A Few Highlights

I thought I'd better post a few pictures of what we've been up to the last few months before we breeze into 2012. (You know, the year I resolve to post more on this blog.) So, catching up...


This is our "Thankful Tree," the result of a pre-Thanksgiving FHE on gratitude. I love the variety of blessings written by the children, from the everyday to the profound.

Mr. Peeps came back this year, right on schedule. (See this post for the backstory on our elf.) It was adorable to watch Abram jump out of bed every morning and run to find him. He would check every previous place that Mr. Peeps had appeared and say "Nope, Mr. Peeps all gone!"

At our homeschool co-op the children made candy trains. I have never seen our kids more excited about an activity in their lives. EVER.

All of them got very creative. Isaac's train features an armed robbery, an atomic bomb, and Santa drowning in a glacier lake.

Grace has a morbid streak that makes us laugh and raise our eyebrows at the same time. She created a hospital. This was entirely her own idea. When she had finished, she gave me a tour. "Look, Mom...here are the bears, and here is the doctor. The bears are laying down in their beds and they're DEAD. Ha ha ha!!" Weird.

Abram helped grind oranges and cranberries for Marty's traditional Thanksgiving cranberry relish.

Thanksgiving dinner. Marty's Mom was able to join us this year.

Every year, my mom gives our family a "first day of snow" book - to be opened on, well...you know. The children anticipate this day for weeks and eagerly watch the skies for the first flake. Luckily for them, we got a dusting one day in November. The rest of our winter has been extraordinarily dry.

Other than the photographed moments, we have been busy learning, serving, playing, reading, organizing, and preparing for the holidays. More to come...