Our Week

We had a wonderful last week, and here are three pictures for you. Above is our annual picture with Santa Claus at Fantasy of Trees. I think it turned out pretty cute. :) Both kids talked to Santa, and Josiah even hugged him at the end of the photo shoot. So super sweet.
Josiah's half birthday was on Thanksgiving Day this year. He is officially 5 1/2 years old. Granna and Z-pa bought him a turkey cake to celebrate. He told me today that his favorite part of Thanksgiving week was celebrating his half birthday.

To complete our week, last night Mackenzie's other top front tooth was so loose that I insisted on pulling it. On the third try, I got it! Here is her new smile. I believe she is adorable in this phase. She says she is embarrassed to be missing those two top front teeth. After assuring her that she is beautiful, both inside and out, I tucked her into bed. The tooth fairy came while she was sleeping. All is well in our world that seems so full of fun milestones these days!

Thanksgiving School Parties

It's official. The kids are out of school for Thanksgiving break! Yippeee! :)I joined Mackenzie's class for their party this afternoon. Mackenzie did a great job of quoting her memorized lines for the Thanksgiving program that her class did in the room. I am proud of how well she did! Above is Shaun and Mackenzie.
Her class decorated giant sugar cookies for the party activity.

Mackenzie, Savannah, and Hollie

Part of Josiah's class. His class all had t-shirts with a turkey made from the child's hand print on it. Super cute. They were out of dress code and in turkey shirts with pajama bottoms and slippers today!

Most of the boys in Josiah's class are in the picture. I love how excited they are, though I have no idea just what happened to cause such happy faces! Made for a great picture, though.

Mackenzie and Josiah, ready to head home for the holiday!

Classroom Crafts

I am so incredibly thankful for my job that allows me the flexibility to work and still be present for my children's classroom activities. I had the opportunity to do a craft with Josiah's class last Friday. One of the things we made was a Christmas door hanger. Kids had fun. I did, too! Above is Josiah, Tucker, Isaac, and Riley.
Josiah busy painting his ornament craft. (Yes, we did Christmas crafts before Thanksgiving because the stores were sold out of Thanksgiving crafts, lol!)

Rylan, Josiah, and me.

Rylan and Josiah. Definitely buddies!

Today, I had the opportunity to join Mackenzie's class in making a Ginger Bread house for the Fantasy of Trees, a fund raiser for Children's Hospital. Above: Sophia, Emma, McKenna, and Mackenzie.

Mackenzie, McKenna, and Emma

Caleb and Mackenzie mixing icing for the gingerbread house.

Mackenzie and Savannah taking a turn at decorating.

Mackenzie and me with the finished ginger bread house!

The kids tried to make a cross out of skittles on the roof on this side.

This side of the roof has a Christian fish on it, and "Baby Jesus" (i.e., Ginger Bread Man) is in the Manger at the front door!

I think the kids did a great job. We all had fun. I think the best part was watching the kids enjoy some of the left over candies! I loved getting to be with the kids for these fun activities at school.

Trunk or Treat

Tonight was Trunk or Treat at church. Here's my two kids: an angel and Jango Fett off of Star Wars. :) Ready to enjoy some crafts and games!
Allison, Lauren, Mackenzie, and Josiah

Mackenzie making a bracelet craft.

Josiah "fishing" for candy. Fun game!

Jango Fett

Josiah, Britton, and Owen

Mackenzie, with Josiah close behind her, making the rounds to gather candy. Another annual Trunk or Treat. Another fun memory made.

Fall Festivities

We've been busy with lots of fun activities. Here's some pictures to catch you up-to-date. Mackenzie and Josiah at a pumpkin patch on Tuesday afternoon. We stopped by to pick out a couple "pie size pumpkins" for school projects.
And I had to snap a few pictures while we were there, of course. ;)

This morning, after settling the kids in their classrooms, I joined some friends and we off-loaded their truck bed full of pumpkins. Today was going to be pumpkin patch day for the kids, complete with hayrides! Due to rain, the pumpkin patch grew out of concrete this year. ;) The kids loved getting to pick out pumpkins. Thanks to our friends for donating the pumpkins. The hayride was rained out, but we all had fun anyways! You can see the trailer full of hay behind Proctor's truck. Would have been fun....sigh...but the concrete pumpkin patch was great!

Here's the Kindergarten side of the pumpkin patch.

My Little Man is in the middle of the back row with the gray shirt and red pants. Today was "dress up like a community hero" day; they enjoyed being out of dress code. Josiah was a firefighter.

Josiah with a few other boys picking out pumpkins.

Josiah and me at the concrete pumpkin patch. lol.

Here's his whole class with the pumpkins they chose. He's on the front row toward the right.

Mackenzie's class did not attend the pumpkin patch (it was just for the Kindergarten and 3rd grades as those are the grades that Proctor and Allison's kids are in), but they did enjoy painting pumpkins in their classroom today. I guess 2nd graders are more independent than Kindergartners as they did not need parents in the room to help today. So, I don't have any pictures of Mackenzie from today! I did get to eat lunch, one-on-one, with the kids today during their lunchtimes. That was fun. The above picture is of Josiah's class decorating pumpkins with stickers this afternoon.

Josiah and Tucker

Josiah decorating his pumpkin with stickers.

Josiah and me. I love getting to be involved in his classroom activities! I am thankful to "share" room mom responsibilities with Lexi's mom this year. Very nice, indeed!

Josiah with Mrs. Haluska

Candid pics of pumpkin decorating.

Cutie

Aly and Josiah

Last weekend, David and I worked together to create a "baby poster" for Josiah. The assignment was about baby names and pictures. Josiah was hilarious. He saw that his full name was on the poster. He quickly indicated that he did NOT want his middle name on the poster. We said it had to be on the poster because of the assignment. We tried to explain the importance of his "family name." When I told him about the four people in the family with that name, his quickly said, "I wish there was one less." Poor baby! He was very funny about it. Then, after presenting it at school, he came home excited. I asked him what his friends thought about his name. He said, "It's cool, Mom." Apparently his name went over quite well in the classroom! How funny.

The poster will be on display all year long in the classroom. He was so proud of his poster that he wants to hang it in his room at home. He has asked us to make another one for him to have here at home because he says he can't wait until the end of the school year to have one in his room. Cracks me up. Glad he liked it.

I wish I had pictures of Mackenzie's class from today, too. I enjoyed my lunch time with her. She enjoyed her day at school. She was dressed as a Bible character. Cutie! I am so thankful for the flexibility of my job. I am grateful to be able to work and still be present at school, too.

Bear Cabin and Ozone Falls

We decided to take a last minute getaway for Fall Break this past weekend. After extensive online searching, we ended up at Bear Cabin. A big feature that our kids were interested in was a loft. This cabin had two lofts! Just perfect. Bear cabin was surrounded by woods with a pond near by. It has a wrap around porch with a soft tub spa on the back porch.
Here's one staircase up to the loft with a King size bed and a balcony, too.

Here's the kitchen with the laundry area just straight ahead.

Here's the living room with a spiral staircase up to the loft with a full size bed.

Here's the master bedroom downstairs just off the living area.

Here's the master bathroom. The cabin has two full bathrooms.

Here's the full size bed in the loft up the spiral staircase. It was cozy.

Looking back toward the living area from the full size loft. You can actually see across from one loft to the other loft. Very cool! The kids loved it!!!

Looking toward the full size loft from the king loft with the living room below.

Another view of the living room from above. The full size bed is just beyond the ceiling fan.

Here is the king size bed and loft area with the back door to the second story balcony area.

Standing near the back door balcony, looking back toward the living area from the king size loft.

Balcony out the king size loft. Huge yard area to run and play.

Two cute kids playing checkers with David watching. Soft Spa in the back ground.

The last picture of my babies with their top baby teeth in tact. Aren't they cute in their matching pj's?!

Penguins. Love it.

Here it is. Mackenzie's top right baby tooth. We noticed it was almost dangling. Knew it had to come out. She tried and tried. Loosened it. Made it bleed. I was then able to pull it on my third attempt. Woo Hoo! The tooth fairy even found her at the cabin. :)

Missing a top tooth! And, the one next to it on her top left is also loose. She would make a great hillbilly for Halloween. She's planning to go as an angel, though. ;)

What a smile!

During our Fall Break excursion, we decided to hike to Ozone Falls. David leading the way, with Mackenzie and Josiah close behind.

Josiah standing at the top of Ozone Falls. You can see the water falling over the edge just to the picture left, Josiah's right.

David with the kids at the top of Ozone Falls.

Some nice lady took our picture, all four of us together, at the top of Ozone Falls. You can see the stream that becomes the water fall just to David's right.

David and the kids with Ozone Falls in the background. I snapped this one as we were hiking down the rocky incline to the base of the falls. Sure was a gorgeous fall day.

The kids and me at the base of Ozone Falls.

Zoomed in on the kids and me at the base of the falls.

Mackenzie and me with Ozone Falls in the back ground.

My little mountain goat. Josiah loved climbing on all the rocks to get down to the falls and back up from the falls.

Picture of the falls.

Zoomed in on the top of the falls.

You see the little white dot behind the water fall toward the right side of the picture? That's a person. Kinda gives you some perspective on the size of Ozone Falls. Impressive.

Our two mountain goats. ;)

I propped the camera on the side of a boulder and used the timer to take this picture of the four of us. I loved the angle on it! The falls are in the back ground.

Future rock climber?

My two precious kiddos.

We had a wonderful weekend getaway for Fall Break. Fun times. Precious memories made together. Thankful for neat opportunities.