Christmas 2011

Christmas 2011 needs to be written down in record books. I'm pretty sure we had the most fun out of any other family. Trust me, we know how to party!!!! Some of us partied for a month, others were here a few weeks. My parents had queen bunk beds made for upstairs, so at one point we had four couples all snuggled in up there. It was so much fun. Late night talks, and laughing so hard we cried. I of course love being around all my siblings, and Gavin loved having built in playmates. You should see his Aunts and Uncles play with him. They are great!!!! If Aunt's and Uncle's weren't playing with him, then it was all about the cousins. We did so many fun things. My mom had it planned out to a "T." We were so sad when everyone had to leave, but I guess the party had to end sometime. :( Enjoy our amazing Christmas through pictures.


We had family pictures taken. This is one of the best. The others....not so hot

Friday night we rented a stretch hummer limousine and drove around Dallas to look at Christmas lights. Here Gavin is "Flying" from the front to the back.

Hodgkiss and Jones all packed in together
Gavin and Brylee snuggled together looking at the lights
Christmas Eve we had a visit for Santa and Mrs. Claus. The kids loved it, and felt so special.
One big happy family!!!
Grand kids in their matching pj's

Christmas morning was so much fun. Gavin really got into Santa this year. He was spoiled rotten. If fact, we all were.
Let the craziness begin
Gavin's stocking and present's from Santa.
After the craziness of Christmas morning, church, and amazing Christmas dinner, we all crashed pretty hard that night. We all needed our rest because Monday we woke up, packed an over-night bag, and headed to Great Wolf Lodge for two days. It has the largest in door water park in the U.S. There are only a handful of them scattered around the U.S., so we were in for a big treat. It was a BLAST!!!! We all loved it. They had a kiddie area with slides, giant ship with bigger slides (Gavin's favorite), and even had a couple of slides that scared the adults half-to-death. We took in every minute we could. Even with all of that swimming, Gavin still threw a fit about leaving. We loves the water.
Here is just one part of the indoor water park. The orange and green slides on the right of the picture were Gavin's favorite. He is just a dare devil.
Wednesday was our Adult night. We played whirlyball (pictured below), laser tag, and went out to dinner. It was so nice to be kid free for the evening. It meant we could act like kids again. One of the funnest kid-free nights we have had. While we were out acting like kids, all of the grand kids stayed home with Nana and Papa. They went to the park after naps, headed to Chuck e Cheese, and watched a movie. Talk about great grandparents. Our children have been so blessed to be apart of this family.



Friday morning we headed to SMU to watch BYU vs. Tulsa in the Arm Forces bowl. We love us some BYU football. Good thing we pulled it off in the end. That was a close one.
New Year's we all headed to Trail dust to eat some steak, slide down the 30 ft. slide, and do some country dancing. Annual sister's picture. I'm not sure why we do this. I guess to see how much older fatter/skinnier we look over the years. Probably not the best idea. Anyways, Gavin loved going down the slide over and over again. He hardly stopped to eat. We spent two and half hours there. Then, we ended our night with the traditional banana splits. Did i mention we did tons of eating.... I think we all gain around 10 pounds. YIKES!!!!
Gavin going down the slide.
5 out of 7 kids still partying hard!!!!

Ofcourse I took a million pictures, but tried to pick only a few. What you didn't see was many days of shopping, 3 movies, hours of outside playing, a game of kickball, taking the cousins to a indoor bounce house, broom hockey at the American Airlines Center, and nights of dance dance on the kinect. See, I told you we know how to party. If you didn't already want to be apart of my family, I'm sure you do now. :) I can't thank my parents enough for all the fun. It was a Christmas we will never forget.