Muppets and Leaves

While we were at home over the Thanksgiving weekend Sarah and I got to go to the Muppets movie with Lindsee and Eric Paul.  I thought it was hilarious!  There were many times I was laughing out loud.  EP, Lindsee and I all remember watching the Muppet Show when we were little.... "It's time to start the music.  It's time to light the lights..."

We also helped rake the leaves in Dad and Mom's yard.  They have lots of leaves.  They have always had lots of leaves.  They will always have LOTS of LEAVES.  I remember while growing up and still living at home we would always be counted on to help rake the leaves in the fall.  I would dread that Saturday and sometimes Sunday.  The only fun thing about raking and picking up all those leaves was getting to jump on and fall on the bag... squashing the leaves over and over. 

Now I do not mind this every year chore.  So, we got out the rakes and the large mattress bags (we rake the leaves into these huge mattress bags, load the bags in the truck and empty them out at the dump.  This is way easier than filling 156 large black trash bags.  Dad saves the mattress bags and we reuse them every year.) and we started filling them up.  It took all afternoon but we got the front yard done and most of the back.  They have a lot of leaves.

Lindsee got out her old high school letter jacket to rake leaves in.  Go EHS Spartans.
Sarah liked jumping onto the bags just like I use to do!

It was great to see and spend time with Lindsee and EP.  We are happy you could come have some fun with us in Kansas.

Sarah "Hula~Hooper" Hendrickson

A couple weeks ago Sarah learned how to Hula Hoop!  And, she is good at it.  She wants whoever may be around to count how many times the hoop goes around.  For awhile her record was 57 times around.... then she shattered her record of 57 by keeping the hoop going around 107 times!!!

   

Here she is, just this week, showing off her amazing hula skills.  Go Sarah, Go Sarah, Go Sarah!

Ornaments and Memories

Our tree has been up for about two weeks now.... I love decorating early!  December always seems so short and I want to enjoy the decorations, the music, the yummy food, and the spirit of the season for as long as I can each year.

Sarah and Phoebe were excited to help put our tree up.  Each time I mentioned it Phoebe would scream and squeal in excitement, and Sarah would smile and get super excited.  Eric and I put the lights and garland on then the girls got to help us put all the ornaments on.... It is so much fun to get the ornaments out each year and remember the story, person, place, and memory that goes along with each one.

Growing up, my parents got my siblings and I a new ornament each year that went along with something we were into, a place we had visited, or something that was special to us....  I am doing the same for my girls.  Sarah's ornament for this year is the Hershey's bar.  She LOVES chocolate.  Phoebe's ornament is the Elmo.  She likes Elmo, and had a Sesame Street and Elmo birthday party last month.

Here are two of my favorite ornaments that I have gotten within the last ten years... Coca-Cola and the Breyer Horse Stirrup ornament.  Breyer has a new Stirrup ornament each year.  This one happens to be the 2001 ornament.

I like to get Eric ornaments too.  He has several hunting, fishing, and construction ornaments on our tree.

Both of our girls have Pooh Bear ornaments from their first Christmas.  I have several Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer ornaments.  Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer is my all time favorite kid's Christmas movie.  I looked forward to watching it every year as a kid growing up.  I like watching it with my girls now.

Of course we have Kansas State University ornaments on our tree. Go Wildcats!

This fun personalized ornament was made for us by my cousin's wife.  It has a special meaning because 2009 was our first Christmas together, in our new home, as a family with both of our girls. 

Another type of ornament and Christmas decoration that I like is anything with NOEL on it.  Noel is my middle name and one of my favorite Christmas songs is The First Noel. 

The first Noel the angel did say,

was to certain poor shepherds in fields where they lay:

In fields where they lay keeping their sheep,

on a cold winter's night that was so deep.

Noel, Noel, Noel, Noel

Born is the King of Israel.

November Papers

Sarah learned to write the lowercase letters g-j this month at school.  She continued to work on writing and recognizing numbers and counting.  She can count up to 34 now with no help!

This is a picture that Sarah drew for me one day while she was at school... They had to stay indoors for recess due to rain/mud.  She choose to color and draw and was very excited to give this finished picture to me... "Mommy this is a picture I drew for you.  It is you, me and Jesus. And, Jesus is making the light shine on us." (Jesus is the very tall person in the picture and Sarah and I are the two short people.) 

This is my favorite picture that ANY child has ever drawn or colored for me up to this point in my life.  For REAL.  It made my day and month.  When I look at this picture, hanging in its permanent home on our refrigerator, it makes me smile and warms my heart.  Sarah knows that Jesus loves her and others, and she can illustrate this in her drawing and in her words.

Sarah has been practicing cutting with scissors at school.  She hadn't used scissors very much before school started in September.  She is getting better at this skill.  She cut out the inny inchworm in the colored picture below for me when she brought it home that day from school.  She was able to turn the paper and cut all by herself and followed the dotted line pretty well.

We decided to let her practice cutting some more the week before Thanksgiving... She was helping Daddy cut wrapping paper pieces to wrap some Christmas presents when I heard from the living room, "Honey come out here..."  I went out to see what Eric and Sarah needed me for and discovered that when Eric wasn't looking, Sarah had cut a small piece of her hair... about 4 inches of hair in one small section on the right side of her head... and a few other random little hairs that lay around her on the floor.... all in all not too much hair was cut and the damage was minimal.  Not enough to need a big haircut, but enough to get in trouble and get the scissors taken away for awhile.

Here is a little refrigerator magnet - inny inchworm that Sarah made at school.  It is glued onto a clothespin, so it can hold papers.

We had our first parent teacher conference for Sarah this month.  Her teachers had very nice things to say about her.  They said she is polite, quiet, nice, and shy. Ms. Lila also said, "Sarah is a joy to have in our classroom.  She is such a hard little worker."  She has mastered most of the things on her Preschool Assessment report card in literacy and language, gross and fine motor skills, personal safety category, listening and verbal skills category, classroom interaction category, and in the spiritual development category.  (Yay Sarah!!!) Sarah IS smart and IS a hard worker.  We are glad that she is doing so well in school! 

Sarah made this cute little I Am Thankful book.

She came home with this card that she told me she had made for her Popee and Nanee... The turkey feathers are made with her hand prints.  Then she glued the paper on the inside of the card and signed her name.

 

Sarah finally got a turn to take the Mystery Bag home this past Monday.  As you can read below she had to bring the bag back on Wednesday with something in it that started with the letter j.  Then she had to give clues to her classmates about what she had picked to put in the bag that started with the letter j.  Once the item is guessed then Sarah could show and share about it with her classmates.  First, she thought of taking a jump rope in the bag.  Next, we thought about putting a jingle bell in the bag.  Then, we thought of putting her Jessie the Cowgirl Doll in the bag.  So, Jessie got to go to school in the Mystery Bag!

Some clues that Sarah gave to her classmates to help them guess what might be in the Mystery Bag were...*It has a pull string on the back *It has red yarn hair *She wears a cowgirl hat *She wears boots *She says "Yo-da-la-he-hoo!" *She has a horse named Bullseye *She was in two movies *She has friends named Woody and Buzz

   

She has been practicing for a school Christmas program, called "An Old Fashioned Christmas", that the the children will be performing in mid-December.  She has been learning the songs "We Three Kings" and "Angels We Have Heard on High".  It should be a cute performance and we are looking forward to it.