In December

In early December Heather, Annie and I flew out to Wisconsin to surprise Bethany.  It is one of the newest highlights of my life.  The anticipation of it all just about did us in before we arrived.  When we got to her house and knocked on the front door little Ivy answered and had the most confused look on her face.  She let us in but we couldn't find Bethany anywhere.  You would have thought she was expecting us- her house was spotless with beds made, dishes done and laundry going.  Here's how we finally tracked her down-

Wisconsin 2012 from Kobie Hatch on Vimeo.

We had a great time loving on Sapphire, hanging out with the kids and enjoying time together as sisters.  I think I speak for us all when I say our stomachs hurt the whole time from laughing so much.  It was a great trip and one that probably will never happen again.  Things just worked out so well- we found roundtrip tickets for an unbelievable price, we were able to easily make arrangements for our kids at home and although we almost missed our flight home, it all went off without a hitch.

Before we new it, Christmas was upon us and it was time for School Programs.  Being the wonderful mom that I am, I took about one picture.  I guess it was Kimber's turn.

Kimber got to have a a group of girls over to decorate sugar cookies.  They all had a great time doing cookies, dressing up and making a mess everywhere they went.

I used to be a Scrooge of sorts and didn't enjoy the childlike part of Christmas but now that my kids are getting older I feel like I'm coming around.  We try to keep our focus on Christ before Christmas and on Christmas Eve but once our little Christmas Eve "program" is over, I let my kids get giddy and excited about Santa.

Once again Santa and Mrs. Claus came by for a visit Christmas Eve night and the girls were just as surprised as ever.

 I was able to get all of the wrapping done early so Christmas Eve came together nicely and we were all in bed early.

 Christmas Day was once again full of gifts, family and food.  After opening gifts at home we drove to the Valley to be with our extended family, a tradition I'm not sure we can keep up for too many more years.

Nearly Another 6 Months....

Has come and gone.  I just can't seem to stay on top of this whole blog thing.  I've thought about closing it down but then I think about all the hard work and time I've invested and realize I should try harder at keeping up with things.  In the last nearly six months, Lucy has {obviously} had her cast removed but had a noticeable bend in her arm {that is slowly straightening out}, had lots of company, celebrated Halloween with a girls night for my gals and their cousins, celebrated Thanksgiving, Christmas and Jared's and my birthday and started the second half of the school year.

Two days before the cast we due to come off Lucy's arm protector got pulled down to the point where water could fill her cast.  This is the result.  Five weeks of dirt and summer fun.  Thankfully we were able to get in to the Doctor a day early to have her cast removed because it smelled worse than stinky feet!

The bend.  The Doctor promised us it should fix itself within a year and thankfully it's much better.  You can still feel the bend in her bone but it's hardly noticeable other than that anymore.  

We were lucky enough to have some awesome customers who have become good friends of ours.  They own Cerreta Candy Company in Glendale and have invited the girls many times to come to the factory and watch them make chocolate and tour the factory.  The girls were elated one day when Marisa invited them out to visit while they were up to make Halloween marshmallow pops.  Marisa had every type of candy and supply you could think of.  They made their pops into witches, cats, spiders and more and also made little bugs out of the mints, shown below.  I was more concerned with making sure the girls didn't make a mess of their place that this was the only picture we ended up with.

A few weeks later I took the Addie and Kimber to the Hale Theater to see Snow White.  Such a cute little play and of course the girls had a great time.

Just before Halloween the girls invited all their Hatch cousins up for a Halloween themed girls night.  I would love to say I snapped lots of pictures that night but it was busy busy busy with lots going on.  Everyone wore a costume, we ate lots of yummy food, made cute newsboy hats, played some really fun games and ran on little sleep.  I think it was about midnight before they all crashed and were up bright and early the next morning.

For Halloween the girls worked to earn their costumes.  We had a witch, a fairy and Dorothy from Wizard of Oz.  

Fast forward to Thanksgiving.  Out of the whole day I ended up with this-

My parents and youngest siblings spent the Holiday in Wisconsin with Bethany and her family, including their newest addition, Sapphire, so Heather hosted the family.