December, it's flying by!

I can hardly believe we're only 12 days until Christmas!  The weekend after Thanksgiving we headed up towards Mt. Baker, stopped at the Ranger Station and got a permit to chop down our own tree.  It was a rainy morning but we hiked around the hillside and found "the perfect" tree.

Had to stop at Grahams for hot chocolate to warm up!
Mia and her Willow Tree ornament collection (thanks to Grandma R)
For her birthday, Holly wanted her ears pierced! She did great!  (Thanks, Karla!)
Were occasionally finding little notes like this left on our bed at night! :)  So subtle.
Mia had her first orchestra concert.  She's hiding somewhere back there in a green sweater.  They played during a 5th grade chapel.  They did so great! 
Holly and Mia also had a piano recital last week.
And today we had our church Christmas program.  It was one of my favorites, I think!  They all sang so well, Holly played the roll of angel perfectly and Lucas, Tyler and Joey said their lines just great!  When we left church it was snowing!
December is off to a great start!  We look forward to what the rest of the month holds as we anticipate celebrating 4 more birthdays, Lucas, Tyler, Joey's and Baby Jesus'!

Belated Thanksgiving and Birthday Post

Thanksgiving this year was full of things to be thankful for.  One of them being HOLLY!  She turned 8 on Thanksgiving day so we packed in a party and thanksgiving festivities all in one day.
Like sister, like sister (click HERE for a little reminder if you don't remember)
This is right after Lucas said he's thankful for "Grammy and Granpy"
And this is Dave giving a shout out to Mom and Dad!
Holly's wooden shoe slippers thanks to Uncle Dave.
These kinds of things happen after a long day together.  
One of our crafts in production.
And finally about 5:00 I think we had some cake!

Just a camping kind of day

Holly's birthday is fast approaching so on Saturday we had the girls from her class over for a little birthday party, camping style.  The best part about this camping themed birthday party is it was entirely thought up and planned by Mia and Holly.  I just was put to work on the details.  :)
Every good campground has a registration desk, a camp ranger and a list of the daily activities, right?
After the girls arrived, we had a scavenger hunt and at every stop they found a little piece of camping gear (thanks to Oriental Trading Co.)

Then it was "pin the clothes on the clothesline". 
Presents!

And beading!  If you want to keep a bunch of kiddos occupied for a length of time get some of these wonderful melting beads (from JoAnn's or Michael's).  I think they sat at the table and did this for over an hour!

Finally, some cake! Which they really didn't need since they had s'more with their lunch but they ate it anyways.

What a fun bunch of girls! We are so thankful for each of them.

Auction for Olive is open for bidding!

If you need to do some Christmas shopping or just want to help out a great family head over to Auction for Olive this week to bid on some awesome items.  I am overwhelmed by what God has done with this so far and anxious to see where it goes!   Little Olive continues to be a little fighter!  Check out their blog, http://rustylynette.blogspot.com/ for the latest on how she and her mom and dad are doing.

A couple of my FAVORITE items ups for bid are HERE and HERE!

Go check it out!

So what have we been up to you ask?

I'm getting really good at forgetting to update our blog until this little voice know as Mia repeatedly whispers in my ear that it's been awhile since I last updated it. So as I'm doing this she is looking over my shoulder until I hit "publish post".

There's been a lot of violin and piano practice in our house this fall. So far so good! We can usually figure out what songs they're trying to play which is always a good sign!

Mia got her first round of braces off about 10 days ago. She's now wearing a retainer until she's ready for the full set. Good thing we like Dr. Trevor because we'll be seeing a LOT of him in the next several years!

Eric's Dad turned 70 a couple weeks ago so last weekend we headed to Great Wolf Lodge for a night. The hotel was fun and the water park was great. Never lacking for anything to do!

After a couple hours of sliding the kids got on their costumes and went on the "Trick-or-Treat Trail". This years costumes were dug out of the dress up bin. Lots of choices, thanks mostly goes to Grandma R. for that! If you can't tell Holly's a dutch girl :), Joey is a soccer player (good costume, I know!), Lucas a cowboy and I think Tyler was a football player (he was cold and threw on a sweatshirt). Mia went in her pajamas.

Ava was an adorable electric Zebra! (not really electric, it just glowed in the arcade)

Almost made it!

Lending a hand

Many of you know of our friends, Rusty and Lynette, who are misisonaries over in Thailand. But those of you who do not know them or their story can read about if over on their blog, http://rustylynette.blogspot.com/. They've got quite a story and it isn't finished yet. One tangible way we are wanting to help is by reducing some of their medical bills which are quickly accumulating. If you are interested in helping as well head over to http://auctionforolive.blogspot.com/ and find out how!