Merry Christmas!

Hello everyone!

How was your Christmas?

Ours was nice...filled with friends and family and food...

so much so, in fact, my phone stayed in my coat pocket the whole time,

and so therefore I have no pictures!

well, I do have one picture...game time with my family!

Juniper and her balloon

Hannah making delicious organic lip balm with her kit she got from Grandma!

Miles and Jordan ripping it up on the go-cart!
Noah and Jordan, Miles' cousins, are staying with us for the week between Christmas and New Year!
Such a special time for the kids...and sooooooo much fun!

Noah's turn to take it for a spin

Getting ready to start Monopoly Cheater Edition ;) ha...if you only could have heard the ensuing arguments ;)

Grandma LuWayne's Visit

We were so blessed by our dear Grandma LuWayne's visit yesterday.

She's such a lovely person.

helping Hannah assemble the adorable foam gingerbread house she brought for her

Celene's sweet little winter cottage project

Theo enjoyed coloring his new book from Grandma

Look at the darling blankets she made for each of them!!! The kids LOVE them!

Celene finished her house

Miles loves the zip line project she gave him! He promptly assembled it and got it going!

so cool!

Isn't Celene's blanket so pretty?

Later in the day the kids played kings and queens with their new blankets

Such royal capes they made!

LIFT Christmas Program

The kids had a wonderful opportunity to sing Christmas carols and recite Luke 2 with their 

LIFT club friends from church.

Their little program was so sweet and enjoyable and the kids did great.

Afterwards they handed out Christmas cards that they had made earlier,

along with cookies.

Then they mingled with the residents, 

chatting and asking about their lives,

and accompanied them back to their rooms when done.

Very sweet!

Hannah's favorite little friend, Logan

This Week

Hannah's bunny napping in the house

Celene has started up her crocheting projects again

Eli did not think that the loss of his first tooth was a good thing at all!

I can home to this week picture of the kids singing around candlelight to Miles playing the piano. How dear!

Celene crocheting again...with her rabbit this time

Theo and Hannah's hamster

Look what I made yesterday! It's not nearly as nice as Celene's work, but I'm still of proud of myself. ;)

Meet Pearl

She's a fuzzy, funny little Shetland pony we are honored to care for on this corner of earth.

She's still adjusting to living here, and we're all enjoying her!

New Babies!

3 calves, this time!

Super cute and fuzzy, they have stolen our hearts.

They are getting milk bottles from the kids 3 times a day for the next 2 months.

Another good reason to get outside these winter months!

Their names are Elmer, Ella, and Clover.

I will have to get some better pictures in the daylight.

:)

Homeschool Projects

Does it matter if it's 15 degrees outside, and the lake is frozen??

Apparently not, because the school projects need doing anyways!

While Miles chopped ice and dug around the lake bottom for goopy lake sludge,

the others enjoyed running around and playing with ice.

It was a wonderful reason to get out of the house and enjoy God's beautiful world.

(Miles laughed when I wondered aloud where the Monarch curriculum was written. 

Monarch's headquarters - that's the curriculum Miles and Celene are using this year - is

located in California. Makes sense why they would ask him to study water life in December! 

Believe it or not, he found lots of life under the microscope, no matter that the lake is frozen.

Very cool.)