Tree lighting

Tonight was the town tree lighting.  It was pouring rain, but it was the most attended lighting we have seen yet!  Funny how that works.  You just grab your raincoat and umbrella and go out anyway :)

Emma had a birdseye view from Miranda's shoulders!

Santa did not arrive in the big fire truck this year because they were out on a call.  Instead he arrived in what we always call the Chief's Car (accurate or not, that's what we call it!) with a police escort.  Later the fire truck came by as well.










Ted, Emma and Miranda create a totem pole!

Santa pictures

Today we visited Santa, and Miranda joined us too!

Emma and Santa discussing Legos!

Leaf jumping

We get quite a share of fallen leaves this time of year with all the fruit trees in the backyard.  We try to stay on top of them in between rain spells because wet leaves are much more difficult to clean up.

Today Emma and I were out cleaning up (more rain tomorrow!).  There's been a few dry days which have been great, and the leaves are much lighter to collect!  She wanted to create a pile to jump in.  Well, since we've cleaned up the leaves a few times already, there wasn't as big a pile as there could be.  Still, that didn't stop her :)

She calls this the "cannonball."

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Happy Thanksgiving!

Today we are thankful for family!  We had some of our family over for Thanksgiving today.  The sun was shining, the kids were playing, the food was good - it was a great day!

Uncle Ed gave the boys some of his old Army uniforms.  They were s-o e-x-c-i-t-e-d!!  He assured Emma that he saved some for her when she's big enough :)














The weather was nice enough to go out and dig in the dirt!  It was the only dry day this week after torrential rain for days.

Jeeping in the mud

Yesterday we went jeeping in the forest with some new friends from church.  It was a great time of year to go - lots of MUD! 

I didn't get any pictures of Emma except for this one :)

Here is what jeeping in November looks like!

Five years!

Five years ago today we brought Emma home from the hospital!  She felt like 58 days was the right amount of time (and thankfully the doctors agreed)!

Also, I think it's interesting to note that today is the March of Dimes "World Prematurity Day"!  Did you know that 1 of 8 babies born in the U.S. is premature - before 37 weeks?  Wow.

Anyway, just a quick trip down memory lane to November 17, 2007  :)  We have been very blessed!

 

Beds of bunk

Emma was in need of a bigger bed, so this weekend we set out to look at various options.  She had wanted bunkbeds for a while now, and was even going to ask Santa for them.  We kind of went back and forth thinking it was a good idea, and when we saw this set we decided it would work in her room.  She was so excited!  Honestly, we all were :)

We cleaned out her room to get ready for it (boy that was an overdue task!).  When Daddy got home he set to work on building it, and a while after dinner we got it all finished!
























Emma was up late because it was so fun getting everything in place, of course.  She built and slept with some blankets as a fort!  All her babies except Ted and Cheetah got the top bunk.  Boy is it crowded up there!












So, if anyone wants to sleep over...!
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Fall farm fun

Today we went to the farm to see Papa John and the cousins.  It was a great fall day and sprinkled off and on.  We put on our boots and headed up to some trees to get a good burn pile going.  We all roamed around and picked up as many sticks and branches that we could find, and tossed them on the fire.  It was great fun!

Eolis and Emma found some good sticks to hang onto when they went out to herd some cows.  She put her stick in one of the holes in the back of the Bobcat, and used it to hang on!

Zoe had a great time too.  She ran and ran (and later limped at home), chewed on some sticks, and then... spotted a mouse!  She worked hard to find it under the large rock.  She dug out much of the dirt and even exposed her rear end to the fire!  Her diligence paid off though, she got her prize.  It was quite the show to watch.











The kids even had a blast "driving" the Bobcat!