We Wish You A Merry Christmas

This year's newsletter (blog letter) is a little unconventional, but it's our meager attempt at going green. Plus, I don't have to shrink my pictures down to nothing and I can post as many as I want! And so begins Our Year in Pictures:

Oh, for those of you who wondered if I was serious about celebrating Maddie Bear's 1st Birthday with a puppy party... That totally happened!

January
We rang in the new year in style...

 Had a fun day at the beach

Brenda celebrated a Birthday

February

Snow in San Antonio??? Yep.

That was a cold month. We didn't do much.

March
San Francisco for Andrew's conference on something to do with literature.
I just went to see the sights :)

 Mom and Dad Siebert met up with us in NorCal

 We got to see some great old friends

 Jesse and Bianca in San Fran

So happy we got to see the Munshi's in Los Gatos!

Andrew's parents came to visit us for Spring Break!

We had a great time!

April
Brenda went to California for Leah and Matt's wedding

 Squeezed in some shopping

 Had a visitor

 Watching all the coverage of the royal wedding
(Those are 2 days I'm never going to get back!)

Andrew presented at a conference at UTSA

May
we toured the midwest...

 CHICAGO!!! (more pics here)

 Meeting up with cousins

WISCONSIN!!!

OHIO!!!
So nice to visit Grandma and Grandpa in Akron

 And Uncle Jeff was there too!

 Then it was back to Texas

June
It was another super hot Summer, so we spent a lot of time
at the pool at University of Texas, San Antonio, where Andrew goes to school.
Love that lazy river!

We celebrated Father's Day with our friends and completed "man games"
such as football tossing, nail hammering, gun shooting, knife throwing, and bocceball. FUN!

 Andrew celebrated a Birthday

 We moved!!!
please come visit us! We've got 2 guest rooms ready for you :)

July
Austin weekend with friends

 We drove out to San Diego for
James and Angela's Wedding 07-09-11

 So good to see our friends!

 And we had lunch with Brenda's best girlfriends from Point Loma.

Family Reunion in Pismo Beach

So nice to see everybody!

 Drove back out to San Antonio and stopped in Vegas on the way.

August
MAUI for Andrew's Mom's 60th Birthday!  Good times!!!

 Back in Texas, Brenden and Carissa visited us for the weekend.

We love visitors! You should come see us and get your pic at the Alamo too :)
In September, Brenda got a long term subbing job teaching 8th grade algebra.
Andrew started his second year of classes at UTSA.
He is currently 1/2 way done with his PhD program! Yay!
Now he just needs to take some qualifying exams and write his dissertation.
It never ends!

September
Brenda's parents came out to visit!

We never get sick of going to the Alamo! Can't imagine why people forget it!

October

Brenda went to Cancun with her parents

Andrew applied for a fulbright scholarship to study abroad in Argentina for 9 months.
We'll hear back sometime in March and if he is accepted, we'll move to Buenos Aires in February 2013. Exciting!

November

We went to california for Andrew's dad's retirement party
and Thanksgiving

 Met up with bestest, oldest, friends

 Thanksgiving dinner with Brenda's family

December

We will be driving back out to California to celebrate Christmas with our families.

Looking forward to more time with friends and family

in 2012

We love you and hope to see you soon!!!

Merry Christmas from the Hoags

-Andrew Brenda Maddie-