Family Picture Miracles

A couple of weeks ago, we snuck in a quick photo shoot after church and before naptime. I have two fragile and dramatic little girls, so I knew that a "decent" picture would be a miracle. I think you will agree that we have several "miracle photos" below.

 

...a rare picture of the two of us. Confession - I actually cropped the kids out. Girls, we love you, but you were both goofing off. You get that from your daddy :)

 

 

...and neither wanted to look at the camera. The grandparents are often amused by my girls' antics; I am not:)

There were several more fun photos but blogger is not cooperating today. Perhaps I'll post more another day.

Halloween

I snapped a couple of pictures before bed! I have a cute ladybug and bumblebee fairy.

The girls enjoyed a day full of fun. We started the day at the library for story time, crafts, treats and a costume parade. We ended the day at church for trunk or treat and bounce house fun.

Abigail is now candy crazy! And Hannah still doesn't know what she is missing and was happy to eat her raisins. :)

Thanksgiving 2012

We spent two full days in Iowa for Thanksgiving. We saw both of my grandparents on Thursday morning. My grandma had been very ill and is now recovering, praise God! And grandpa is still holding on to life. Hannah enjoyed playing with grandmas wheelchair and Abigail enjoyed brushing grandmas hair.

My cousin graciously opened up her home for an evening feast and I was able to see almost the rest of my extended family. The girls enjoyed playing with their second cousin!

And on Friday, the girls swam in the hotel pool before heading over to see grandma and grandpa at their nursing homes before making the drive home.

It is wonderful being back in the Midwest, especially during the holidays.

end of harvest

Before our first frost, Rodney picked 5 five gallon buckets of green tomatoes and they have ripened quickly. We've been canning tomatoes every week for months. And now we finally are down to only one tray of tomatoes. I have to say, I'm a bit relieved. Harvest is wonderful, but the forced rest period of winter is something I don't think I've appreciated before! When spring arrives, I'm sure I'll be glad to plan our next garden. Until then, we have lots of tomato sauce, diced tomatoes and spaghetti sauce stored in our basement.

 

Next spring, Abigail will be an even bigger helper! She enjoyed helping wash the cherry tomatoes this year:)

 

Hannah is not much of a helper yet (no big surprise!). She actually gets into a lot of trouble; she's an adventurous one. I was literally out of the room for 5 minutes yesterday, helping Abigail do her hair before Bible Study. When I came back into the kitchen, I found Hannah sitting in the middle of the kitchen table, holding my salt and pepper shakers, and creating snow all over herself and the table. Oh dear, little one, we're hoping you'll be a better helper next spring too!