Family Photos

We (usually) update our family photo every Christmas, and I thought I'd put them all together in a progression.

2005

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

Children's Christmas Breakfast

Every year my employer hosts a Christmas breakfast for employees and their children.  Santa visits and the kids get presents, cookies, and a picture with St. Nick.  For the first time ever, all of my kids happily posed with Santa, a feat unlikely to be repeated for another couple of years.  Have I mentioned that we are expecting twins?

Although the picture above is a better posed shot, I love the shared smile below between Isaac and Santa.

Happy birthday Abigail!

Seven years ago we started our family when Abigail Irene was born.  Happy birthday Abbey!

She received generous cash gifts from her grandparents and from several other friends, so on the 21st I took her to Toys R Us (it only occurred to me after I'd already promised that Toys R Us on the Sunday before Christmas was a bad idea!).  She chose two dolls and a hobby horse---and we advised a nice set of grandparents on Disney princesses for their granddaughter.

Christmas Time

Christmas is our traditional family-photo time.  We never did update our family photo from last year...

Fall 2014 Ballet Recital

Abbey has been working very hard all fall on her ballet practice.  Today she and her friends put on a show for their parents.  I was really impressed: they all did a great job!

 

Spring 2014 Ballet Recital

Abbey does ballet once a week with some other homeschooling girls, with a recital for parents at the end of the semester.  I love how hard she is concentrating!

Happy Halloween!

We let the children dress up this year for Halloween, for a community event.  Abbey was a fairy princess, Ethan a knight, and Isaac a lion (complete with realistic roar!).

Abbey was very proud of her fairy wings.

Summer fun!

Abbey and her friend being silly.  That's a firetruck, not a wagon.  And a robe tie, not a rope.  And it was 80 degrees, but Abbey is wearing a stocking cap and scarf!

Winter is coming, so everyone got new pajamas!

They were doing an experiment, if I remember correctly.

Indian summer

We've had some gorgeous fall weather this year, including one day of Indian summer.

2014 County Fair

Usually we go to the fair long before the last day, but this year that was the only day.  But it was a gorgeous, warm fall day for animal-gazing, people-watching, and fair ride-riding.

 Petting an obliging calf, courtesy of an even more obliging farmer.

 

Another kind farmer had a wooden calf, just the right size for riding.

 Ethan was very brave and went down the giant slide by himself, since I had to go down with Isaac.  

Climbing dunes and camping

One of my favorite evenings was watching the sunset from the top of a giant dune.

There was a weird tree at the bottom of the dune, a huge pile of exposed roots.  Ethan climbed it and then posed for a picture with me.

Abigail toasting her toes at the fire on hot dog night.

Pictures from the children's museum in Benton Harbor

                           This was a little pretend veterinary clinic that the kids really liked.

                                             Isaac is going down the big volcano slide.

                                                I'm bringing my sick animals to the vet.

This is a pretend grocery store and apple orchard.  I'm buying some pie and frozen pizza.