Christmas Time

The weeks surrounding Christmas are always a busy and full time filled with lots of family gatherings! Here are a few snapshots of the happenings.

Making ornaments

 Car ride to MN (After showing Eli this picture he said, "That's me feeling nauseous." Recently Eli has started to get a bit car sick.)

 Stockings!

 Sadie dog opening her presents

 What's in there????

Helping Grandma Kay open her gift.

 Oak loves his frog puppet

 Oak and Grandpa Dave

 Addie trying out her new doctor kit

 reindeer Eli

 boo!

 Indoor basketball

 Cousins!

 At Great Grandma and Grandpa's. Eli knows there is good food coming!

 Who needs a food processor?

 Old toys taste the best!

 Hanukkah celebration with Patty's friend Rihna and family.

 At Grandma Gerrie's!

 Traditional deer jerky making.

HO Ho HO!

Thanksgiving Flashback

Good times with Mom and Dad as well as a day visit from Aunt Maura and Uncle Steve! There is a video at the end. :)

 Not sure what happened here....

Carving the turkey... it's magic.

 Oak is ready! Where is everyone else?

 Taking a stroll to the coffee shop. 

The Anticipated Hexbug Show

Today it is about the hexbug inchworm.

Talking with Grandma

With us living so far from all the Grandmas and Grandpas phone conversations are a special way to help develop our relationships! Here is a short segment of Eli and Otto talking with Grandma Kay. :)

Birthday Gift Giggles

We picked this bear up for a gift for someone and Oak is just crazy over it. Sooo funny!

Eli titled this for me: Do you want to see the cutest baby of all???

Winter Cabin Trip

We had a need to escape the city. So we did! Here are some pictures of the cabin in the winter. We weren't expecting so much snow and ice, but thankfully we had brought all our warmest clothes. We didn't make it out to shop for furniture, but I think that was for the best because we weren't sure we would make it back due to the ice on the gravel roads. We enjoyed being tucked away from it all for the weekend together.

I found out that Mama makes the best snowball target.

Paper airplanes!

All suited up for a hike. Glad I brought so many extra socks, leg warmers etc. 

Brian is a natural mountain man. Chop chop!

Eli gave us quite a few "hexbug" shows. I video taped one -  I will have to upload it for you!

These are pretty neat. The water is seeping out of the ground here and there and in some places it creates these beautiful ice flowers; commonly called frost flowers.

Brian gave us all piggy back rides over the streams on our hikes. He was the only one with waterproof boots. Can you see Oak on my back...? heeheee We had to get a picture of this!

Look what Papa picked for Otto from the stream! He really wanted to take it home to KY and put it in the freezer. 

The Trust General Store Cafe' is the BEST! (Only open on the weekends though.) Here is their bread pudding. So yummy! and we all split it.

Christmas Tree Decorating

This is becoming a family tradition each year. I put up the tree one day then on the next full day we can all be together we decorate the tree. It is such a great time to look at all the ornaments - each one holds a little history. Many were made by hand and given to us from friends, near and far, and some from relatives - Grandmas, Great-Grandmas, Aunts and Great Aunts. We think about them all! It is a really sweet time and the kids love it! and mid-day Brian and I break out some wine. :)

 Trying on their stockings???

 Eli this year was soooo excited to decorate the tree! It was really fun to share in it with him.

 This year I got the kids their own manger scene to have out during the holiday season. Instead of a Jesse tree I have decided (for this year anyway) to just read different parts of the story of Christ's birth each day. I just want to make sure they know what the season is all about. In the past I have followed a different set of scheduled readings and it just seemed to confuse them. I think once they are a bit older that a more in-depth look at scripture and Christ's coming and the anticipation of his arrival throughout scripture will be appropriate. Right now though, it is all I can do to make sure they understand how and why he came through the story of his birth. So here it is - a manger scene - OH MY who's that??? a pirate! Yes, one of this kids put him in the scene and I just couldn't take him out.