Deck the Halls

The past few years we've gone to a local Christmas tree farm and cut down our own Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving. We both like that tradition of having a live tree and of going at the end of November. By the time Christmas if over, I'm typically ready to take down our tree, so I'd rather have it up at least a month to get some use out of it. Plus it really gets us in the Christmas spirit!

The kid's holding hands on our way to the Christmas tree farm

Jenna actually found our tree right away. We weren't there more than 3 minutes after she pointed it out. Of course she also pointed out the Charlie Brown trees, so I think this one was just luck.

Drew remembers from his childhood going Christmas tree hunting and then having hot chocolate and a snack. So we brought along the hot chocolate and some brownies. The kids definitely enjoyed that part of our trip!

This was the first year Jenna really enjoyed helping decorate the tree. She liked putting the star on the top...

...and putting ornaments on the tree. I though she'd put a few on and then get bored with it and move on to something else, but she actually stayed almost the entire time. She did a good job - we just had to do a little moving around once we were finished, otherwise one section of our tree would have been overloaded with ornaments while the rest sat empty. :)

At the end of November we had our first snowfall. Jenna was anxious to get out in it. She even tried to catch snowflakes on her tongue without my encouraging her. I'm guessing she must have remembered this from last year...which surprised me!

I tried to get a picture of our house all lit up.

Enjoying the snow together!

The next day I brought some snow up for their nightly bath time. Jenna mostly enjoyed eating it, although she did play with it some while Grant loved getting a handful and dropping it in the tub. Each time he did that he'd let out a little giggle. :)

November

Boy, I'm on a roll! :) Random November pictures minus some holiday ones which I'll post next time.

Gram-Gram reading to Jenna - Jenna LOVES books and probably could sit all day long looking at them and being read to.

I couldn't resist snapping a picture of this cute pose.

Whenever Grant hears the printer, he gets all excited and RUNS over to it. Then he'll bend over and peer inside to watch the paper come out, which is followed by him quickly grabbing the paper when it's done. Too funny!

New jammies from "B"! Jenna and Grant are definitely becoming good friends (most of the time) and enjoy one anothers company. They'll play together some, although Grant's still a little young for actively playing with others. Their favorite thing to do right now is probably chase each other around the house - from the kitchen to the living and back again. It's so fun to watch them interact and enjoy one another!

Aunt Cathy started this last Thanksgiving - pulling the kids down the stairs in the laundry basket. Don't worry, Drew was in front of it, pulling them down the entire time. They both enjoyed it and did it several times until the "biggest kid" got tired (ahem...Drew). :)

I absolutely LOVE this picture! Bedtime stories with Daddy. And have you noticed that Jenna's actually started looking at the camera and giving "good" smiles for us?! Before she would always look the other way or smile with her eyes closed and teeth showing.

This melts Mommy's heart...holding hands.

Our first snowfall of the season. The kids couldn't resist going outside and enjoying it for a little bit. Jenna immediately started catching the snowflakes on her tongue, which is funny because I haven't said anything to her about that this year. So I'm wondering if she just remembers from last year...??

A special treat - playing with snow in the bathtub. Grant liked dropping handfuls of it in the tub and watching it melt - which was always followed by a giggle. Jenna mostly ate it, but did play with it some by scooping it in her cups. A few times she tried putting the snow on Grant's bare skin, but Mommy put a stop to that...poor Grant!

Next up: Our Christmas tree hunt and decorating

Highlights from October

There's no way I can go back and completely catch up on the past few months-worth of pictures, so I'll just include some highlights from October.

Brumbaugh Fruit Farm

The kids playing in a "sandbox" of corn kernels.

A mini-zip line for kids. Jenna LOVED it! Grant even got in on the action (of course with Drew holding on to him the entire time).

Cedarville's Homecoming Weekend - It was Drew's 5-yr reunion so we went down for the day.

We went to the men's soccer game, but only stayed part of the game because it was so cold out!

One of Drew's good engineering friends from Cedarville came down to visit us for the weekend. We always enjoy having Phil around!

Jenna painting a pumpkin at our church's Fall Festival.

She even got to ride a horse all by herself!

My cute little scarecrows!

Pumpkin carving time

We all helped clean out the pumpkin

Drew had a work party at Young's Jersey Dairy. We were able to do all the activities for FREE! Jenna LOVED the slide and went down it over and over and over...

Chilling with the pumpkins

The rest are just random, everyday pictures from October.

Baking pumpkin cookies (I went easy this time and just bought the pre-made kind). I let Jenna place them on the cookie sheet - notice how they're all bunched together. :) I did end up spreading them out before baking them.

Jenna displaying the finished cookies in her dress-up outfit. She's really gotten into dress-up more lately and loves putting on her different dresses and jewelry.

Pumpkin craft

Making homemade pretzels.

The finished product

Grant's "play" drawer.

The kids in their Halloween shirts

I kept tickling Grant trying to get him to smile and they both thought it was hilarious. :)

The kids watching Daddy make a smoothie. It's our new favorite breakfast food (or dessert!)

Grant is fascinated with belly buttons right now. Whenever he sees one he pokes it, which is the reason for the smiles and giggles.