Two of My Favorite Things: Christmas and Snow

And they both happened on the same day! We had a wonderful Christmas! We stayed home this year for Christmas. We normally spend Christmas with family but this year the kids wanted to be at our house so we stayed here and plan to travel later this week to spend time with our families. On Friday my parents and my aunt & cousin came to our house for the Kirby/Cobb/Haneline Christmas celebrations. The kids opened tons of presents and we ate lots of yummy food!
(you can click on the pictures to see them larger)

Later that evening the kids decorated cookies for Santa and it took them forever to get settled into bed. But when they did, we woke up the next morning to lots of presents under the tree... wink, wink!

Chandler got an iPod...Carter got drums for the Wii....Kensley got a Nintendo DS...and they got a lot more stuff to go with it! We had lots of fun playing with all the new toys & games yesterday as we watched the snow fall outside.

What a wonderful treat to get on Christmas Day... well, ours didn't really come until later that day but we woke up to a winter wonderland this morning. The snow started on Christmas Day around 3pm but was mostly rain/snow mix until around 5pm and then the flakes started falling. By 7:30 the ground was mostly covered and was so pretty.

This morning everything was covered in 3 1/2 inches of snow (some parts of the county got even more) and the kids were ready to go sledding. We went to Crest Middle School. It has a "big hill" which everyone loves to go to. The sledding down was fun, but the climb back up the hill was not! The kids had a blast anyways and I got some great pics from it. (Yes, I did sled too... I just never get my picture taken)

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas! I am so thankful for time spent with family, the beautiful snow, many presents and most of all the birth of our Savior!

Lotsa, lotsa Christmas stuff

Yeah, it's been a while since I've posted. Been just a tid-bit busy I would say. So I'm catching up today... while I'm home....and should be wrapping presents or something... but I'm blogging. Cause I don't want to get too far behind and have to blog about a whole month when exciting things are getting ready to happen. {giggle}

Ok, first off is Kensley's preschool Christmas program at Aldersgate... they sang the Reindeer Poky song... cute.


Snow! It was very brief but we had some HUGE snowflakes on Saturday the 18th. The kids ran outside in their snow gear (they couldn't really do anything b/c nothing stuck) and were able to catch some flakes on their tongues!


Going to see Santa...this was Kensley's first year sitting on Santa's lap.



Kensley's best friend John Michael spent the night with us a couple weeks ago & they exchanged presents. Two very happy kiddos!


The kids being crafty... I love this!


School parties... Jack, Gracie & Carter at lunch.

Chandler & some of his classmates playing games.


Annual church Christmas program. The kids always perform for us. Look at this big group!

And Kensley's preschool class performed as well.


A pic of the kids in front of the tree. Ummm... they are getting big cause you can't see the tree.

Merry Christmas to You!

In the midst of all the hustle & bustle of the season, I wanted to take a time out to all my friends in blogger land to say...

Merry Christmas to you!

May the joy of the true meaning of this season, the birth of our Savior, fill your hearts and homes with much love these next few weeks. From our family to yours!

Yummy soup!

My friend Missy gave me this recipe for potato soup & it's so yummy I had to share!

Baked Potato Soup

6 potatoes (or 4 large potatoes)
8oz sour cream
1 1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
6 cups milk
1 1/2 sticks butter
2/3 cup all purpose flour
salt & pepper to taste
Green onions & bacon pieces (optional)

Bake your potatoes at 400 for 1 hour or until done. (I didn't scrub them or wrap them... just stuck em in a pan & put em in de oven)
Let cool.

In a large pot on medium heat melt the butter. Add flour, stir well & cook for about 1 min. Then add the milk. Let cook, stirring frequently until mixture is bubbly & it thickens. Turn heat to low and add cheese, sour cream, salt & pepper. Scoop out the insides of the baked potatoes & add to mixture. Stir frequently until heated through.

Garnish with green onions & crumbled bacon pieces if desired.

{Wall Art} Giveaway

Lucky for the only two entries in my Freebie Friday... congratulations to

Dori & Shannon S....

you both win! I couldn't just pick one when only 2 people entered, so, walllah!

Get in touch with me & I'll get your personalized Wall Art to you right away.

Freebie Friday

I bet you thought I forgot... but I didn't. Here's the final freebie for this month...

{Wall Art}... an 8x10 custom designed print for you. (Sorry, frame not included.)

This would make a great family Christmas present, baby gift, birthday present... etc. I've done family names, kids names, grandkids prints and I'm sure I can come up with plenty more.

So on with the comments... this is the last one. Maybe you will win!

And the winner is....

Meagan!!!

Just encase ya'll are wondering how I go about the picking process, I go to random.org and type in all the names in the order they were commented. Then hit randomize and I pick the 1st name as the winner... and hear you go...

There were 10 items in your list. Here they are in random order:

1. meagan
2. melissa
3. katie
4. teresa
5. les
6. renee
7. wendy
8. nikki
9. shannon
10. paula

Timestamp: 2010-11-23 00:45:49 UTC

***Now, here's the problem... I'm not sure which Meagan it is... is it "Mee-gan" or "Meg-an"? Two friends with the same spelling but pronounced differently and I'm not sure which of you registered. So please let me know which of my lovely Meagans is the grand winner!

Freebie Friday

Week 3 giveaway....

{Photo Flipbook/Mini Scrapbook}


Not these books {cuz I made them for someone else}
...but a book, customized for you, of course!

Let the comments begin.....

Boys will be boys

Sunday afternoon I woke up from my nap to discover two giggly little boys that were very anxious to show me what they discovered...

I guess they got a little sidetracked while raking and blowing the leaves. Boys will be boys...doing silly stuff like this. But it's really funny!

Winner announced....

... and it is....

Terrany!!!!!

Yay for you. (And I'm especially glad you won because you deserve a little bright something in your life right now).

I'm working each night on more crafty creations, so keep checking back on the blog for more updates and more giveaways and don't forget to check out my website too.

I'm getting lots of Christmas orders right now so make sure to place your's soon.

Freebie Friday!

I'm at it again... as a matter of fact, I'll be at it every Friday this month. Yep. I'm giving away one of Kendra's Creations for the month of November.


This weeks giveaway is a {journal}...



Not necessarily "this" journal, but a journal... personalized for you. I have lots of paper in all colors and styles...women & men, old & young, girls & boys.

So leave me a comment & enter for your chance to win a journal for you or as a gift to give {the holidays are approaching}. Remember for every person you refer that comments on this post you will get additional chances to win. Drawing will take place on Monday, November 15th.

If you want to see more journals that I have made, hop on over to my website...click the {Kendra's Creation} button in the right corner.

Have you seen these?

My friend Gabrielle...who is a pro-photographer-in-the-making by the way...took these pics of my kids. I was going to wait & post them but they are so good that I just can't keep them to myself. (Click on the picture to see it bigger)

And the winner is....

drum roll please........

ba-da-dum-dum-dum-dum....


Rebecca at Engineer's Falcon !

Congrats on winning the Christmas Card design giveaway!

And for the rest of you who entered you can get a Christmas card design too. It's only $12 for a .jpg design customized just for you. Look for more giveaways coming up over the next few weeks.

Happy Halloweenie!

Whew! What a fun week of Halloween festivities. I'm just about candied out. But the kids have had a great time at fall festivals, trick or treating & partying. Here's a few pics from our weekend.

Fall Festival at the YMCA

Chandler & Kensley with Caleb

Carter with his buddies Weston & Jack

Kensley's preschool class at the Fall Festival

Halloween Party at the Knapps

PS... I will post the winner of the Christams Card giveaway tomorrow afternoon.

Freebie Friday

So it seems this is a growing trend in blogger land... giveaways. I thought I might give it a try. The holidays are approaching and I'm trying to spread the word about Kendra's Creations. {Not to mention the fact that I love what I do} So why not share the love.

**I'm going to give away a free custom designed Christmas card layout.**

All you have to do is leave me a comment (make sure I know who your are) & I'll put your name in a drawing to be held on November 1st. Pass the word along to a friend & if they comment and tell me you referred them I'll put your name in the hat for every friend that enters {that's a thanks to you for helping me out}.

{Happy Friday}

Digital Christmas cards are here!

It's just around the corner... Christmas! My favorite time of year. I've been working on some new digital designs for this year that I am excited to premier here. Here's a few of the new designs that I've created and of course I can always custom design a card for you.

I'm also offering printing this year. Yay! I have found a printer that is great quality and it actually looks like a card as opposed to a photo print. So this year I am offering 2 options:
#1 - You can purchase a .jpg file that I create and you can print anywhere you like
#2 - I will design and print the cards for you. It's a high quality, durable, glossy cardstock printed in a 4x6 or 5x7 size and comes with envelopes. Printing comes in groups of 25. If you are interested just email me for pricing.

You can view any of my past designs on my website. Click on the Kendra's Creations tab in the right corner of my blog and go to Digital Creations or click on the Christmas tab.

Disney 2010!

We had a wonderful family vacation the first of this month...the long awaited return to Disney! This was our first family vacation where it was just our family and it was so nice to spend some quality time together for a week. It's not much of a resting vacation when you spend 6-10 hours walking around parks but it's so much FUN! We visited 4 parks (Universal, Islands of Adventure, Magic Kingdom and Aquatica) and took advantage of the beautiful Orange Lake Resort where we stayed. This place was huge and had plenty of activities for the kids and adults.

Crazy thing was that Corby's parents and one of his sisters (& her family) were there the same week we were and they stayed at the same resort. So on the days we stayed at the resort so did the rest of the family and we got to have fun together.

I know it's long but trying to condense over 400 pictures to just a few is really hard. So here's a video of our trip.

Happy Birthday Kensley!

My baby girl turned 4 today. The best part is that we are at Disney and we got to celebrate at the Magic Kingdom for her birthday. (I can't think of a better present than that!) For her present from us, we decided to give her a treat to go to the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique at Cinderella's castle. She LOVED it! She took her Cinderella costume and they gave her the royal treatment with a princess hair-do, make-up and a princess sash. Here's a few pics of her in the boutique...



That's some serious hair gel!

The finishing touches on her hair... some pixie spray

...and a dusting of magic pixie dust!



the final touches and then they turned her around to the mirror...she LOVED it!

My little princess! (**Side note.... the hair do was super tight and super stiff. I could have bounced a rock off of her bun. ha! She kept saying it itches. It took 2 washes to get all of it out of her hair but it was worth it.)