Cutting down our Christmas Tree

This past weekend we went and got our Christmas tree. This has been a tradition that we have done for many years now... since Chris and I first got married. And we have been going to Hann's tree farm which is right down the road from us for Three years now which is how long we have lived back in Oregon for. We walk out to the field, pick the perfect tree, cut it down, take the hayride back where we sip hot cider,
listen to music, and visit with Santa. What a wonderful tradition. We have thought long and hard about getting a fake tree so we don't have the mess of needles all over our house that a real one brings but that is a tradition that I don't think I can convince Chris on.

 

 

 

 

This past weekend and this coming weekend....

So my birthday was a couple of weeks ago. Chris decided to surprise me with a trip for me and him to stay in downtown Chicago. That is my favorite place to go in the winter time and around Christmas so it will be neat to stay downtown in the hussle and bussle of Michigan Ave. Just me and him.. no kiddos... We are takin:g the train down on Friday and will return on Sunday. Should be really fun.. stay tuned for pictures.

This past weekend was a very wonderful Thanksgiving. Wednesday night Courtney, my sister in law, had a fun girls party with lots of jewelry, fun drinks, and munchies. Lily and I had a blast. Thanksgiving was wonderful. Lots of food, relaxing, and family time at Uncle Denny's house eating turkey, playing games, and talking with friends and family. We have so much to be Thankful for. Our health, our family, our friends, that we are able to have food on the table every day, warm clothes, Our wonderful jobs, I am thankful for two beautiful and healthy children, and my husband who works so hard for us, is caring and kind, and will do anything for us. We are thankful that we have our parents around and that we have the rest of our family here for us. That means tons to us.
So Thursday night after Thanksgiving,( we got home from Denny's around 9:30 pm) I got to bed early, set the alarm and was to meet three of my friends and my one friends sisters house for an early morning shopping event for Black Friday. We were in the stores by 3am to snatch up some great deals:) Wahoo! We shopped until 1pm. I don't think that I have ever shopped for so long but we had a blast. And Thanks to my wonderful hubby who watched the kids all morning and afternoon. I came home, took a nap with the kids, and Chris cook us a huge family Thanksgiving. We had so much food that we invited Mom and Dad VV over to tell us about their vacation to the Dominican Republic. Saturday we cut down our tree, then Chris went to the Badger football game ( we had two tickets that he won from work and I was too cold to go and freeze some more so he invited Dad VV to come with him) then we had Thanksgiving again. How blessed we are to have tons of family to have Thanksgiving with!
Sunday was a relaxing day and a day to put up more decorations. We needed this day to relax. Lily had two friends come over in the afternoon and Chris made some wonderful homemade Turkey soup for dinner.

Last night we had our holiday pictures taken. They turned out really good and we can't wait to send them out.

Our tree all set up and some of our decorations

 

 

Christmas Cards

Last night we went and had our Christmas Card pictures taken. Our cards are labeled, addressed, and ready to go in the mail. I am itching to send them out but think that it is a little too early so will wait a bit on these if I can.. I just really really want to send them out! Since we didn't order a disk, here is a glimpse of the pictures that I took with my own camera. There is a shine on there but that is from my flash and from taking a picture of it.

 

Elianna's birthday

We went out to Pedro's to celebrate a very good friend of mines daughter's birthday. She turned two. My friend Heidi has three girls, ages 6, 5, and 2. Our kids play really great together and we are so glad we could go out to eat to celebrate her youngest daughters birthday.

 

Happy Birthday Nolan!

OUR LITTLE MAN IS 3 YEARS OLD...... We can't believe it! We had Nolan's third birthday party at Chuck E Cheese this year.. That is all that he wanted for his birthday. Thank you to all of those who came out to celebrate this special day with him. He is such a fantastic, caring, and sweet little boy and I know it meant a lot to him to have you there.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TRICK OR TREAT...SMELL MY FEET.... OH WAIT.... TRICK OR TREAT

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PUMPKIN CARVING AT THE ERFURTH HOUSE

 

 

 

 

Nolan and the UPS man

If you haven't guessed it yet, Nolan was a UPS man for Halloween. His costume was a hit. He got compliments from everyone and some lady was following us around State Street trying to take pictures of Nolan because she said he was so cute ( and her friend is a UPS driver ) We also ran into the UPS driver on State Street.

 

 

 

Trick or Treating on State Street

My good friend Heidi and I took our kids trick or treating on State Street together. We had an absolute blast and so did the kids. They got loads of candy.

 

 

 

 

HALLOWEEN HOP

Although the kids are not allowed to celebrate Halloween at school anymore, because of various religions, which makes me so upset and is a whole other story, the Oregon public library and the communication education put on a Halloween Hop at one of the schools on Friday morning ( The kids had off of school in Wisconsin this past Thursday and Friday because of teacher convention) We invited Gavin, Jenna, and Mom VV to come with us. Then Mom VV took us out for lunch to McDonalds. The kids dressed in costumes, had a costume parade, made some crafts, listened to stories, jokes, and music. They seemed to have a great time together and Lily even saw and played with some little girls from her class.