Happy Halloween from the cast of Frozen:

Elsa…

Anna (and Olaf)…

And Sven…Hope your day was full of treats!

I’m not terribly good about blogging on a schedule, you all know this by now, but one holiday that I’ve managed to mark for several years in a row now is Valentine’s Day. In fact, I’ve posted something on V-Day four of the five years my blog has been in existence, which is probably better than I’ve done on any other holiday.

So to keep my hot streak going, happy hearts day from three little valentines…Rest assured, no babies were harmed in the making of this valentine…    XOXOXO,

Alethea, Lydia & Caleb

PS. You can check out Valentine’s Day posts from previous years here: 2010, 2012, 2013 & 2014

So many things to be thankful for on this Thanksgiving Day 2014. For friends, family, good food, a warm home on a cold day. For the love of God and His Son Jesus.

And if course, for these three little blessings:

Hope your Thanksgiving was full of blessings too!

It’s late and I really should get to bed, but I had to post a few Halloween pictures for you all.

Here’s my crew. Lydia the dalmatian, Alethea a.k.a. Angelina Ballerina, and Caleb who rather reluctantly went trick or treating as a penguin.

If you’re a long time reader, you may recall that this was Alethea’s first Halloween costume as well. I thought Caleb made an absolutely adorable penguin, but the only part of the process he seemed happy about was taking it off.

Lydia seemed to enjoy being a dalmatian, although I’m afraid we made the black spots too big, since she got mistaken as a cow several times. Look at the hat people! And although her costume has been a source of angst in our house for some time, Alethea’s Angelina outfit came together in the end and I think she was pleased with it, although she did come home part way through trick or treating to exchange the ears for a warm hat.

And of course, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the pumpkins. Once again, we had a carving party a few days before Halloween and Gramma Denny, Grandma Debbie and I whipped up these beauties…

From left to right: Alethea’s requested Angelina Ballerina pumpkin (yes, she coordinated her costume and pumpkin just like two years ago), Lydia’s Elsa pumpkin (or as the girls called it, the “Let it Go” pumpkin), and a sweet and simple teddy bear pumpkin for Caleb. (And no, unlike last year, there was no surprise pumpkin to carve.)

With costumes on and pumpkins carved, there was nothing left but to hit up the neighbors for candy. Caleb wasn’t out long, but the girls both came home with quite a haul considering they only did two short streets. Their favorite part of the evening wasn’t even the candy though. It was the large inflatable plastic skeletons one house was passing out. Go figure…

So that was Halloween 2014. We hope you had a good one too!

We spent most of the 4th of July holiday weekend visiting my grandparents in Iowa. This isn’t going to be a long post, because it’s late and I should go to bed, but I wanted to get some pictures up before it’s long past the event.

Can you believe that I actually managed to be organized enough to pack red, white and blue outfits for the kids and no one managed to soil their clothes before we sat everyone on the front steps to snap a few pictures? It was a 4th of July miracle!

Ignore my arms in the next photo. The girls decided it was too hard to hold Caleb and wave flags at the same time.

We spent a large portion of the 4th at the pool. The girls thought it was great, although they were actually a bit cold when they had to get out of the water since it was pretty windy. I thought it was perfect though since I was wearing Caleb in his baby carrier. I’ve never been much of a baby wearer, but I really enjoyed the fact that I could keep Caleb close to me and still walk around a play photographer at the same time. Maybe I’ll become a baby carrier convert yet.

We let the kids stay up late to go sit in a field next to the fairgrounds and watch the fireworks. Everyone enjoyed them. Even Caleb thought they were intriguing. We thought he might cry when they started, but he just looked and looked, right up until the end when they shot off a bunch at once and then he decided it was too loud for his liking, so we covered his ears for him.

And of course, the best part of the trip was getting to spend time visiting with Grandma Ruth and Grandpa Jim, and eating all of the delicious food Grandma cooked up for us. The girls were especially pleased to be served dessert with every meal. I should have taken a picture of the homemade strawberry ice cream and star shaped sugar cookies, but alas, I was too excited to taste it to bother finding my camera, so you’ll just have to imagine. Yum!

I did get a picture of the kids with their great grandparents though, which is really more important.

Thanks again for a great time, Grandma and Grandpa! The girls are already talking about everything they want to do “next time” in Iowa.

Hope everyone else had a great weekend too!