Naughty or Nice?

At the Empire Mine State Park, Tate and Carson put on their best behavior and biggest smiles while making their holiday requests to Santa. Tate politely asked for a "golden turtle" (good luck with that Santa). Carson is hoping for an Alvin & the Chipmunks toy and a Golden "KooKoo bird" stuffed animal.

Holly was not going to sit on Santa's lap or even stand anywhere near him. Mrs. Clause (a brunette?) was kind enough to lure Holly into the photo by showing her the basket of candy candy canes.


I would like to have a beautiful wreath like this at my house!

Eric and I were married at the Empire Mine almost 10 years ago and this was the first time we have ever brought the kids. Our ceremony was set up here between the two giant fountains on the big lawn.

We were married here on the front steps of the old Bourne cottage. It is still just as beautiful as it was 10 years ago.

Carson sipped his hot apple cider in this picturesque setting

Holly danced around while she happily ate a cookie given to her from Santa's refreshment area.

We walked around the beautiful grounds surround the Borne cottage. We strolled along the Holly hedges and through the rose gardens. Although it is a much different landscape in the summer months, it was still a lovely place to spend a crisp cool afternoon in November.

Fall is still very much in the air at the Empire Mine. We let the kids run off some extra energy in the leaves before moving on to the actual mine portion of the state park.

Sometimes they can be good buddies.

We visited the gold mine part of the park which Tate informed us many times was, "so awesome". The mine was one of the largest mines in use from 1850-1956. We were able to go into and see a small portion of the actual underground mineshaft. Carson was very interested in watching the demonstrations given by the blacksmiths, and they all liked climbing in the coal cars.

Finally, at the end of the day, we stopped to get our Christmas tree. We searched and searched, the tree farm and finally found "the one". Eric carefully cut it down and got it tied to the roof of the Explorer. The tree we chose is much slimmer and a bit more sparse then what we normally pick each year, but sometimes its good to do things a bit differently!

Turkey Time Again

My Grandma, Grandpa, and dad joined us for a Thanksgiving visit and dessert. Grandma and Grandpa like to have their holiday dinner at a nearby favorite restaurant. Then, they like to come for a visit at our house and some early afternoon dessert.
Later in the evening, our family had our turkey day dinner with Mimi and Pa. Eric bought a smoker the day before Thanksgiving, so was happy to have the opportunity to try it out. According to Eric and Pa, the smoked turkey was great, but Carson was a bit more of a critic.

Carson said he would have preferred cold hot dogs, so his taste creditability is definitely in question!

Before dinner we all wrote down what we were thankful for this year.
Carson was thankful for "Angry birds and his friend Bella." Tate was thankful for "his teacher Ms. Hellen and the kindergarten class mascot (Fudge the hippo). " Holly was thankful for her stuffed animal cat Mia, and her favorite food- string cheese. Eric was thankful for "his awesome wife and above average kids", and I was thankful for "my family, my kids, and our health".

Holly liked everything she was served, what a good girl.

Happy 2nd Birthday Holly- November 17, 2011

Holly celebrated her birthday with her favorite dinner of mac & cheese, followed by special birthday dessert!

Every time someone asks her how old she is, she proudly announces, "2"!

Mimi was kind enough to make Holly this special 3 layer chocolate cake with delicious pink frosting.

I wonder what she wished for!?!

Um um um, that cake sure was good!

Tate and Carson helped Holly open her gifts while Mimi tried to supervise. Holly opened a new Cinderella doll from Carson and a miniature family of mice toys (each in little tiny clothes) from Tate. The boys each personally choose her gifts and took great pride in giving them to her.

Happy Halloween

Our trick-or-treating group of neighborhood friends: Carson, Tate, Wilson, Russell, Andrew, Holly, and Tim



This year after much consideration and deliberation, the final costume decision concluded with Holly in her Cinderella costume, Carson as Buzz Lightyear, and Tate as a pirate.

Carson loved his costume, however it didn't end up being the most comfortable. Since it was made out of a thick vinyl, the poor kid sweated like crazy in this hot sweatsuit!

I dressed up in my new witch costume for work this morning, so decided to stay in the Halloween spirit for our trick-or-treating evening as well.

At the end of every successful trick-or-treating evening, the candy must get dumped out and sorted through. The kids were allowed a few favorite pieces to eat tonight, then dad got his selection choices to keep......and then the rest will be distributed slowly over the next week or two!

Bonus pumpkin patch visit

We decided to add one more pumpkin patch trip to our fall season this year. We went with two other neighborhood families and had a great day.

Forget the pumpkins, Holly would have been happy to just spend the day feeding the goats.


The boys challenged themselves by racing up the hay tower...I'm sure it was a tie.

Pumpkins pumpkins everywhere! How do we choose just one?

These are our neighbors and good friends Kate and Amy who we spent our day with at the pumpkin farm.

What a sweet boy

Pumpkin time

Again this year, we made our annual trip to the Davis Family Farm in Sloughhouse to pick out our pumpkins.

The kids went only a little way into the corn maze with me, just enough to run down a few paths. They would have liked to run around more, but considering the maze is 3 acres, I was worried about losing them!




Before we filled up our wagon with pumpkins, the kids liked being pulled around for a while.

These Cinderella pumpkins are one of my favorite.

Eric actually got to go with us this year. In years past he has always been working or out of town, so we were happy to have him with us this time.

Each kid got to pick out their own pumpkin to carve once Halloween is actually here. Carson picked his out right away and was happy with his choice. It took some extensive explaining to convince him they we were not going to carve them as soon as we got home today.

Holly barely tolerated all of my picture taking during my quest for the ideal fall photo. She really didn't like the scratchy hay on her legs and was ready to get down from the hay bales as soon as possible.

Holly and her friends

This is one of those little moments in our daily life that I knew if I didn't take a picture, I would soon forget. Right now, Holly's nap and bedtime requires an entire entourage of dolls, babies, and stuffed animals. She also insists on having both her crochet blanket and the blanket that RahRah made for her, regardless of hot it may be in her room already. Anything less then all of these things in her little bed just won't do, and will result in whining and crying.