tree hunting, cake eating, decorating, oh my!

The new year is here and what am I doing...rewinding to some of the things I've been wanting to post. Oh well. This is mostly to recap the last part of our year. We've been beyond busy around here. Yet at the same time it feels like we're not getting anything done. Strange feeling really. And hard to explain...

Somehow we were able to get our Christmas tree fairly early this year last year. Granted, it stood on the deck through a huge snow storm. Then was on the floor of the entry way for awhile. And thennnnn it made it to the house. But... we hunted it down earlier this time :)

Rowdy

the crew

Austyn's new smile...

killer smile

what else are big brothers for?

Drew turned 2 December 10. She was such a ham for her birthday. Turns out she loves the attention. ;) She needed a new wardrobe for her birthday because her hand-me-downs from the other girls were way outdated. Every time she opened a gift... "clothes! clothes!" thinking back... it would have been adorable to get that on video. Oh well, here she is attempting to blow out candles. Ham!

And then there was decorating of the Christmas tree. Every year I have this image in my head of our large family sitting down quietly with hot cocoas and everyone decorating the tree which turns into this immaculate masterpiece...what really happens? a massive amount of chaos. Period. And now that it's over, I wouldn't change a thing. The kids love decorating the tree and I could care less what it looks like. I gave up caring a long time ago about the ornaments sacrificed in the process. There were a few more casualties this year and most likely next year will be the last year we have any glass bulbs. We're down to about 3 or 4 left. :)

all I wanted was a photo with the Santa hat... she wanted none of it!

Hoping everyone had a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!