December so far

I can't believe how much has already happened in December. ;)  It's been a strange month - warm weather, no snow, and a lot of rain.  We've been making the best of it!

It was dark by the time we made it out the door for our afternoon walk - so we went looking for Christmas lights instead.

Escape to the Montshire on another miserable afternoon.

Nightly walk in the rain.

The girls took a few swim lessons.

A great night at Celebrate the Season in Hanover!

Getting our Christmas Tree on a 60 degree day!  (This is helpful, right daddy?)

 

Clara's Dream with Aunt Rebeckah while Daddy stays home with the little boys.

Making Granny Ware's kissy cookies

meandering walk home from school on yet another grey day.  baby ready for his nap.

Emily likes to sneak her cat ears & tail to school.  Adara likes to do "homework" with Emily.  And Alden's playing peekaboo with the baby in the reflection.  These are sweet days.



Alden loves the guitar.  Adara likes to clean with me, and was thrilled to be allowed to vacuum the car by herself.  I think we could work with this...

The little two and I met my dad at Killington (on yet another oppressively dreary day) to shop for a ski coat and had french fries and hot cocoa for lunch.  Everybody wins. :)


Emily's reading is really starting to take off.  Alden loves to wriggled into the pantry and announce "hiding!"

I love these people!

Thanksgiving in MA

We love being with family, and this trip felt like maybe the first time since the kids started arriving 6 years ago that the time wasn't spent predominantly managing kid chaos?  The older 4 played really well, and the younger two napped well.  Thursday & Friday were full of preparations and big meals and family gatherings.  Saturday was rainy and dreary and we all hung around the house, played games, let the kids watch TV, read books, and chatted... it was cozy and nice.

THURSDAY

Cousins reunited.  Thanksgiving meal (of which I took no pictures!) with our clan plus GG and the Orsattis. :)

playing with some of my favorite childhood dolls

watching "Inside Out" 

(a little intense for my girls, but they hung in there!)

oldest & youngest

FRIDAY

Playground trip, soccer game, pulled pork family party. 

 

 a favorite tradition

  

a house full of cousins makes me so happy :)

bonding with Julio.  after he left, Alden wandered around the kitchen looking for "Juli"

teaching Rosalie to play Nertz.  I suspect I'll be ceding my crown to her one of these days...

how funny is the similarity between Daniel & Mike in these pictures?!

SATURDAY

 introverted family time

November photo dump

This continues to be the best fall.  Of course life isn't perfect, but we are soaking in the beautiful moments and joys of this season of life and of the year.

I forgot to blog about sweet Nico's baptism!  Probably because the only photo I have doesn't even involve him...oops! 

Alden and I have done some beautiful local hikes, and we've all played outside a lot.

The neighbors took down the basketball hoop, but put up a fun bench swing.

Adara hiked Balch Hill her with outside preschool.

And we went back that same afternoon. ;)

Holt's Ledge - vies with Gile for my favorite local hike.

Childcare at bible study.  Look at Alden looking like a little boy!

Painting nails & drinking coffee on a 70 degree day in November!

Few things make me happier than all three having fun together.

We love raking leaves.

Moose Mountain

Picnic with hot cocoa at Nathan's Garden

Ready for snow with her new boots.  And isn't she beautiful?

Sleepy stroller walk. 

 Such a cute little destroyer.

I am consistently impressed by my children's art skills, since Alasdair and I have zero between us.