Advent Calendar Fun

I started a Christmas Advent Calendar last year with Liam that was so much fun that I decided to make it one of our yearly Christmas traditions. It was especially fun this year because Blake joined in the fun for his 1st Christmas celebration. From December 1st - 25th the boys got a treat & and we did a fun Christmas activity. I made the advent calendar myself out of stockings, clothes pins, and yarn. We had so much fun this year and now that Liam is 3 years old he is starting to understand it. He always looked forward to looking inside the stocking each morning to see what fun activity he would be doing. He also loves numbers and counting so he liked to read the numbers and had fun counting down to Christmas day. I wanted to take a picture of each activity we did but being busy with a newborn with colic it wasn't very easy so I did the best I could. I was just happy I was able to keep up this year. Here's a list of the activities we did.

Day 1
We went out for ice cream at Dairy Queen

I took Liam out to Dairy Queen and we both had yummy Pumpkin Pie Blizzards. We were both still sick getting over our bad colds we had on Thanksgiving but it tasted so yummy!


Day 2
Watched Frosty The Snowman & drank hot chocolate. This Liam's favorite Christmas movie!

Day 3

Made a scrap paper stocking

Day 4

Painted a cookie plate with Santa

A pottery making shop here in town called Bisque Bistro had a paint with Santa day. Liam painted a cookie plate, Santa ornament, and got to meet the big man in red himself. It was a blast. Its a great place to go and the lady who owns the shop is a member or our church and is always so sweet to us when we come.

Liam painting his Santa cookie plate
Painting a Santa Claus ornament
Close up of the handprints
What it looked like after
Santa's cookie plate with cookies Liam made
Liam & Santa

Day 5

Christmas shopping with Mommy

Day 6

Watched a Christmas movie & ate popcorn

Day 7

Decorated Christmas cookies

Day 8

School Christmas Concert

Liam's school put on a Christmas concert. It was so adorable! You'll have to read my other post about this day. Lots of memories made that day. It was so special to watch Liam sing. He did such a great job!

North Pole Village

This is such a wonderful family fun place to celebrate the Holidays. We have gone every year but this year it was special to have Chris come since he's always working he was able to take the night off. Its run by volunteers. They turn a warehouse into a Christmas wonderland village. Kids can decorate a cookie, write a letter to Santa, adopt a pet (AKA stuffed animal), pick out a book, go ice fishing for prize, pictures w/ Santa, hayrides, live nativity, caroling and lots lots more.

Our first family picture with Santa
Liam loves getting his face painted

Blake had fun hanging out

Day 9

Watched Muppets Christmas Carol & drank hot chocolate

Day 10

Made Rudolf craft & watched the movie Rudolf The Red Nose Reindeer

Day 11

Children's Choir Christmas concert at church

Day 12

Made Christmas gifts for teachers

Day 13

Made Christmas cards for teachers

Day 14

Made Reindeer cookies

These reindeer cookies were the death of me. I saw them on pinterest and thought they were so cute and looked like they would be easy to make. Well I was wrong. They were so ridiculously hard it was crazy. I could not for the life of me get the chocolate covered pretzels (AKA antlers) to stay on. The chocolate would melts and just fall off. These reindeer looked like they were being hunted. I have to say despite how they looked they tasted yummy. I guess that's all that really matters anyhow.

Day 15

Christmas party at school & watched Charlie Brown's Christmas & drank hot chocolate

Liam had such a great time at his school's Christmas party. He got lots of goodies and gifts from his friends.

This is Liam's new favorite movie thanks Grammy who bought him

a bunch of cool Charlie Brown Christmas stuff for Christmas one year. This is his favorite part watching them lift their head up when they sing.

Day 16

Went to a birthday party at The Jumpy Place

Day 17

Sang Christmas Carols

Day 18

Watched Twas The Night Before Christmas

Day 19

Went out for breakfast

Day 20

Drove around looking at Christmas lights

Day 21

Helped wrap presents

Day 22

Went to see lights at West Pole House

Every year after Thanksgiving this home turns on thousands of Christmas lights that are synchronized to music. They do this each year for the public to watch. Its so amazing. Its all controlled by a computer and you just tune your car radio to the radio station to hear the music. It's wonderful!!

Day 23

Looked at Christmas lights downtown

Day 24

Opened one present & read Twas The Night Before Christmas

Day 25

Enjoyed Christmas day read The Story of Jesus' Birth & sang Happy Birthday to Jesus

Christmas Eve 2011

On Christmas Eve before I left for church Chris made me a special dinner a Capris Salad. It was Delicious! Such a great surprise

After I came home from church we all opened up one gift. It's become a tradition for Liam to buy Daddy a fun t-shirt. Last year it was Boo Berry cereal this year it was A&W Root Beer. Blake joined in this year too and gave Daddy a Coca Cola t-shirt. He loves getting these t-shirts

A Very Special Day

December 8. 2011


I had to be sure I made myself take the time to sit down and write about how special today was. I can't begin to explain how much fun our family had today.
It started this morning when we went to Liam's school's Christmas concert.
The 2, 3 & 4 year olds put on an adorable Christmas concert and pageant. Liam's class sang two songs "Love The Lord"' & a very sweet Happy Birthday song to Jesus. It was my first time watching him sing in a Christmas concert and he was awesome I was so proud. Chris, Blake & I went to the concert and Blake was such a sweet little boy. I dressed him all up in his Christmas outfit Santa hat and all. He looked like a little elf. Blake was so quiet I think he enjoyed listening to the music too.


I really got so choked up watching my little man sing. I guess I'm just so surprised how much Liam has grown. I'm so proud of all that he accomplishes every day. He stood up in front of a big crowd and sang his little heart out, he didn't misbehave he stood still and looked so cute. He didn't see Chris or I until the very end when the kids were leaving the stage then he saw me and cried for a little bit. I've learned he does better when he doesn't see us in the audience. He was okay his teacher was really sweet and picked him up and helped him off the stage. So sweet.

Here are some pictures and video of Liam's Christmas concert.


"Love the Lord with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and all your strength..."


"The Wise Man Built His House"


"Do You Love Jesus? I Do I Do..."


"Happy Birthday Jesus"



After Liam's

Later in the evening we went to The North Pole Village in Canyon Lake TX which has become a Christmas tradition for us now. I've gone with Liam and my mom for two years. This year was extra special because Chris was able to take the evening off to come along which meant so much to the boys and myself to have him there to join us. It's a really fun festive place decorated like a north pole village where the kids stop in the little stores and can make a cookie, buy a book, adopt a stuff animal, get their face painted, write a letter to Santa, go for a tractor ride, see a live nativity, and meet Santa of coarse. The boys really enjoyed it. Blake did so well he looked so cute all dressed up. Liam had so much fun going from one house to the other. He really liked to get his face painted. He also liked to go ice fishing for a treat. It's a really wonderful, inexpensive Holiday activity that I hope we can continue for years to come. One of the many wonderful places to go to for the Holidays here in TX.

Thanksgiving Day

Thanksgiving Day was rough this year. We spent the day at home with just the four of us. I was so sick with a very bad cold that I caught from Chris of all people the one person in the house who hardly ever gets sick. I had a soar throat, cough, achy, congestion. I was miserable. What made it really hard was Blake was only a month old and I was breast feeding him too. I had to wear a mask and wash my hands. It worked great he didn't even get sick. Chris and I decided awhile back that this year since we'd be busy with a newborn we would order out our Thanksgiving dinner. We ordered our turkey and sides from Bill Miller BBQ and we made dessert. It was great. I was so disappointed though because I was so sick I couldn't taste anything. I hate when your so congested you can't even taste your food especially on Thanksgiving. We tried to make the best of it. I didn't decorate all that I had planned  I did very little because I was so sick. Blake also has colic and is up almost all night from 8 p.m. to 4 a.m. crying so I didn't get much sleep the night before with him and me being sick. Just such hard time. Liam had a great day though. He watched football with Daddy ate all his dinner and watched movies.

This is Chris actually a few days before when he had a cold. I later caught his cold but it was worse than when he had it. I had to wear a mask too. Blake never got sick so I guess it worked

This all I had the strength to put together being so sick. This is Liam's seat It had a lot of turkeys to color and crayons. He loved it

I love this cornucopia my Mom made for me a few years ago.

Blake is Here!

Blake Conley Hoffman arrived on Friday October 21st at 3:12 a.m. He weighed 7 lbs. 7 oz and was 21 1/2 in. long. He was born at Christus Santa Rosa Hospital in New Braunfels TX.

Our crazy day started on Thursday October 20th at 4 a.m. the time Chris & I woke up and then went out for breakfast. I was scheduled to be induced at 6 a.m. BUT when we got to the hospital we were informed that they did not have any rooms available they were full and would have to come back at 8 :30 a.m. So we left the hospital came back home got a little more sleep then we woke up at 7:30 a.m. and headed to the hospital. Once we arrived in our room and got checked in it took another 3 or 4 hours before I was actually hooked up and ready to go. To say the least it was a very very busy day in labor & delivery at the hospital.

My labor progressed a lot quicker than with Liam (23 hours) I was already 3 cm dilated before I arrived so we were progressing. Although Dr. Blair thought it would go faster but things slowed down a bit. Once I was 4 cm I started to feel discomfort and pain and asked for my epidural. The nurses I had were great! I had several that went to my church that I already knew which made it a lot more comforting. The labor and delivery nurse that was with me all night was actually the Mom of a friend of mine who is my bible class at church. Her name was Betty and she so sweet and helpful.

After Dr. Blair came in a broke my water my labor started to progress. I was hoping to have the baby by the evening but it lasted longer. At one point around 7 or 8 cm the Blake's heart rate went down (like with Liam) Dr. Blair repositioned me and placed a fetal heart monitor on Blake's head and finally his heart rate went back to normal. Dr. Blair thought the way I was laying may have put some strain on Blake's umbilical chord because when I changed positions his heart rate went back to normal. It was a little bit of a scare but Dr. Blair was so confident that he was fine and he was. It wasn't until later on when my labor progressed I realized that my epidural wasn't working properly because I was only numb on one side of my body. The entire left side of my body was numb and had no feeling but the right side I could feel everything. I finally was able to let the anesthesiologist know and he gave me another dose and I finally was comfortable. It took a half hour of pushing. Things were going well I was pushing well and made lots of progress but then I had trouble pushing and it took a little longer. At that time just near the end Dr. Blair decided it would be best if I got some assistance and he used the vacuum to help. Luckily he only had to use suction just once at the end. Blake was born happy and healthy although he had the umbilical chord wrapped around his neck it was loose and he was fine. It was so scary to know that we again had another umbilical chord wrapped around our baby. So glad that it was loose and didn't cause any complications. Blake came out crying and taking lots of breathes. He was so sweet and beautiful. I felt so relieved and blessed. It was 3:12 a.m. and I was starving!!! There was not a lot of restaurants open that early but Chris left shortly after we got settled and went to Whataburger to get me some breakfast. Right after Blake was born I immediately started to breastfeed him. To my surprise he caught on so quickly and was pro. I was so proud of him and myself because I really wanted it work this second time around and it did. Thanks to the wonderful nurses who were great at encouraging me.

The next evening Liam & my mother came to visit us at the hospital. My mom was so wonderful taking care of Liam for us while we at the hospital. She & Liam came with lots of goodies including pumpkin shakes from McDonalds and snacks and goodies. Liam looked so sweet in his big brother t-shirt. He got to open his gift Blake bought for him which he loved. Liam also brought me flowers and Blake a gift a little sea horse that plays music. So sweet! I really missed being away from Liam so much. I loved seeing him look at Blake and Me and try to understand what was going on. He was so good at the hospital.