One more additional photo

The whole gang at "The Greats". I've been waiting to snatch this picture from you Jessie - I didn't get one!

Random shots

Emmy looking good. (Thank you Gma and Gpa S :) )

At Gma and Gpa B's.

Emeline has been a great helper. She wants to go out to take care of the horses each time someone goes to work. Here she is hitchin' a ride to the shed to feed them.

A beautiful winter visitor EATING MY BABY TREE!

A Christmas Family Gathering

We thoroughly enjoyed a family Gathering at "the Greats". Isn't this picture beautiful. It was also VERY comforting to witness with my own eyes the fact that Grandpa is doing better. My only complaint (once again) is that I didn't visit enough. It seems like I just chased kids around.

A sighting of brother John. I was so happy that you came John. Love and miss you.

My three brothers.

Theresa made an awesome dollhouse for her nieces. They used there ingenuity and found (or should I say made) some "people" to play with.

Great Grandma with my very sleepy Emmy.

The Greats with My Three Girls

Reese and Anthony it is always nice to see you. My kids adore you and look forward to the visits.

Christmas Morning

Stacy's party

Stacy and Paul hosted a wonderful Christmas party where we could just eat some yummy appetizers, sing some songs and visit. It was really nice and I hope it becomes a pre-Christmas tradition.

Borax Snowflakes

I have been teaching the kids that there are many things found in stores that we may need BUT can make at home. One of the things is laundry detergent. I found a recipe for homemade laundry detergent which called for Borax and when I came across the Borax Snowflake idea I knew right away it would be a must-do. They came out beautiful and the kids loved the transformation.

library program

The kids have been enjoying a library program on Mondays. Here they are last Monday doing Head Shoulders Knees and Toes.

crocheted hats

These are some hats I recently crocheted for a mitten and hat drive. I have yet to learn to do mittens... that will be soon. I just can't stop!

painting gone all wrong

We painted our salt dough ornaments a while ago and thought I would ask your opinion on something. Here things look great. Emeline is thrilled she gets to make a mess and NOT get into trouble. She gets to do something with the big kids. It is wonderful.
She wasn't very careful about the rules which were simply only paint the ornaments or the paper (can you imagine?) so I removed her shirt. Look she is just thrilled and having such a jolly time.

Ooops Em your getting some on your face. Be careful. (You see I was around the corner washing dishes.)

Then I thought I heard some whispering and some giggling so I peeked and found this occurring. Now I wonder if this was all Emeline or if it had anything to do with her angelic, do-no-wrong sisters? What do you think?

Your under arrest Emeline.

Put 'em up!

I took a vacation...now to catch you up

Josie made Ben a card all about how she is 5 and how she couldn't believe it. She may have added a Happy Birthday in their too, I can't remember.
Emeline became very immersed and intensely tried to maneuver the beads around this thing-a-ma-bob for quite a while.

Ben looking thrilled that everyone is staring at him. :)

A RARE smile from the Ben-man. Not that he is not a happy boy, he just selectively chooses when to show a big beautiful smile. Wish he would have looked up.

Your a young man Ben. I am so proud of who you are.

xoxo Jenny

Brother Ben

Ben turns 17 today! We just got back from his party. I'm too tired right now to mess with pictures so I will get them up tomorrow.

Love you Ben. You are turning into quite the young man.

My Three Girls at Christmas

Our annual Christmas photo was a little more tricky this year. Emeline does not like socks and she especially didn't like socks that went over her whole leg!
My Georgia.

My Josie.

One looking good, two... uggh - let's just say not so good.

My Emeline.

Just a cute one.

Another spot. I thought their hands were cute in this one. They can fight but boy can they love.

Our Advent Adventure

We have been on an Advent Adventure. I was looking for something to make this season a more blessed and holy one and the kids have been greatly enjoying this. We started a couple of days late and you can join any time. We will definitely do this next year and do more with it next year as well.

First Reconciliation

She did it and she said it was easy!! I was very proud of her because she was the first one to go. This is a charm bracelet that I put together last night so that she would remember this very special day. I hoped to find some charms of doves to remind her of the help that the Holy Spirit brings but I had no luck.
The proud girl on her First Reconciliation day!! Yeah!!

Newspaper Christmas Tree

We made a beautiful Christmas tree out of newspaper. A lesson that even garbage can be turned into something beautiful! Here the girls are cutting the strips. It is important that you have some sort of cutting device. Otherwise it would be A LOT of cutting.
Here is the form I made. NOT exactly what the directions called for but I had no clay and I didn't have a 10 inch knitting needle. We made salt dough ornaments last week and I saved some leftover dough. That is the base and a pencil worked in place of the needle. You can see our piles of newspaper behind the frame.
Each pile decreases by 1/2 and inch so that when you stack them you get this!

Next you add glitter.

Beautiful! I need to put a star on top to cover up that bit of pencil though.

Em's wish for you!

This is Emeline's wish for you all. Sorry that it is sideways .... I thought I would be able to switch it. I can on my computer but it came up sideways when I uploaded it ?? Still it's funny.

Continued

A visit with Santa

Em's not too sure about this.