highlights of 2011

this has been a strange year. it's really hard to believe that the first half and the second half are all in the same year. they're that different.

january saw Brian and i training for the Austin Livestrong Marathon. when we discovered that a student at our childrens' school had been diagnosed with leukemia, we turned our training into a fundraising effort. Run for Ricky raised nearly $2000 to help the Zamora family. Margaret started Girl Scout cookie sales mid month and basketball season started for the kids at the YMCA. Brian turned 38 at the end of the month.

february had us running a lot, finishing up our marathon training. thankfully neither of us were ending the season with injuries. i gave a bridal shower for my friend Jess, and also helped her with wedding preparations. Brian and i celebrated Valentine's Day with a dinner at Eastside Cafe. a few days later we witnessed our friends, Chris and Jess say their wedding  vows. two days later we celebrated Samuel's 10th birthday, the same day Brian and i ran a marathon together, my 6th and Brian's 5th. the highlight was seeing the Zamora family sitting on the curb at mile 23. the last week of february we had a good amount of snow and the very rare snow day from school. it was all fun and games until memorial day rolled around and the kids realized that they had to go to school that day to make up for the snow day.

march blew in and i spent all my money on pregnancy tests. Brian and i had discussed on Valentine's Day how cool adding another person to our family would be. i was pregnant by the end of the week. i took a total of ten pregnancy tests until i got three positives on march 9th. i'll never forget riding my bike across town to Dollar Tree and buying a handful of tests that morning. when they showed up positive, i took a picture and texted it to Brian. we took a trip out west to Big Bend for spring break. i continued my work at the church on tuesdays and thursdays, and also teaching sunday school in the 4 year old class.

april was the month of daddy's birthday, and Easter, and Margaret's 12th birthday, and the birth of my third niece, Anni Noble. april also ushered in morning sickness like i'd never experienced before.

may came in hotter than usual. little did we know what extreme temps lay ahead for us! we made a trip down to Galveston to celebrate William's 9th birthday and stayed in our neighbor, Dan's cottage on the island. the kids skipped out on their snow makeup day while we splashed around in the gulf.

june brought the last day of school and John's 7th birthday. we celebrated by going to Schlitterbahn with Karen, Keegan, and Jules. we swam a lot in June. we also decided to make a drastic change and homeschool the kids for the next school year. once we decided that, we ordered our materials and got busy. Brian coached Samuel's little league baseball team, and William and John played baseball at the Y. Margaret had a great season swimming with the Patterson Pirhanas.

july was hot as a fire cracker. Independence Day celebrations were cancelled all over the state because of the extreme draught, and everything everywhere was dry and brown. we took the trailer out to Pedernales State Park where we met up with our friends, the Simpsons. we managed to find some water in the river there, water that wasn't stagnant, which made our camping trip way more enjoyable than it otherwise would have been.

august started out with a trip down to the gulf with my family. it was such fun to have all the cousins together, as well as Leah, Thomas, and i. that doesn't happen so much these days. the next week, we took a road trip east through the deep south, ending up in Gulf Shores, AL. where we met up with Brian's family. once we got home, we began schooling in earnest.

september brought more heat and hundreds of wildfires in central texas. it seemed like the whole state was burning up. Brian and i took a babymoon the weekend of my birthday and went up to Jefferson. i turned 36 this  month. the kids started soccer at the Y.

october came and so did a little rain. i ran in the IBM Uptown Classic 10K at the beginning of the month. Brian and i celebrated 14 fabulous years together on the 11th, and then we all began to get more excited about Hazel's arrival. the kids all dressed up as pirates for Halloween and i dressed as a pumpkin.

november brought Hazel Jane. we celebrated Thanksgiving with my family and then went up to Kilgore to celebrate with Brian's family. Margaret and Samuel ran their first 5K and did remarkably well.

december was filled with school, shopping, cooking, and crafting. we all got sick and were out of commission for a couple of weeks. we celebrated Christmas with as many relatives as possible and spent the last week of the year up in Kilgore with Brian's family, including his sister and her husband who came down from Nashville.

this has been such a full and beautiful year for me personally. God has been so merciful to me. words fail me.

i look forward with great hope and anticipation to the new year and what He has in store.

2011
1. What did you do in 2011 that you'd never done before? give birth to my 5th child. never given birth to my 5th before.

2. Did you keep your new years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year? i need to look back through my blog and see what resolutions i made this time last year. sadly i can't recall what they were.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth? me! and most of my cyber friends and many of my real life friends. it was so exciting to count down to their due dates with them!

4. Did anyone close to you die? yes. Jackson Boyett and his wife Barbara were killed in a car accident right after Thanksgiving. Jackson was Brian and my pastor when we were dating and to whom we went for marriage counseling. he married us and was a big influence on us in our first year of marriage. also, my step-grandmother. she and my grandfather divorced many years ago and he remarried, but the family remained close to Naomi and her children, my aunts Laura and Carol. Noami passed away right after Thanksgiving as well.

5. What trips did you take? Big Bend, Galveston, Port Aransas, Gulf Shores, Alabama, a camping trip to Pedernales S.P. with our friends the Simpsons. there may be some more in there that i'm forgetting.

6. What would you like to have in 2012 that you lacked in 2011? a larger home or larger lot for my kiddies to roam.

7. What date from 2010 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?  march 9th, the day i knew for sure that i was pregnant (after taking a total of 10 tests over 2 weeks).

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year? running my 6th marathon and giving birth to my 5th child, although that doesn't seem much like an achievement as i kind of sat back and let God work His miracle.

9. What was your biggest failure? not keeping my mouth shut


10. Did you suffer illness or injury? nothing serious

11. What was the best thing you bought?  baby things!

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?  my children. they've adjusted really well to all the changes we've had this year
13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed? not sure14. Where did most of your money go? mortgage, food, church, medical/dental bills

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about? seeing Hazel Jane for the first time

16. What song will always remind you of 2010? not sure
17. Compared to this time last year, are you: happier or sadder? happier. this has been the best year of my life


18. What do you wish you'd done more of?  invite people over

19. What do you wish you'd done less of? spend time on the computer


20. How did you spend Christmas? with all sides of the family


21. How will you spend New Years? here at home with my little family


22. What was your favorite TV program? college football

23. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year? no

24. What was the best book you read? The Help

25. What was your greatest musical discovery? can't recall

26. What did you want and got? a healthy baby girl

27. What was your favorite film of this year? i didn't go see a single one

28. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?  i was 36 an Brian and i took a babymoon - a three night stay at a b&b in Jefferson.

29. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? spending more time communing with my Lord
31. What kept you sane? daily exersize

32. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most? huh?
30. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2010? boho maternity



33. What political issue stirred you the most? i guess i don't pay enough attention

34. Who did you miss? old friends that i dearly love, but that i don't get to see very often

35. Who was the best new person you met? some of my cyber friends, especially Courtney.

36. Tell us some valuable life lessons you learned in 2010:  "don't sweat the little stuff & it's all little stuff" is true.

today we went hiking at Barton Creek.

it has been so nice having Brian off work this whole week!

hopefully i'll get around to blogging about Christmas soon.

it's a little after 5. i've been awake for a couple of hours with a fussy baby. Hazel fusses most nights. it's really frustrating not knowing what to do for her. she'll act like she wants to nurse, but then she seems to have an upset tummy after she does. this has gone on for weeks. so i get up up because it's better than lying there with her writhing around. sometimes i think it helps her calm down if i leave her with Brian.

i've had the kids do a small amount of school this week, just math and grammar. after Christmas we'll take a break so that Brian and i can reassess where we're at and what we want to accomplish for the rest of the school year.

the other night we met up with some old friends, three of my closest girlfriends when i was a kid: Tasha, Deonna, and my cousin, Lisa. we all have kids now, 13 between the 4 of us. Tasha's three brothers and their families also came. we laughed so hard. it was one of those nights you just hate to see come to an end.

yesterday i got out and did some Christmas shopping. i'm nearly done with all i need to buy. i have some baking to do which will happen tomorrow.

yesterday i stopped in the Gap and they had a lot of stuff on clearance. i had bought several pairs of jeans while i was still pregnant in hopes that i'd be able to wear them once Hazel was born. well, i still have a size to go before i can fit into them, so i picked up a couple more jeans yesterday in a bigger size. it's encouraging to be dropping sizes without too much effort. i bought some size 2 Gap jeans when Hazel was a week or two old and now they're too big. Gap no longer makes size 1, they now call it 0, and what used to be 0 is now 00. weird, but that means i'm now in a 0. not sure if i'll ever comfortably fit into those 00 again.

i took Hazel with me when i ran/walked yesterday morning. i kind of enjoy having the company. her stroller has an mp3 plug in thingy with speakers, so we listen to Christmas music together while we exercise.

Margaret has been such a help lately. she cleans house without being asked, keeps up with her school work, and helps with Hazel. the others help, too, but not like her.

well, i need to gird up my loins and get out there to exercise.

it's a rainy, chilly day today. we've got Christmas music playing and the kids are finishing up some school work. i'm not letting them have the whole week off. i'm having them do math and grammar through Thursday, i think. i'm kind of mean like that, but they're not complaining. they don't realize that some of the schools are already out for break and others get out tomorrow.

i had my 6 weeks' appointment with dr. Love this morning. he couldn't believe that it had already been 6 weeks since Hazel was born. yeah, it's flown by for me, too. everything checked out okay. i still have 6 pounds to lose to get down to my pre-pregnancy weight, which seems to be where i always am at my 6 weeks check up. i'm not too worried about it as breastfeeding seems to help melt away the pounds.

mama came to spend the night last night. we all went to a Christmas carol sing-along at Redeemer, then came home and cozied up to the fireplace and visited. on the agenda for today is more Christmas shopping. i really don't have much more to do, i mostly just want to get the kids out of the house since it's too wet and yucky out for them to play in the yard.

i saw the sad news that R.C. Sproul, Jr.'s wife died yesterday. she leaves 8 children without a mom. my heart breaks for her husband and children! let's remember them in prayer.

i've got the kids rolling on math, so i have a few minutes to blog.

today it's soupy out. i got out at 6:30 to exercise. i'm finally getting back in the swing of daily exercise after being sick for over a week. i got a really bad cold and then bronchitis. thankfully that's on it's way out, and life is returning to normal. i haven't started running again, but i plan to, i don't know, maybe tomorrow. i'll probably run the Vern's No Frills 5K with Margaret and Samuel on saturday even though i haven't trained for it. heck, for $1 entry fee, why not?

we've been getting a little more sleep this week. either Hazel is only waking once or twice to eat, or i'm sleeping through her feedings. either way, i feel more rested than i did a couple of weeks ago.

we've been trying to get out and get Christmas shopping done most afternoons after we finish school. it's rather crazy getting 5 kids out the door. the boys tend to be scatterbrains often, and there is always something important left behind, like shoes or a coat. or their spending money.

i whipped up some Christmas skirts for the little girls in the family - Aili, Anni, and Hazel. here's a pic of Aili and Hazel's ~

they have a layer of tulle in between the fabric layers to make them puff out.

i had to go to the doctor last week because i couldn't stop wheezing. i sounded so bad that the doctor asked me whether or not i had asthma. i've been asked that by doctors 3 or 4 times, and i always wanna say, "i don't know, maybe i should ask a doctor." i'm sure i do have it, as my mom had is something awful as a kid, and Thomas has asthma pretty bad as well. the dr. gave me a new inhaler and put me on antibiotics. that was a week ago, and it still feels like i'm breathing through a wet filter. my dr. was so concerned about my breathing that he said for me to go to the hospital if i felt worse. i guess i didn't realize it was that serious.

we've been spending a good portion of our days trying to get Hazel to smile.she must think we're all looney. she has yet to indulge us. she seems like such a serious child.

off to drink my tea.

today hazel is a month old. she has been such a blessing to our family.

here are some pictures of her over the last month.

trying to wake up one morning when Mimi (my mom) was holding her. mama came and stayed a few days a couple of weeks ago.

hazel and i with brian's grandfather, who we visited Thanksgiving weekend.

napping with daddy

sunday morning bath. she likes baths a little more now.



there is always someone willing to hold her

dressed for the cold weather that blew in on sunday

she is still not sleeping well at all. since she is always in someone's arms during the day, she thinks she should be as well in the night. she won't sleep anywhere but right up next to Brian or me, and she makes all sorts of noises in her sleep, keeping us from getting a decent night's sleep.

Brian and i have been really sick for the past few days. we've had fever and chest colds and have just been miserable. i got sick first, so Brian was able to take care of me. but then he got sick, so now we're pretty worthless together.

despite feeling awful, we attempted a family picture on sunday. it's what you call keepin it real in the Wells family - tired looking parents who both had fevers, John with water all over his shirt because he had been sent to wash his face right before the picture, a cross eyed baby, Lucy with electric eyes....

we're not going to use it for our christmas card though. we're going to attempt some more picture this weekend when (hopefully) everyone is feeling better.

and one more picture...

hazel watching her first Charlie Brown Christmas. she was fascinated by it!

the past month has gone by so fast. it seems like it took november forever to get here, and then in a blink it was gone.

other news....

we've still been plodding along with school, though this week we've been rather sloppy with our lessons since i've been sick. i think we'll continue doing our lessons all the way up to the weekend of christmas to make up for lessons missed this month. we have some fun activities that we plan to do. i'm going to let them each make gingerbread houses represent things they're reading about in literature. it should be a whole lot of messy fun. we also plan to have a feast to go along with our history studies, which, for Margaret and Samuel would be a Roman feast, and for John and William, a colonial feast.

yesterday we went to the funeral of a dear man and his wife. Jackson and Barbara Boyett were killed in a head on collision last week. Jackson was our pastor for a couple of years during a pivotal point in our lives. i went to his little church, Dayspring Chapel, with my parents before Brian and i got married. brian and i did marriage counseling with Jackson. i can still recall some of the words of wisdom he offered us. he had us read through R.C. Sproul's Intimate Marriage. Jackson was the one who introduced us to reform theology and really got us to think. his sermons were so good and stirred you up to want to dig deep into the Word.

Jackson married Brian and i, wearing a Geneva robe and using the Book of Common Prayer, which to two kids who grew up charismatic and southern baptist, seemed so retro-cool.

it seems such a tragedy to lose such a wonderful couple as the Boyetts, but there is comfort in knowing that they both died together, not leaving one behind to grieve, and knowing that they are both now rejoicing in the presence of the Lord.

here is the obituary that ran in the Statesman a couple of days ago -

Jackson and Barbara Boyett On November 29, 2011, the Lord saw fit to call home his devoted servants, Ernest Jackson Boyett, Jr. and Barbara Diane Buis Boyett. Jackson, as he was called, and Barbara died in a head-on auto collision just west of Austin on Highway 290. Jackson was born in Austin on July 5, 1947, the son of Ernest Jackson Boyett, Sr., and Sylvia Bolt Boyett of Junction, Texas. Barbara was born in Angleton, Texas, on March 20, 1947, and was the daughter of Reid Buis and Aleen Whittaker Buis of Angleton, Texas. Jackson and Barbara were graduates of the University of Texas, both holding Bachelor of Arts degrees in English Literature. Jackson graduated with a Master of Divinity degree from Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary in 1976. After working in a variety of ministries, Jackson began a Bible study group that grew into Dayspring Fellowship located at 5500 Avenue G in Austin, Texas. Jackson was also a friend, counselor, teacher and former chairman of the board of To Every Tribe Ministries in Los Fresnos, Texas, and a board member of Providence Theological Seminary in Colorado Springs, Colorado. He and Barbara were both active in the Right to Life movement in Austin. Jackson and Barbara loved their Lord Jesus Christ. They loved Dayspring Fellowship, and they loved Texas, especially Austin. Jackson's father had served for a time as personal secretary to Governor Coke Stevenson and as Sergeant at Arms for the House of Representatives. Jackson is survived by his stepmother, Frances Boyett of Austin, a stepbrother Ben Lindsay and family of Austin, Trent Wilson and family, Dannie Bolt and family, Carolyn Bolt Moore and family, Buddy Bolt and family, his cousins, all of Junction, Texas. Barbara is survived by her brother Kenneth B. Logan of Portland, Oregon, and her cousins Shirley Miller of Alpharetta, Georgia; Gwen Howard of Shreveport, Louisiana; Dorothea LaGrone of Carthage, Texas; Karen Simpson of Naples, Florida; Lanny Latil of Beaumont, Texas; Linda Holbrook of Lake Charles, Louisiana; and Jean Adams of Tyler, Texas. We would be remiss not to mention their cats whom they loved: Sophie, Phoebe and Zachary. Visitation will be held at Weed-Corley-Fish Funeral Home, 2620 South Congress Ave. on Monday, December 5, from 6:00 until 8:00 pm. Funeral services will be conducted by Weed-Corley-Fish Funeral Home at High Pointe Baptist Church, 12030 Dessau Road, Austin, Texas on Tuesday, December 6, at 10:00am. Burial will be in the Junction City Cemetery, Junction, Texas, on Tuesday, December 6 at 3:30 p.m. Flowers may be sent to Weed-Corley-Fish Funeral Home at the above location. Donations in lieu of flowers may be sent to the Jackson and Barbara Boyett Memorial Fund at Dayspring Chapel, 5500 Avenue G, Austin, Texas 78751

well, baby is calling for me.