Elaina's Nativity

Merry Christmas from Elaina!

Christmas Fun

We have had so many fun things this month, however still time to just relax.  A much better balance so far.  With so much going on in our own lives and around the world, we have had many reminders of our blessings and are thankful for each of them.  Lots more reminders to give our precious kiddos some extra hugs and kisses too!

I took the girls to see the Nutcracker with my good friend Kristin and her kids.  They loved it!!

Amazing Gingerbread House display downtown

This girl knows how to make a gingerbread cookie taste good!!

Christmas train at the mall

The Gingerbread Castle

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Even I made one this year- they're getting old enough to make their own without so much help!

Even though we tell our kids about St. Nicholas more than Santa, we still like to say hello to him every year when he comes by on the firetruck!  Plus, he hands out chocolate bars instead of candy canes!  :-)

Family photo

Here's our 2012 Family Christmas Picture:

Happy Halloween!

Our Halloween festivities were spread out this year due to Hurricane Sandy.  The pumpkin carving was last Sunday and trick-or-treating was moved to Saturday.  We had lots of fun!

Minnie Mouse... lots of mileage out of this costume!!

Our knight in shining armor

In Elaina's words- "I'm a pumpkin princess kitty cat!" 

Fall

Here are some favorites from our Fall fun times the last few weeks:

We always love leaf piles!

Owen is really into Harry Potter and one day after school he made this sign for his chair/workshop and set out to make a bug healing "poshin" made of bubbles, hand sanitizer, soap and dog hair.

More leaves!

Our monkey girl!

Lots of playground time on those nice days!

Owen and Erik at Indian Guides Camp

Definitely a highlight for both boys!

Teeth

Owen lost his 2 front teeth!!  He hung onto the 2nd one for quite awhile, even though his 2nd grade pictures, but the 2nd one finally came out last weekend.  Jack 'o Lantern smile just in time for Halloween.  So cute!!!

September '12

October '12

Pumpkin Patch

I took the kids to the Pumpkin Patch on Columbus Day since they had the day off and it wasn't raining.  Always a favorite thing to do in October!!

Apples to eat on the hayride

Aunt Jenny, Norah and Molly came with us!  Here is this pair again... always so happy to see each other!

Our 3 crazies just defeated the corn maze

We only got 1 pumpkin in our backyard patch this year so we had to pick out 3 pumpkins for carving.  Since Erik wasn't able to make it on this trip my rule was they had to be able to carry their own pumpkin.

Except for Audrey... She loved this one too much for me to make her leave it behind.

Scarecrow

I had quite a bit of straw left over from a project I did so we decided to stuff our own scarecrow this year.  We used some old clothes Owen used to wear... he turned out pretty cute!

Stuffing....

We named him Sammy- clever, I know!

Our homemade scarecrow with our homegrown pumpkin!

Happy 4th, Audrey

 Our youngest is 4 years old and so very happy about it!  She had a fun time at her party celebrating with family.  Here are some highlights:

We are always so serious at the dinner table.

That's our ladybug girl!

This picture captures exactly how these cousins feel about each other!

Yummy cake!

Heavy, Heavy Hang over your head....

1st haircut

Since Audrey is about to turn 4 I felt it was finally time to go have her hair cut.  She was so excited!  I told the hairdresser that it took 4 years for it to grow this long so not to cut too much off.  Really all she did was to cut off the baby fine hair at the bottom so it doesn't look that different, but Audrey was SO happy to tell everyone that she got her 1st haircut.  The ice cream cone at Soergel's afterwards made it extra special for both of us!!

Before...

During...

After!  Isn't she adorable?!!!

Cousin Norah

Audrey and cousin Norah have become quite the pair!  They love being together and we had fun going to preschool hour at North Park with them last week!

1st Day of School

We have a 2nd grader and a Kindergartener:

The night before

I had to take Elaina to school for the first day and stay to help her with her first project.  She was so ready to get started!!

This was their snack for the 1st day- Kissing Hand cookies

Audrey was so worn out by all of the excitement that I found her asleep on the floor in her bedroom later that afternoon.

Elaina's 1st bus ride

My view on the walk home from the bus stop- Audrey just wants to be like the other kids and has carried Elaina's old backpack to and from the bus stop everyday so far!