Christmas Letter 2013

- December 16, 2013

Merry Christmas from

our family to yours.

It has become a tradition for

me to create a yearly ABC Blog

to celebrate our year!

We hope you enjoy seeing

how our family spent 2013!

Between trips to Houston, Family Reunions,
and our Sibling Trip to DC, we
got to spend a lot of time with
the AVEN family this year.

With 3 very active BOYS, we never
suffer from lack of little boy fun!

CORA Elise entered our lives in April
and our lives will never be the same!

Introducing Caleb and Aaron to
DISNEYLAND in November was
great fun!
To see more of our
adventures, click here.

It's not often that I carry out
a Pinterest project,
but this EASTER plate was
fun for our little guys.
Check out our other
Easter fun here.

I cannot even begin to tell you what
fun it was to have our FAMILY Reunion
here in Colorado at the Estes Park
YMCA. To see more of
our adventures, click here, here, or here.

GRAHAM is our newest great-nephew.
How many grown women does it take
to entertain a little one?

HOUSTON visits help me to stay
in touch with wonderful friends.
Here Barbie is enjoying
meeting Cora.

There is never a lack of
IMAGINATION
when you have grandchildren.

JENNY is enjoying holding Cora and
this is just a preview of what is to come.
We will be blessed with the first
twins in the family (Jenny & Fili) in June.

I loved watching these little guys
playing and KIDDING around
when we were all together
for the Family Reunion.

This was my LOCOMOTION or lack
thereof after I broke my foot
in April. Luckily, it was
a clean break which didn't require
any surgery.

These precious handprints on my deck
will assure I have MEMORIES of our reunion
for many years to come.

Isn't NANA's Little Cutie a doll?

I love the OUTDOORS in Colorado.
This is one of our favorite picnic spots.
Grandchildren and a
special visitor from Missouri.

We had a great St. PATRICK'S day party
with grandchildren and friends
from Caleb and Aaron's neighborhood.
To check out the party,
click here.

Cora and Sweetie enjoying a
little QUIET time at the Family Reunion.

2013 was the year of the great REMODELING!
It all started with my desire for a RED sink!
To check out the new
kitchen look, click here.

Kelly had a beautiful SHOWER for Baby Cora at our
friend Joan's house. Pink is such a fun color.

I have a precious group of TEACHER friends
that I get to visit when I go
to Houston for a visit.

Ducca has gotten used to some UNEXPECTED
hugs from this little angel. I'm sure
there are many more to come.

We had a very happy VALENTINE'S day.
To check out the party, click here.

A huge highlight of our year was our
Sibling trip to WASHINGTON, D.C.
in October.
Here are the siblings.

And here are our sweet spouses.
For more on our trip, click here.

These are the eXtra special
people in our lives.
We kind of like their parents too.

YES, my "baby" sister and I have
fun and lots of laughs when
we are together.

Jon ZOOMING in on Ryan
and Caitlyn for a photo
at the Family Reunion.

Special thanks to the many
great photographers in
the family for the pictures
included in this post.

And to each of you who
made it through the myriad
of pictures in this post,
MERRY CHRISTMAS
&
A VERY BLESSED 2013!!