The Worleys

Christmas seems to come faster every year! It is already December 3, and I have done very little shopping. I am feeling particularly proud of the fact that our Christmas Tree is up and decorated. All thanks to the loving hands of Jenni and Rod. Mike and Rod got the tree out of the box and assembled it. Jenni and Rod decorated. We discovered that there are lights that are out in the tree, but somehow, it looks great anyway. I am continually amazed at the resourcefulness and talent of Rod. We haven't used our music box/light box with our tree in the last couple of years. The Tree already has lights in it and we could not figure out how to attach it. The plugs are different. Rod fixed the problem! So we have music and twinkling lights again! Christmas morning will be noisier again! You might wonder what I was doing during the tree decorating. Finding the additional decorations for the house, and putting up the stockings, of course. And surprisingly, cooking dinner for al...

Can you guess where we spent Thanksgiving Day? Of course, the above picture is of the END of the day. The END of the game, too. We were so excited that it did not rain! The weather was perfect! We took sweatshirts, but did not need them. We started the day by driving to Austin. We had a caravan of cars. Us, Jenni and Rod, then Jay and Sarah and Ava. Traffic was not too bad. We tried to leave early enough to arrive in Austin in time for Turkey Dinner. Once we were checked in at the hotel, we headed for Luby's. Here we are at Luby's. We started out in the foyer. HUGE line ahead of us. The manager came out and told us it would be a 45 minute wait! We decided to stick it out. And it really WAS a 45 minute wait. Ava did very well! Here we are as we start our Turkey Day Meal. I don't remember who asked for ketchup, or even WHY they would ask for ketchup with Turkey and Dressing. We ate too much, and it was our second time that week to eat too much! Did not nee...

This year it seemed we all had places to be on Thanksgiving Day -- but not together! So, we had Thanksgiving Dinner on the Sunday before Thanksgiving. We all got to help cook! Emylie got to help with the sweet potatoes. Her most important job was guarding the marshmallows until it was time to put them on top of the sweet potatoes. I think she ate a few, too. And after dinner, I know she had "coffee" with marshmallows in it with her Aunt Katie. Rod was first to get started mashing the sweet potatoes. We all consider him to be our best cook. Jenni and Katie helped season. I know we had at least one stick of butter in them, and who knows how much brown sugar. They were VERY tasty! Rod did a great job -- and we found out later he really didn't like sweet potatoes! Bryon was in charge of the Turkey. Well, Nancy cooked it, but Bryon cut it all up for us. A very time consuming job. Not too easy, since hungry people kept trying to get bites of turkey! I brought the ...

Ava was a ballerina this year. She and her parents came to the Funival at church. This is the only picture in our memory that she actually POSED for! I said, "Let's get a picture of you and Elmo", and she put on a big smile and held it while I took the picture. Has not done it since! But she does love her Elmos! Jenni and Rod opened their trunk for the "Trunk or Treat" event. I am not sure what Rod dressed up as, but Jenni is an angel (type-casting.) They decorated their trunk and had a "Candle Shoot Out" game going. The object was to shoot out the candle in the jack o'lantern with a water pistol. We had a giant inflated slide, games, and lots of food. A good time had by all! "What good fellowship we enjoyed as we walked together to the house of God." Psalm 55:14

Not the best picture! In case you did not know, we love watching Texas play football. We have Season Tickets to the home games. Mike starts getting excited about the new season in March, and the first game is not until September usually! My dad raised my sister and I on Texas Football. He was from Kansas, so I am not really sure why. My sister and I knew from the time we were in elementary school that we were going to UT. And if we had any other ideas, Dad always told us we could go anywhere we wanted, but he was only paying for us to go to Texas! And he must have brainwashed me successfully, because I really did not apply anywhere else! It never mattered what state or country we were in, if there was a game, we were watching or listening to it! I had no idea that I was marrying such a fanatic about Texas Football. But I love it, too. And we have managed to raise our kids to love it, and we all are raising Ava to love it, too. Even Rod is excited about the games. (We are sti...

Ava is now a one year old. Jay and Sarah gave her a Party in the Park. She was so cute! Don't you love her bow! We had hot dogs, guacamole, chips, dips, and of course, birthday cake! Ava and Sarah opened the presents. Most of them were in boxes/sacks that were bigger than Ava. Ava actually got into taking out the tissue paper, and reading the cards. And what girl doesn't need a longhorn Happy Halloween shirt! Ava's cousin Emyle helped deliver packages to be opened. That was her job at Jenni and Rod's wedding shower, too. She is quite good at it. Cousin Terri got the honor of writing down who gave Ava what! Thanks Terri! Do you have Carpal Tunnel syndrome now? Ava really didn't know what to think about her cake. Sarah helped her blow out her candle. A short video on Ava learning to eat cake with her hands. As you can see, it did not take long to get the hand of it! While Sarah was busy cutting a bigger cake for all of us, Ava just sat in her high chair ...

Jeff and Cathie are married! I took a few pictures to share. They were married at Dave and Tammi's house in Sanger. The decorations were beautiful. This is the wedding ceremony altar. The cakes were beautiful too. Jeff's had a picture of him on a motorcycle on the top. And whaat would dinner be without specially shaped butter! Alex and Terri worked on those! The newly married couple! Mike performed the ceremony. And that's Austin next to Jeff. The first dance! Jeff and Cathie changed into "Bride" and "Groom" t-shirts right after dinner, then had their first dance and cut the cake. It was a terrific Worley gathering. Our family has enlarged once again! They both looked so happy! "Let your unfailing love surround us, LORD, for our hope is in you alone.' Psalm 33:22

So, what's NOT to love about Ava! She is cute, she is funny, and she let's us play with her! She loves to mimic. And she LOVES her Aunt Jenni! Ava also loves to play with Sadie. Sadie is Eleven Years Old now, and she loves to play with Ava, too. I know it looks scary, but Sadie is very gentle. Below is a Parent Approved Video of Sadie and Ava playing. Ava is tired, almost bedtime, so she rubs her eyes a lot. It is really not the dog causing that! Breakfast with the Jay Worleys. Ava is wearing her "John is My Home-boy" Shirt. This was taken tonight. Rod put Ava on Sadie, and although we weren't fast enough, she was laughing. Ava loved it. Sadie? Not so sure, but she tolerated the fun. Ava seems to think Sadie is her own special climbing toy. Sadie really doesn't mind! Shortly after this, Ava gave up. She was ready for a bottle and off to bed in the Pack 'n Play. She is currently snoozing, waiting for her parents. They went to buy her a birthd...

I cannot believe it has been two months since Jenni and Rod got married! I have no new pictures -- well, actually, they are all still in the camera! No new activities to report yet. We mostly go to work, eat, sleep, and repeat! We are having lots of fun watching Ava grow up. She can do so many new things! She has upper and lower teeth now and delights in showing them off; she sort of wrinkles her nose and smiles. She is too fast to get that on camera, though! Football season has started, so you know where we are and what we are wearing on Saturdays. If you happen to tune in to the game, we are in the upper deck, wearing longhorn orange, and flashing the "hook 'em" sign. This last week it was Jenni, Jay, Mike, and me. Something that usually does not happen! Rod was out of town. Ava turned one Sept 30. Jenni called her to sing Happy Birthday, and Ava hung up on her! Her birthday party is Sunday. (I feel a new post forming!) Saturday we will be at Jeff and Cath...

The Wedding -- the only one we will ever host! Why didn't we have more girls? This was fun! Above, of course, Dad dancing with Bride Jenni. They had fun, didn't they? But of course, this was the reception, we are supposed to have fun! The week before the wedding was a whirlwind of last minute activities. We had guests from Chile at our house -- Kani - Rod's friend from childhood, and Cristian -- Rod's brother. We also had Lindsey -- Jenni's bridesmaid and friend of Rod from Chile. We worked on wedding stuff and ate way too much! Decorating the church was actually easy -- we had lots of help. We decorated on Wednesday evening. On Thursday, we finished up by adding trees to the auditorium. And, dumb old me, I have absolutely no pictures of it! I can only hope our photographer took some! Table Decorations at Rehearsal dinner -- Cute! Friday night -- rehearsal dinner. Wow! The Rehearsal went great. Decorations -- provided by my sister and our friend Sue T...