Watching Our Children Grown

We headed to Travis' parents for Thanksgiving this year and we brought a couple of pies. Of course, the kids had to help me and boy, was it messy!

We actually ate lunch at Travis' aunt and uncle's house. They spoil the kids royally and have a couple of little cars that the kids played on despite the cold weather...

At home this year we decided to make a thankful turkey. The kids made the "turkey" background and every day they wrote something that they were thankful for on a "feather." They came up with quite a few things...

The Sunday after Thanksgiving we left Grandma and Grandpa's a bit early so that we could buy a Christmas tree. We put it up that Monday night...

Travis's work purchased travel coffee mugs for all of the employees and they wanted them filled with candies so the kids and I worked on filling each mug...

BeBe and Papa stopped by on their way to Branson, MO. It was a short trip for them but it allowed me to finish up my Christmas shopping. Papa put Blake to bed one night...

We baked a few treats that BeBe showed us how to make...

We had a little down time that we read some books...

The weekend of December 10th both kids were involved in our church's Cantata. Samantha was in the children's choir and a flower girl. Blake was boy Jesus in the second night's performance. The kids did so well! Blake was a bit reluctant to play the part because he is so shy but made it through the performance just fine...

That Sunday morning we woke up to our first snow. The kids were so thrilled. Even though it was about 10 degrees outside they insisted on going out and playing in it. They stayed out over an hour despite the cold...

We dressed up the kids for church and quick took their pictures before we headed out...

Our friend Carson and his mom called us to go to the Crown Center with them and enjoy the exhibits there. We spent quite a bit of time there and even enjoyed Fritz's with them...

We went to Travis' house for an early Christmas celebration.

Travis began his vacation the Wednesday before Christmas and we decided to celebrate as a family then. We opened gifts after everyone got up that morning and after breakfast they got to play with them...

We ended up running a few errands that day and leaving for BeBe and Papa's. We travelled part of the way and got a hotel room and then finished the trip on Thursday morning. It wasn't long and the cousins were here and everyone was outside playing in the snow. That evening we celebrated Christmas...