A favorite tradition

Cutting down our Christmas tree is one of my favorite traditions.  We had a great time on a not so cold day finding "our best tree yet" according to Erik and Owen:

Happy Thanksgiving!

Our little Indian girl

The Anderson boy cousins got their own special table for the big feast since the regular table has become too small for this crowd.  Baby Alex can join them next year!!

Coloring Fun!

We visited a fantastic nativity display at a nearby church.

Girl Power!

Our girls are into Tae Kwon Do, dance, piano and soccer this Fall.  They are both having a blast trying some new things and continuing with some favorites!

Elaina had a fun soccer season1

Audrey won 1st place for her pattern and 2nd for flags in the last TKD tournament.  

She is so happy to finally have dance class!

Jazzin' it up!

My beautiful dancin' girl.

Happy Halloween!!

It was another rainy, cold night for Trick-or-Treat this year, but we still had a happy leopard, black cat and viking!

Owen designed his own- tongue sticking out!

Elaine wanted hers carved as a cat, just like her costume.

Audrey did hers almost entirely herself.  The bat is easier to see when it is lit up (below!)

Fun weekend!

We had a great long weekend with family!  Even with 5 hours between us, I am so grateful that Shawna and I can get together often enough that the kids know each other well and have such a good time together.   Can't wait for the rest of the family to all be together next summer!

They showed us about geocaching!  Everyone enjoyed the hike and the 5 "treasure boxes" we found along the way!

Even the older kids aren't too old to enjoy painting pumpkins!

These two make quite a pair!

Hayride fun!

The corn maze wasn't so much of a challenge this year, but still lots of fun!

Crazy cousins!!

Beautiful Fall hayride!

Camping

We had a great time meeting up with some great friends and camping in Ohio a couple of weekends ago.  It was cold, but the fire and hot chocolate were extra appreciated for this trip!

Beautiful sunrise!!

Audrey's class mascot got to come along on the trip with us.

The camp playground is still a favorite destination!

Cool morning!

Lovin' the hot morning hot chocolate!

We met some horses on one of our hikes!

We enjoyed our hike/scavenger hunt to this little lake.

Biking!

We have really come to enjoy biking as a family, especially with several trips in the past couple of months.

We made it all the way to this cool train tunnel on one of our favorite rails to trails this time for our longest ride as a family yet, 10 miles.  You can't seen the other end when you go in, so we needed our headlamps and relied on the reflectors on the trail to keep us on track.  It was a little spooky at first!  

We got a unique view of downtown on this trail with cousins!

Birthday Girl!

It seems impossible to believe that our "baby" is 6!  We had a fun weekend celebrating her!!

I got to go in an read her class a book!

She was so excited to have a Frozen party!

The glittery white play dough was a big hit for all the girls!

"Heavy, heavy, hang over your head, what are you going to do with it?"

Ready for the rain!!

Sharing her new dolls

Renaissance Fair

We had a fun family outing to the Renaissance Fair for Labor Day weekend.  It was Children's weekend that weekend and we all enjoyed it!

Little Bo Peep greeted us at the castle entrance.

Owen was fascinated with the explanation of the weapons used during that time period.

Queen Elaina

This Carillon performance was so unique and amazing!

Jousting match!

The girls, and especially Audrey, were mesmerized by this bird lady.