Farewell 2009: A Year in Pictures

Today is the last day of another year, another DECADE. A lot happened in this decade...I graduated from college, started my career, got married, had kids....it's been a very full ten years and has had it's share of bumps along the way as well.

But, I can never look back at a year (or decade) and not feel grateful for God's faithfulness. Maybe things don't always go the way I'd like them to, but in the end, I'm always thankful.

I'm doing a lot of thinking about my "list" for 2010, things I want to do and improve on, but for now I thought I'd do a quick recap of 2009 in pics.

I hope you have lots to be thankful for as you look over the past year. I am definitely thankful for all of you - my family and my friends - for your love, support and friendship.

Happy New Year to you all!

January: Dan and I took a vacation to San Francisco.




February: My Snuggle Bugs.

March: My "baby" turns 4.



April: The infamous "bunny" outfits.



May: Becky is offically hired to RFD.



June: Brothers.



July: My BABY turns 2.



August: Summer fun.



September: Roadtrip to New Hampshire and Maine.



October: My Little Super Heroes.



November: Thankful.



December: Our little family.

Oh what fun...

I should totally be wrapping gifts or cleaning my house right now, but I'm blogging instead. :-)

Today was a perfect, snowy winter day here. Dan is on vacation and I was working from home, so he took the boys out and I snapped these pics from Caleb's bedroom window upstairs.

They had so much fun and didn't want to come in. I didn't go out with them, but I had a cup of hot cocoa when they came in anyway.

I get the feeling a lot of you were out having fun in the snow today, too! Definitely got me in the Christmas-y, wintery mood!

Happy Winter!











And here are some more:

"Picnik Show"

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Gingerbread Houses

I've been looking for something fun and Christmas-crafty with the boys, and I was inspired by Christina's post about Henry's gingerbread house at school, so we gave it a shot yesterday.

We started with graham crackers, whipped frosting, and decorations that we had on hand:



I didn't get pics of each step, but I put the frosting into a small zip lock bag and cut about a 1/4 inch hold in the corner. I piped it onto the plate in a square to make a foundation, and then used it on each seam and, well, pretty much everywhere else. It worked really well, but we did use a piece of yarn around the perimeter for a little extra support. :-) Each side is half of a whole graham cracker.



Caleb wanted no part of it; he spent the whole time eating sprinkles straight from the container:



Gabe really loved it, though. This is him working on mine after he finished his. He said he was adding "some style" to it:



And working on his:



He was really proud:



He gave both of our houses "eyes":



Yum:





And then he came in about a half an hour later for a taste. Apparently to eat a gingerbread house, you start with the roof! This was fun to see, because he usually doesn't like frosting. But, he informed me that he only likes frosting on graham crackers.



It was tons of fun, really easy and totally edible and delicious. Thanks, Tina, for the inspiration!!

Family Christmas Celebration at School

Last night was a family Christmas celebration at Gabe's school. It was sweet. The parents got to come and listen to the kids sing some songs they sing during "Jesus Time" and then there were crafts you could do together, etc. I got home from work and got the boys loaded in the car (without dinner) and said, "I'm sure they'll have snacks at school." But, guess what? No snacks. How bad is it that I'm even thinking about that?

It was a great time, though. Even without snacks. :-)

The kids singing some of their songs:



Each day every child has a job. Gabe's yesterday was to set out cups for snack time:



They have a "sensory" table filled with rice, scoops, funnels, etc. Caleb especially loved it, and we had to sweep twice after he kept pouring it into the funnel (which promptly emptied on the floor). No more rice table after that. :-)



She must have done batches of different colors to get this effect. I love this idea:



Then we went to the "bike room." Plenty to do there!

Bouncing:



Dress up:



Where's the riot?



Caleb loved this part, too:



He followed a kid around for at least 10 minutes until he got his turn on this motorcycle:

Unmotivated

I know I'm supposed to be catching up, but I'm feeling a little unmotivated in the blogging department. I did, however, get my Christmas cards ordered. For all the thousands (yes, thousands) of pictures I've taken this year, there were NIL good family pics of us. So, the collage prevails again.

Let's just say you may or may not be finding the below images in your mailbox in the next couple of weeks....

Best Buds

I love this photo of Gabe and Henry looking out the window at Thanksgiving (in between round of jumping on Oma's bed).

I did promise myself I'd catch up on posts after the holiday, so my Thanksgiving post will be forthcoming this evening. :-)

Fabulous Fall

It's cold and rainy right now, but wow - November has been a fabulous fall month. We've had several weekends of beautiful, sunny, colorful days and have taken full advantage of getting out and enjoying them. I've been finding that I love fall more and more each year. I've always really loved it (though spring is my favorite season), but I have become completely fascinated with fall colors - they are truly beautiful and it's like you can't soak in enough before the dreary winter months arrive. I truly love living in a place that has all four seasons. I may feel differently in 20 years, but for now I love it.

Here are some pics we took a couple weeks ago while out enjoying the weather on one of those beautiful days.

I have lots of catching up to do, btw. Lots going on, and lots on my mind. That's nothing new, but I like Christina's idea of taking 10 minutes each day to catch up. I may not be able to start until after the holiday, but I'm going to try!

Hope you all have a Happy Thanksgiving!