Christmas Tree Lighting

The day after Thanksgiving- after I scored some awesome deals at Black Friday sales- we took the kids over to Lafayette Village for the annual Christmas Tree lighting.  I didn't get a lot of pictures but a I did get a few.  We've been going to the lighting for the past few years and it's a really nice way to kick off the Christmas season and start to get yourself in the spirit of the season.  The kids love getting to run around with other kids under the Christmas lights and then they get to see Santa when he arrives via firetruck.  It's just a wonderful family friendly event!

Thanksgiving 2011

We have so very much to be thankful for this year, and every year.  We have been blessed with wonderful family and friends and we've added two of the most wonderful little people to our family in the past few weeks.  Needless to say, our Thanksgiving was a wonderful one filled with many blessings and good things, as well as family and delicious food!!

Turkey Feast

This past Wednesday grandma and I took Carrington and Madelyn to see their big sister perform in her school's Thanksgiving feast!  Addison was a pilgrim and sang fabulous songs about Thanksgiving and God and Pilgrims- it was so cute and she did AWESOME!

Christmas Card 2011

Well, it's the day after Thanksgiving and I got almost all of my Christmas shopping done last night and then came home and addressed all of our Christmas cards, stamped them and put them in the mail!  I can't believe it but they are on their way before December has even hit!!

Because they are in the mail and on the way, I thought I'd share some of the pictures from our photo shoot.  We were thinking about going down the shore to do the pictures on the beach where we go each summer but I wasn't really up for the drive with all of the kids.  So, after we did a little house hunting one Saturday my mom and I took the kids to a local lake and we were able to get some really great pictures that combined the beach and the fall trees!  I'm so glad that my dad had the idea and my mom gave me that extra nudge to do it!

Here are some of the shots I was able to get!

Cradle

All of the kids on my dad's side of the family- including me and my cousins- were lucky enough to sleep in an heirloom cradle that had been in our family since my dad was younger.  Both Nicholas and Addison slept in the cradle and we had to wait a bit before we had the twins in it for size reasons (their heads were so small that they would have gotten stuck in the slats) but now we've been able to have them nap in it during the day.  The girls sleep sitting up at night because of some possible reflux issues but during the day we have them nap in the cradle and it's so special to be able to say and know that they are sleeping in the same place that so many of their relatives slept in before them!