Merry Christmas! (wait...what?)

I know. What the heck happened? The truth is, I'm not sure. We had some technical difficulties, we got a little behind, and then it all just seemed super overwhelming to try to catch up. Well, with a husband surfing the warm waters of Central America, I have nothing but time. I also found new motivation to blog when I realized I can do this.

 Merry Christmas morning!!



Christmas fun with cousins!



Poor Sawyer. Love hurts.



They LOVED making Christmas cookies for our neighbors. (I know, these pictures are the reason Courtney doesn't eat Christmas cookies from neighbors.) 



Our plan for beating the after-Christmas blues was a visit to the San Diego Safari Park.

Totally worn out after three days of Christmas fun.

Celebrating Fall: Around the house

Pumpkin painting is definitely one of our favorite fall activities.

This year, O got to join in on the fun!

She was pretty upset when I wouldn't let her eat the paint.

Crazy girl.

We had fun making apple and pumpkin pie playdough, too.



We've been reading some of our favorite fall books.


Coloring over leaves - a favorite fall craft!

Gourd birds!

Nature walks! Collecting all sorts of fall goodies - red and yellow leaves, acorns, sticks, spiky balls, you name it! (Don't you love the flower hat? He does, too.)

Our thankful tree. The leaves list what we are each thankful for this year.
Some highlights -
"All of the family and me and God and Maxer." Zeke
"Saturday mornings together." Tiff
"God's provision." Jeff
"Zeke, snacks and shoes." Olive

Celebrating Fall: A visit to the pumpkin patch!

A week before Halloween we were on the hunt for the perfect pumpkin. We checked out the Cal Poly Pumpkin Patch and were super impressed with the selection. We spent some time exploring and brought home a great carving pumpkin!

Zeke and Syd thought pretending to fall off of the pumpkins was hilarious.
Olive didn't really get the humor.

So much fall fun! We'll definitely be back next year!

Celebrating Fall: A trip to the fair!

Way back in September we took a trip to the LA County Fair with some of our good friends. It was a fun way to celebrate the beginning of the fall season!

Zeker with his best friends, Sydney and Sasha.

It was pretty much impossible to get a picture of all 5 kids.

They were lovin' their first taste of cotton candy.

Even O had a little bite (though she really wasn't a big fan).



Can't wait to come back next year!

Happy Halloween!

Hope you enjoyed your Halloween festivities! We sure did. (Although you wouldn't know it from looking at these photos-not sure why my kids hate posing for pictures...)

So, the Kung Fu Panda costume was a tad too small (notice the feet). Didn't matter, though - he loved it.

She, on the other hand, was not a big fan of her pink crayon costume. Most of the pictures we have are of her asking to take the costume off.

So fun to live in the same town with so many people we love!

Auntie Kari loves a good costume.

The next morning Zeke was super excited to see that the Candy Fairy had swapped his bucket full of sweets for some walkie talkies and a book about dinosaurs. She was also kind enough to leave a few pieces of candy behind. What a great fairy!