Christenbaum all aglow...

So, after cutting down our tree, and letting it defrost and dry out over night...it is now time to decorate!

 The kids all love to rummage through the ornaments and pick out their favorites.  The boys are no exception.

 Cora had waited so long to decorate, finally she gets too...

 Typical Toddler.  

Two branches at the bottom of the tree received all the ornaments the boys put on.

The only picture I have of Hannah decorating is blurry!

 And the star...

we had to cut off the top of the tree so the star would fit between the tree and the ceiling.

 The crew

Our pear tree cleaned up pretty nice we think.

The smell of pine and sight of twinkling lights sure rings in the season!

A Christmas Tree Hunting we Go!

There is a great Christmas tree lot in a village close to where we live.  They actually have some acreage  where they grow trees themselves.  Every year they go through and mark the trees that you are allowed to cut down yourself.  We cut our tree down last year, and had so much fun we decided it was a must for this year too!

Walking through the forest in search of the perfect tree.

Anya was very happy to be out in nature!

 Jack just liked to go around licking snow off the branches.

 What is Hunter doing???

 licking snow off the ground of course!

 So I didn't get any shots of the tree we found or us cutting it down.  Kind of bummed about that, but it takes two to cut down a tree and I was helping.  Hannah ultimately picked the tree out and then campaigned and convinced her sister's that it was the perfect tree.  It is very unique, kind of a pear shape...skinny on top, really bushy in the middle and then it tapers down again at the bottom.  I wasn't too sure about it, but now that we have it set up and all decorated, it is a very pretty tree...that we cut, and fills the house with a delightful smell!

 Off we go, homeward bound.

It did not get above freezing that day,  so when we got home there were ice crystals forming everywhere.  I thought the coolest were these two frozen spider webs above our garage door.

It was a fun adventure for our family!

What happened in November?

Soooo, since I haven't blogged the entire month of November, here is a quick update, blitz style!

We did the usual, visited castles, beautiful historic cities, ate delicious pastries and european chocolate (please don't hate us), but I won't bore you with those pictures or details.  Here is what happened in the kid arena...

Anya is sporting some new braces!

Yep.  She got braces on November 4th.

Hannah wins a "major award"

A/B Honor Roll...so proud of her!

 Cora has discovered a love for reading to her brothers, and they can sit through an entire book.

 Dental Hygiene is a must.

And you have to have a golf club in hand to make sure it is done right!

 Hunter loves to show his teeth.

"Mamma, see my teeth..."

 We potty trained the boys!!!

That was a major feat.

 Sporting their big boy under-roo's

(after 3 girls, I have to concentrate real hard to not call them panties.  I still slip a lot!)

 And just because my Hunt man is so cute!

We had a fun month, hit a lot of mile stones, and are busy getting ready for the rest of the Holiday season.

Sadly, I don't have any pictures of Thanksgiving, but we enjoyed the 2nd year of our annual Layton/Jeppson Thanksgiving fest.  It was delicious, and filled with good company and lots of kids!  The next day, us ladies took a trip to Poland to do some "black Friday" shopping, and brought home some lovely Polish Pottery.  

Yes, November has been a fun month, a Thankful month, a month to be remembered!

Family Pictures 2012!

We recently had our family pictures taken.  It had been 2 years since the last round, so we were due.  Our photographer was fantastic, and she got some really good shots.  What I love best is she gives you the c.d. of all the shots she edited and you can do what you want.  Put them on facebook, email them and order as many prints as your heart desires.  Perfect for me, when you have lots of family to order prints for.  You can see a lot of them on my facebook page, but these are a few of the candids that I loved.

Cora looks so grumpy in these ones!

 He kept looking under the door...he knew something was under there!

Jack's pouty face!  It reminds us so much of Cora's pouty face she used to make.  

 What it looks like behind the scenes...and action!

 I love these kids.

so.much.

Our family, I am so proud.

 Fun with letters!  

They were part of a photography project we were doing, and the kids got a little creative.

sadly these ones didn't make the cut into the project!

We had a great time, hanging out with our photographer and friend.

A big, forever Thank you out to her!!!

It's been awhile

Sorry for the hiatus folks.  It has been awhile (a month!) since we updated.  We had used up all our blog memory, and I was trying to decide what to do.  Do I pay for more storage?  Do I start another blog?  I didn't want to pay for something I knew I could get for free (I am weird like that), and starting another blog turned out to be a major headache.  Everything had changed, and I couldn't get my blog to look how I wanted (I really like how it looks now, apparently that is the original, antique layout...you can't really find it anymore).  The answer ended up being simple, and my friend helped me solve the problem.  I got to keep my blog looking how I like it, and I did it for free!  So grateful to her and her advice.  So now we can keep enjoying this blog until I run into the problem again in a few more years! Aren't you excited?!!

Halloween Blitz 2012

 The week leading up to Halloween always seems so crazy busy in our house.  For sanity's sake, we took a pass from all the school fall fairs and festivals.  We just had so much going on, something had to go.  Friday night (no pictures...forgot  my camera) was our church's trunk-or-treat.  We had a great time seeing all the cars decorated and everyone's fun costumes   I was a judge this year, so it was especially fun for me, as I paid close attention to costumes and decorations!  Then, Monday night, for family night we decorated our pumpkins, had homemade doughnuts and hot apple cider.

 Let the carving commence! 

 Hunter couldn't decide on a design, so he just colored his with a black sharpe...which ended up all over my table.  Yay for magic erasers!

 Happy Cora with her Happy pumpkin!

Jack really got into carving this year.  Dad helped with the eyes and mouth, but the rest is a series of slit marks all over.  It did look rather cool lit up...I knew he knew what he was doing ;)

 Jack O Lanterns all alight

Harvest Moon shining Bright.

(yes, that is left over snow on the ground...luckily it was mostly melted by Halloween...and it wasn't too cold either)

Tuesday was Dad's office Halloween party.

YES!

I am a dork and made my boys be thing 1 and thing 2 again!!!  

I know, I am bad.  Well maybe not bad, just lazy!  It is so hard to find Halloween costumes out here in Europe...and I had these just sitting in a bin, waiting to be used again.  Plus, let's admit it...they are so darn cute as the Things!!

Hanging out in dad's office after the raging party!

 Anya won two awards at the party.  She won "Most Creative" and "Most Scary".

Hannah thought it was very unfair that Anya got all the attention...Maybe next year Hannah!

Matt even got some votes for his costume.

People voting categorized him as the "washed up star"...

We got some good laughs out of that one!

 We are still potty training, with more success then failure, so that is very good in my book.  

We had to stop and take a potty break during Dad's party...I couldn't resist the photo op.!

 Finally it is Ol' Hallow's Eve

Anya is a Mummy this year

 Cora is a bat

 Hannah is a Hogwart's student which turned into Hermione because of her wonky hair.

and the aftermath....

We got so much candy this year from Trunk or Treat and the office party, that I tried to convince the girls that we didn't need to trick or treat on Halloween.  Of course that was completely blasphemous of me to say...and was instantly resisted.  I think the girls ended up filling the pumpkins at least twice over.  

too much candy!

That night, as we were watching our annual viewing of "The Nightmare Before Christmas", I got up to see what Jack was doing.  He was hiding behind our ottoman, so he was out of my view.  What I saw when I checked on him, is the picture above...the aftermath!

We didn't get to sleep very easily that night!