in his personality. He is a hugger. And he loves being close to people, whether it is us, Savannah, or even just his friends.

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 I am seriously so proud of this kid. I could go on and on, but I'm going to try and save some of that for when I finally post his senior pictures. For now, a few pictures from his birthday.

 He had a game on his birthday, but I still wanted people to know it was his birthday. Although I don't think they needed me reminding them...at one point the entire student section broke out in the happy birthday song. He is loved. :) He is also a good sport. :)
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I even had his friends put on party hats! :)

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 We went out to Applebee's afterwards...I made him and Savs take a picture with the heart shaped onion ring.
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 Love my not so little, not so baby brother!

Saturday, December 1, 2012

Thanksgiving!

Due to Joe Henry's practice schedule (meaning he practiced on Thanksgiving!) we spent the holiday in Wichita with my Grandma and Grandpa Bear! It was truly a great day! We had some delicious food and spent most of the afternoon playing outside. It was a BEAUTIFUL fall day! We even created (and then destroyed) a big leaf pile. Here are a few pictures!


I took a lot of pictures of Chief in the leaf pile. He was just so cute! He would dive in and out of the leaves like a swan. And sometimes, he would just charge the pile, completely disappearing for a little while before finding his way out. Love this pup! IMG_6398

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I don't remember taking this, but found it on my camera. I think my mom might have snapped it after I handed my camera off to her. I thought it was too funny not to post! IMG_6449

All the Dower Grandkids in our Dower Classic shirts! :) IMG_6455

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Betsy and Matt celebrated Thanksgiving with his family on Wednesday then with us on Thursday! So fun! I snapped a few pictures of them. I'll share the rest later. :) IMG_6538

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Betsy may have gotten picked on just a bit. :)
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How pretty is my sister?!
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 I think Chief looks so cute in this one! IMG_6557-2

Love my family!
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