Christmas Pics

Here are some pictures of christmas at our house and the gifts I made (kind-of).......

Christmas Eve

coming down the hall on christmas morning (to see the gifts from santa on the couch)

another christmas eve picture

Brooks sporting his new florida football jersey (he's not a florida fan, he just wants ANY kind of football jersey he can get :)

the big mysterious gift for Caroline (which turned out to be a gymnastics beam)

Caroline with one of her DIY magazine gift bows on her head

Caroline and her tu tu I made her (she told me she wanted one....?)

brooks being silly with the sweater headband and flower he gave me

here's what i found wrapped up under the tree: my biology dissection specimens!  Thank you, Mom! ;)

Alright....here are the DIY gifts I made.......

for caroline, I made a tu-tu.  We measured her waist, sewed a piece of elastic together, and cut out different colors of tulle, and then tied them around the waist band.

These are notebooks I made for the boys.  I bought Sports Illustrated magazines from the thrift store (3 for 99 cents!), and cut out different figures, pictures, and phrases/quotes.  then I took a regular composition notebook, and Mod-Podge matte glue, and decoupaged the pieces of paper onto the notebook.  **To decoupage, I used a sponge brush, dipped it in the glue, and put glue on a section of the notebook.  after covering the entire front/back (whichever side you are working on), I put another layer of glue on top of it all.**   I even cut out letters from the magazines to spell out their names, and put it on the cover of the notebook.  I decoupaged the front and back of the notebooks.

For mom, I painted this sign using a regular canvas and acrylic paints.  I got my inspiration from a sign at Hobby Lobby.

caroline and I did this together.  he said he wanted posters for his clinic, so that when his patients were looking up from the little exercise beds, they would see these pictures.  So mom ordered him some of the ones that Caroline, my mom, or I had taken, and there you have it!

mom thought this one would be funny over a patient's head :)

she thought this one was cute/funny also :)

so that's what the holidays have been like here.  If you haven't, you should check out my previous post and watch the videos of my brothers playing just dance 2 and playing with their RC helicopters.

also.... to the right of this post, their should be a widget entitled "contribute to the well" or " help build a well".  you can directly contribute to the well for world vision by clicking on the button that says "chip in".   You can also put this widget on your blog, or just post it, by clicking on "copy".  Please help advertise the well, and so people know about this amazing thing God is doing.  thank you soooooo much!!!

~Anna Leigh

Family

Well.... hello there!  I haven't posted forever, I know, and I'm sorry :(    I guess I feel I've been too busy, or maybe just enjoying the holiday break way to much.  I really just haven't taken the time to type, and I haven't really felt like I had something good to say, or been inspired.  Either way, its nice to be back :)

Merry Christmas!  (am i a little late on that note????)   I hope your christmas vacation has been wonderful and relaxing (right.....  minus the stress of having to get gifts.... and decorations set up.... and being on time to parties and recitals... this note is basically for the moms ;).  We had a great christmas day yesterday, full of watching brothers and sisters get so excited when you're about to open the gift they gave you, siblings reading verses to the church out of the christmas story, and watching the last gift being given to you full of well money from the family.  Yeah, it was a pretty great day.  

 But i was thinking as I went to sleep on christmas eve.  I was excited about the next morning, with Santa coming :), and and the gifts to be given and received.  And as I was thinking, I thought about having all the gifts I would normally get on a christmas morning, but without my family.  It would be so lonely!  family makes it fun, and exciting, and puts the love in the holiday season.  Being together just warms my heart, especially seeing your siblings or parents get excited about a gift you're about to open, and our seven-year-old brother exclaiming that you're going to LOVE it. (doesn't it make you just smile to hear that, even f you don't know Brooks?)  that's what puts the fun and love in christmas, the sharing your RC helicopter (and then crashing it...oops), and taking silly videos with your new video camera you share with your sister, or hearing you're parents tell you how much they love their gift.  this all just warms my heart.

now it may sound like I'm saying that family is the reason for the love of the season, but I know that Jesus is the one behind it all.  His family, though, displays that all family is important throughout the holiday season.  Mary and Joseph had it harder than we (or I, specifically) could bear.  Mary, first of all, was probably between the ages of twelve and fourteen when being told she would have a baby and be married.  That's mine or caroline (my sister's) age.  I cannot imagine being told I was to have a baby, or even be married, right now. And then to know I was to have the SON OF GOD as my child!!!!!!!!  I can't even imagine it.  And imagine how Joseph felt.  He had been pledged to marry Mary, a virgin, and then it turns out she's pregnant.  How would you be feeling? Cause I wouldn't be very happy.  because back then, it was a huge deal if you were prego and not married. You could be stoned, or thrown out into the wilderness.  Then God tells Joseph that Mary is telling the truth, and the child is the Messiah you have been waiting for for hundreds of years.  whoa.  so then, you have to travel to bethlehem with a pregnant wife, which is, by the way, over a hundred miles away.  I don't even want to get into what they had to go through on the trip.  And then to be blessed, with a small child, the messiah, and holy son of god. Wow.  It's truly an amazing story.

Well, I just did a brief overview of the movie "Nativity story" (which I highly recommend) and our Sunday school class in december.  I hope it makes you think.

So i hope that hopes you see how important family can be over the holidays, and at any time.  Without family, we wouldn't celebrate christmas.

So here's what my family has been up to.... I just happened to get some of it on tape ;)  I hope you enjoy these, and I also hope they work : /  

The boys playing Just Dance 2

My brothers flying their helicopters in the front yard

P.S.  Pardon all the christmas boxes and such scattered in the background.  it's just the normal present leftover boxes, waiting to be burned in the fire :)

merry christmas and happy new year, from my family to yours.

Anna Leigh

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