Christmas Pictures

A new friend in our new ward offered to do a quick 20 minute Christmas photo session for us a few weeks ago.  It was so nice of her and we really loved the pictures she took.  Joel knew he wanted to do a Tiny Tim picture with Oskar so he dressed himself and Oskar in period clothing and me and Ivy just wanted to dress up too.  It was funny because when we got to her house we realized she was planning on just taking pictures of the kids.  We felt pretty silly but she insisted we all get some pictures and they really turned out great.

I just want to blow this one up and print it out.  What a sweet picture!

And this little girl posed this way without being told to!

8 months pregnant is not a good time of life to get pictures taken.  Oh well.

"God bless us, every one!"

Thanksgiving and Birthday

 For Thanksgiving this year we were supposed to go to Keri's house where Grandma and Grandpa would be along with Jordan's family and Kamron.  But they had some sick kids there so we decided at the last minute to stay at home to keep Oskar from getting sick.  So with very little time to prepare we had to throw some Thanksgiving plans of our own together.  I was pretty down about not being able to be around family and I really didn't want to cook anything.  So Joel and the kids cheered me up by reenacting the first Thanksgiving.  Below are my two little Indians.

Then we made a thankful tree and listed all the things we were thankful for.

 And even though I didn't want to cook, we had to eat something so we had a roast and green beans and it ended up being fine.  We had just purchased a dining room table a few days before so we were able to have our first meal at our new table.

We have A LOT to be grateful for so it was nice to focus on our blessings and talk with the kids about how much we appreciate all the good things that we have in our life.

Here is a shot of our dining room.  The house still needs SO much work, like painting, I can't handle those purple walls for too much longer.  But very slowly it's we're making progress and it really feels like home.

And a few days later was my birthday.  I turned 30 years old, which was depressing, but I couldn't be depressed too long with my 2 3/4 kids' smiles (and kicks from the 3/4 one).  I made my own birthday cake and it was delicious.