Decorating

After cutting down the tree (and a yummy lunch at Potbelly's), we went home to decorate! It was a lot of fun this year (more so than last year when I think I was too tired after recently having a baby). Bebe and I worked on a little table decoration (used up some cranberries that I had).

putting on the ornaments

Callie reunited with her reindeer.

our Jesse tree (more to come on that later)

the finished product

Minnesota Memories

Since this is likely our last year in Minnesota, I find myself beginning to get sentimental. I will probably be blogging a lot about our last winter in Minnesota. This year we had a great Thanksgiving. Charlie's parents joined us and we went to the home of the parents of one of our friends on staff with us. We have frequently gone to their home to celebrate the holidays when we've been unable to get back south. This year it was fun to have Papa and Bebe come along as well.

The weather was typical bizarre Minnesota! When I woke up Thanksgiving morning, it was a balmy 54 degrees. That was perfect for our race. Here's a shot of us turkey trotters right before the big (only 3.1 mile) race. This was my third year doing the Minneapolis turkey trot. It was a fun one to end on. It was one of those days where the high occurs first thing in the morning and the day gets colder and colder as a front moves in. Almost as if on cue when we sat down to eat thanksgiving dinner that evening, it started snowing.

We have our little family tradition of cutting down our Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving. This year did not disappoint! It was a lot of fun getting our tree in the snow. Made for a memorable time!

At this point, we're getting pretty cold!

We were surprised that they had free pony rides this year. We couldn't pass that up!

Warm Days

The past few days have been unseasonably warm, and we have been taking advantage of it! We've gone to the park a lot. Callie's been riding her trike. We've read books outdoors. We are soaking up what little warmth we have left (in fact the temp. is supposed to plummet tonight).

her pilgrim hat from her Thanksgiving feast at preschool (think Charlie Brown style feast with popcorn and candy)

They continue to be friends. I am so thankful.

Coleman turns 1

I can't believe it has been a year already! It truly does go faster the second time around. We celebrated Coleman's birthday a couple saturdays ago. It was a lot of fun. We invited all the staff with little boys (which is more than just one family now!). Also, despite the fact we didn't get any pictures with them, Gami and Papa Phil were in town. It was great that they were able to visit over Coleman's birthday weekend.

A picture of the spread. It was a sports ball theme.

Our best attempt at getting a picture with all the party goers. From left to right: baby Isaac, Josiah, baby Micah, Owen, Callie, birthday boy, Evey, Jackson/Grayson Knight. I can actually tell the twins apart pretty well but only when they don't have hats on.

Halloween

I feel like I am trying to play catch up with the blog. We have a ton of pictures from Coleman's birthday but wanted to get these up first. These pictures are kinda struggling. There's something wrong with every one of them (blurry, dark, red eye, etc.) But, bad pics and all, we wanted to remember what we did on Halloween and how the kids were dressed. Callie dressed up like "Fancy Nancy", a book character. Coleman was Whinnie the Pooh. We went trick or treating with the Reagan, Poteats, and Lonergans. It was a lot of fun!

Fall Program

Callie had her first little "program" with her preschool last week. Charlie and I were so excited to see her singing with her friends. Here she is on the front row waving. The whole first row are kids from her class.

Our little pumpkin!

with her teacher, Mrs. Nelson
Here is a video that has parts of most of the songs she sang. For the casual blog viewer, this will probably be a little boring. But we suspect that family members will love it.