Christmas Traditions and a Black Eye!

Tae lost another tooth! This makes number 5!

 We talked about Thanksgiving and blessing the less fortunate one day and Tae said she wanted to spend her allowance making Thanksgiving packs for the Infant Crisis Center. She had enough money saved up to make 3 goodie bags. We also donated coats, blankets, hats, and mittens.

 Aunt Laura sent Tae an awesome German birthday package. She was super excited to get a Dr kit with a real stethoscope and a neat art kit. We sure miss having them close.

 We went on a nature walk to collect pine cones and then we made bird feeders with them. As you can see, Hensley spent most the time eating the peanut butter, haha!

 My mom created a beautiful Thanksgiving spread as usual. It was a smaller crowd since my sister has moved, but it was nice to spend the day with family.

 Here is our finished Thankful tree. It turned out so beautiful and I loved going back and reading all the thankful ideas. We are definitely blessed!

 We had a pretty decent ice storm right after Thanksgiving. We lost power for about 12 hours, but some people lost power for days. Here are the girls eating breakfast by candle light.

 We set up out Christmas tree and I just love the atmosphere it brings.

 Hensley decided she would scare me half to death and smack her face on the coffee table. It was bleeding pretty good and immediately blacked up. We took her to the Dr to make sure nothing was broken. 

 We've been doing our Christmas book advent. The girls love opening a book every evening and reading it together. This is one of my favorite traditions.

 We also spent a day cleaning Tae's room and putting up their little Christmas tree.

 Hensley's black eye progression. Poor girl! It looked so bad and was so swollen for several days. She definitely learned to milk it though. 

 We happened to all be coordinating the other day, so I had my mom snap a picture of us. Even though Hensley has a black eye, I think I sure have a beautiful family!

 We decorated our gingerbread house. Hensley had fun eating all the candy and licking up the icing. I think this year was Tae's best year so far. She got really creative with the decorating and it turned out super cute.

 We went down to the Myriad gardens this weekend and the girls got to see Anna, Elsa, and Olaf. Hensley gave them all hugs and was really excited to see them. Tae was not that excited, I think they made her nervous. 

 We love that the gardens were all decorated for Christmas. We walked around the whole park and then let the girls play on the playground. It was a fun day.

 How did I get so lucky to have such beautiful girls....inside and out!

 Little Miss dare-devil :)

The Gray girls :) I love them to bits and pieces.

Taelyn's 7th Minecraft Birthday Party!

I can't believe my baby is 7! It seems like just yesterday she was born. I'm so proud of the smart, kind, sensitive, and creative girl she has grown into. Tae decided she wanted to have a Minecraft birthday party this year. She really loves playing the game and it seems really popular with her age group. When looking online, I couldn't find ANY Minecraft party decorations! So I decided to take things into my own hands (literally) and come up with some things.

 I made this Enderman pinata out of grocery sacks. I paper mached and then hot glued on streamers. We filled it with organic gummy bears, organic jelly beans, stickers, and Chinese yoyos.

 I made this Pin the Tail on the Minecraft Pig out of construction paper. It was very easy since everything is straight lines.

 We spray painted a box green and cut holes for the Creeper bean bag toss.

 Here's my birthday girl on her birthday! We took her to the store and let her pick out her own birthday outfit. I think she did a good job!

 And sweet Hensley. We got her to wear a head band for about 5 minutes. We decorated with green and black balloons and black and purple streamers.

 My mom made a delicious chocolate cake with an Enderman theme.

 I bought this box of paper Minecraft characters for decorations. 

 Another party game, Minecraft Bingo. I used sundrops for the markers that the kids got to eat after the game. For game prized we had some things from the dollar store. A US puzzle, crystal science kit, a puzzle book, and an art set.

 The drink station. 

Chocolate party favors for the adults.

 Tae was so excited that Emma and Mara from her homeschool coop came to her party. Her cousins Bella, Jack, and Franki also came. We started the party with bean bag toss.

 Hensley had a great throwing stance, haha! Tae won this game with 450 points!

 Next we played pin the tail on the pig. Most of the kids ended up putting their tails on top of one another, so we ended up drawing a winner which was Mara.

 Minecraft Bingo time!

 Mara and Emma won on Bingo!

 Birthday cake time!

 Present time! Tae got so many great gifts. She's a very blessed little girl.

 Last, but not least was Pinata time! I made that thing super strong, so it took awhile to break through. It had a little help from the adults ;)

Taelyn had a great party. It turned out so well and all the kids had a blast. I'm so very thankful to have friends and family that love us and our kiddos. They mean the world to us!