Oh Christmas tree OhChristmas tree

Today we went and cut down a beautiful Christmas tree. We thought it would be fun to start a new family tradition. We went to a place called Dixie Valley north of our house by Lake Frenchman. It had snowed the night before and it made for a lovely drive. We normally go up there in the summer to spend time at the lake. The snow made for a whole new look at a familiar place.

We had planned to take our annual family photo before tree cutting...but that proved to be a bad idea. =) We dressed more for the family photo than we did for warmth. And needless to say we were a bit cold. So after hiking a little ways we found the perfect tree cut it down, posed for a few pics with the tree and heading back to the truck to get warm. Then home to decorate.

Our house smells wonderful with pine scent and the tree turned out neat. It is pretty funny though having had fake trees for so many years with what seem to be perfect branches. And now having a natural tree with branches scattered about. So decorating was a bit harder because you could not always put an ornament where you thought it should go because there was no branch. =) All in all we decided to be happy for the imperfections.

Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving at my Aunt Teresa and Uncle Alan's house with my dad's side of the family. We made a lot of fun memories.

Ashten Turns 3

Here are a few pictures of Ashten's third birthday!!!! We had a wonderful day and time. We had Meemaw, Boppa and the Holdens over to celebrate his special day. :) And on the Thursday before his b-day we went to Jump man Jump and big warehouse space filled with bouncy houses.

New Basketball Outfit

Our friends from church gave Ashten a basketball outfit that their boys had outgrown. Ashten loved it and put it on and got his basketball out and started playing around the house. :) Just like his daddy!!!

Snowy Day

Trying to catch a snow flake!!!

The snow was a great change to the hot weather....at least for us. We got to build our first fire of the season and enjoy watching the snow and a relaxing evening watching a movie.

Ashten was napping and Gracie went to build a mini snow man. :D

Ashten's room all put together

All the finishing touches got done on the room this weekend. Here are a few pics of how it turned out.

Psaml 19:1

1 The heavens declare the glory of God; And the firmament shows His handiwork.

The kids noticed this beautiful sunset and we all ran out to admire God's handiwork.

Ashten's room finally gets painted

Well it has only been 4 or 5 months in the making. hahahahaha We have had the paint but have not had the time to get it done. I went away for a few days for our ladies retreat with our church and Keller got Ashten's room all painted. He did such a great job. It looks even better in person. We really wanted a racing stripe and in the red circle we are going to paint the number 05 in white. I will add more when we get all the pictures and decorations up.

JUMP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Fun times jumping on the trampoline........it is a great way to exercise and get some energy out!!! We all enjoy it. Plus I love Ashten's outfit!!! He just recieved cars swim trunks so he had to put those on with his button up shirt. =)

Great Grandma 'Nez

My mom brought my Grandma Inez over for dinner a few Sunday's ago......we had a great time visiting and playing. The kids all call her "Great Grandma 'Nez".

New book shelfs to us!!!

Keller's parents gave us his Grandma Jeanie's old bookshelfs. We love them we are able to display some collectables and all of our favorite books. We love that they have been passed down to us and that they add some character to the house. As my friend Mandi said it makes us look all grown up in our house. :) Well in the house anyway we are all grown up.hahahahahaha

Homeschool =)

This is our school room. It is part of what we call the Family room.
We also have a nice comfy reading chair and fire place in front of the school area.

Ashten Reading his book before his nap.

Gracie at her home school desk

We started home school co-op today!!!! What fun Ashten had his first pre school class and Gracie started in Young Rembrants and Childrens Languages. Ashten learned all about the rain forest. And Gracie learned some Korean and did a neat drawing of a tree house.

Misc Pictures from the summer

I did a lot of babysitting this summer. It was a lot of fun and the kids loved it because it was their cousins most of the time. =)

The other pics are just some cute ones of the kids and just having a good time.

Jessica and David's wedding 08-30-08

This was a beautiful wedding and it was David and Jessica to a tee. Gracie of course was so excited about being a part of her Jessica's special day. And Gracie sure did try to steal the show. =) Jessica was a gorgeous bride. She looked like she was out of a magazine. They had it at the Art museum and it was a evening wedding on the roof and a swanky reception on the first floor.

My friend Mandi who bakes wonderfully was asked to make the cake. I was able to help decorate along with our friend Shana who saved the day because she knew how to work with fondant. The cake and cupcakes turned out awesome.

Way to long

Wow!!!! Where have we been????? Sorry it has taken us soooooo long to update the blog. It has been a busy and fun summer. We have done a little bit of traveling but mostly just enjoying summer activities here in Reno.

Gracie started home school 1st grade two weeks ago. She is reading, writing and starting adding. She has also been working on lots of art projects. Ashy is learning shapes colors and his abc's. Both kids start co-op on Wednesday and they are very excited.

We bought the kids a huge trampoline on Craigs list. And we all love jumping and flipping and sometimes just taking a nice nap. It is the perfect hammock.

Gracie was in 2 weddings this summer and Ashten was in one of those as well. It was so fun to be a part of our friends very special day.

I will try to be much better about posting here in the next few weeks and months ahead. Just don't get much computer time with home school and keeping up the house. :)

RED WHITE AND BLUE

Happy 4th of July to everyone!!!!! Just wanted to share some pictures from our family camping trip. It was our first time camping since Gracie was 5 months old....and the first trip in the marsh mellow camper. =)

We went to Eagle Lake north of Reno by Susanville, CA. With all the smoke in Reno it was nice to have some fresh air and enjoy nature.

I asked Gracie before we left what she thought camping was. She said "bears and darkness" and I am happy to report that there were no bears and the only darkness was around the campfire where we enjoyed organic smores. :) Yummo!!!!

Hope you all had a wonderful 4th!!!

Redwood and Beach pictures