Merry Christmas!

Barbie Townhouse! Just what she dreamed of!

Opening stockings

Now he's got his own hat!

Playing with cars

Fishing rod from Grandpa!!

Boys with the breakfast beer

Playing Matchbox with Grampy in his new hat

'Twas the night before Christmas

Baking a pie before Grampy and Nana arrive on Christmas Eve.

Playing with Daddy's hat

Playing Pretty, Pretty Princess with Grampy...

... and with Nana.

Cookies, milk, and carrots for Santa

Reading The Night Before Christmas before bed

Caleb being silly before bed

New Sink and Slippers

We (finally) had a new sink and faucet put in today. We're really looking forward to washing dishes without our rain gear on! Our faucet was terrible and we got quite wet before. Also, sometimes in the advent calendar there are little scavenger hunt notes for the kids. Today they hunter and found new slippers. Riley got Dora slippers and Caleb got (Riley's old) bear slippers. They were both very excited.

New sink and faucet!

Checking out our new slippers.

Posing with my slippers.

Giving Dora a hug.

What happened to November?

Well, what happened is this. We were without our computer for awhile and eventually ended up buying a new one. After an eventful Halloween weekend, it was a fairly quiet month. Now that Thanksgiving has gone by, we can't believe that Christmas is in only 2 1/2 weeks!

Attempting some Christmas photos

Making stuffing with Nana

Thanksgiving family photo attempt

I'm thankful for crafts and cute little pumpkins that came home from preschool and daycare. Without them I would have only a lonely green candle and some nearly naked Indians.

Playing with puzzles

Autographing the back of Riley's preschool photo

A flock of (I think) loons hung out on the pond for a few days. This would be unusual as they don't typically travel in flocks.

Gettin' Our Halloween On!

Snow in October! II

Almost 19 inches!

It seems unbelievable, but we had a massive snowstorm yesterday and last night which left us with 19 inches of snow! I, of course, am concerned about the dahlia tubers - still in the ground. We were thinking that we would lose power, but never did at out house. However, Grandma and Grandpa are without and they just called and cancelled school for my district for tomorrow. That makes Halloween our first snow day of the year! I'm hoping to be able to drop the kids off at daycare for a few hours to get some work done at school. We'll see how that pans out though since right now the woman they go to daycare with is without power. The snow was too heavy for the snowthrower, so Chris had to shovel the driveway. We expect the snow to melt this week with projected temps in the 50s. (That will help with my need to dig the tubers.)  Even though Chris was tired from shoveling, we still had fun playing in the snow before lunch. Well, Caleb sort of enjoyed it. He had a hard time standing up with his snow clothes and boots on and couldn't even roll over. 

The dog can barely move, the snow is so deep and waited for Chris to go first.

Buried tricycle in the left foreground. Swings still out.

Buried cars

Caleb thinking, "This is fun?"

The dahlias that were alive and blooming 3 days ago.

Can't get very far on the slide.

Sledding is fun.

So is making snow angels.

We could barely buckle Caleb into the swing with all of his snow gear on.

Snow in October!

Measuring at almost 1 foot by 10pm.

The rest

Here are some pictures of the rest of the month!

1st snow today and probable death for the dahlias. Honestly, (I can't believe I'm saying this) it's about time.

Good place to chill. He climbed in himself.

Visitor's day at ballet.

Carving the pumpkins that Grandma and Grandpa grew.

Making Nana's birthday cake.

Playing dress up with Mommy's old tap costume.

Driving a fire truck at the pumpkin festival.

Caleb not being thrilled about Mommy's costume selection.