Family Christmas Pictures

Our dear friend, Megan, took our annual family pictures at Jackass Hill park. It was extremely sunny and there was no shade so they turned out a little are shadowy but I loved the location and the colors really pop outside! So thankful to have a friend who takes such great pics!

Arianna's Piano Recital and Ella's Violin Recital

Decorating Our Tree

Thanksgiving Recap

 We had a wonderful Thanksgiving at Mark's sisters house! 

The weather was gorgeous! And Elijah enjoyed playing football outside shirtless:) 

Christmas Book Advent

One of my favorite family traditions is reading a book together every evening to countdown till Christmas. We have collected quite a few books over the years and I definitely have my favorites. I considered not doing it this year since we are leaving on a big road trip to PA in the middle of the month, but the tradition must go on.
Here is our list this year. We still don't have all 25 in our ownership, so, I had to get around 5 from the library. But most of these titles you can loan from the library and still wrap up. Just make sure you read them in the beginning so you don't get fines:) And part of the fun is that the kids get turns unwrapping a gift every night. They get so excited to see what book it is..

The books that I ABSOLUTELY LOVE, I bolded:)  

Its very hard not to LOVE all of them! 

1. Frosty the Snowman by Little Golden Book
2. Baby's Christmas by Little Golden Book
3. Listen to The Silent Night by Dandi Mackall

4. Santa Mouse by Michael Brown
5. Gingerbread Baby by Jan Brett 
6. The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams
7. Mortimer's Christmas Manger by Karma Wilson 
8. The Twelve Days of Christmas board book
9. Who is Coming to our House? by Joseph Slate (Mark got this board book for the twins first  Christmas- they just LOVE reading it still!) 
10. Christmas in the Manger by Nola Buck

11. We Believe in Christmas by Karen Kingsbury

12. The Legend of the Candy Cane by Lori Walburg 

13. Song of the Stars by Sally Lloyd Jones 

14. The Gift of the Magi by O'Henry (we got this one this year at Tattered Cover- I couldn't find a picture book on amazon- This is the original story but is illustrated with great pictures) 

15. Madeline's Christmas by Ludwig Bemelmans 
16. The Little Fir Tree  by Margaret Wise Brown 

17.  Room for a Little One by Martin Waddell 
18. The Tale of Three Trees: A Traditional Folktale by Angela Elwell Hunt 
19. The Third Gift- Linda Sue Park *** This is my favorite of them all:) 

20. Small Camel Follows the Star by Rachel W N Brown
21. The Steadfast Tin Soldier by Cynthia Rylant 

22. The Carpenter's Gift by David Rubel 
23. The Elves and the Shoemaker by Jacob Grimm
24. The Night Before Christmas by Leonard Weisgard 

Feel free to share some of your favorites! I am always looking for good books to add to the list! 

Veterans Day 2014

 Veteran's day at Hopkins is one of my favorite assemblies. The girl scouts and boy scouts march the flags in and each class sings the theme song for every branch of the military. There is an awesome slide show of pictures of family members who have served our country and one kid from each class reads an essay they wrote about Veterans Day. Many veterans come for the assembly and I love the respect and honor the kids show them on this day. 

Little Findley, whom I babysit a few days a week, joined in on the fun!