Wedding Clothes

Shauna asked me to take pictures of the kids in their wedding clothes (that we weren't there for). So we took them for her Christmas ornament. They all look so grown up.

Broken Furnace

I got up to turn Benson and then quickly ran back to bed.  Then I lay there wondering if I smelled something burning until I convinced myself it was fine and I could go back to sleep. In reality, it was fine and had I gotten up, I couldn't have done anything about it anyway. Our furnace motor just burned up. Jon was able to figure it out himself and order a new motor on Amazon. But it took three days for the motor to come in. We were also struck with the plague about that same night. We spent the next three days, with borrowed space heaters, mostly contained to one room, trying to stay warm and get better. I also wanted to make fresh bread for Benson's physical therapist because we just love her. But our kitchen really was freezing so I decided the bread would need to rise somewhere warmer. Vanessa's room seemed like the perfect spot. And it worked great, except the kids kept messing with the dough. Because bread dough is suddenly way more exciting when it is unsupervised, on the floor. The kids also claimed that Brigham put a few toys in the dough. And not just any toy, but the Barbie doggie poop. Of course. I still gave the bread away, after attempting to find said doggie poop and having no luck. But I did warn them the kids claimed a toy might be in there. I didn't really fess up to it being toy poop.

 We decided it would lift our spirits to go get Andy's one night and see Bagwell lights. Brig suddenly had a really bad earache and was miserable, poor guy. Annabelle got a fever and I stripped her clothes off in an attempt to cool her down.

Christmas Gifts

I had the crafting itch so I decided to make a lot of Christmas gifts. For the Brady cousins, I made these game card holders. I also made the ribbon wands for the two toddlers. I made the Family Birthdays sign for Nicole and Then Sings My Soul for my Mom. I also made pillow covers for Steph. Vanessa and Benson wanted in on more of the crafting too so they came up with a few ideas. I didn't get very good pictures though, darn it. Vanessa made the #1 medal for Grandpa and a blue heart pillow for Grandma. She sewed it all by herself. Benson made a mistletoe for Grandma because she likes to kiss him.

A Bit of December

We made our annual trip to Bass Pro. We enjoyed their Winter Wonderland and visiting Santa. We also took advantage of the coupon they give for a discount to the restaurant and tried it for the first time. I ordered fish and chips, which is one of the signature dishes. It was really huge, and really good, but apparently way too much grease for my stomach. I felt sick for almost two days.

 Annabelle wouldn't let me even consider passing her off to Santa, but was still upset to be near him, even with Vanessa holding her. As a side note, Vanessa looks incredibly grown up in this picture.

 I was really proud of my red-neck solution to our hose not quite reaching to our newly planted tree.

 Annabelle brings you books every five minutes to read to her. She loves loves loves books right now. Some of her favorites are our family picture books too. Anyone around 1-2 years old is a picture of her. And all the baby pictures, even of her, are just pictures of babies; according to Annabelle.

Just practicing snorkeling in the bath.

We can be kind of lazy and school often happens in our jammies. But I guess that is one of the pros to homeschooling. Sometimes its an added bonus that we can do it by the fire.

 Vanessa has gotten pretty good about letting me try new hairstyles wit her long hair.

 Brig went through a phase where he loved to draw. He would spend hours drawing and drawing. He would ask us to draw things for him. He would stare at letters and try to copy them. He was just fascinated with all things drawing. And then one day, he just wasn't anymore. :)

Light The World

The Church challenged the members to complete 25 days of service to become more Christlike. They put out a calendar and each day had a theme. Our family did our best to participate and I was posting it to instagram. After awhile, it felt like maybe it was something that we should be doing without showing everyone on Instagram so I stopped posting. But then I also stopped documenting, at least in pictures. I think I will still print our chatbook of our Light the World projects, but here is a quick picture summary of our month of service or learning to be more like Jesus.

Carving Pumpkins

We took the kids to Rutledge Wilson Farm to pick our pumpkins from their pumpkin patch. We also did the corn maze, hay ride, and saw all the farm animals. It was more interesting to me to see the chickens and their coop setup, as well as how they had their range area set up. It's been awhile since we have been there and we didn't have chickens the last time we went. They were growing some really tall plants in their fenced in range that offered a lot of shade, food, and protection. The chickens really seemed to like it.

When we carved the pumpkins, we decided to have the kids do their own designs this year and do it themselves. We used mostly the pumpkin carving kit tools, and of course we helped some, but they did pretty well. Annabelle was napping when we started. She fell asleep on the way home from church. So after I attempted to get a picture of her in her pretty dress, we stripped her down to dig in the pumpkin goo. We also let the chickens, and Rocky, out to enjoy cleaning up the scraps.