Playing catch-up!

Needless to say I haven't posted for a few weeks. Not only am I busy with homeschooling, a newborn, the Christmas season, visiting family, Christmas concerts and Christmas baking... I have also been busy taking pictures. So here is a bit of a hodge podge look at what we've been up to:

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Here we are trying to put up our Christmas lights, thankfully it hadn't snowed yet.. but who would have thought four kids would slow us down instead! ;) But it was soo fun! I can't believe how much fun just doing the simple things with my family could be!

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I planned to do something special with Ava after the birth of Linden and so we went to a Edwardian Christmas Tea. It was a really great day! Ava had a great time eating the little sandwiches, tiny pastries and drinking apple juice! She also had a great time looking at the manson that was all decked out for Christmas!

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This year we tried something different. Instead of trying to haul... now four kids to a photographer to get our Christmas picture done we opted to stay home and try it out ourselves. It was a *bit* less hectic... ha ha who am I kidding! It was a crazy! But soo much fun! After seventy-eight pictures.. we managed to get a decent one. We were trying soo hard to get a nice one as I wanted to put them on the cover of our Christmas cards... the final pick is the one on the header of my blog.. but I decided to also share some of the more *real* pictures!

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Another first ... was a four hour road trip as a family of six. The kids actually did really really well! Linden was a trooper too! We usually try to leave once the kids have had a meal that way once we get in the car and they are all settled in they nap. But for the first little while Ava amused herself with her *laptop*. Below is a picture of Ava writing her story! She said she was typing out a story... what an imagination! I can't wait until she can actually write.. it will be very very interesting! And below that picture is the rest of the brew.. Gabriel, Grace and Linden! It was really strange to look back and see all the kids.. I couldn't help but wonder what they would look like when they were older ... and we were on another family road trip... hummm.

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Our destination... my family Christmas. We will not be able to spend or see my family over Christmas so we thought we would go visit for the weekend about a month before Christmas. It was a very busy weekend ~ but well worth it. We were not only able to visit with family, but we saw some of our friends as well! We were thankful too that it had not snowed yet.. so the roads were perfect for driving!

The next two pictures are of Gabriel and my brother:

Left to right: Jay, my dad, my brother & my brother-in-law

Ava was really excited, not only to see her Auntie, Uncle and cousins but also some old friends! Ava kept saying over and over again before we left: "THIS IS GOING TO BE THE BEST WEEKEND EVER!!" I am glad we had the chance to see some of our friends too. Ahhhh we just love them soo much! We wish we could have seen all our friends.. but we were only visiting for the weekend..

Here Ava is decorating a gingerbread man at her Auntie's house:

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And finally here is a picture of our first big snow fall... it is a bit hard to make out.. since by the time I got outside it was already dark! (can I just say that these shorter days are just killing me! I already feel like I don't have enough hours in the day!! But once it gets dark.. I just start to shut down... time to slow down, sit by the fire or watch a movie... *sigh*)... anyway back to the picture. Here is a picture of the front of our home.. I really really hope we don't have a green Christmas!!

These are just a few things we've been up to. I have to admit life with four kids can be busy... ok is really really busy! Most days I'm just cruising on coffee ~ and I'm ok with that ;) It's a lot of work, takes a lot of patience, a lot of time... but it's soo worth it! Hope you enjoyed a peek into many of our days..