Christmas Preparations!

We had a blast this morning making all kinds of Christmas goodies with our Aunt Michelle! I got a few pictures of all the fun we had. There was a lot of creativity going on! :-D

Brady dipped all of these spoons in melted almond bark.

Katie made this out of melted almond bark on waxed paper.

This was my work. Just some experimenting. Don't ask

me what that has to do with Christmas!

These two are more of Katie's creativity!

Abby made this one!

And this next one is also Katie's.

The whole process would have been so much more simple and a lot faster if we had just smeared the frosting on with a knife...but this was way too much fun! Although I will say that we were sick of cookies and frosting by the time we were done!!!
So what have you all been up to in preparation for the Christmas season?

Sunset

The quick progression of the sunset tonight was so fascinating! The moon was out, too. I love God's creation!

The heavens declare the glory of God;

    the skies proclaim the work of his hands.

Day after day they pour forth speech;

    night after night they reveal knowledge.

 They have no speech, they use no words;

    no sound is heard from them.

 Yet their voice goes out into all the earth,

    their words to the ends of the world.

Psalm 19:1-4

Violin Christmas program

The Christmas season is such a special time of year! Often it's easy to get caught up all of the holiday rush, but when we slow down and think of the reason for Christmas, we find the true reason for our joy. It's been a lot of fun spreading that joy to others with our violin music! Kathy, our teacher, spent a lot of time with all of her students in getting us ready for the programs we do each year at the nursing homes in Aurora. She does an excellent job in finding neat arrangements of Christmas carols for us to play! We are so blessed to have her for a teacher! Here are a few pictures of the main program we did.

Abby and Braden 

Riley 

This was a really fun song in which some of us played & plucked the strings,

 and tapped & knocked on our violins! It was a version of Pat-a-Pan.

 The older group of students

 Brittany and Molly

 Brittany and Rachel

 Kathy, our teacher, and Mitchell

And, once again, Mitchell and I found that we were wearing the same colors! :-D

Believe it or not, it wasn't on purpose!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Luke 2:10 And the angel said to them, “Fear not, 

for behold, I bring you good news of great joy 

that will be for all the people.

Luke 2:11 For unto you is born this day in the city 

of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.

Romans 15:13 May the God of hope fill you with

 all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power 

of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope. 

Family picture

We had our family picture taken on Sunday! We also got some cute pictures of Henry.

Snow in November

Yesterday evening we got a bit of snow! It made the indoors seem so warm and cozy! All of us agreed this morning that it felt a little bit like Christmas. Mom and I made two pies this morning, and Abby said she wanted to make gingerbread men this afternoon! Here are a couple pictures of the snow we got. It wasn't much, but it was fun anyways!

The leaves that haven't fallen off the trees are all limp and brown. 

 I love the cozy look and scent of candles! 

And this one was just for fun...my sister's idea, actually. :-)

I'm sure the snow will be gone soon, but in Nebraska, you never know!

Sunsets

Great is His faithfulness!

Katie's Drawings

Katie has taken up drawing, or "painting", on the computer. These are a couple samples of her hilarious work!

Thanks for all the good laughs you give us, Kate!

Friends in Purple!

Katie and I, along with our friend Danielle, found out the we each have purple shirts that are almost exactly matching! So we decided to wear our matching outfits to church this Sunday. We got quite a few comments! It was a lot of fun.

                          Hope y'all are having a blessed Sunday!                         

Henry

Abby loves playing "dolls" with Henry...after all, what's better than having a doll that will open his eyes and move his arms and legs? :-D Here he is in Abby's doll cradle!

Happy Birthday, Abby!

Sorry this is late...by a few days! Her birthday was actually September 30th!

Grandma made a cake that looked like a quilt, and our cousins came over to help celebrate her 11th birthday.

Highlights of Abby's past year:

~ playing violin

~ helping out with her new brother

~ having fun with new friends

~ jumping on the trampoline

~ having tea parties

~ reading books

~ playing with cousins

~ playing with her dolls

We're blessed to have you as a sister, Abby! 

Henry

Henry was enjoying his reflection in the mirror today! Sweet little brother!

Brothers

My brothers decided to wear their John Deere shirts the other day. It was fun to get pictures of them all matching!

Later on, Brady and Riley were jumping on the trampoline. They love to try new tricks!

Such as a back flip...

 He did land it, on his feet!

Here is the close up. Looks like he fell out of the sky or something!

 Playing leap frog. 

Brothers! :-D