Up on the Housetop

We put up all our Christmas decorations last weekend.  I pretty much handle the indoor ones and Joel does the lights on the house.  This year he invited Em & Jon up on the roof too.  They weren't old enough to help hang the lights, but he did let them sit in one spot and watch.  Katherine and I stayed on the ground.  She asked me to make her a leaf pile & proceeded to play in it the whole time.  Jonathan & Emily joined her once they came down too. 

 

Ice Day

Our area got a pretty good amount of sleet last night.  So much so it looked like a blanket of snow this morning.  All the schools were closed and Joel's work even shut down for the day.  Joel loves weather like this and Jonathan has the same appreciation for it.  So after breakfast the boys got all bundled up and headed out on an icy day walk.  They were gone for over an hour and came back halfway through to show us some of their cool icy finds.  They both had big goofy grins on their faces.  I'm glad they got to share some awesome bonding time together today while the girls stayed nice and toasty inside (Katherine was recovering from the stomach flu or we likely would have all gone out for a bit). 

 

Thanksgiving 2013

We got to celebrate Thanksgiving this year with all our extended local families (plus a few in from California).  We had 2 days in a row of turkey & all the trimmings.  For someone like me who loves a good meal it was glorious!  We were all, of course, thankful to be with the ones we love too.

 

Family Reunion Campout

About a month ago we had our yearly family reunion camp out.  We went down for the day.  It was one of the most relaxing and fun ones we've been to in several years.  This is one of the bonuses of our kids getting older.  Our youngest is 4 and they require less and less constant supervision.  It was great!  The older 2 played with my cousin, Kelly's, kids who are about the same age for most of the day.  Katherine spent the majority of the day on the swings (one of her biggest loves in life right now).  Which allowed mom and dad to enjoy adult conversations and playing horse shoes.  Which, we discovered, we are both pretty darn good at.  A delicious meal was shared at dinner time (Johnny made all the amazing meats again & knocked it out of the park once more).  We wrapped up our fun, family day around the fire pit before heading back home for the night.

Pure swinging joy!

Horseshoe fun.

 Sweet picture as we were walking to the lake.

Throwing/skipping rocks on the lake.

Fire pit!

Family Day

Joel's work hosted a family day for the company a few weeks ago.  One of Joel's co-workers opened up his home for the festivities.  There were 2 bounce houses, nerf guns, crafts, good company and amazing pizza.  It was a really fun day and much appreciated by our family.  We are so grateful to be a part of a company that doesn't just say they value family, but also back that statement up with actual proof.  It's very refreshing!

Bounce house insanity ensued.  Even the adults got in on the fun. :)

 Craft time.

 Katherine is all about the swinging right now.  She was happy to find one here too.

 The wood-fire oven that was brought on site to make us amazing pizzas...amazing pizzas...yum!

Pumpkin Patch and Fire Pit

We headed out to the local pumpkin patch yesterday afternoon and then had a family fire pit that night.  We even busted out the smores around the fire.  Here are some pictures from our very fall-themed day. 

 

 

 

 

Fall Pumpkins

We recently painted our annual fall pumpkins.  The kids selected their own pumpkins this year.  They turned out nice and now adorn our coffee table.  They are a fun reminder of family and the approaching holiday season. 

 

Cheer Clinic

Emily recently got to participate in the high school cheer clinic.  Part of the clinic was getting to cheer with the cheerleaders at a football game during the first quarter.  She was very focused and really enjoyed it.  

Birthday Girl

Katherine just turned 4.  We had a small family party for her last weekend.  When we were talking about her birthday party theme she mentioned her favorite color was yellow.  We came up with a yellow sunflower birthday party theme.  She loved the idea and it was pretty easy to find stuff to decorate with since fall has just arrived.  She even asked for her nails to be painted yellow for the party.

 

Welcome to my party!!!

 Kat loves Hello Kitty.

 

We also worked on surprising Katherine with a new "big girl" room for her birthday complete with a new big girl bed.  I had lots of fun working on it.  I think it turned out pretty cute & she really loves it.  She even played "go to sleep" and "wake up" in her new bed the whole next week.  It was cute.

 

And here are a few photos from her real birthday.  She's thrilled to be 4 years old.

 She got her own little camera.

Kat's Church School

Katherine really, really wants to go to school like her big brother and sister do.  She has one more year before she actually starts preschool a few days a week.  However, she does get to go to "church school" once a week this year while mom is attending a woman's group through our church.  She LOVES it.  They do teach her things and she also gets to sing, play and do crafts.  AND she gets to take her own lunch (which is a very big deal to her).  So when we did back to school prep this summer and bought Jonathan a new backpack she also got to select her very own lunch box.  This picture is from the first day of church school this year.  She was beyond excited to go & her whole countenance lit up at the very mention of it.  She practically skipped into the building and almost ran to her class.  When I pick her up she is beaming and immediately begins to tell me all about her time there and show me her craft of the day.  I love that she has this time for her while I'm having some really good me time too.  It's great for both of us!

Seamless First Day

Oh summer...where have you gone?  Is it really time for school again already?  I have to say this was, by far, the easiest first day of school yet.  It was pretty much seamless.  Both kids were excited to be back and very pleased with their teachers for the year.  Everyone woke up well and was at school early.  Joel came with us to see them off and to take these great pictures.

Waiting in the car before heading in.  Katherine really, really wanted to be going to school too.

Ready to get their day started.

 

 Jonathan has the same teacher this year that Emily did for 1st grade.  We love her & are so pleased that he's in her class too.

Emily's teacher (on the right) seems really great too.  She has a student teacher in the room as well this year. 

Epic Road Trip

My mom talked me into a 2 week road trip over the summer.  She & I and the kiddos to visit Kerry and Jeff in California with stops on the way there and back.  I will admit the thought scared me quite a bit in the beginning, but in the end I decided it would be a fun adventure.  I'm very glad we ended up making the trek out.  It was well worth it to spend quality time with my awesome sister and her equally awesome husband.  And we got to see some of God's beautiful creation along the way too.  Things you just don't see in Texas.  I think mom would agree we could have done with less car time, but hey, that's what was required & the kids actually did really great in the car and overall.  Memories were made that will last a lifetime.  So here are some pictures from our epic trip west.  (Disclaimer: Joel was not on this trip with his great camera and photography skills.  It was just me and my little point and shoot.  In no way are these pictures anywhere close to the level he would have been able to capture.  In a way it's sad because we saw such beautiful places, but they'll have to do.)

 

First stop: Carlsbad Caverns.  Here we are before we make the descent that ends more than 800 feet underground.  It was a long hike & not easy, but so very beautiful down there.  Katherine kept up and was a real trooper!

 This is the rest stop at the bottom right outside the big room.  Water and resting our feet a bit before seeing the last of the cavern and heading back up to the surface.

 Jon especially loved to ride the luggage carts at the hotels.

Stop 2: White Sands, NM.  The hotel let us use sleds for free to slide down the dunes in.

The pattern the wind made in the dunes was too nice not to document.

Stop 3: Kerry and Jeff's place and relaxing in their awesome pool.  The kids LOVED hanging out with their aunt and uncle.

We spent an afternoon at Pismo beach.  It was quite chilly - only in the 60s when we arrived.  We pretty much hung out in the sand & avoided the icy water.

 Stop 4: The Grand Canyon.  Seeing it in person is pretty awesome.  Just doesn't compare to the pictures and video.  It's breathtaking how big it is.

 

Joy bear made it out sporting a Grand Canyon shirt my grandma gave me when I was a baby.  She was very happy to be there, as you can see.

 

We stopped by the Grand Canyon Deer Farm on the way back to the hotel.  The deer knew there was food in the cups we had and were prepared to take it at any cost.  They were quite aggressive.  But, after our cups were empty they just followed us around and let us pet them.  It was fun.

 

Stop 5: Sedona, AZ Pink Jeep tour.  So, so fun.  The kids loved the bumpy, adventurous ride through the terrain.  And the red rocks were stunning.  So very beautiful there.  

 

One of the stops on our tour.

 

Katherine especially loved the crazy ride and laughed and squealed through it - especially the most intense parts.  She kept asking to do it again the rest of the day and even cried when she saw other jeeps leaving for their tours.

 

Kat would play with all the condiments on the tables whenever we stopped to eat.  I think she just really wanted to play with something, anything after being in the car for so long.

 

And this was our last night in Amarillo, TX before driving back home.  The drive and time change wiped us out and we all slept hard that night.

It was a very memorable trip.