...............The Hellwig Family

Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Benaiah in a box!

Posted by Gabrielle

These pictures are just too cute!
"Shall we dance?"
"I'm cute!"
'Will you read it in a box? Or will you read it with a fox?'
"Time for a snooze!"

Monday, December 29, 2008

Christmas 2008 at the Hellwig House

Posted by Gabrielle

We spent a quiet Christmas day at home as some of us were sick. But we still had a wonderful day as you can see!
Our "official" Christmas portrait!
The tree before we opened presents. This is always one of my favorite pictures to take! ;)
One of Mommy's favorites: sausages from Timothy
Christianna opens her presents
Arianne received a bunch of notecards and stationery from Timothy

My present from Arianne, "The Last of the Mohicans", one of my favorite stories.

Timothy received it too, from Christianna!

Benaiah was not so sure about this present thing. It didn't take him long to warm up to it!
"I'm nobody's fool, I know how to open a box!" However, at first he liked the box better than the present inside it!

Toby is very pleased with his new insects coloring book. To date, he has colored most of it, a main factor being that he also got a couple other coloring books, new colored pencils and crayons for Christmas and had to try those out as well!
Jedidiah opens his presents. In case you are wondering, the green bear was not a Christmas present. The little boys like to bring their stuffed animals down to open presents with them! ;)
This was probably Elliot's favorite present, a slingshot!

We pray you all had a wonderful Christmas with family and friends and we look forward to another new year of God's mercies!

A Beautiful NC December Sunrise

Posted by Gabrielle

A few mornings ago I was outside and took these pictures of the sunrise just before all the colors faded!

"The heavens are telling of the glory of God; And their expanse is declaring the work of His hands. Day to day pours forth speech, And night to night reveals knowledge." Psalm 19: 1-2

Happy Birthday Mommy!

Posted by Gabrielle

On December 20th we celebrated Mommy's birthday with a special dinner!
"Her children rise up and bless her; Her husband also, and he praises her, saying: "Many daughters have done nobly, But you excel them all." Charm is deceitful and beauty is vain, But a woman who fears the Lord, she shall be praised. Give her the product of her hands, And let her works praise her in the gates." Proverbs 31: 29-31

Thank you Mommy for being such a wonderful mother, example and guide to us!

Friday, December 12, 2008

Benaiah-our boy of many hats

Posted by Gabrielle

We recently got up a collection of several of our different hats for Benaiah to try. Here are the pictures!
Benaiah's straw hat. There is something wrong with Benaiah wearing this hat, though it doesn't show in the picture. Do you have any guesses? We'd love to hear them in the comments! I'll post the answer in a few days!
The Dr. Seuss hat!
Books and a hat! Can it get much better?
Our little English lad
What a darling boy in the hat our grandmother made!
My hat and my Ana (Arianne), what a life!
Brothers!
It doesn't get much better than blocks especially when...
shared with Christianna!

Some More Fun with...

Posted by Gabrielle

Benaiah!
We dressed him up in Christianna's pilgrim apron and a couple of hats. He was consequently the center of attention which delighted him! He is quite the ham!
He tripped on his long cloak and fell and...
had to replace his hat!
Strutting around like a little prince!
Aahh... reading books with Arianne! Much better! And what could be much better than his favorite (in his words) "Hop Pop" ?!

The 2008 NCFIC Conference

Posted by Gabrielle

We attended several sessions of the NCFIC conference that our church, Hope Baptist, hosts in Wake Forest, not far from us.
Mr. Brown, one of the elders at our church gave a wonderful talk on how young men and ladies in the church should treat each other.
Pastor Kevin Swanson gave a very inspiring talk on Surviving in Tough Economic Times and trusting in God in all of our financial decisions.
Our little escapee enjoyed running around trying all the doors in the church building sanctuary where we were meeting.
This is what Benaiah thinks of conferences!

Saturday, November 29, 2008

Thanksgiving 2008 at the Hellwig house!

Posted by Gabrielle

We spent a wonderful thanksgiving day this year with a family from our church. For a couple days before we were busy baking and preparing what we could!
Thanksgiving baking -baklava, cookies, pumpkin pies and bread
More Thanksgiving baking -more cookies; you can never have too many of those!
We used leaf cookie cutters to trace and cut a basket of tiny leaves to decorate the table. The placecards were leaves with the name on top and on the back was a Bible verse about thanksgiving.
Our table almost all set.
And our two families gathered around the table awaiting dessert! Thank you Watson family for joining us to celebrate this day of thanksgiving to God for His wonderful blessings!
After lunch we convened outside for a game of croquet. We had to form teams so everyone could play. Arianne and her friend Katie Watson were one team.
The two little pilgrims, Christianna and Emily Watson were another team.
Elliot and Jeffery Watson were the third team.
And Timothy and Jeremy Watson formed an invincible team, both in croquet and...

in our photography match afterwards.
Emily and Christianna playing battleship on the front porch.
After a while of being pilgrims Emily and Christianna decided to change into...
Indians! I hadn't worn my Indian costume for years and it fit Christianna perfectly!
A happy group gathered in the dining room for dessert!

In the spirit of Thanksgiving I'd like to share something I'm thankful I learned thisThanksgiving; and that is not to schedule an orthodontist appointment two days before Thanksgiving! ;)