Nativity Play

It's that time of year when all the kids are doing their holiday plays, and I have lots of neices and nephews so I've been going to all of theirs. I missed taking pictures of two of the plays because I was holding Aidan and not in a good place to take photos, but I did get some of the Nativity play that the kids did during our Candlelight service.

Jenna cracked me up while they were singing. (She's the wayward angel there in the back)

The Angels

The Shepherds and Mary over there on the left.

King Herod and the wise men

After the play and candlelight service we have a dessert potluck and refreshments and we had a LOT of people show up for the service and the refreshments. It was a lot of fun!

First Night of Hanukkah

Tonight was the first night of Hanukkah


So we got together and lit the "servant candle" first. (the one in the middle)

Then the candle on the far right was lit to signify the first night, the other seven candles will be lit over the next seven days.


We do this in remembrance of the Macabees restoring the temple 3 years after it was destroyed, and to remember that Yeshua is the light of the world. (Short summary) :-)

Ahhh...it's Wednesday.

Not that that really means anything....just a little bit closer to the weekend. Cary is still trying to get everything resolved on our van and the insurance stuff, yada, yada.....I'm very grateful that he takes care of all that stuff. :-) I still haven't heard anything back on any of my tests from going to the doctor and hospital last week, so I'm going on the assumption that no news is good news.
Last Sunday some of us ladies got together for a night on the town (ha, ha). Melanie, Heather (Crouch), Erin, Sydney, Susan (Faber), and one of Melanie's friends named Julie, and myself all went out to eat while Cary and Aidan went and hung out with Dan, Ethan, Sam and Jesse (Hansen) . (He had stopped by to chat) Anyway, good times were had by all and I got the red meat that I've been craving. (Although I could use a big, fat, juicy steak right about now.)
Cary gets a week and half off of work here soon so we'll be leaving to spend time with family and I think we're all looking forward to that. Cary is taking Aidan and I this weekend and then he has to come back and work for TWO days before taking his break. I guess I really shouldn't complain since he is getting alot of time off. :-) Hee.

That's it for now.

Crazy Graduation Day

We headed for Logan dark and early in the morning and it was already starting to look like this....

Mostly all of us were worried about getting through Sardine canyon okay... We let mom and dad blaze the trail in front of us...wasn't that nice of us? :-)

We all managed to make it through the canyon and then while driving through Wellsville the wind was blowing snow all over so visibility was very bad, and all the sudden there was a stop light and a line a cars...Cary tried to stop but we just kept sliding and slid right into the back of an Explorer. Yay! That made our day.

Luckily, the damage is pretty minimal to both vehicles since we were going so slow to start with.

However, since we had to sit around and wait for the police to file a report, yada yada, that meant we missed the first part of the graduation, which means that we missed watching Ken and Abby walk. Nice.

Chandra, Dad, Kenneth, Mom, David

Aidan trying on the cap.

Thankfully the rest of the day was rather uneventful...

Back at the homestead, "admiring" the snow.

A rare occurance.

It seems like it gets harder and harder these days to get a family picture...like, one that ALL of us are in. :-) Sharon took this last weekend so I stole it, even though I look like a dork.





Tomorrow Ken is graduating from USU and we're all planning on driving up to Logan for the ceremony. Problem is, there is a blizzard that is supposed to be hitting tomorrow morning while we're supposed to be driving up there so I guess we'll see what happens.

I had my heart echo today and I won't know the results until probably Tuesday. However, the ultrasound tech kept asking why I was getting one done while she was looking at my heart, sooooo I'm guessing that's probably a good sign. :-)

Dr Appointment Update

I know, I know, most ultrasound pictures look like black spots and hazy white clouds, but you can sort of make out what you're looking at in these pictures.
I had an appointment yesterday where we got to see the baby and I had 8 vials of blood taken. (Yes! 8!) They told me to go eat a steak afterwards. :-)

I also had to do a 24 hr urine sample before going to the dr. Let me tell you how much fun it is to pee in a jar and then store it in your fridge. Well, I was hungry but now that I've looked into the fridge I think I just lost my appetite.....

I survived. :-) Tomorrow I get an echo on my heart so hope all goes well at that appointment.

Family Get-together

So the Hanks family gets together twice a year....we usually get together in June and December. Lately in our December meeting we've been renting a lodge up in the mountains for a night where we get together eat, talk, sleep, eat, etc....


This lodge is fairly good sized which is good since we usually have 40 - 65 ish people.

Usually there is more snow outside and the kids can go sledding and all that good stuff, but this year there just wasn't a whole lot of snow there.

There is always plenty of parking

Here is the kitchen

and creepy taxidermy everywhere

Dining room

There are only 7 bedrooms, but there are about 10 twin beds in the loft area, we were lucky enough to have this room. :-)

Aidan showing off his drinking skills.

Eating dinner.

Nick and Jesse were always fighting over who got to hold Aidan.

Dad and Kara were playing the piano and Ava wanted to join in on the fun.

The lodge managers had decorated the lodge for Christmas so they had baskets of ornaments and pine cones and Ava just loved grabbing the ornaments and sucking/biting them. Guess they looked good to eat.

Jenny and Sharla

Anita and Grandma

The lighting in there at night makes it nearly impossible for ME to take good pictures. I wasn't wanting to use my flash all the time, but if I didn't it just wasn't working out. I wish I wasn't so lazy and would learn how to take proper pictures with my camera. :-)