December Beginning

Happy St. Nicholas Day!!

St. Nicholas Day fun

First snow!

Allison had a fun snowman themed birthday party this year.

The girls played "Roll a Snowman" in which certain numbers on the dice, when rolled, gave them certain parts of a snowman. The first player to collect all their pieces is the winner!

Then they divided into pairs and tried to create a snowman with toilet paper. This definitely got the most laughs!!

They made snowman ornaments to take home...

and had fun coloring the tablecloth during their dinner of pizza, salad, cake and peppermint ice cream - yum!

Abby gave Allison a cool birthday hat to wear the next night at AWANA for Crazy Hat night.

We sure love our 11 year old!

November

While studying astronomy, Allison made a volcano like one found on Mars.

All three kiddos enjoyed watching it erupt!

Some of our neighbor's cows paid us a visit.

We watched a flock (?) of turkeys graze through our yard during the month.

We enjoyed a Thanksgiving dinner at our home, with Chris' parents, before heading to Central Oregon for a full weekend of visiting and celebrating with more family.

A Day On the Water

Some friends of ours have been offering to take Chris and I out on their sailboat for the past few months.

This last week, we finally had a kid-free day and were able to go out!

There wasn't much wind, but we had a lot of fun and the weather was beautiful.

Autumn Begins...

We picked 150 lbs of apples last month!

I made over 30 quarts of applesauce and 24 pints of apple butter. Yummo!

Friends came to visit and everyone got to make their own play dough.

The kids did a scavenger hunt outside.

David has been enjoying his new tractor and loves to take Abby for rides.

Allison helps out with the big tractor every now and then.

David and Abby outside Chris' work. Lots of traffic out there. ;-)

David's 3rd Birthday

Getting back

We've been slowly working our way back into our "regular routine" or at least as regular as can be!

Allison has started studying the Middle Ages in school and put together a castle.

My nephew had a cowboy themed party to celebrate his 7th birthday.

AWANA hosted a fair this past week - complete with bounce house and obstacle course!

David's favorite chore is helping me with the laundry. He just loves the spin cycle! :)

Family Camp 2013

For the fifth year in a row, we enjoyed an amazing weekend away at family camp!

Here are the kids ready to hit the road!

We made our traditional stop for chocolate chip cookies

and Subway sandwiches for lunch - yummo!

I just love the drive there - it's so beautiful.

Yah! We're there!

One of our favorite parts of camp is the time we spend together in the pool and going down the water slides!