Decorating the Tree...

And then we got to decorating; Christmas music, hot cocoa...I try hard to not get too OCD about it all :)

It's getting a little easier and quicker (and less re-arranging for Mom and Dad to do) each year!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Such a fun full day. We started out with the Christmas Cafe and Fair here at the Seminary. The kids basically get to shop for ridiculously low prices, for everyone in their immediate family, while we eat snacks and socialize. It's amazing, they get to go and choose and 'buy' things with the help of another adult and it all gets to be a surprise for the rest of us, and it all happens in one morning. The staff and faculty wives buy items throughout the year for this event. Love it.

Then we headed North and got to have a quick bite of lunch with friends we don't see nearly enough, since our move.

After that, we headed up to our favorite Christmas tree farm, Celesta Farms in Sebastopol to pick out and chop down our Christmas tree, it's one of my favorite traditions. We love this place, complete with free cookies and hot drinks and reasonable prices. It really is a family affair, choosing our tree is a tricky process and we all have different ideas but we always find the perfect tree for us.

Exhausted but happy, we ended our day at Pings for Chinese Food, for dinner. There would be no cooking after that long day.

Kiddo Art Show

So proud of our little boy. A painting he did was selected to be in an art show at a local bank. We are very fortunate that our kids have dedicated art teachers, through Kiddo, an organization that raises money from parents and businesses to keep the arts in schools. They had a little reception that we all got to go to tonight to see his work and the work of the other kids and just celebrate him. He's a cool kid!

Thankful!

We had the best Thanksgiving, we normally go to our friends' house mid afternoon, to officially celebrate Thanksgiving and share a meal together with others, so the kids started out the day coloring and playing outside.

But it was just such a great day weather-wise that we decided to go for a family hike together. It was just beautiful. At first the kids were a little reluctant when we suggested a 'hike' so we changed it to an 'adventure' and got them all on board. Whatever it takes eh?!

 Poor Asia, we had hiked way out to a little alcove of a beach and we mentioned the tide was starting to come in and we should start to head back to the main beach and she COMPLETELY freaked out. She was absolutely terrified that she was going to drown, no matter how much we tried to reassure her that we were just planning ahead. No matter how much we cuddled and held her, even when we got back to the main beach she still was traumatized. It was SO sad. Don't think I'll ever forget that reaction and hope that she has not been scarred for life.

I decided to be 'present' for Thanksgiving, so no photos of the food, but it was, as always, a great time. We have so much to be grateful for.

Us!

I was bound and determined that we would do photos for a Christmas card this year and get it done in plenty of time. I picked out our outfits, checked sunset times, told everyone a couple of days in advance and got oks on the clothes choices.

The kids are so cute and we started out pretty well.

The sweet girls danced together for me and giggled.

And although there were a series of over 50 with Bryttain pulling a grumpy face because she'd decided she'd had enough and would rather be playing with friends (who'd knocked on the door as we were heading out) we still managed to get some of us all laughing together.

And even one at the end of James and I.

Love my precious family, SO much!

Teeth are gone

Oh my sweet sweet Bryttain. Last night we noticed a strange lump on her top gum above her wiggly tooth. It didn't look nice at all and although she was saying it didn't hurt, after calling the dentist (who lives almost an hour away) it was decided that we should take her in to get it checked out. Turned out it was an infection, likely caused years previously when she might have fallen or been knocked as a toddler, surfacing now. Both top teeth had to be pulled.

She was SO brave and those teeth would have fallen out soon, but it's still a little sad.

Cooking kids

My kids love to help in the kitchen. I love that they love to help, of course, but our current kitchen is so tiny that I don't always have the most patience and would rather just get the job done quickly, on my own and get out of there. The other night James cooked and had the older two help him - double score for me!

I got to relax while they worked, and little Miss Asia played games on the phone.

Then we all enjoyed a yummy Thai curry!

Halloween 2012

Costumes were a little simpler this year, thank goodness. Arran decided he wanted to be a ninja, Bryttain was Hello Kitty and Asia was a flower girl (sigh, one day maybe she'll get to be somebody's flower girl in real life, she would so love that). At school everyone gets to change into their costume and the whole school does a parade so everyone can see all the costumes. It's pretty cute.

Weather was miserable so instead of going door to door to show off costumes (and of course get insane amounts of candy) we headed to Valley Baptist Church, in San Rafael where they had games and still gave out candy, while everyone got to stay dry. Worked out pretty well, especially as James had class and I had to do it all solo with the kids.

Pumpkin Carving

Our church has always done a pumpkin carving party, but this year it didn't happen in the traditional way and instead we all went to the Hoffmans' house to carve our pumpkins and play together, yesterday. Fun time with friends.

Bryttain Haircut

So after growing out her fringe (bangs) for almost two years, Bryttain decided she wanted to cut it again. She's beautiful no matter what she does to her hair. Love this sweet, enthusiastic, fun little girl!

Library

Big kids at school, we headed to the library. She loves to browse the movies and I force her to pick out some books as well!

All School Read

Once a month the kids' school has an all school read, where parents and siblings all can come and read together at the start of the day. We normally take turns on whose classroom we go to and the the child whose classroom we are not visiting that day, joins us too. Just a little thing, but they appreciate it.

First Day of School 2012

Today was back to school day, for my oldest two. In theory, it would have also been Asia's first day, but the powers-that-be changed the cut off date by a month and so now she will have another year home with me. I think she's fine with that, and actually so am I!

We all made the effort to get up and ready early so we could walk to school instead of driving. So glad that James didn't have class this day, this year and was able to organize his work to go in later and join us for the walk to school and meeting teachers.

As has become our little tradition, Asia and I went on a little date and had hot chocolate together at Starbucks. Makes her feel pretty special.

She was anxious for school to be over though and couldn't wait to see her brother and sister again.

First day of school tradition, all the kids get ice cream, not bad! Nice way to end the day and we even got a shot with the principle, doesn't everyone look delighted?

This was SO much better than last year's fiasco and I am incredibly grateful :)