O' Christmas Tree

We have always loved to take FULL advantage of the month before Christmas.
Our decorations typically go up the day after Thanksgiving and we like to get the tree up shortly thereafter.

That being said....we headed to the Christmas tree farm this morning!!

No rain, no snow, minimal mud.  It was a good time! 

 

Annalise found her tree.....

And it didn't take us long to find the perfect tree. 

 
Now we need to get it up and decorated!  Happy Holidays!!!!! :)

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

(cue music)....I'm dreaming of a WHITE Thanksgiving.....
What a GREAT surprise to wake up to a couple inches of snow on Thanksgiving!

We started the day with a great breakfast!!

 And the girls spent most of the morning playing Barbies! 

Avery took a break while Annalise napped to help bake the pumpkin pie!!  YUM!  She did a great job!

Dinner being a team event.....Mark even pitched in and made the cornbread stuffing!

It snowed almost all day and by the end of it, we had an accumulation of about 4 or 5 inches. PLENTY to get out and play in!!!

 It was definitely time for hot chocolate!!  It was Annalise's first time....think it was a HIT! 
Especially the whipped cream!!!

We got all warm and dry and settled in for a really nice evening.
We have MUCH to be thankful for!  It was a lovely Thanksgiving.

Cousins

It was fun having the cousins (and Paul and Katrina! :) ) here to visit!
They came for the weekend and the girls had a blast together! Avery and Bella LOVED having a sleepover in the living room and hot cocoa together in the morning.

Elsa and Annalise had fun chasing each other around with the baby strollers and screaming and dancing....

This was also the weekend of the Girl Scout night hike around Lake Padden. Avery invited Bella to be a guest scout for the night. It was pouring down rain ALL day...but we still decided to brave it out and give the hike a try! It was actually a LOT of fun....and the girls all did great....no complaining and actually had a great time as well!

How could they NOT enjoy a pirate themed 2 1/2 mile hike in the dark?? They also got to have a blind pirate sword fight, shoot pistols (Nerf guns), follow a map to find a treasure chest of doubloons, and walk on planks.

Not to mention the popcorn, hot dogs and hot cocoa they had as a reward at the end?! :) Good times!

Happy Halloween!!!

Avery and Annalise love the book, The Little Witch Sisters.

So when Avery thought she wanted to be a witch for Halloween, she immediately thought Annalise should be a witch, too!  THEN....they could be Tinka and Plinka, the little witch sisters! :)  Annalise went right along with it....as long as Avery was doing it....she was all about it!  They looked so cute!

They were ready to go!!!

The rain and cold even held off long enough for them to get around the neighborhood!  

It was another great Halloween!

Grams and Gramps

We were so excited that Grams and Gramps were coming over just before Halloween this year! It was a little later than their usual October visit, so we got to go to the pumpkin patch with them! The rain held off JUST long enough for us to get out and get the pumpkins!

The girls had a blast riding the tractor train....




....and watching them launch pumpkins into the field with their pumpkin launcher! For the last few years, they've been aiming for a couple of outhouses in the field....this year they hit them TWICE while we were there!!! It must've been our luck! :) (you can see three of them lined up below...ready to be hit!)
Once we had our pumpkins it was back to the house to start carving!!

Annalise wasn't so sure about the pumpkin guts....

And oddly enough....the only CARVED pumpkin that I actually remembered to take a picture of was Annalise's. Oh well...guess there's always next year! :)

Bellewood Acres

My birthday weekend was beautiful weather-wise!
So we decided to take a trek with our camping crew friends out to the apple farm!

It was a great day for a tour!

We ended with honeycrisp apple cider and apple pie!  YUM!  I love fall!!!!

A Lovely Day

The girls were so good to me on my birthday!
When they asked what I wanted for my birthday I told them a day of them being nice to each other.
This is how the day began....

They were happy, helpful, and kind to one another all day long.  Who could ask for anything more?
It was a great day!  We hung out together and had some time to take self-portraits.....

And went to dinner.

Mark and Avery even made me cupcakes!  In fact, cupcakes were a first for Mark. 

It was a lovely day!