St. Nick and the big 10

We began December with our new daily advent reading and candle wreath. It's been such a blessing to remember Christ's birth with purpose this year!

David helped me make cookies. 

He also helped himself to eating a few!

He wasn't very happy with mommy when she said "no more!"

The weather this fall has been unseasonably wet and warm - which makes for beautiful rainbows!

We celebrated St. Nicholas Day on the 6th. 

Chris took the day off of work and, after our morning together, we headed to my parents' house to see my grandmother who was visiting from up north!

A few days later, we headed back to my parents' house for another St. Nicholas Day celebration. My sister and her family joined us for a day of games and visiting. We stayed the night there and surprised Allison the next day by driving her up to Seattle for her birthday!

She had studied ancient Egypt last year in school and really wanted to see the Egypt exhibit while it's still in the states for the last time! We are so proud of our TEN year old and excited for all that is ahead of her in the next ten years. :)

We finally got some snow the last week - much to the kids' delight!

We are currently in the process of purchasing a new home just north of town! We should close this next week and are so excited to move in and get back into a regular routine! The house is on five acres with lots of room to play and lots of pear trees. Here is a link to some pictures: http://www.cbbain.com/Popups/PhotoTour.aspx?MLSLID=12009235&MLSID=2&ListingID=33460560

As we move into this new season of our lives, we reflect back on this past year and all the joys and trials it has held. We wish you all a merry Christmas and pray that you all have a wonderful new year in 2013!

November

November was a fairly quiet month for us. We played at home and got a lot of school stuff done. We enjoyed a fun Thanksgiving with both Chris' family and mine (sorry - the pics are on another camera!)

David loves to dress up!

A rare shot of "sleepy" David.

I finally baked some cookies this fall - gingerbread! The girls were excited to put their decorating skills to use. :)

October

In October, we celebrated David's 2nd birthday - twice!

We had lots of fun with family.

David loves cake...

and trucks...

and cake!!

Towards the end of the month, I headed to the city for a weekend with the girls! Chris had a great time with the kids, while I was gone, and even took them all geocaching!

Autumn...?

While we started school during the last week of August, it sure hasn't felt like Autumn around here! The weather has been incredibly warm with temperatures easily in the 80's and 90's! Just this week, temps have finally begun to cool down to the low 70's/high 60's. With the nicer weather, we've really been able to stretch out our summer activities a bit!

It looks really overcast in these pictures, but it's really just dusk with a few evening clouds in the sky. :)

Keeping David busy while the girls do school each morning is always a bit of a challenge! Thankfully he's got a few new activities, including two houses being built next door - complete with construction vehicles to watch!

AWANA started last month and the girls are having a great time! Allison is still in the T&T group, while Abby just entered Sparks this year. A couple weeks ago was "Crazy Hair" night and the girls loved having glittery goo in their silly hair. :)

Even though the weather was nearly 80, the girls wanted to celebrate the first day of Autumn with a craft, so we made pom pom trees!

They looked so lovely up on our school wall, but, by the next morning, most of the pom poms had fallen off, to which Abby promptly replied "just like real leaves in Autumn, mom!" :)

With the "cooler" temps yesterday, the girls have decided they're ready for Christmas and so wore their cocoa pajamas!

Summer - August

August was probably the busiest month of the summer for us...which is sort of ironic, considering it was supposed to be our laziest! The kids and I had fun visiting my grandma, who lives on the Puget Sound, for a week. We also visited friends, went boating, picked blueberries and just enjoyed the sunshine!