Happy New Year!

So I'm horrible about getting pictures off the camera so these are pictures from Chris' phone.  We had a wonderful and relaxing Christmas this year.  We saw Chris' parents the weekend before Christmas...Hayden's new car that plays music was a big hit from that time....lots of dancing.  Above Hayden is working on saying "Ho, ho, ho!"

Jensen LOVED wearing Christmas (fancy) dresses every day after Thanksgiving.  Luckily Oma and I found several dresses at yard sales for her to wear. 

Hayden and Jensen ready for the Cantata at church.

Choosing what gifts to buy from World Relief.  Jensen chose fruit trees. 

We spent Christmas Eve with Oma and Opa at church and then for dinner at their house.  Christmas morning was so relaxing!  The kids didn't know they were getting gifts so they slept in until 8.  I made apple cinnamon pancakes, we opened gifts and then Oma and Opa joined us for lunch and dinner and playtime with new toys.  Chris gave me a great gift and put in lighting in our dining room.  Yay!  Hopefully I'll post Christmas at home pictures later.  My siblings came in after Christmas.  The highlight was meeting cousin Seth who was adopted by Damon and Liz this past summer.  The cousins had fun playing together and the entire family had fun sledding (until we got cold!) in the snow we got on the 26th. 

The kids missed everyone after the holiday was over!  Baby Einstein therapy! 

Oh Jensen!

We couldn't get this child to hardly crack a smile when we were paying a photographer to take her picture, but when we get home this is what she does. 

Dora and the Pumpkin

It was a little chilly to trick-or-treat, but we made it to a few houses around Oma and Opa's neighborhood before the kids fingers got too frozen to put treats in their buckets.  Jensen Dora refused to wear her coat because she was so proud of her outfit (even declaring to a passerby that she was beautiful).  Hayden was a little confused as to why he had to wear a pumpkin on top of his clothes, but quickly caught on to knocking on a door and getting candy in his pumpkin bucket.  He enjoyed his first taste of candy after the adults concluded that we were done (we got really cold!).  Dora did wear a wig which we learned to never leave on a chair overnight...it could get confused as an animal the next morning.  Thanks goes to Opa and Oma who carried the little, rather slightly beefy, pumpkin around the neighborhood! 

Just Because...

No reason for these pictures.  I was just paging through pictures from this spring and couldn't resist posting a few.  Our kiddos seem to be growing up too fast....it's good to remember these little smiles. 

Second Annual Apple Month

This year's Hinesley Apple Month was great!  We made apple butter, apple crisp, apple scones (courtesy of Chris!), and apple cinnamon pancakes.  Yummo.  Jensen and I also studied the life cycle of apple trees and watched a movie on apple farming during school time.  This year's trip to the apple orchard was much more successful than last year's trip.  Only one orchard.  No tears.  And we got apples!  We took Aunt Susie with us this year which was fun.  Because of the hot weather and drought in Indiana the apple crop wasn't as good this year, but there was still plenty of golden delicious apples to choose from.  Hayden had a great time running around the lines of trees and fell all over the place despite the fact that he was getting over having Hand, Foot and Mouth.  Jensen was mortified last year when we read a book about going to the orchard where the author wrote that the correct way to pick an apple is to turn the eye upward so it doesn't damage the tree.  We hadn't picked them the right way last year!  She made sure to turn them correctly this year and instructed the rest of us to do the same. 

Family Time...What we've been up to

 Hayden wasn't too sure about fishing...he touched the fish once and was off to play with the ball.

 Jensen, however, couldn't wait until the bait was on to cast the line. Luckily she has a fisherman for a Daddy and caught a fish on almost every cast!

 Everyone begs to ride with Daddy on the tractor...one little boy always cries when he has to get off.

 Hayden!  My how your legs have grown!

Jensen in her tent that she won from the library reading program.  She was thrilled to get to sleep in it when Aunt Susie came to visit. 

What Hayden is Thinking...

Are we really related?