Getting ready for Christmas!

Before I move onto current things, I found a couple of pics from Andy's phone that I wanted to share. When I was away in Texas, the kids did some leaf clean-up. Our yard has tons!


We got a leaf blower this year to help things along.


On December 17th, our kids were part of a little Christmas program at church. Curtis and Graydon were wise men.


Check out the long hair on this kid. We tried to convince him to get a hair cut that evening, but that just resulted in tears; so we waited for another time.


Bella was an angel shining her light.










After church that day, Bella's youth group took money they made in a fundraiser and went shopping for food to donate to the local food bank.


She was a little outnumbered by boys that day.


The kids and I made some Christmas treats later on, but Curtis didn't last long. He wasn't feeling well and ended up taking a two hour nap!


Our kids don't nap all that often, so when they do, I know they're not feeling well. Fortunately, he seemed much better after he woke up.


A few days later, Graydon finally agreed to a haircut. We didn't get an after photo, but you'll be able to see it once I post our Christmas pics.


Bella had some fun with Siri. Siri is starting to get more creative with her answers.

More Christmas baking. Bella decorated this gingerbread house and we all worked on the cookies.

December, so far. . .

On December 1st, we begin our countdown to Christmas with the use of our Advent Tree.


Each box contains chocolate for the kids and a slip of paper with an activity for us to do together.


This particular day was drinking hot cocoa and watching 'Home Alone.' Some of our other activities have included cutting out paper snowflakes, watching various Christmas movies, reading Christmas books, making Christmas cards, performing random acts of kindness, etc.


Our activity for the following day was to Elf Ourselves! Mimi Jane was in town visiting, so we had her make one too.








Later that afternoon, the boys had their school Christmas program.




Here are some highlights from that.


After church the next day, we went to Apple Works. We usually try to get there in the fall, but didn't manage that this year. It was a nice day and not too crowded since it was no longer peek season.




We love their apple dumplings.


Here's a cute kitty that we found. She had a collar, so we think she might have belonged to the owners.


I love these pics of the kids with Mimi!






That Friday night, Graydon and I did bell ringing together. This was a service project that the kids in his youth group participated in at various locations around town. Curtis was supposed to join us, but he developed a cold and we didn't think it would be good for him to be outside for two hours. The weather took a turn for the cold. It was 24 degrees! Graydon and I really enjoyed our hot cocoa when we got back home. On a positive note, I feel like we raised a lot of money (probably because of Graydon - it's hard to pass by a child, especially on such a cold night!)


We got Mabel spayed. Our poor girl was feeling pretty sore that evening. I've never seen her so still before. We all felt bad for her.


But by the next day, she was already back to her regular self and resumed her self-appointed role as our pre-rinser!


I chaperoned Graydon's field trip to a local children's museum.


He and his partner rocked at setting up these electrical  models.

Bella's 12th Birthday

Bella had a basketball game on the evening of her birthday. I usually like to try and get a photo of her at 6:52pm, the exact time that she was born. Unfortunately, I was so distracted by her game, that I didn't glance down at the time until 7:15pm, so I missed it. But I do have a video from before the game started of her teammates singing to her on her special day.

Andy made Bella's ice cream cake.






The candles kept re-lighting, so that was fun.


Mabel celebrated too (she's a good sport).


Present time!


New clothes - the perfect gift for any tween girl!




Next year she's going to be a teenager!