Christmas Cards

I love sending out Christmas cards and a Christmas letter every year, so when I heard that one of the cutest online stationery stores was giving away 50 free Christmas cards to readers of one of my favorite blogs, I was totally in.

Tiny Prints ( http://www.tinyprints.com/shop/picture-christmas-cards.htm ) asked readers to post ideas on their blogs about how they display Christmas cards.  I love this idea I saw on etsy:  

It's a wire wreath made with loops for storing cards. (found here: http://www.etsy.com/listing/63647159/star-wreath-card-holder) We usually put the cards up on our mantle, but it fills up too quickly.  I'd love to hang this on top of our large mirror above the fireplace so we can show off all the cards we get!

If you have a blog and would like to enter to receive 50 cards from TinyPrints, check out this link: http://www.hostessblog.com/2011/11/a-rainbow-of-holiday-cheer-from-tiny-prints/

Halloween 2011

This year we had an even more fun Halloween than usual.  For the first time, we ALL (even the adults) dressed in costume and had a big Halloween party.  Here's the whole gang together:

From the left: Chris & Kerrie in back dressed as a Chippendale and a Playboy Bunny (very churchy); Kim, Derek, & Zack dressed as Barney & Betty Rubble and their son Bam-Bam; Doug, Candace, and Charlie dressed as Fred, Wilma, & Pebbles Flintstone; us dressed as farmers with a little cow and ear of corn; behind us are Adam, Mandi, & Lucas dressed as characters from the PBS show SuperWhy! Wonder Red, Alpha Pig and SuperWhy himself; and, Dan and Cara as mad scientists!

Are these our costumes or do mid-westerners just dress like this all the time?

Here we are on the day of Halloween carving our pumpkin.  (At least we didn't wait until the last minute!?)  Will is getting ready to take the very first scoop of pumpkin guts:

And after scooping with all his might, this is what he came up with:

Here's Will creating the spooky jack-o-lantern face:

All done!

Boo!

Oh no, when it gets dark John turns from a regular cow into a zombie-cow decapitating other cows and sucking out their brains with a sippy-cup!

We had a great time trick-or-treating with the boys.  The weather was pretty mild and the neighbors got a kick out of our family themed costumes.  After we were done, Will helped pass out the candy, which he really enjoyed.  Then we all watched "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" for the second year in a row.  I think we'll be making that a Henley-family tradition!

Grandparents Day??

This post is a little late, since it's from the end of September, but I'm just getting caught up.  Will's preschool had "Bring Your Grandparents To School Day" and since we don't live close to family, Will invited our friends Dan & Cara to be his special friends for the day.  It was a great choice because Dan and Cara took the whole day off and after school, brought the boys out to Tanners Orchard for some fall fun:

(poor John, had to be the lady)

Tanners has a huge play area will all kinds of farm equipment, vehicles, and playgrounds to play on. Here are the boys on the big wooden train:

John loves steering wheels!

On the tractor/trike dirt track. Not sure why, but Will went straight for the pink John Deere:

John's turn:

Caterpillar!  That's more like it:

John with Dan & Cara.  (ps- Dan is one of John's favorite people and yesterday (Nov. 13) he started saying Daniel.  It sounds like this "Naniel"... so cute!)

Last, but not least, here's Will picking apples.  They were delicious!

Thanks so much, Dan & Cara, for making my boys feel so adored!

Will's Many Careers

Here's just a few of Will's many careers the day we went to the Lincoln Children's Museum:

Postman

Pizza-Maker

Veterinarian

Fireman

Motorcycle Cop

Pilot

Astronaut

So much fun!

Kansas/Nebraska Trip

Last month we took a trip west to visit some friends and family.  First, we went to Kansas to spend some time with our friends, Jacob and Stacie, who moved away from peoria... but we forgive them.  Here's John and his friend, Abe.  They were born ten days apart.

Here are the boys checking out the tractor at Jacob's family's farm:

We took a day trip and visited "Big Brutus" which is a humongous piece of mining equipment.  That tiny figure in the shovel is Will:

After a few days with Jacob and Stacie, we headed north to see some of my extended family in Lincoln, NE.  Here is my grandma ("Gigi" to Will and John) reading with John:

We took the boys to the Lincoln Children's Museum one of the days we were there.  (More pictures in the next post!)  Here is John trying out the family business:

Gigi and Will playing legos during John's naptime:

We also visited Veterans Memorial Park where we found the bricks honoring my grandfathers and even a great-grandfather.

We also spent a day visiting my other set of grandparents.  They had all of my aunts, uncles, and cousins over to see us.  The boys really enjoyed meeting everyone!

We had a really great time on our first big family vacation as a family of four.  The boys did GREAT in the car.  On the way home we even stopped in Iowa to see Brandon's sister and her family.  I think we packed the most fun possible into our trip!  To see the rest of our vacation pictures, click here: https://picasaweb.google.com/101967531136493799652/KansasNebraskaVacation?authkey=Gv1sRgCPXbu6vdjMCAMQ#

First Day of Preschool

I can't believe Will is big enough for preschool! He goes Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 9:00 - 11:30a.m. He says that he likes his teacher, Ms. Nancy. Here he is outside the school on his first day:

Here he is outside his classroom, by the cubbies where I pick up his papers and crafts (and where we'll eventually try to cram his winter jacket):

The kids have to wash their hands first and then go to class. I let him go in the door and he headed straight for the puzzle table with the other kids. The teachers couldn't even get him to look up to tell me goodbye (sniff):

Here he is at the end of the day. Ms. Nancy (in the blue) called his name and he came running out the door with a huge smile on his face. He was excited to tell me that he got to be the "Flag Helper."

Here he is this morning before school. Today was his third day, but it was the first "Show and Tell" day. Will brought his favorite book, Alphabet Adventure:

B is for Birthday - Part 3

Bringing this birthday-post-trilogy to an end is the credits. A lot of little friends helped to make Will and John's birthday so much fun. Here's the gang:

Rylee

Jenna

Lucas

Avery and Jaret

Grace and Sophie

Zack

Anastacia

Jewel

Charlotte

To give you an idea of the chaos, here are some candid shots of the partying.
Here's Will, Anastacia, Grace, and Rylee playing at the bottom of the stairs. I think they were taking turns folding eath other up into the couch:

FOOD!

Present-Palooza:

Luke and John playing blocks in the only space left that the big-kids hadn't taken over:

The after-present aftermath:

By the end, everyone was a little exhausted - some more than others:

We want to thank everyone so much for coming. Living far away from family is hard, but having a house full of people who love you makes it much easier! We are so blessed to have ALL of you as friends!