The Christmas Photo

Ok- I tried to get organized early this year. On my way down to Cincinnati, I addressed all the envelopes, put return address labels and got everything ready so that all we had to do was get the picture taken, attach, picture and send out. Simple huh? I even pre-bought matching black shirts for all of us thinking that we could easily just do this at home. Save ourselves some time. Have one of those lovely family photos by the fireplace or Christmas tree.

So clearly - I was delusional. We started this "picture project" Friday. Tree got bought. Lights were on by Saturday (Thanks Daddy). Tree was finished Sunday and we had all had showers and gotten dressed in the matching clothes by noon on Sunday. Shelby was clearly not up for this project. There was to be a very cute black bow in her hair. The batteries on the camera were almost dead. My patience was clearly dead and Cole has one type of smile - A fake one. So instead of fighting the obvious - We went with it this year. Call it the two year old Christmas. Scratch whatever plans you thought you had and wing it. Here are a few examples of what we tried to do and what we settled with.

Practice Shot before hair was dry!

The whole family was with this but Shelby, she's really not impressed.

She's done at this point!

Yes this is what we called it quits with! It might seem like Cole is encouraging her, when the truth is - he was trying to put her arms down. Oh well - It is what it is this year - which is life with an uncontrollable two year old. God love her. She has "motions" and everyone is hurting them lately. Even Joy hurt her motions yesterday when her tail hit Shelby in the arm. Next year, we'll start in September!

I Forget how lucky I am sometimes

Beginning Saturday at Cole's swim meet, I didn't feel so hot. By Sunday, I was in full blown miserableness. It didn't matter what cold/flu medicine I took, I felt icky. In between sleeping off and on all day Sunday, Troy managed to get the laundry done, feed the kids, bake cornbread muffins for Cole's class on Monday, bake bread and deliver me a bowl of tomato soup with rice and grilled cheese and a glass of wine. Thanks hon for taking care of us!

Cole's Last Swim Meet

Can I tell you how thankful I am that he wears swim trucks down to his knees and not the bikinis that the guys used to wear! Cole has a black cap on, behind the guy in the black pants, in lane #3. He comes in 4th place. Good job Cole!

This is the hallway outside of the pool where all the swimmers and parents congregate because there is no room left in the pool area. Kinda looks like a refuge city for tired swimmers!

The Next Michael Phelps!

Our town started a swim club this year for the first time. Prior to this, we had signed Cole up for swim lessons this summer at the local high school in order to keep him from drowning. He has no body fat, so there's no hope of him floating. So for 8 days this summer he went from swim to football. I figured for 8 days it wouldn't kill him. Then we got the news that a new swim club was starting. Thinking, OK we've done football, soccer, basketball why not try swimming. Not having a ton of info about this, we went ahead and signed up and then realized that this was a 4 day a week endeavor. So bless my father for shuttling my son around 4 days a week, because between 2 jobs and 2 kids, neither Troy nor I cold manage this feat. Going to the initial practices, I have to admit, swim club wasn't looking promising, some of those kids made me want to throw life preservers in the pool! However I have to admit I underestimated the little man. .Not only can he tackle kids twice his size (OK maybe 3 times his size), but I think he might actually make it through the season (which runs from October - March) and be good!

Troy and I were excited to leave the world of insane football parents and go off to what we thought would be more civilized meets in swimming. OK - we were way wrong. Children should be allowed to have their meets/games/matches free from parents who are so consumed about winning and losing that whatever common sense they had before, leaves them at the event. I have heard more cussing, swearing, rude and nasty comments during children's sporting events than I have heard during pro-football games! Seriously folks, these kids are 8. Get a good book, newspaper, grab some wine in a cup, sit down and hang out.

Did I mention that Cole has to be to these swim meets at 7am and most of them are at least an hour away? The only thing that makes it totally worth it is seeing his cute little legs and his swim hat on! I'm going to attempt to enclose a video from the last meet.

Thankful Thursday

This week has been a particularly stressful week at work for several of us. We have been bogged down in stressful situations upset people and often have looked at things that have had few good solutions. What I have noticed is that sometimes when the worst comes, you see the best in people and I can say that I truly am surrounded by people that are true heroes. So today I am thankful for those that I see everyday who put children and families lives often before their own. Police, firemen, military, child protection workers, doctors, nurses, teachers and many others walk out their door everyday to make sure that someone else's life is better. I am thankful in my life to be surrounded by these people everyday and I can watch the truly amazing work they do. So many times little acts of amazingness go by un noticed by most, but they mean the world to one. So thank you to all those whose lives and jobs are there for serving others. What you do today may not change the world, but if it only changes one, it was enough.

Because sometimes we all need a little help whether we want it or not!

A Whole New World

Yes, the flower is going in Shelby's Room!

My blessed sister-in-law took me to the new IKEA store in West Chester, OH. Bless you to my brother - in- law for watching 3 very busy kids for several hours. Yes, Eric we owe you!

I had heard of IKEA, seen some furniture, but this is the first time I have been to a full size store. WOW! While Cole and Daddy spent their hours hunting in the freezing cold and rain only to see nothing, mommy and Aunt Eva were blissfully walking through two stories of everything you could ever want to organize your life and decorate your home. We wandered, had a great lunch, wandered some more. Talked. Didn't have to yell over 4 children.

Yes, as I learned later, I could have taken the wee ones, however it was lots of walking!
- 344,000 sq. ft., 26 acre pond- 48 room settings, 3 fully furnished home interiors- 350-seat restaurant, Swedish food market, bistro - Supervised children's play area (for children 37" - 54" tall)
I think we covered it all and knocked out some Christmas shopping on the way! So Thanks Eric/Eva/Chloe/Jake for a fun weekend!

Just FYI- Although the boys saw no deer this weekend, Eva and I took pictures of 20 on her cell phone on the drive home from IKEA. Sorry Boys!

Thankful Thursdays (Joy)

This week I am thankful for the amazing family and friends in our life.

I am thankful for two beautiful, smart kids and I am thankful that they love each other dearly.

I am thankful for a husband whose world revolves around his family and making sure we are taken care of.

I am thankful for a niece and nephew that are beautiful and amazing and so much fun to hang out with.

Lastly, lately we are especially thankful for Joy (one of two family dogs). Joy came to us injured, however has made a full recovery and is now living the posh life. She is fiercely protective of our family and a large play toy and source of great entertainment for both Cole and Shelby. Most nights she is content to sleep on the couch under Cole's bed or curled up in a blanket.

You don't get days like these often!

I had the day off for Veteran's Day. Thanks to all those who have served including my father. I got up this morning and Shelby and I wandered the house, visited with Smore (the bunny) and watched Dora for awhile. I felt my brain going to mush when Shelby leaned over kissed me and said "Mommy, can we go shoppin today?" So seriously, what was I supposed to do? So I called my mom, because everyone needs Mom time every once in a while and we set out for a girls day of shopping. We stopped for lunch, Shelby picked out dresses. She has a habit of picking the frilly dresses! It was nice to hear Shelby singing to Nana in the back and Nana singing to Shelby. Granted poor Nana had to sing songs on demand and sing them correctly or Shelby quite quickly informed her she wasn't doing it right! I'm posting the picture of the dress Shelby felt the need to wear today. A little dressy considering Mommy just threw on jeans for the occasion. God love her, she just isn't my wash and wear son! Cole's just not as high maintenance about his "look".

A Man and his Blow Torch

Troy decided that buying Creme brulee when we ate out was getting to be too expensive. He also learned that this wonderful little dessert involved a blow torch. So on a recent shopping trip, Troy bought ramekins, the blow torch and began looking up recipes to make this at home. Butane was a little hard to come by. Tractor Supply ended up having it for only $3.00/ but I had to convince the 80 year old retired farmer in the store that I really wanted butane and not propane. Troy's now in blow torch heaven. He's torched the creme brulee, he's torching bananas. If you can caramelize it - he's on it! We have an entire chocolate pie in the fridge, but he won't touch it because he can't torch it.

The Nocturnal Beast

Did you ever do the wrong thing for the right reason? Well, we do it around here daily. Shelby's school had adorable bunnies recently. The product of a relationship between Mocha (daddy) and Marshmallow (mommy). Shelby has been petting Mocha, who lives outside her classroom door for several months now and she adores Mocha. SOOOO.... I casually asked where the bunnies were going one day and low and behold.... Shelby wanted one. So we now have Smore. Cute little thing. Brought it home in a box, paid ungodly amounts for cage, food, bedding, litter box and loved on Smore lots. Never having had an in house bunny, I really should have read the instruction manual before Smore arrived. Apparently Smore eats and drinks more than any animal known to man. I think it eats more than the 4 of us combined! It also expels every bit of what it eats! Smore also appears to be nocturnal. I was unaware of this until the last week that if I don't get to bed before Smore, who is naturally in our nursery next to our room, I don't sleep. Smore enjoys bouncing, chewing and beating things around the cage beginning right around midnight and ending around 5 am. After having 2 children that didn't sleep through the night for years at a time, I'm not real excited about having an animal that requires night time entertainment. Joy (family dog) has expressed an interest in helping provide entertainment for Smore and by tomorrow I may just consider that option! Momma needs sleep. Looks beastly huh?

Parent Teacher Day!

Hey Everybody! It's my (Troy) first blog entry. After days of Jenny working on this thing, she's finally got the bugs out. Ok, so tonight was the parent teacher conference at Cole's school. Jenny and I met Cole's and talked about how well our first born was doing in the 3rd grade. So far, so good. He just brought home his first report card (complete with all A's). Apparently, he forgot to mention his ability (or lack there of) to participate in the AR reading program. Looks like he's going to have a new agenda from now on. Good Luck Cole!

Happy Election Day!

I was off today and after my morning breakfast meeting and a quick trip to Wal-Mart and the office, I stopped to do my American Duty and Voted! The lines here were short, however I have heard people say that in neighboring counties there were 2 and three hour waits to vote. Cole and Shelby had dentist appointments at the same time today. Cole breezed through his with one cavity, Shelby however has 4 and will need sedation. (ok sometimes I think she needs sedation everyday) We were in and out of the dentist in less than an hour, which was awesome! So that left us some time to play. Since Cole is out of school at 2:20 and lately, he's been putting in lots of time at school and swim and football, I surprised him by telling him I was keeping him out of school after the appointment and we would go shopping and to the Bakery. Shelby was WAY more excited about the Bakery. They both got turkey cookies, which I think I'll include a picture of below becuase they are really cute and mommy got some goodies for daddy and ... Ok mommy got some stuff too! Cole has been asking lots of questions about the election so he's excited to watch the news and the election returns tonight. I think we'll eat our cookies play his new Apples to Apples Jr. game and sit in front of the news. Happy Election Day! Troy is encouraging everyone to Vote Early and Often!

Our Family

Welcome to the Hoffman Site!

Fall cleaning began in earnest this weekend and I ran across last year's Holiday letter. It occurred to me that we wait until December to catch all those that we love up on our daily activities and lives. In a panic, I realized that it may take a book this year to fill even our close family in on what we have "been up to" With 2 kids, 2 dogs, 2 jobs, 2 houses, and activities to go with each, a yearly card just doesn't seem to do the job that we need it to do. There is also that guilt that goes with not ever being able to get those phone calls in to catch up with those that we wish we just had 5 tiny minutes to say hey, howdy, hi or what's up. OK, if you're on Troy's list it goes hey y'all, Ni how, and whatever the Thai word was for hello. So, in an attempt to keep those we love caught up in our lives, not take time from those who equally don't have 5 minutes to chat on the phone, and allow family and friends to check in with the speed growing Hoffman children at their own time and pace, we thought this blog might be a good idea all around. So, for family and friends, Welcome! Troy, Cole, Shelby and I hope this helps keep us in touch a little more often!