Miss Emily's Baby!

I took a mini photo shoot of Miss Emily's new little baby, Jaret, yesterday. Miss Emily has been the girls dance teacher for the past three years...so I couldn't wait to take photos of this little one! He is so cute! He was almost 6 weeks old...look at those gorgeous eyes!

You can see more photos here: http://sti-photography.blogspot.com/

Death is Not Dying

This is very touching, inspiring, and oh so true...

This woman is a young 37 years old and this sermon was preached about 4 months before she died. Watch it here.

She says “I am dying, but so are you”. I love how Jen (Eden's Bouquet) wrote it... A simple & profound truth.

http://deathisnotdying.com/eventvideo/

Winter Wonderland

It has been so beautiful here with the crisp weather we have been having! I love winter!

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Christmas Dinner

Christmas night we spent at Aunt Theresa and Uncle Bob's house. We had a wonderful dinner and just enjoyed spending time with family. All the kids loved their gifts too! :)

Christmas morning

I am so not good at taking pictures when anything is chaotic...and well, Christmas morning is just that at the Hasse house...so this is all I got! :( And I couldn't get a photo of my nearly teenaged daughter to save my life because *gasp* she hadn't gotten all dolled up yet! :)

Christmas Eve was wonderful. We met at the mall at 11 am and all drew for names in the Santa Hat. This is our secret santa tradition we do every year. We don't buy for each other as family members except for on this one event. It is so awesome to see the thoughtfulness that goes into each gift that is given on this day. The little ones have a "Santa Buddy" that they go with. This year Natalie went shopping with Alex, Kennedy with daddy, and TJ with me. We went home and everyone scattered to wrap their precious gifts. That night we went and had a wonderful evening at my moms house where we had dinner with the missionaries and did our secret santa gift exchange. (I know- no pictures of ANY of that?)

We also did our family tradition this year of adopting a family through the Salvation Army. We had a single mom with three children. It was a much more managable task of shopping for them this year - as last year we had a family of 10! We also volunteered as a family to help put together food baskets for people that were picking up Toys for Tots through the Salvation Army as well.

Baking cookies for caroling

We baked cookies all day on the 22nd, and then went caroling at night taking cookies to friends! It is a fun family tradition! :)

Christmas Tree Craft

The kiddos painted some popsicle sticks into the shape of a Christmas tree and then decorated them with extra tidbits leftover from crafts throughout the year...

Gingerbread House

It wouldn't be Christmas without the Hasse tradition of building a gingerbread house! :)

TJ's favorite things

TJ just keeps us cracking up! He is so much fun to watch, as he is so busy and getting into just about everything. Take this average day for instance. He put on Natalie's boots (notice the wrong feet) and then grabbed my beater from a drawer. He then went to the other drawer to get the beater inserts (clever little guy). Then he just sprawled out right in the middle of the floor to assemble his little project. When he couldn't get it done, he summoned some help from a sibling nearby (this time it was Natalie) who kindly obliged to helping her brother (had she not, screaming would have followed). Now, for the part you don't see? Me fighting him for the beater when he insists on plugging it in! :)