Art Therapy with Snazzy

One Sunday afternoon this Fall we met Emily an Art Therapist that is part of the hospice group that is helping to care for Snazzy. Emily wanted to do a little art project with the girls and Snazzy. The girls had so much fun and we were glad they could do this special activity with Snazzy.

Emily is explaining the painting project they were going to do with water colors and some salt. 

They did another water color project where they wrote each of the granddaughters name in white crayon and then painted over it.

 It turned out well. Snazzy mostly just watched and didn't really paint with the girls but he seemed to enjoy sitting and being a part of the action. I think it was a good experience for everyone.

We are thankful that Snazzy has such a great place to live and good people that are caring for him at Heritage Court in Pewaukee.

Happy New Year - 2019

Happy New Year 2019! We got together with a few friends from our small group for NYE. We had a fun time and did a little count down with the kiddos at 7pm. We were home by 9pm. How things change with kiddos around!

Christmas 2018

We had a great Christmas celebrating with our family!  We must have really been enjoying each other because I didn't take hardly any photos this year.

Here are a few of the pictures we took to put on our Christmas card. One of these years we'll have professional pics taken. I think I say that every year. Anyway the girls are looking so old and grown up!

Christmas Eve we attended our candlelight service at Church. A funny story from Maya - we were at church and she was telling some friends that on Christmas Eve the girls always get to open one gift and it's a Christmas ornament. I grew up getting a dated Christmas ornament every year and still get them from my parents on my birthday. I wanted to start the tradition too so that when the girls go off on their own they can take their ornaments and decorate their tree some day. Well anyway...mom fail...I totally forgot to get  the girls ornaments this year. I had looked at them earlier in December but didn't see any that I had liked and then just totally forgot. Opps. So we'll have to either get two for next year or maybe the girls will get them on their b-days too this summer.  The girls wanted to open just one gift on Christmas Eve so we said they could open their gifts they got for each other. That worked out pretty well.

The girls didn't wake up to crazy early on Christmas morning.
I think we were all downstairs by 7:30!

Here are just a few quick snapshots of opening gifts. 

I don't even remember what this was but I love the look on Maya's face. 

 And Cora's face here...she is working so hard to get the box open. What's inside you ask?

A karaoke machine which the girls are having a blast with. (Thanks Texas crew for introducing this to the girls over Thanksgiving. We are forever grateful. :) )

We headed to Palos Heights to be with the Sikkema crew from Tuesday afternoon to Friday. Again we had so much fun together we forgot to take pictures. This is the only one I had on my phone from Christmas day.

Wednesday night the adults went to see Fiddler on the Roof downtown Chicago. We've been talking about going to see a musical together for the past several years and we finally made it happen! It was a great show and we all enjoyed it.

Thursday afternoon we all went to the movies. Most of us went to see the new Mary Poppins movie. I I think everyone liked it but Cora's quote was that "she thought it was weird." We had a good chuckle at that. Then that night we all went out to dinner to celebrate the actual 50th wedding anniversary of mom and dad which was December 28. We've been celebrating for the past 6 months (surprise party in June, Colorado vacation in July) and were so glad we could all be together again and celebrate this wonderful milestone with our parents. Someone shared that week that only 6% of marriages make it to this special milestone. We are so grateful for our parents and the love and commitment they have for one another. Wonder where we'll celebrate for the 60th?

December Happenings

I know it's January but I've got to get caught up a bit from last month. December was a whirlwind of concerts, programs, cookies, parties, and all things helping us prepare for the birth of Jesus!

Maya had her school Christmas concert earlier in December. She's on the very far right in the second row, on the end in a gray dress. She loves to sing!

Maya and Cora had a Sunday School program as well. Unfortunately, I didn't get a good photo of that program. However, Maya was able to play Oh Come All Ye Faithful as part of the prelude so that was pretty special for her. The third graders were shepherds in the program this year so she played piano in her shepherd costume.

Cora had a very sweet 4K program. There was singing, a little acting out of the Christmas story, and of course cookies.

 Cora and her friend Laura preparing to act out angel Gabriel and Mary. 

 Cora was excited to wear the angel costume

 Cora and a few of her classmates with their amazing teacher Mrs. Brightman

It seemed like we were always baking and taking cookies with us. 

The girls had fun decorating the cut outs! 

We took a ride through Country Springs Christmas which we had never done before. The girls enjoyed it and it was a fun family activity to do together. 

Here are just a few snap shots I took out the car window. 

We also did spend some time relaxing and had several fires that we enjoyed 

on the weekends together.