Christmas Day 2011

Christmas Morning at

THE HENKE'S

Last year for Christmas we did a family cruise so there really wasn't very many gifts... so this year I wanted it to be different... so I WRAPPED EVERYTHING!!!!

The kids eyes when they came downstairs was priceless!!!

Usually Santa doesn't wrap his gifts to the kids but he did this year... everything except Cole's and the Kinect that we left us all set up downstairs!

Cameron for the first time EVER surprised me.... he was so sneaky when it came to getting me presents this year.

I was shocked when I opened up a Kindle Fire, Shark Steamer ( I have wanted one forever) a coat and a trip to Vegas to see Michael Jackson Cirque Show!!!

I was so spoiled!!!

Courtney's big present was a Netbook... she was so excited!!!  It was fun to finally get something for her that she had NO IDEA about.  Lets just say we scored on Black Friday!!!

 Derek has wanted this K'nex Roller coaster kit for years.... but we told him that as soon as he could set it up by himself and maintain it without the help from dad that he could get it.

So this was the year... He stayed up the night we got back from Idaho until it was totally set up.  Then he couldn't wait for all of us to wake up the next morning to show it how it worked.

He has BIG BIG plans in the future to buy all the rides!!!

The way that this kids mind works in amazing!

HE HAS A BIG FUTURE AHEAD OF HIM!!!!

Since we had to drag Cole out of bed it took him a little bit to get into the mode of opening presents... but once he realized that there was cool stuff under that paper he was all over it!

Once we got all the presents opened up and played with a little bit, we got ready and then hit to road to spend some time at Grandma Blacks!!!

This is what Grandmas most...

ALL HER GRAND KIDS!!!!

Courtney and Derek have a hard time because all the kids are so much younger than they are but they are good sports about it!!!

We had a wonderful Christmas this year!!!

I can't believe how fast this year went... it will just seem like yesterday when I am blogging about Christmas 2012.

Christmas Eve '11

CHRISTMAS EVE '11

This year was our year to have Courtney and Derek for Christmas.  So we get them Christmas Eve night.

So we spent the night with Cameron's family with dinner, and gifts from Grandma Fisher.

After the celebration there we headed home to spend some time together.

One of our traditions like many others is to open one present that night... and of course you can guess what that present is....

(LOVE THIS PICTURE OF THE KIDS)

After opening presents we found a cute gift that Cole's babysitter gave him.

It was reindeer food...

there was a cute poem that talked about going outside and sprinkling this food on the lawn.  We always remember to give cookies and milk for Santa but we always forget about the reindeer and they get hungry too!!

SOOOOO CUTE!

Cole had a blast spreading it all over!!

 Here he was calling for the Reindeer!!!

Telling them to come here...

He says... "meer, meer... and motions with his hand!

Then they came in and got their P.J's on.

I have never seen Derek so excited before.

After they went to bed a couple of minutes later he comes downstairs telling us his stomach felt weird.  We were afraid that he was getting sick but he just said that it felt like butterflies flying around.

We chuckled a little and told him to get back to bed that he was just excited  for the morning.

Then  about 11:00pm he woke up again and we told him to grab a sleeping bag and sleep in our room... and from there every hour on the hour he asked us if it was time to wake up and see what got for Christmas!!!



It was a GRINCH kind of night

Couple of GRINCH'S....

It was our friends Christmas party last night and instead of wearing a couple of UGLY sweaters we decided to go as Grinch's.

The night was a lot of fun!

I would say the best part was the food, friends and WHITE ELEPHANT GIFTS!

There were some real crazy ones this year!!!

One of the ones that we did was we bought a box of chocolates and we opened them up... stuck our finger in a couple of the cream filled ones and ate all the Carmel ones!

LOVED IT!!!

We came home with a

HANGOVER VEGAS Shirt for Cameron

and 43D Black and White UGLY bras!!!

Cameron sure had a lot of fun with them!!!

We are so blessed to live in a neighbor like we do surrounded be some of our very best friend!!!

Like Father like son....

This kid is hilarious....

It is amazing how much Cole is learning.

Just the other day after work we got home and Cole wanted to relax..

There was no changing his mind.

He made sure he got all the blankets he wanted and he climbed right into dad's most favorite spot in the whole house.

After about 5 minutes of getting this little man situated... (NO EXAGGERATION)

He was ready for the "T.B."

Now up until this time he has showed no interested in the TV.  But this night was different.

He wanted his pillow (blanket behind his head) and his other two blankets in the exact position as what he thought they should be.

Then I decided to put on Toy Story 3 to see if that would catch his attention.

Well my plan worked...

HE LOVED IT!

This was the first time EVER... that he stayed still for more than 2 minutes.

He actually laid in this position for over 45 minutes!

He wouldn't even more for dad when he got home... that was his SPOT.

HE IS HILARIOUS!!!

Countdown to Christmas... Day 1





What one year does in the eyes of a child...

SANTA CLAUS 2010

vs.

SANTA CLAUS 2011

Here is Cole with Santa Claus 2010...

and....

Here he is this year.!!!

I wish he still had the amazement in his eyes, but I am sure that will come back in the years to come.

 I hope!!!

I am surprised that I even got him on his lap..

what a kid does for candy!

Decorating the ChristmasTree...

Christmas Time is here...

So for FHE we decided to pull out all the decorations and start making this house look a little bit more like Christmas time.

I have been trying to figure out where I was going to put the Christmas Tree with this little bugaboo running around thinking everything round is a BALL...

So Cameron had this great idea to kind of hide it this year in the corner between the couch and the armoire.

So as soon as the Christmas tree was up and fluffed the ornaments started to get put on and it was so fun to watch Cole decorate this amazing tree that was now in our living room.

The only ornaments that are on the bottom 1/3 of the tree are the ornaments that Cole put on.

And surprisingly they are still there... he really hasn't even touched the tree like I thought he would.

I wish I had the video camera when we pulled out the beads.

He was probably as excited then as he will be on

Christmas morning!!

 FINISHED PRODUCT!!

I think I want to get a new tree after Christmas this year.

Since we have vaulted ceilings I want a taller tree but keep it skinny like this one since our living room is pretty crouded as it is without a tree!!

This is the first year with my Armore!!

I LOVE TO DECORATE IT EVERY HOLIDAY!!!

Black Family Pictures

Calvin and Diane Black Family Pictures

It has been years and years since we last took a family picture with my dad and step mom. 

So this Thanksgiving we got together and finally got it done.

We decided to just have it with the siblings and my dad and Diane.

It seems like whenever we take a family picture just months later it is out of date... so we will wait until we are all done having kids and then get the whole clan together and get that one great picture of everyone!!!

Halloween '10

HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON THEME

Back in August Courtney came to me and told me that she wanted to be Astrid from

HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON for Halloween this year.

I knew that it was going to be difficult but knowing that it was going to be one of the last costumes that she will probably want to do I wanted to make it special for her.

So my idea process started to kick in.

But for the past several Halloweens we have done a family theme and so I started to think about how we were going to make what Courtney wanted to be and a family theme to come together.

So this is what I came up with....

It has been a lot of fun coming up with this costume.  A lot of our ward goes all out when it comes to Halloween... so we were excited to get

THE MOST CREATIVE FAMILY AWARD!!!

This was the third year in a row that we have won an award!

(SO THE THINKING BEGINS FOR NEXT YEAR....hmmmmm, what to do, what to do)

Cameron as the father... STOICK, Hiccup's dad.

We wanted to him to look as authentic as he could. 

I think he turned out fantastic



This picture looks awesome.  This was right at the beginning of trick-r-treating 

 Here was the famous Astrid costume.  Those are real skulls and spikes on her shirt!!

I had no idea how to do her shirt and she wanted it to look as close to her shirt as possible.  So the sewing machine was dusted off and the sewing began.  I just tore fabric and sewed them onto a shirt really messy!

She even did her hair just like the cartoon!

Then Derek was Hiccup.  He wasn't sold on the idea at first but as soon as I told him that he got to wear a wig he was all over it.  If you compare Derek and the cartoon character Hiccup... they are practically identical.

 THEN YOU CANT FORGET ABOUT THE
DRAGON!!!!

I have to admit that I think he is the cutest dragon ever!!!!

 Then we were told that in the book (Didn't know about the books) there was a mom... so I am pretty sure that she looked just like this!!  WINK WINK

MOM Viking and her little dragon!

 Here is the picture of Cole's very first door that we went trick-r-treating at!

He was great for about the first 7 doors and then he was done!

Cole and his obscession

COLE....

LOVES the Neighbors cat.

If you look close and into the bushes you can see a black and white cat that Cole chased all morning.

Here he was talking to the cat his Cole's language trying to convince him to come from out of the bushes and come and play with him.

Giving the cat just a little encouragement!

Now being sweet didn't work he went to a more forceful action...

TELL THAT CAT EXACTLY WHAT HE NEEDS TO DO!!

The cat made a run for it and Cole went just as fast after him.

I am really hoping that one day this cat gives Cole the time of day that he deserves!!!

OH.... there he goes!

GOOD KITTY KITTY.

That just made his day!!!

Courtney 10th Grade

COURTNEY PAIGE HENKE

September 2011

Sophomore Year

When did she grow up... I know I say that all the time, but holy cow...

I love this girl!!!

THINGS ABOUT COURTNEY...

** LOVES TEXTING FRIENDS (is on her phone all the time)

** LOVES TO READ .. She got a Kindle for her 15th birthday... you think that

                                       thing was glued to her hands

** LOVES HER FRIENDS..she is a great friend and has A LOT of them

** LOVES PLAYING WITH HER HAIR... she finds all sorts of fun and

                                        creative things to do with it.

** LOVES HER FAMILY... she is the best BIG sister two brothers could ask for.

** LOVES TO LAUGH.. and make people laugh.

** LOVES MUSIC... she knows any song that is on the radio.  She takes after

                                      her father.

** LOVES BLING BLING... as you can tell in the pic she loves accessories!!

** HATES SPIDERS

** HATES HAMBURGER... with the family switching to turkey she has been

                                     very happy.  She LOVES TURKEY

THINGS I LOVE ABOUT COURTNEY

She is gorgeous inside and out... she is a great help around the house...I love our talks that we have about school, friends, church, BOYS... yes boys!!!  I love that she trusts me enough to just come upstairs when I am cooking dinner and chit chat.  I love the testimony that she has of Jesus Christ and the way she shows that testimony through her actions.  I am so excited to watch this gorgeous girl continue to make right choices and these choices she makes marks the path of the rest of her life.

I LOVE YOU COURTNEY!!!

The Little Things...

WHO WOULD HAVE THOUGHT....

We had corn on the cob one night and Cole wanted in on the fun... so he took over my piece of corn and the rest is history!!!

The picture on the bottom left corner to Cole letting us know how good it was...

"YUMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!"

Monkey See Monkey Do...

***HOGLE ZOO***

So we decided to FINALLY take Cole to the Zoo. 

He is obsessed with animals... any kind of animal brings a smile to his face.

I can't believe that it took us this long to get him to the Zoo.

This is the only good picture we have of Cole in his stroller because once he realized that there was ANIMALS EVERYWHERE...

he wanted OUT!

I would say one of his favorites... a

KITTY KITTY

I wish that this pictures had sound attached to them because in this picture you would hear...

AWWWWWWWWWW

WWWOOOWWW

DA DA... LOOK!!!

AWWWWWWWW

(I think this was the camels)

The expressions on his face was priceless....

The littlest things brings the giggles and smiles from this guy!

MONKEY SEE... MONKEY DO...

He loved the monkeys!  He would try to get them to talk to him.

HEEE HEEE WHOO WHOO HEEE HEEE.

Then he watched a Chimpanzee pick his nose so then he thought he had too... it was hilarious!!!

All Derek wanted to see was a Hippo... so this Rhinoceros was the closest thing he got to it.

We were a little disappointed that there wasn't that many animals. 

The whole middle part of the Zoo was under construction to welcome in the summer of 2012.. THE POLAR BEARS!!!