Happy New Year!

 WARNNG: This post will be long!  I said I wasn't going to blog until after the new year, but I feel so blessed to have had so much fun over the last week that I have to share every minute of it with you.  Look at the kids above- they had just completed the best ever game of BINGO- all of the prizes had been unwrapped.  I think it was even more exciting than a sugar high!  It was so fun to see them being so excited. :)  Oh to be a child again.  It was my last day of work before a GLORIOUS 6 day vacation.  I enjoyed my time immensely!

It's almost time to crack open the 'Good Things About 2013' jar.  I cannot wait to see what is inside!  I feel like they are all mine, but I know that the kids snuck some stuff in there, too.  I am hoping that when we read through them it will motivate them to participate more this next year.

We had the annual Christmas Eve jammies photo shoot. :)

Christmas Eve was spent at our house with my side of the family.  ♥Here are my parents. ♥  They played Santa Claus this year. :)

 My dad brought me over some new guitar strings and put them on for me. :)  For those of you who don't know, he is an amazing guitarist!  

My mom had been busy sewing beautiful aprons for all of us girls!  (I LOVE aprons, especially hand made.)  SO special!!

Here is my sister opening up her apron. :)   That's my sweet Grandma Audette on the right.

Stephanie tried her apron on!  

♥My little sister and I sporting ours.♥

Did I mention that there was food galore?

Just when I thought I wasn't gaining any weight for Christmas--

The food was never ending- I indulged. 

I put out some shrimp just for my handsome hubby- two days in a row.  He loves shrimp.

That was all on Christmas Eve! 

Christmas came to our house!  It was really a miracle, we had limited funds.

Stocking time!  (Yes, I do actually feed my shirtless ribs boy. ♥)

Ethan has a lot of building to do!  He was so excited!

The partying continued Christmas day. :)  Round two of food, drinks and family!  We played a fast paced game of White Elephant that involved dice.  Send two or three plates around the circle, each with a pair of dice.  When you get the plate, roll.  If you have doubles, you choose a gift or steal someone elses, but you HAVE to trade.  It was very fun!

My food baby is growing... (Thanks for the term, Tasha!  There is nothing else that describes my over indulging so perfectly.)

Our niece!  More presents, so much fun!

Adams sweet Grandma Thurber. ♥

There was a great bar going on over there. 

Our niece! 

This morning I got up and made some New Year hats for the kids to wear.  We were going to make them, but I realized that it would be just ME doing the work.  I decided to just assemble them and be done with it.  Want to make some?  Here is the link.  Just print out the template and you are ready to go!

Happy New Year to you and your families!  Thank you for reading this blog.  Prayers for you as we kick off 2014!

♥♥♥Happy Tuesday♥♥♥

Merry Christmas!

An angel visited Joseph in a dream.

Matthew 2:22-25 "All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel"- which means, "God with us."  When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife.  But he had no union with her until she gave birth to a son.  And he gave him the name Jesus."

♥I hope that I have pounded this message home with the kids over the past few weeks!♥

Thank you God for sending us Jesus!

My prayer for all of you is that you will not forget about Jesus and what He has done for all of us.  I know it is so easy to get caught up in the world and fill our minds up with the goings on around us.  I pray that Jesus will remain at the center of it all.  We can do all things through Christ, who strengthens us.

I will be taking a blog break until after the new year. 

My gift to the kids this year is an awesome game of Christmas Bingo!  (That's right, not "Holiday" Bingo, CHRISTMAS Bingo.)

These are the prizes that await them!  The dollar store is amazing these days.  I love to spoil the kids.

To help keep order, I dug out some gift bags and labeled them each with names.  These will be perfect for holding prizes.  

When I was a child, a friend of our family made my siblings and I reindeer candy canes.  I never forgot it.  I whipped some up for the kids this year.

Merry Christmas to you and all of your families! May the Lord bless you in your gatherings or down time. 

♥♥♥Happy New Year from all of us at Henle House!♥♥♥

Tree Ornament

Out came the popsicle sticks yesterday.  We created triangle tree ornaments.

The kids were kind of funny about using a slim paint brush.  See how they are holding them by the top?  

They painted the triangle green. 

We have this great collection of shiny shapes that look just like ornaments.  We chose snowflakes and circles.

They were very particular about which ones they places where. :)

How beautiful!  I later thought that these would've been great with a bell dangling in the center.  Too late!  Maybe next year. 

On an awesome note- LOOK WHAT IS HAPPENING!  I have been praying for snow.  Even though we will only have this beauty for a couple of hours, it is dreamy.  I had to just stand in it.  Shout out to my friends in Utah who might be dealing with no power and crazy ice roads because of their snow.  I've been wishing we could have some of it.  Isn't snow just dreamy?  I'm thrilled with how cute the house looks in the snow now that it's painted gray. ♥

♥Look who else is thrilled?  Zuko keeps going out to play with it. ♥ 

We have no school today, so it is now officially Christmas break.  

♥♥♥Happy Friday!♥♥♥

Candy Cane Art

This project is so simple, and we almost didn't create it.  I am so glad we did- so far this December, I think this is my favorite project! 

The kids learned how to unroll a cotton ball.  They glued the cotton stripes onto the red cane.  We added some red glitter glue and they spread it out using just one finger.  Have you ever noticed that I don't use real glitter?  Glitter is a nightmare- it sticks to everything.  We have hardwood floors and I don't ever want to experience prying glitter, piece by piece, off of it.  Adam doesn't like glitter either.   For those reasons, I use glitter glue. :)  

 I just LOVE these!! 

 ♥♥♥Happy Thursday!♥♥♥

Chalk Dust Christmas Lights

In October we created some ghosts using this method.  I saw the idea to do the same thing in the shape of Christmas lights somewhere on Pinterest.  I thought we would give it a go.  To prepare, cut out a Christmas light shape.  I used manilla folder because it is sturdy enough to withstand the project several times over.  You will need some chalk, preferably some red, blue, green and yellow.  

This project works best if you use black construction paper as well. 

Each child spent time coloring the shape with chalk.  The more chalk they apply, the better!  It's messy, but chalk dust is a mess I can handle.  It cleans up easily.  I like to give the kids a paper plate to color their shape on.  It helps contain the dust.

Place the colored light shape onto the black paper.  Hold it there firmly.  This is very important!  Using a facial tissue, wipe the chalk from the shape onto the paper until you have completely outlined the shape with the chalk color.  The result will be a glowing effect!

Each child created one light of each of the four colors.  It took some time because it became my job to hold the light in place while the kids wiped the chalk onto the papers.  

Here are the results!

I added a glitter glue string.

The art wall looks festive!

Look how good these kids are!!  Every day after lunch we have to get ready to go to the bus stop.  The kids know that their most important job is to locate their coat, make sure it gets zipped up and that their shoes are on.  If they get this completed before it's time to line up and head out, they get to watch tv.  They like to watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse or Bubble Guppies. They usually get 5 minutes of it at this time of day.  I'm always proud of these guys.  They know what to expect and I know what to expect from them.  

Good kids!!!

♥♥♥Happy Wednesday!♥♥♥