Pip's Art Work...

I love the little Aliens this child makes! You've got to see all these amazing little people...

Much like her sisters, but completely unique! She LOVES to create!!! She has gotten so good at chopping things up with scissors! Ask the vacuum it sure gets a work out after she's been working with scissors.

This was one of her first people back in September (she was 2.75 years old) You can see on the top right side P....i....p she writes her name!

This she said is Daddy and she tried to make a "D" next to it. I think it looks like the ferocious beast from Maggie and the ferocious beast.

This one below she tried to write her name, but messed it up and crumpled the paper up.

Then she drew her face ANGRY (above) she was mad it didn't work out!

 And the one above is our entire family... It is the first time she attempted so many people in a picture before! She made Daddy biggest, and then I am the one on the top left with the arms...She is the one next to Daddy and then Riley is next to me Amity is in the middle nad at the bottom by Daddy's feet is a "baby brudder". We have no idea where she got the concept of a "baby brudder" but it sure gave us a good laugh!

She made this picture for me for my Birthday and hung it up on the wall just for me! It is a picture of me and Her.

We love our little artist and her little pictures and the stories she shares about her pictrures. They are the best.

The Start of Advent

I really try to make advent special...We celebrate each day with a little activity and count and wait...On the shortest day we celebrate both Daddy Joy's birthday and that Jesus is the light and hope in the darkness. We are moving towards longer days, more light, and brighter times, even if it is only by 3 minutes a day! ;0)

This year we read The Twenty-Four Days Before Christmas by Madelin L'Engle we also read lots of other Christmasy books.

We started out the month putting snow sugar on some cookies...

 Quickly moved into decorating the living room...

 Pip NOT sharing the kindle movie she was watching.

This is us watching White Christmas Together...Friendly really liked the first half...I never did get to finish that movie...

We made Cranberry garlands for the Cardinals and sparrows that play in the bushes by our house...

 Pip even got into stringing her own little string!

Friendly made hers THAT long!!!

 And we made Bird feeders using cookie cutters, cotton yarn, peanut butter, and bird seed...

Wrap the cookie cutters thickly in coton yarn.

Spread peanutbutter over the cotton yarn.

Roll peanutbutter covered cookie cutters in birdseed

And hang up for the birds to enjoy! We added some cranberries for good measure...The cardinals have been visiting quite a bit!

We made snow topped Christmas Cookies

Why yes I like to enjoy some quality time with the ipad from inside a Christmas box...Doesn't everybody? Pip is a quirky kid.

The kids played Train several days...Which involved delivering presents and lots of bread crumbs. Don't ask me.

Paleo and Vegan Christmas Cookies!

snuggles

We made Snowflake Ballerinas and wreaths along with our traditional Christmas Chain this year...

 And for St. Nicholas Day the kids recieved some special Crayola Model Magic- Friendly LOVES the stuff...we all do actually!

But she especially likes working on her cakes.

This year I also tried to make it a priority to take each of the kids out on a special date to shop for other family members... This was a lot of fun, though I think next year we'll draw names from a hat! shopping for multiple presents in each trip was a bit of a headache! :)

Friendly picked special crayons and a sticker book for her sisters a coffee mug for Nana and candycane boxers for Daddy

Roo picked out beautiful earrings for Nana, a computer Mouse for Daddy, and 2 special books for her sisters

Pip carried her purse all through target and insisted she help me carry our shopping basket as well. She was so unbelievably little and sweet. She picked out Christmas socks for her sisters, a new wooden car for her, and oh yea she needed a pair of socks as well (thankful I directed her to the dollar section at Target!)

My favorite night was probably Tree Night... The weekend before Christmas we got out the eggnog, the iced cookies, and some marangues, and we curled up by the light of the tree and I read out loud from my Dad's Norman Rockwell Christmas book. It brought back so many cozy memories of my childhood and Friendly and Roo really seemed to enjoy it too. Tree Night lives on!

And then there was Christmas...But I will save that for another post on another day! It is looking like I might actually catch up on blogging before Roo turns 7 and we celebrate a New Year!

Did I tell You About the Fair?

We went to the fair in Late August. It happened to fall the day before M joined our days, so we went together as a last hurrah- just the 4 of us. Not that we don't love having M this school year, but it feels like we're in a new stage now...Like that was Summer, and it's over. And that special summer when the kids were 2, 4 and 6 will never come again...And visiting the fair (one of our favorite things) was the thing that happened at the end of that time.

And then we went back with M to see the cows and butterflies...

Our First trip...Just the 4 of us.

The goats.

Then we went back to the butterfly house a few days later with M it was so so much fun! We got to see a Butterfly come out of it's chrysalis!

Roo watching the butterflies in action!

Pip and M were so so funny on this trip! They were little pro's scooping up the butterflies...And then scolding them for flying away. Pip (who is an avid butterfly lover) was super super into this whole holding butterflies business!

And now I told you about The Fair...

The First Snow...2014

It was right before Thanksgiving when we got a lovely mucky snow!

The kids were so excited!

They insisted I take them out for a very chilly, very wet walk...

They had fun! I mostly froze.

Then the big ones went out to play for quite some time...They soaked through several pairs of mittens but they came in the proud parents of a Snowman they named Stinky...

Childhood is sweet.

Autumn Recap: Autumn Song Great Pumpkin Hunt 2014

Pumpkins...Leaves... Sunshiney Windsweeping beautiful October days! 

As Anne Shirley  (Or L.M. Montgomery if you're going to get technical) put it, "I'm so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers.” 

Me too, and we enjoyed some gorgeous weather and cozy memories. 

Late October found us at a really fun pumpkin patch as we headed down to a friends house for her annual pumpkin party (which I didn't get any pictures for. boo). 

 Our carved pumpkins (Pip, Mommy, Friendly, and Roo)

Autumn Recap: Around Home Randomly!

Oh goodness here we go!!! Just when I think "Well I've sectioned out this blogging subject thing really well and I a catching up from nearly a year of not blogging pretty well."

Yeah....No! So much more to share!

Here we go Autumn Recap round a million! At Home Randomly!

A date with this sweet beautiful child.

She came downstairs and fell back to sleep next to me during her nap.

Asleep in the car, such a baby.

Whenever she wore those pants (sadly too small) she would sit above me on the couch and crow "I yourw WAINBOW!!!!"

Pippy was sporting a major mullet, and she got her first hair cut in late August. She was NOT happy that I allowed that strange woman to TOUCH her. She pouted like this all the way home. She did great for the hair cut. She sat quietly and held my hand..

No more mullet!!!

 One of the best things that Autumn brought was the leap to invest in a new family vehicle. My goodness it was so desperately needed. Between cramming the kid 3-across in the back of a 5 passneger car for over a year and not being able to run errands or go any where with little M with us Monday through Friday 7:30 a.m. until 4p.m. every day...Well it was time.  We got a 2009 Toyota Sienne with only 64,000 Miles on it! It has been such an incredible blessing! We have room to give people rides, to take more than 3 kids places, and to fit more comfortably! :)

 This little girl is growing so fast...Too fast! She loves to be read to...

 He's hilarious. This is a scene a few times a month he comes home from work and passes out. This time he had sound control implemented as well. :)

 Where is Friendly?

 And Pipsqueak?

And how was that for random??