water balloons, shaving cream and a razor!

What do these all have in common?? Mitch and I (and a few other adults) took 25 kids to a event called Cabin Fever. The kids swim, play on inflatables and go to a big concert. This year they brought in Kid Blitz Live. The guy plays crazy games with the audience and teaches the kids important lessons along the way. Anyway, he asked for a husband to volunteer his wife, so of course Mitch volunteers me. Well I go up and then Mitch has to come up to. I get to hold a water balloon over his head with shaving cream on it. Abi then gets to come up and shave the cream off! We were racing against another family. We lost but Mitch still got wet!! It was a fun day.

Hooton Girl #6

Oh yes 6 Hooton Girls. Kailee Ann Hooton was born to Matt and Dana Hooton (Mitch's brother) on Feb. 13th. So here is how it plays out Abi 10, Clara 8, Bella 6, Brianna 4, Jillian 2, and Kailee

What will we do when the weddings start!

Those Hooton Boys don't stand a chance :)

Science Fair Winners

Abi did her project on roller coasters. She and Mitch created a cool marble roller coaster (idea given by GSmith). All the kids loved it at school. She got a third place ribbon.

Clara did her on Mars. She and Roanna created a paper mache Mars. She got a third place ribbon too.

We looked at old movies last night boy do they grow up fast!!

Two girls watching the super bowl?

last night spent the evening watching the super bowl with Abi. Actually we watched the commercials until the 4 quarter. When two people watch football that know nothing about football here are some questions that come up..... why do they wear such tight pants?, why do some kicks score 3 points and others don't, how many points for a touch down, why doesn't the quarter back play all the time, and last but not least what is a first down?
Well, we did enjoy the game and I was a Giant fan for one night having to root on the Manning boy and the underdog.
And all the commercials were terrible I still remember the one where the heart came out of the lady and walked down the hall. I was hoping I would forgot that one!
Have a great week.

I've Got the Music in Me

My kids seemed to have inherited some love of music. Drew dances to music with spoons. Maybe he will be a drummer. Brianna puts on skirts and dances like she is in high school musical. Abi is doing great on the recorder and the piano. Clara likes to dance too. didn't get a pic of her. I'm going to sing this Easter at church any ideas??

Snowing here again. Mitch is going in for root canal today. Got my taxes in to tax people.

Hopefully some good will come of all of it. Enjoy the super bowl!

January Where is the humor in that?

Joel as a girl, Sara as a boy!! And they still turned out OK :)

Karla posing her first family picture.

Found these pics the other day thought they might make you laugh.

Watched a Christian comedy yesterday and he said he has two rules to live by

1. Life is too short not to laugh

2. Life is too long not to laugh

I am trying to inject humor in my life. Like Drew greeting me naked at 6:00 AM wanting breakfast. Like Clara doing her funny dances and saying Dude. Like Abi telling me details of what happens at school. Like Brianna playing dress-up all day long.

What makes you laugh??

2007 in Review

This is my Christmas letter and a yeah we are all well!! Welcome to any newcomers!

We had the privilege of going to DisneyWorld this Christmas! It was a blast! The weather was gorgeous around 70 all week and no rain! We saw all the shows, rode the rides and were plain exhausted by the time we got home! We traveled with Mitch's family (13 all together), traveling went well and we all good along :) The girls got to go to a Princess breakfast and meet all the princess. Brianna was in awe!

Spent the next few days at Karla's with all the Smith's. Got to meet Oliver for the first time what a cutie! Kids got presents and played Thomas the train and WII.

Other 2007 news:

Abigail: 4th grade is starting to be involved in lots of things at school, student council, young astronauts, circle the state (a choir group that will perform at Goshen College later this year), piano lessons (not from mom this year) and this year we started a puppet/drama group at church for 4th-6th grade, Abi is great at the puppets! This summer she did swimming lessons, basketball and volleyball camps. Abi is getting good on the computer and even has her own email account abihoot@yahoo.com Now she wants to blog too we'll see! Next thing you know she will want a cell phone and a car!!

Clara: 2nd grade.... Is our artist, she loves to draw, play legos and write..... She took swimming lessons this summer. She is starting to read chapter books and loves math! She is taking piano from mom and is doing really well. She even loved the roller coasters at Disney! Clara likes to listen to music and dance too.

Brianna: 4 years old.. is in a pre-K class Mon, Tues, Wed. Is my big helper with the little ones at home. She likes to play dress-up rarely at home do you find her in her regular clothes. She likes to do crafts and watch movies (usually princess ones) also she can sing and dance to every song in High School Musical! She is big girl in a little girl size (Drew now out weighs her)

Next fall onto kindergarten!

Drew - age 2, Drew is all boy, he loves trains, outside, jumping and climbing, and loves watching Bear in the Big Blue House... He talks all the time and rarely slows down for anything. He will sit for a book or two. He is up at 6:30 am everyday and has chocolate milk to get him started!

I caught him today going outside saying he was going to work for Hoots (his dad's business)

maybe one day soon he can!!

Roanna: age 30? I never slow down either unless I have a good book to read... I still babysit for the one little girl (school year only), work at the library doing a storytime for babies, help with S&S photography business (when my grandpa passed away this past spring had to be the second photographer at a few weddings scary!!), took the kids camping for a week at Potato Creek, help run the Kids Wednesday program at church including the puppet team, PTO treasurer and still find time to read once in awhile.

Mitch: age pushing 40 - He is still successully running his own business Hoot's Handyman and stays pretty busy (bathrooms, roofs, mowing etc...) He works part-time for Richard's Home Center, plows snow when we get it, worked all the home ND games for NBC, helps his brother out with his audio business. He helps with our Wed night programs this year he is teaching the 4-6th graders. In his free time he likes to play fantasy sports on the internet and watch movies!

Sending our love and thanks through this blog. Hope to hear from everyone!

Happy New Year.... Mitch, Roanna, Abigail, Clara, Brianna and Drew (The Hootons)