It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas...

Christmas is in two DAYS!!!  How, when, how did that happen!?  You know how in movies they show the pages of a calendar off fly off in fast forward motion?  That is how this last six months have been.  I don't know what has changed.  I feel like we JUST put up our Christmas tree but it has been up now for 3 weeks!  I feel like I was just preparing for Halloween and we are days away from the end of year.  We've been staying up later…getting up earlier…and we are still racing the clock it seems.  I am quite behind on posts.  It was (and still is) beginning to look a lot like Christmas when I took these pictures at the beginning of the month.  

Fun things about Christmas for us:
1.  Letters to Santa.

  Part of Jack's letter is hard to see…it says "Dear Santa, please bring 12 reindeer to fly me around the  
  world and one sled and I love you.  love, Jack."

I love these letters.

2.  Decorating the Christmas tree (and let's face it…the kids favorite part is climbing the ladder non-stop.)

3.  Christmas Lights.

    Outdoor lights too!

 4.  Christmas cookies & treats.

I found a recipe for vegan sugar cookies.  They have no eggs or milk.  Safe for everyone!  They tasted like traditional sugar cookies to me.  We made the recipe twice.  The second time we frosted the cookies with a vegan (I know) cream cheese frosting…and we liked those a lot more than the first frosting recipe we tried.

 

 

4.  Christmas decorations.
We know Christmas is coming when the hotel behind our house puts their tree on the rooftop..

Jack is working to put a wooden tree together.

    Avery hugging a singing snowman.

5.  School Christmas program.  The boys' first grade class sang three songs…the last one being a dance number.  It was so cute.  What makes a school Christmas program even better?!

A surprise visit from Santa!

6.  Snow gear…mittens, hats, and boots!

Avery loves this hat…she wears it even inside.

7.  Snow!  Sledding!  

    Avery and Wyatt ready to head out to sled.

 8.  And of course, preparing for the reason for Christmas.
John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

It's COLD!

Christmas Tree!

We had warm weather this year for the squadron's Christmas tree cutting event.  No snow on the ground.  It was kind of nice.  We could take our time and really look around.

The boys did manage to find a small patch of snow/ice. 

Still searching…

How about this one?

The kids found a round rock they really liked to sit on.  Jack took his boots off and his coat off and made himself at home.

A and W watching Geoff saw the tree.

I gave Wyatt my camera and he took some really cute pictures.  (I was waving at the camera…)

 

What Christmas tree pics would be complete without a saw?!   

 Great job Geoff and kiddos!  Another great tree!

Slacklining and Rock Climbing

Uncle Matt and Aunt Amy sent Geoff a slackline for his birthday this year.  The first time he used it he took the boys and went to the park.  The second time he brought it out Katy, Bear, Avery and I joined too.

 I think Geoff will think twice about taking Avery again.  She was a slackline-hogger.  No one else could get on after she tried it.

It was freezing so it wasn't long before the boys and I went to the car to sit in the heat while Geoff and Avery slacklined (is that even a word?)

Geoff took the boys one weekend to Smith Rock to go hiking.  They left after church and returned just after bedtime.  Looks like they had a great time.

Pic of people on the top of "Monkey Face".  Geoff said there were rock climbers everywhere.  Even after the sun went down.