Birthdays, a Little Trip and a Field Trip

I found some late fall, early winter pictures that I hadn’t posted. Eventually I will get to Christmas! Kiera went to a birthday party and it started at a local bakery/cafe where they got to decorate their own cupcakes. I think there was as much icing as there was cupcake! I made my first ever turkey for our Bible study group Thanksgiving potluck and it turned out!! This was Kiera’s Hello Kitty birthday party I found Jared and the kids playing Monopoly before church one morning This was Spiderman and Hello Kitty girl on Halloween Blake opening presents at his party one week after Kiera’s party I made him a Batman cake which he was quite happy with This was his favorite birthday gift…more Lego! Haley at the piano with the girl I baby-sit and it just so happened that they were wearing similar shirts (not planned) Self-soothing on a 3-hour drive The kids jungle-themed room at the hotel Some people use these for luggage, we use them to transport kids Blake taking in the water park Kiera enjoyed going on the tube slide many times Blake and Haley stuck more to this area The kids pancakes at IHOP were HUGE! You can see the effects of the sugar here They enjoyed the Christmas display in the mall I had the privilege of going on Blake’s field trip at the beginning of December. We went to a tree farm and learned about different kinds of Christmas trees. I had a group of 3 girls and 3 boys that I had to try to keep track of! There were some animals that they could see and pet There was also a hay bale structure for them to play on We got to go on a sleigh ride (Blake is on the left with a blue toque) They warmed up inside after with hot chocolate and cookies This is Blake’s class (Blake is hiding up on a bale behind the girl in the pink jacket left of his teacher) It was a cold but fun morning! More winter photos to come at some point!

Thanksgiving (It’s never too late to be thankful)

I was going to post pictures of Christmas, which I already thought was a bit pathetic since that was over 2 months ago, but then I realized I had pictures from Thanksgiving when Art, Jenene and Sophia came to visit and they haven’t even seen those pictures. I don’t know if I’ll ever catch up with this blog, but that’s ok. I post them for my own records and if they’re months late, c’est la vie. My 3 munchkins There was a house being built behind our’s last fall and the kids liked going to play on the big pile of dirt A beautiful sunrise The kids watching a movie with their cousin My most favorite picture with Art :) Jumping on the bed Sharing chips with cheese dip and being silly Trying out a sleep mask…it looks like I have a bra on my face…or I’m part alien. Art always ends up with all of the kids piled on him It was very hard to get a picture of the 2 of them…Sophia never wanted to look at the camera :) On their last day we took advantage of the gorgeous weather and went to the park. Having fun on the spinning things Crazy wind hair He conquered his fear of climbing :) Looking back at these makes me smile and reminds me of happy times spent with family, so that alone is worth it to post them 5 months late. ;)

The Rest of Summer

This is more for my own record than anyone else’s, so that’s why I’m posting summer photos right before Christmas. That, and I have to remind myself that we did indeed have summer. ;) I caught her sleeping in her sundress Dressed up for church I caught her pouty lip…ha ha! Getting creative with his shirt, a plastic pipe, a pail and stool

We surprise the kids every summer by taking them to their favorite place with rides

Holding hands…SO sweet! They went on the spinning apples for the first time and they liked it!

They went on this ride over and over that drops, goes back up, then drops again

We took them to our favorite crepe restaurant after and I saw these flowers nearby The kids enjoyed having the sprinkler under the trampoline and Blake was adding soap in this picture Haley turned 3 in August and we had an outdoor party at a school playground

They were so cute trying to play velcro ball

The kids had 2 weeks of VBS, one at a different church in July and then at our church in August.  This was their final performance and they were making a presentation to local emergency medical services workers and police We went to the park a couple of times after we were done at the splash park We went to the beach with friends which was super fun We had a wonderful summer together and I really enjoyed the weather with my family! :)