New Year’s Reflections

Looking back on the months gone by,
As a new year starts and an old one ends,
We contemplate what brought us joy,
And we think of our loved ones and our friends.

Recalling all the happy times,
Remembering how they enriched our lives
We reflect upon who really counts,
As the fresh and bright new year arrives.

And when we ponder those who do,
we immediately think of you.

Thanks for being one of the reasons
We'll have a Happy New Year!

By Joanna Fuchs

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

We wish you and your family a very Merry Christmas!

Love- The6Stricklands

A funny that'll last a lifetime.....

Dylan has a personality of his own. He has his own ideas and he does just what he wants to do. He doesn't conform much to what other people are doing or want to do. (Hopefully that'll last through his teenage years right?)

Well in preschool this Christmas, his teacher thought it would be adorable to make an angel ornament with a picture of the kiddos dressed up as angels with wings and wearing a Christmas tree headband instead of an halo.

Dylan was NOT up to that at all, and it took her sometime to finally talk him into taking a photo. She told me how proud she was that he gave in and "participated".

On the last day of preschool, Dylan had a bag full of goodies, crafts and ornaments (including the angel ornament). At home we went through the items together and I "ooohed" and "aaaahhhed" over all the stuff. I finally got to the angel ornament and (knowing how he reluctantly participated) was about to cheerfully aknowledge the special ornament when he grabbed the ornament from my hand and said in a very deep tone with a frown on his face "Mommy, Dylan didn't want that" and pointed to himself all dressed up.

It was such a funny moment- but felt I needed to keep to his tone and validate his feelings. I did share with him how happy I was he took the picture anyway, we put it on our tree for everyone to see- for many many many years.

Here is the ornament hanging on our tree. (Click on the image to see his facial expression- he's just not good at hiding his feelings is he?)

Another Reason why I love this time of year...

....all the Christmas cards!
If you don't
see your
Christmas card
here- it's either
somewhere in the
back or you
haven't sent it!





We will be sending our last installment of cards in the mail on Monday. If you haven't gotten our card and would like one, let me know and I will send it via email!

Dylan and his Daisy Dog

I found this picture today and thought Id post it on our site. Big D loves his doggy Daisy! He is in charge of taking care of her- only because he insists on doing it. He feeds her, plays with her, gives her water- his favorite thing is to take her on walks.
He's actually pretty good at taking care of her too! He does much better at lovin' and carin' for her than we all do!

~ANG-ELF~ and a BIG announcement!!

Our sweet Emily was in a Christmas Musical at her school. They presented the play at the High School Auditorium.

She played two parts in the musical and was proud of and took seriously each role. She proudly called herself an "ANG-ELF" for an Angel and an Elf.

She was an elf and had a speaking part at the beginning.













And then she was an angel and had a singing part.























We were so proud of her! Afterwards she was awarded with lots of love and flowers from her fans(family).
























~The BIG announcement~

Emily got glasses! We got a letter from the school nurse explaining during her routine eye exam she couldnt see some letters and advised us to go see an eye doctor. We finally got in last week and today her new glasses came in! She is so proud and already talking about how she can see things better. She even said at dinner "Oh, I forgot I was wearing glasses!"

Christmas: Part 2

Traditions are so much apart of our Christmas season. From baking, to giving, to decorating. We LOVE to celebrate this time of year.

Here are a few more pictures of our Christmas.

I love to bake + our kids love to bake= lots of baking!! Here is our annual gingerbread house. This year Big D was able to participate, I think he ate more candy than he put on the house!


Plus we like to bake and give it away. We have a family friend who is hosting her family for Christmas, dont you know that could get pricey! SO, we made a few jars of goodies. (These are Clean- old pickle, applesauce, hotsauce jars) We made a pancake mix, an oatmeal raisin cookie mix, and a hot chocolate mix.




Its so much fum to see the girls wanting to decorate the house, seriously, they are so festive and crafty. I think they get that from their daddy. ;)

This the second year to wrap our door. Kayla did a majority of this wrapping! Isnt it beautiful, I might not take it down after Christmas!














A sweet older woman named Alice made my mom a stuffed Santa. If you pushed his nose- it would sing "Jingle Bells". Its about 20 years old, and my mom passed it off to me. This is such a precious Santa and we have no idea what to do with him around Christmas.

WELL this year- the girls had a clever idea about putting him up in the window in our stairwell. We never use that window, and its so high up and everyone can see it from the window. We have gotten so many comments on him this year!









Every year I enjoy putting out our Nativity sets, although NOBODY plays with mommas set, which is displayed nicely on the piano. We have a fun plastic set for the kiddos to enjoy. You will notice that baby Jesus is MIA, we find pieces of Nativity all over the house!!








We didn't put our stocking on our fireplace this year because we are using it so much for heat- so we decided to hang the stockings off of a shelf. Kayla and I decorated these stockings when she learned about St. Nicolas and the legend of him throwing coins down the chimney into the stockings.

Notice the snowmen on the shelf. I made the one on the far right our first year married..I also made the fat one in the middle. My mom made the small one to the left, and the small one to the right reminds me so much of my tator tot- round belly- red cheeks and a sweet smile! The globe is a family favorite. It winds up and plays music. It has four snowmen in each globe- representing each kiddo! I had to put it high this year- I caught Dylan with it several times trying to "make it music".

2008 Strickland Christmas Card

Again this year we went to HEB.com and logged into their photo services. We were able to make this card online by uploading the photos from our computer. Then we sent the card to our local HEB for printing. An hour later I got a confirmation email that they were ready for pick up. I picked them up and payed for them with a few extra groceries. TREMENDOUS! The envalopes came with them and the cards were inexpensive too! I LOVE a good find!!

Colorful Characteristics

Recently, our Tator Tot has expressed his marvelous artistic abilities.

This picture was taken after he had some fun with the markers. He is learning that we only color on P.A.P.E.R.

He is turning into quite a colorful character!!

A happy homeschooling momma

NOTE: This post is geared more towards homeschooling- not all might be interested in such a post.

I have been given lots of great resources by fellow homeschooling moms. Below are a few of my recent favorites.

School Express (click on it to check it out) I like all the FREE fun worksheets and printables that I can use to supplement in with our work. Especially the FUN writing ideas. The site also has plenty of Thematic Units and Activity Fun eWorkbooks, as well as supplemental eWorkbooks for each subject.

A TO Z HOME'S COOL (cute name-click to check it out) This is a big networking site that not only has great educational resources, it also has support groups, classifieds, chat rooms, and oh my goodness so much more! I like how its a constant updated site, right now Christmas resources are up, and they also have a free planner organizer for the new year to use.

The Home School Mom (click to check it out) Their site offers a monthly newsletter that gives out fun resources, they also have support groups, spanish lessons, homeschooling planners, lesson plans, articles and lots more.

There is a WEALTH of homeschooling resources online! You just have to know where to find them. I have been so happy to find and use all of these great websites with our schooling!!

Any homeschooling moms know of any other great sites?

Christmas on 5th Street

Last night I took Emmy out on a date to BU for their annual Christmas festivities. We had SO much fun!










We saw a live Nativity Scene, complete with camels and donkeys. We enjoyed the petting zoo full of sheep.












We watched a portion of the Selah Christmas Tour. This band has such talent and beautiful music.














We also stood in line for an hour to ride a horse and buggy. It was what Emily wanted to do- so we did it. (This is us on the carriage ride
















We did lots of other things like enjoy Hot Chocolate and cookies, see Santa (even though Emily knew he wasn't real) and watched some Steven Curtis Chapman LIVE. Later I asked Em what her favorite part of the night was- she replied "Spending time with my mommy". She is such a JEWEL!

PART 1: Christmas

Its beginning to look alot like Christmas at our house. We started putting everything out the day after Thanksgiving- we just couldn't wait!


We had our annual "Family On The Roof" moment. Interesting enough- the boys were NOT excited about being on the roof. We had the girls on the roof at this age- and they were just as estatic as they are today to be up. And finally this year- momma went up too for a minute- dont care to share the pics though!



We put up our tree. Nice thing- I hardly had to do a thing, the girls did a major part of getting the tree up and decorated. Even the boys helped put up the ornaments. All those pretty shiny balls are PLASTIC! A neccessitity- especialy when I catch Taylor throwing the on the tile to see them bounce!! We have our train track up under the tree- but with two young boys, we cant keep it out on display, we get it out on occasion for fun. It was passed down to us from Joel's grandfather- we need to keep it in good condition!

One new thing we have this year is a Christmas clock. This was given to us by a very dear person. On the hour- the clock will play a Christmas song. Its been such a sweet sound to have in our house.



Kayla made her very own Advent Calendar. This calendar corresponds with her school curriculum. Five days of the week- we are to open a number, and review that Christmas symbol. So far we have learned about the Advent Wreath, the Christmas Tree and ornaments, and today we are discussing Christmas baking. This has been really exciting to be able to work around this unit.

I have a few more festive things and pics to post about- but very little time, will share more soon!