Random Fun

Sarah LOVES back, hand, and feet rubs from Dad.  She will just come near him and say "rub my back."  Sometimes she wants the whole caboodle and will bring Dad the lotion and just sit and relax until everything is done.  

My sister Stephanie came over a few days before Christmas.  The girls love to hold her daughter Kaitlin.  Isn't she sooo cute:)

Darrell bought me some new lenses for my camera for Christmas.  I am taking an 8 week photography class starting in a couple weeks and so it is perfect timing:)  He experimented with the lenses before Christmas when I wasn't around.  Below are some of the pics he took.  I'm excited to learn how to use my new camera tools.

Hansel and Gretel

As part of piano class in the month of December, my Mom had the kids watch parts of the Hansel and Gretel opera...my kids loved it.  We also watched a movie version at home.  So one day Emily decided to make a long story board of the movie.  She taped all the pages together in one long line.  I took pictures of each individual page.

                                      

This picture is off Hansel and Gretel's house.  The are
sleeping upstairs.

This picture shows the scene when Hansel
and Gretel's mother gets angry after
the donkey ate the custard she made.  She is
sending them out to pick berries.

This is of course them picking berries

Here they are in the witches house.

Then finally they are happily reunited
with their parents

Cinnamon Rolls.....Yum!!

I don't make cinnamon rolls very often...a major source of disappointment for my husband and kids, but when I do they are delicious and they disappear quickly.  Yummy and sticky.

Arts & Crafts and other Fun Things

Painting...Coloring...Drawing.  If I let the girls do these things all day, they would.  Every time I turn around the table has exploded with papers, markers, pencils, tape, paint, scissors, glue.  Emily says she wants to be an artist.  Of course Sarah's paints look a lot different than Emily's.  Emily's are perfectly beautiful and not mixed...Sarah's on the other hand...well eventually her paints end up looking like one color:)

I have been attempting to discipline myself to take time in the afternoon after lunch and school work is done to allow the kids to get out anything they want to work on, and to be available to help them with what they need.  It is difficult for me to jus sit and watch and work with them sometimes, when I can think of a hundred other things I "need" to get done.  I'm trying to remember this time will pass and one day I will wish I watched them more...somedays are easier than others to remember this.

Derek likes to draw too, but on his own time.  During our afternoon project time he usually wants to do something else...such as play chess.  So one day we did this while the girls colored and painted.

He also likes to do science projects.  This project was to make slime...he loved this one.  It was pretty neat to see the ingredients become this solid slime:)

Christmas Day

Darrell received a great Christmas Day gift from one of his fellow residents.  One of the residents offered to work for him on Christmas so he could be with his family...So so sweet.  He wouldn't let her work the whole day, he wanted to get most of the work done so she didn't have to do much the rest of the day.  So he went in for the morning and came home around noon.  So he did get to spend time with us on Christmas.  Since we had already done the presents 2 days ago, we went on an adventure in the desert.  Darrell made a fire and we had a little lunch consisting of summer sausage, bread, cheese, and cutie oranges.

Here is sweet Emily, posing for me.

I was experimenting with my new camera lenses, and I loved this picture of Derek and Sarah trying to help Darrell blow the fire to life.

Emily had the idea to heat her sausage up over the fire, so Sarah joined in also.

Emily enjoying her warm sausage.

These are just fun pictures I took with my zoom lens.

I took this picture of Sarah playing with rocks.  I zoomed up on a picture of her pouring rocks into her hands and was amazed at the detail I could see.