So......huh.

I've been thinking about blogging for weeks. And the longer it takes me to get around to it, the more I put it off because the task seems so much BIGer. At the moment, though, it seems I might just start posting some photos and playing some catch-up. I have a lot of photos I never posted because I'm still meandering through iPhoto, and still haven't attempted to learn how to use it yet. But I've got some fun photos, so for the 2? 3? of you who still pop in occasionally to read this sorry blog, here is your update :)

I'm gonna go waaaay back here....

Mike's 34th birthday. Hawkeye cake.

I am excited that we finally started a new family tradition this year, which is something I've been wanting to do for a long time now. This was our first year of making a Family Tree of Gratitude. Mike's birthday is on the 15th of November, so beginning the evening of his birthday we start hanging leaves on our "tree" every night all the way up to Thanksgiving. We have each family member pick a leaf, and write on it one thing we appreciate or enjoy about one other family member. The nice thought is kept a secret (except for the parent who hears the thought and writes it down for him who is too young to write). This gives us about 10 days/thoughts of thankfulness and appreciation to share and "hang" until Thanksgiving, so that's a cute little tree of 50 leaves. Then the evening of Thanksgiving, we took each leaf off and read them aloud for everyone to hear. It was super cute to see their little smiles of shyness when they heard things like, "I really like it when daddy watches me in my gymnastics class," and "I love it when Benji shares his trucks with me." It was my favorite part of the holidays this year, period, which is why I chose a photo of us and our Tree of Gratitude for our holiday cards :)






Benji and Jack's preschool holiday concerts




One more photo with Santa after driving through the Jolly Holiday Lights display. This time Gavin wasn't too scared to sit by him.