Christmas Eve

Titus opened his 1st gift from his mom and dad on Christmas Eve. He got a pair of Christmas pajamas that he wore that night!

Christmas Card Pictures

Here are some pictures from our Christmas card photo shoot on the beach. We went out with our tripod and self-timer. These were taken about a month ago.

Hostetter Christmas

On Sunday we had the Hostetter family Christmas. This is my dad's side of the family. We came together from all over this year. My uncle Mike and his family were up from Chile, Steve, Titus and I from Florida, my cousin Jonathan from Colorado and cousin Austin just back from serving in Iraq. This year the family grew with the addition of four new great-grand babies...all boys. This was the first year that we gathered at Mom-Mom's church because there are too many to us to fit at any one's house. We decided to take a cousins picture this Christmas. There are 18 living first cousins, 19 in all with my brother Dustin. Only cousin Micheal and his family were unable to make it. Out of the six of us who are married there are already 17 great-grandchildren. It will be great to see how the family continues to grow over the years! (from back) Zachary Rutt, Elizabeth Hostetter, Brian Hostetter, Jeff Hostetter

Jonathan Rutt, Morgan Hostetter Mayo, Nicole Hostetter Underwood, Deborah Hostetter, Austin Rutt, Taylor Rutt

Victoria Hostetter, Corinne Hostetter Crans, Adrienne Hostetter Neff, Abigail Mowrer, Emily Rutt, Jordan Hostetter

Christina Hostetter

We made it!

We are in Pennsylvania. The trip went so well...we know we had many people praying! We left at 7pm on Friday night and arrived at 2:30pm on Saturday. We took turns driving and we drove straight through. Titus slept through the night and was content to just ride along when he was awake on Saturday. We are happy to be here again and enjoying the snow!

On the Road

Tonight we are leaving FL and heading home to PA for Christmas. Our plan is to drive mostly through the night while Titus sleeps. He's been sleeping from 7pm - 7am. If we can get a good 12 hours in tonight then we'll only have 6 hours to do tomorrow, stopping for feedings and such. Pray that things go well and for our safety. Thanks!

Swimming in December

Monday Titus turned 5mo. We celebrated by having a family night at the pool.

Boat Parade Fiasco

Saturday night we went into Ft. Lauderdale for the annual Christmas boat parade. It was a new experience...and an adventure. We sat along the waterway in a state park. We walked from our car over a bridge and into the park. Having never been to a boat parade, I didn't know what we would need. Everyone else had blankets or chairs to sit on...we had to use Titus' baby blanket. The people next to us brought a hot meal...we hadn't eaten dinner. The parade finally started an hour late. It was nice to see but started to get long and was very loud so we decided to leave before it was over. Only to get stuck at the drawbridge. We had to wait 45 minutes for the parade to finish before we could get to our car. During that time Titus was mad that he wasn't already in bed started to fuss. The lady next to us said to her friend, "They should have brought an extra bottle. The baby needs a bottle." The next lady coming by stopped to talk to Titus and let him hold onto her finger. Why complete strangers feel the need to touch my baby, I'm not sure. Then the boy behind us tried to peek around Steve and "shush" Titus. That's when Steve and I knew that we would never come back to the Ft. Lauderdale boat parade. Then we found out that the Pompano Beach parade came past our condo pool the following night. We skipped out on that one since Titus goes to bed early and had already had a late night the night before.

Ft. Lauderdale Christmas Pageant

On Friday night Steve and I saw the most amazing Christmas pageant ever! One of Steve's students, Johnny Jones, had given Steve tickets to the pageant he was in at his church. We had been back and forth in our decision about going because we didn't want to leave Titus with a sitter. We ended up taking him with us and had someone watch him there in the nursery. We are so glad that we didn't miss it! It was such an amazing production. Johnny Jones, who gave us the tickets is such a talented kid. He is 14 years old and an awesome singer. A few weeks back we watched him on ESPN when he sang at the Sprint Cup race in Homestead, FL. The tickets he gave us were $50.00 each...we knew then that it wasn't going to be a normal church Christmas program. Act I was all festive Christmas songs along with...ice skating (on stage), fireworks (inside), snow falling, a ballerina who flew out over us, confetti, a motorcycle, and on and on. During intermission we were taken backstage to a VIP reception. Steve said, "who has a VIP reception at a Christmas program?" We got refreshments and a gift bag. Then act II was the birth of Christ until his Resurrection. Steve and I both thought it blew Sight & Sound out of the water! There were animals including 3 camels, Angels flying, thunder and lightening. It was like nothing I've ever seen. I wish everyone could have seen it with us. There is a DVD but it won't be available until February. Maybe for Easter we can bring it home and have a "showing!" We did get the 2007 DVD in our gift bag so we'll bring that at Christmas. I also found a clip from the 2007 performance on youtube. This was done this year also and was really something to see. You can find it at...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_JD6mCZ0XY

My Gym

This afternoon Titus and I had a playdate at My Gym. The mom and baby small group that we've been going to on Thursdays just finished our book study and decided to go to the gym today. It was a really cute place. There are several across the country, this one was in Pompano, about 10min. from us. Titus was a bit young for this class, although they do have classes for his age. He had fun watching the kids and he was able to do a few of the activities...

with his friend Alona...

notice Titus is outside the circle...poor guy!

First Haircut

Last night I gave Titus his 1st haircut. I really didn't think I'd cut his hair for a long time, but it started to get really long on the top. I don't think it would have looked bad if it was growing all the way around, but it seemed to be just getting long on the top. I just took a tiny bit off. After washing it last night, it looked so short! I do miss the long curls, but I know it won't take long to grow out again.

before...
after...

Gingerbread Family

A few days ago I got the idea to make gingerbread men. Growing up my "Maw' used to make gingerbread men with us every year. We have many pictures of us and our "men" from over the years. I have one of her cardboard cutouts that we had used growing up and thought it would be fun to put it to use again. Titus helped me mix the dough...

I made one for each of us...

After Titus went to bed Steve and I decorated them.

Steve, done by me...

Me, done by Steve...

Titus, in his Christmas pjs, done by me...

Hollywood Candy Cane Parade

Saturday night we went to Hollywood to the Candy Cane Parade. Hollywood is about 30 minutes from us. It was a great night. The parade was about 45 minutes long. It was along the broad walk right along the beach. The temperature was in the low 70's. Nothing about it felt like Christmas! We decided that we are going to go to as many Christmas events as possible to really experience Christmas in Florida!

You can see the palm tree on the beach in the background...


A lot of the floats were blowing fake snow out over the audience...

The Boys

Here are some more pictures from Thanksgiving. Adrienne bought the two boys matching shirts and hats. Getting them to both look at us and smile was quite the challenge. Here are some of my shots, although I think Adrienne actually got the best picture of the two of them with her camera. Jackson turned 3years in September and Titus 4months. Despite the age gap we are hoping the two of them grow up being best buddies!