Tuesday, December 23, 2014

Holiday Letter 2014

2014 Holiday Blog



We hope each of you have had a wonderful and blessed year, and enjoy our recap of another memorable year for the Hensels. Here is the “Cliffs Notes” version of our memorable experiences throughout 2014. 

First Quarter

While we actively choose to live in Minnesota, every January we question our sanity. People have told us “embrace the winter.” This year we tried to with our kids- Blake was okay with it, Leslie had no interest in the snow. However, they were both thrilled with their First Birthday party in February – they loved all of the attention and their first experience with cake was a riot! We also introduced them to the zoo and almost a year later they are awesome at making various animal sounds.



Second Quarter

We had two major highlights to the spring
• Getting a toddler swing set and outdoor play equipment (we relish summers outdoors in this part of the country)
• Making our first trip to Kentucky for a family reunion. It was an awesome time with family- we even walked the bridge across the Ohio river into Indiana so the kiddos have now been in four states (Minnesota, Texas, Kentucky, Indiana)



Third Quarter

We made the most out of the Minnesota summer with trips to several of the 10,000 lakes and enjoying all the festivities that come with summers here including church picnics. We also had a major milestone to celebrate- we celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary with our first (and so far only) night where we were both away from the kids- we had an amazing evening out in downtown Minneapolis.

Labor Day Weekend trip to Gull Lake with our friends the Schelins





Fourth Quarter

In October we unexpectedly lost Drew’s dad Keith. We were so blessed to have him get to know Blake and Leslie and to have some fantastic pictures and memories of him helping us when they were newborns and celebrating their first birthday. Blake and Leslie began to understand the idea that Halloween meant getting to dress up and get candy. We recently moved as well, so the holiday season is truly a chaotic celebration.
PS:  Sorry for the tardy Christmas cards this year, moving in December is not advised- the cards got stuck somewhere between the old house and the new house for a couple of weeks. Oh and if you were one of the honored ones to get a scribbled on address label you now possess a Leslie original art piece. :)


Three Generations of Hensel men
Keith (64), Drew (36), and Blake (1)
February 2014

Keith and Blake (9 months), August 2013

Our new home as of Dec. 2014
Even Blake & Leslie got into the packing and moving frenzy!