January 2016

Dunne buggy rides on New Year's Day with Ellery Craighead.

Laura, Laci & Kristin after the yoga mala

date with Kaden to see The Force Awakens (Star Wars, episode 7)

 behind the scenes of the family photo shoot

sneak peek from Jessica's computer

Kyle and Anna came to town the 1st week of January.

Lucky for Anna, Kaden brought out his new orgami book so she could test her skills.

Christmas celebration #5?  

"Kyle is coming!!!!  Do you think he will bring us presents again like last year?!?"

Miss Gracie

 

making pizza with daddy

Luke spending the night with us.

fun with pancakes...

beautiful January morning

lots and LOTS of running happening in preparation for the New Orleans marathon.

Laci even came over after the 20-miler to perfect her poached egg skills.

fun times at the Seals' house

Andy came through for a visit.

Ben constructed a bookshelf for our bedroom.

constantly making (pearler) bead projects

Kaden is READING!

New Shelf

It all started with this picture a couple of years ago.  I bookmarked is several years ago for several reasons:

1) Ben and I have a LOT of books

2) it's different

3) I love everything about it...

So... Ben tried his hand at carpentry this weekend.

and did a damn-fine job!

The following weekend:

finishing, priming and painting

Talk about a man on a mission;

he didn't stop that night until the whole thing was painted and FINISHED!

love, love, LOVE

Arts & Crafts Time

Well... Amarillo could have gotten hit a lot harder by the "blizzard of 2015" but it *kind of* missed us. Yes, we got 40 mph winds crazy blowing snow...  BUT instead of feet we got inches.

Friona and a few other small towns got slammed but luckily we were able to get out after a day or so. 

Meanwhile...

view out our front door on December 27th. 

I seized the opportunity to start on MY arts & crafts project that Mary gave me for Christmas.

At least 35 years ago Mary designed a stocking for Ben & Dorothy and their grandmother, Nannie sewed them.  

A few years ago Shanny found Ben's stocking in the attic and gave it to me.  

When I found out that Mary initially designed them, I asked if she might design a few more for the kids and me... I mentioned it several other random times (i.e. when we were there last spring break and around Thanksgiving) but kind of put it out of my mind and thought we might talk about it again at some point.  

To my delight, THIS fell in my lap on Christmas morning.  

THE BEST Christmas gift that I have received in a LONG time.

Not only did Mary sketch everything out on hemmed fabric, she colored everything, making it super-easy to follow, bought all of the yarn, and provided tapestry needles and scissors.  

this happened ALL DAY LONG

Kaden worked on his own sewing project for a little bit.

... and made a whole lot of minions with his new pearler beads.

a little bit done.

Not sure how long this project of sewing over her sketches will take, but it's been so fun to get started.

Sewing Time

 We may have missed the mark for the 1st lost tooth, but then again there wasn't a tooth to be found since he swallowed it during dinner.  Either way, Julie found this neat tooth pillow for Luke to make and picked up an extra for Kaden.  

He did such a good job on his first real sewing project!

Grace's 1st Hike

With the boys in school, Kyle, Anna, Grace and I ventured into Palo Duro Canyon for the afternoon to hike on the new Comanche Trail. 

A friend passed this baby backpack to us and it turned out to be the most wonderful gift; Grace absolutely LOVED riding in the pack as she giggled and babbled through the first mile before drifting off to sleep.

Gracie LOVED the hike

Kyle and Anna taking charge of dinner

salad, Aloo Saag, and Chana Masala

cuddling with Uncle Kyle, watching "My Nieghbor Totoro"