Snow, glorious snow!

Snow girl, just like her mama

Great shoveler; no desire to make snowman

Putting finishing touches on snowman Bob

Learning to make snow angels

Growing up

Santa brought Leo a fish--named Bob after his formerly imaginary pet fish.

And, Molly, now that she's fully potty-trained, has said goodbye to her changing pad and hello to her big-girl dresser with all of her hair pretties and such.

Christmas with Granddad

Steve came to visit this weekend, so we took the opportunity to exchange gifts with him and open all of the ones that we weren't going to be bringing with us to FL next week.

So far a very Lego Christmas

Molly over the moon with her dress-up dress and her doll stroller 

Working on Legos already

Molly took repeated advantage of an extra reader in the house 

She's ready to go to the grocery store, Target, and the grocery store (her pretend itinerary)

Holiday program

Molly was so tired by the time they got to her class (they were last), that she rubbed her eyes the whole time.

Movies

The great hooding

And then the walrus said...

Most children just wear bibs

Little purple riding hood

St. Nick's and Putting up the Tree

St. Nicks + stocking stuffers from Memaw

Nice try Molly--St. Nicks breakfast

Can I have one now?

Is the peppermint shortbread ready yet?

Tree+ stockings

Decorations, including Santa countdown placemat

A day in the park

This is what happens when we get unseasonably warm weather in December--trips to the park without coats!

Yes, she's singing about loving oatmeal.

How is it almost December?

Elf near the shelf

Being good siblings

Thanksgiving

Playing Dungeon

Chalk drawing

Helping Uncle Alex light the candles on Thanksgiving 

Looking at model trains with Grandad and Sam

Going down the slide at Science Central

Water play is always fun

Making some tunes

Exhausted from the fun visit

Halloween

Carving the pumpkin

Now that we are cozily drinking hot chocolate and watching It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown, as per our post-trick-or-treating tradition, I can share pictures of our Halloween.

Ninja,  James Bond,  Cow

Our bat pumpkin 

The gang--Dougans, Gentrys, Allisons

Two trick-or-treaters=lots of candy

Seven.

Knight's shield cupcakes

Take one at a castle cake. Uh, no.

A girl enjoying cake.

His own binoculars--a big hit!

Molly's a bit worn out from the festivities. 

Pleased with the final result--a castle, dragon, flags.

More coming soon.

Family-full weekend

This is the first full weekend I've been home in a month. Hence there was a lot to do! Yesterday was swim lessons, some alteration projects, yardwork, grocery shopping, and no nap for Molly. Yesterday and today was lots of Legoing for Leo--he decided he wanted to sort his Legos by color, which took us a very long time to do, and then Molly dumped out several of the containers as we were working. Might be a good idea in theory only.

Today was homemade gingerbread scones for breakfast and the pumpkin patch (which was a zoo!)--including apple cider donuts, the corn maze for L and J, a bouncy slide trip for L (M tried but she couldn't quite do the climbing necessary), and of course picking pumpkins. Molly really wanted to ride a pony, but she'll have to wait until next time. I wish I had gotten some mums like I usually do, since I love them so much, but we had let the kids each buy a small stuffed animal and I thought I should probably save the money. I much prefer the farm we went to for pumpkins last year--it just has pumpkins and is much calmer and more enjoyable, but we heard they had already sold out for the year. The afternoon was some beading time for me, lawn mowing for J, fence-climbing for L, and no napping for M.

Sliding at the pumpkin patch

I have no idea why she made this face

Driving the tractor

Our pumpkins

Someone else's pumpkins, but the stems were impressive