Pre-Christmas

Randy gave me my Christmas present a week or so early- a new camera!  A NICE new camera that takes nice clear pictures and does way more things than I know how to handle.  I absolutely love it.  So, here are a few pre-Christmas pictures that I took with it.

I have Christmas photos I need to upload, but until then, here are some cute pictures of the girls in some of their Christmas dresses.  They are so funny and LOVE to dress up in poofy dresses.  Then they dance to "princess" music- disney music on Pandora.

 I guess I love these pictures of the girls because A) you can see they're both happy (that seems to be a hard thing to capture on camera lately) B) you can see they both love each other and how Emma looks up to Kenadi, and C) they have both grown so much!  

 D) It finally got cold here... although, no snow which Kenadi has prayed for and asked for since December began.  The girls' latest "hobby" is digging holes in our backyard and filling them with water. I should probably care about the holes in our yard, but since it's winter I don't.  Maybe when the grass comes back I will.

 But they have so much fun doing it.  Making mud pies and stuff.  It's the things kids should do.  Cause I did it as a kid.

This little sister LOVES her big sister.

Their backyard holes.  Cute little holes that are making memories for me and them. 

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!  We did.  My highlight has been having Randy home.  We've gotten so much done, and the time together is wonderful!  I'll post some more pictures soon.  First, I need to have Randy take a good picture of me and my belly.  Yes, I will actually post it.  Brave, I know.  

December

I guess I need to tell Randy when I'm ready for a picture, and then pose for him and stuff, or you will always see pictures of me like the one he posted last time.  Lovely.  The one below was taken at a thing called "Journey to Bethlehem".  It is a wonderful production put on by a community church and the girls loved it.  So did Randy and I.  To explain it briefly, you go on this journey with a "family" to Bethlehem through some woods.  You encounter Roman soldiers, shepherds, wise men, King Hared, camels etc. on the way.  At the end you see Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus.  It is a neat experience.

 These pictures I found on my camera.  They are a little creepy, so be forewarned.  I'll tell you about them:  Emma ripped the head off of one of Kenadi's barbies.  I told Kenadi I couldn't fix it (the plastic was cracked and stuff) and that we should probably throw her away.  Kenadi agreed to it, but grabbed my camera to take some pictures of her before we did.  I guess she wanted to remember her.  Funny, huh?

 Oh yea, she was naked.  Sorry about that.  =)

 This is my latest wall decoration.  I think it looks much better in person.  I think I'm going to start collecting/making wreaths to hang on my window here for every holiday.  I'll call it my "windowscape".  

 We've had some warm December day's and enjoyed being outside.  Kenadi and Emma love bikes.

One hot and windy day we decided to rake leaves.  This is what happened most of the time.  I'd rake, they'd play.  Or, Kenadi would help me rake, Emma would walk through them and kick them and stuff.  Oh well, we didn't accomplish much but we had fun.

 Until we decided to rake again a week later and I put Emma in the wheelbarrow.  Scary things those wheelbarrows.  Or maybe it's the person driving it.

Baby Hempel #3

I finally sat down and figured out how to get images off of the video that was recorded during Tara's last ultrasound.  So here are a few snapshots of the baby.  I must say she is mighty cute!  We compared Emma's ultrasound pics from this same time to how she actually looked when she was born and they were pretty accurate.  So this should be pretty close to the way she will look when she is born.

Here she is with her eye open, or just a creepy looking image.

Here is a little smile.

This is about the best pic we have of Tara lately.  Sorry, i don't take many pictures.  But you can kind of see her belly where this new baby resides.

Hot Chocolate- YUM! (2 posts in 2 days!)

I recieved this book a few years ago for a birthday present or Christmas or something from one of my best friends.  She knew how much I love hot chocolate.  I have about a cup a day.  Anyways, I LOVE this book.  I recently tried this white hot chocolate recipe that was in my book.  It is from a hot chocolate shop in Stockholm, Sweden named Chokladkoppen.  The recipe is called Het Choklad Vit.  Just by the name you know it's good.

Oh, and let me tell you that I am not a fan of white chocolate.  I don't really like it.  BUT, I loved this.

Here is the recipe:

1 C whole milk

4 ounces Valrhona Ivoire White Chocolate, chopped ( I used 3 ounces of Bakers premium white chocolate- Ghirardelli makes a white chocolate too.  JUST MAKE SURE IT'S REAL)

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 orange slice ( I used a little cutie slice, it was perfect!)

Ok, first you pour your milk into a sauce pan.  Heat it until it is very hot, almost boiling, but not.  Add your chocolate and stir it until it is melted.  Next add the vanilla and use your mixer to whip/froth the milk.  Pour it into your cup.  Add your orange slice.  (I made 2 cups at a time and didn't have room to froth my milk.  So, I added whipped cream on top and then my orange slice.  It was soooo good!)

This might look weird, but I tell you that you MUST try it!  The subtle orange flavor is perfect too.

Here is another Hot Chocolate recipe that I'm going to try this week.  It's from another blog called Mels Kitchen Cafe.  

A new post! Our wilderness adventure.

Can I blame pregnancy on my lack of posts?  I'll try anyways.  Well, a few weeks ago we took a Saturday off and went to the Wichita mountains.  (well, it does have one official mountain-the shortest in N America I think, the rest are tall hills.)  We loved our time together.  It was much needed.  We'd been so busy and we needed to get the girls and get away.  We packed a picnic lunch and headed off.

 We had Randy start us a fire so we could cook hot dogs and roast marshmallows.  This was our replacement for not camping.  I really wanted to camp, but the weather was pretty cold that night and our girls have no fat on their bodies to keep them warm.

 We saw tons of these cute little prarie dogs.  We saw a few buffalo and long horns, but not as many as we hoped.

 I had to take a picture of this sign for my mom.  My great-Grandma (on my mom's side) was born in this area near Cash, Oklahoma.  They lived very close to chief Quanah Parker and his wives.  When she was born the wives came over and asked my Great-Grandma's mom if they could buy her because she was such a beautiful baby.  Of course her mom said no, and then lived in fear that they would decide to come take her anyway.  That tribe was nice and didn't bother them.  So, after all of our hiking we took a little tour of Cash, OK and tried to see Quanah Parkers house- Star house.  It wasn't open, but I found out a bunch of info from an old lady in a trading post who was surrounded by walls of stuff.  Anyways, we are going back for the anniversary celebration in June. 

 Next was our hike. The day was perfect for it.  I just loved being with my sweet husband and little girls.

 Kenadi posed like this because she said she was Ariel for the day.  With legs.

 This is the best family shot I can get as the photographer over moving subjects.

More posts are on the way!