Snow Dust

On February 4th, San Antonio had a "snow day". School was cancelled due to the snow and ice on the ground. (Oh my Colorado friends/family, I hear you laughing at us "Texans"!) But, in our defense, the roads were dangerous, and we are not equipped to drive in such inclement weather! After the boys woke up and had breakfast, they dressed warmly and headed outside for their first taste of "snow". The amount of snow we had was like a "dusting", but the boys had fun, and we shoveled enough together to make snowballs. Ben got his Gran with a good one! :-) Randy and I are looking forward to taking the kid to the mountains to see REAL snow someday. But for now, here are some photo of our "snow dust" day.

Best Buds

Winter Comfort Food

On this dreary, raining day, I made this soup for dinner: Chicken Corn Chowder with Sweet Potatoes. Yummy! It was super easy (I bet you have most, if not all, of the ingredients in your pantry/refrigerator!)---and super delicious. I served the soup with a side of garlic breadsticks. The recipe makes a lot, but even better for left-overs! I promise this recipe will not disappoint!

School Nursing

I have been working as a school nurse now since November 1st----and I really like it. I find that every day is different. The stories that I hear from the students are never the same....and some of them get quite comical. Just ask me about the kid who told me he "electrocution shooting through his body" and then proceded to throw himself on the floor because the "electricity was so strong". (I think I should nominate him for an Oscar winning performance!) I have a great clinic assistant, Jennifer. She has been working at the school for 8 years and as the clinic assistant for 5, and she is more than great. She can triage those kids in and out of the clinic---and she knows them by name, their parents, their family history, etc. She has been a wealth of information coming into this new environment. My job is pleasantly not stressful (most of the time), and the kids really are great (most of them). :-) I have met some great people that work in the school and I am happy to have joined them.

2010: A Year in Review

Here is a glance back at the Hood family highlights from 2010! I can't believe we are embarking on 2011 in a just a few days---times seems to be slipping by so fast. Randy and I are in constant awe that our "babies" are growing up so fast and getting bigger and bigger by the day. We had a lot of great memories from 2010---and we are all looking forward to 2011 to be even better.

JANUARY

FEBRUARY

MARCH

APRIL

MAY

JUNE

JULY

AUGUST

SEPTEMBER

OCTOBER

NOVEMBER

DECEMBER

The Hood Family wishes everyone a very

Happy and Safe New Year!

Hey Blogger friends, what has your 2010 looked like? I encourage you to make your own "2010: Year in Review"---so I can see your highlights from this past year!

One more Christmas celebration...

The day after Christmas, we all met at Lana's (Randy's mom) house. Uncle Andy (Randy's brother), Aunt Sarah, and the girls, as well as Randy's half-sister, Maggie and her fiance Jaime, were there. Randy's mom has been very ill during 2010. She doesn't get out of the house much at all, so we took brunch and visited for a few hours. Unfortunately, I took my camera, but didn't take many pictures. We enjoyed the food, conversation, and company. And as usual, the little cousins had fun playing together.

Christmas Morning

Christmas morning was really fun. Both boys were giddy with excitement going to bed on Christmas Eve, with anticipation of Santa Claus. They woke up around 6:30am and had to wait at the top of the stairs until Mommy and Daddy were ready with cameras and coffee in hand. My parents rotate years where they spend Christmas (since all 3 siblings live in different parts of Texas), and this year happened to be the Hood year. We were happy that my parents were able to join us for Christmas morning, and experience the boys excitement as they saw what Santa brought them.

Here is a cute, bed-head picture of the boys, waiting to go downstairs!
Inspecting Santa's gifts...

Logan helping Gran open his present. Logan loved tearing the paper off of the gifts this year!

Ben helping Mommy open her present that he made at preschool.

Santa brought Logan a ride-on Jeep for Christmas. Santa must have noticed the boys arguing over Ben's gator, and thought it was time for Logan to have his own. Logan is still learning how to drive/steer his Jeep (he's crashed a few times into trees), but give him a couple of months and he will be a pro!

After gifts, we all had a wonderful Christmas breakfast together. And then my mom and I put together a scrumptious lunch. Around 3pm, we were all tired and ready for a nap. My mom and dad left to travel to Dripping Springs, and our little family laid down for a Christmas siesta. That evening, we had snacks in front of the TV and had a family movie night---flick of the day: The Incredibles. We had never seen this movie before---it is now one of our favorites! We had a blessed Christmas and are so thankful that our boys know the true meaning of Christmas too. We are blessed that God gave His only Son, Jesus---We praised Him on High---because without His birth, we would not live.

We hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas!