Sunday-Before-Christmas Extravaganza

The good thing about having 3 girls is that you usually only have to buy 1 new Christmas dress a year. And if you have a Costco anywhere near you, you just might find a cute one for pretty darn cheap! (They sell inexpensive Christmas sweaters for boys, too ;) ). We had a fun little photo session before church yesterday morning. It was rushed because church starts at 9 am, but with kids it is always easier if you get it over with quick-like.

It's hard to get a good shot of this girl, because she never stops moving!

sweet little angel :)

It's also really hard to get a good shot of all of the kids together with that 2 year old around...

But we'll take what we can get.

This is what happens when you are trying to get your oldest to smile naturally and you say, "Grace has a crush on Bennett!"

"Mmmmoooooommmm!"

hehehehe...

Here is the ornament Elliot made for me at school :)

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Hippie Day 2010

Today was hippie day at school for the kids. I usually forget these things like all good moms, but my Grace would NOT let me forget this time. So last night I was scrambling for some hippie-ish outfits for them. Here's what we came up with.

Ray didn't like the whole idea of hippie day and sighed loudly, in an I'm-so-annoyed kind of way, the whole time we were getting ready. I assured him that our kids would not turn in to hippies if they dressed up like them for one the day (he was raised by hippies and is a bit disenchanted with the whole idea :) ). Ray kept trying to talk Elliot in to wearing his suit and tie to school for hippie day (which I do think would've been funny) but Elliot wasn't having it!

Elliot made his peace necklace :)

And since Maggie can't stand to not have her picture taken when everyone else is, here you go!

Is it just me....

or is December completely CRAZY!! I feel like I haven't had time to do anything. My house is a disaster. Seriously. And it isn't over yet. 10 more days until Christmas. I think I'm almost ready. The kids get out of school for Christmas break on Friday and I want to be all ready by then so we can enjoy the break together and focus on what Christmas is really about.

Anyway, last weekend a local Seventh Day Adventist church by us held it's annual "Journey to Bethlehem" event. This is the first year we have gone and I'm so glad we did. It was a really neat experience. It is set up outside (it was freezing last weekend, the kids all wore their snow gear!).

Elliot waiting to go out

Elliot's bff Gabe

Our group met with a "cousin" who was leading us to Bethlehem to pay our taxes. People were dressed the part and acted the part. The Roman soldiers were really mean and scary (they all had huge swords, yikes!). Our cousin had to bribe them in order for us to get in to the city.

We went to a few inns to try and find a place to stay. No one had room for us. We walked through Bethlehem as the residents tried to sell us their wares. Finally we got the the area where we had to pay our taxes and got to listen to their big speech about how wonderful Caesar Augustus is and how lucky we are to be able to pay taxes to the Roman empire (gag ;) ).

As we were headed out of the city we passed the angels singing, giving us hope. Then we came to the manger where the baby Jesus had just been born. It was very authentic, complete with goats, donkeys, and a camel.

Her name is Camille :)

Maggie petting the camel

Merry Christmas! Hoping your December isn't too crazy!

Trimming the tree and such

We usually leave for Thanksgiving and I like to put up the Christmas tree for FHE the week we leave, so it is up when we get home. Because, really, if you wait until after your tree only gets to be up for 3ish weeks. That just doesn't work for me. Even though having the tree up is a SERIOUS lesson in patience because the kids are uncontrollably drawn to it like bees to honey, (Maggie and Naomi have already knocked it over). But I love it and I want it to be up for as long as appropriately possible!

We went to Cascade for Thanksgiving and I didn't take hardly any pictures. Mom, Dad, Leslie, and Alex were there. We had a great time. Alex and Leslie entertained our kids pretty much the whole time, it was great! We had a delicious, huge Thanksgiving dinner. It snowed almost the whole time we were there and the kids got to go sledding. In true VanderLouw style, Elliot had what can only be described as an asthma attack (he doesn't actually have asthma but it happens every once in while, we have a nebulizer that I forgot), but after a quick trip to the doctor for a breathing treatment and a little prednezone he was fine.

I did manage to get a few shots of the amazing scenery.

*sigh* I love that place.

We also have gotten tons of snow at home.

My cute gingerbread-looking-house in the beautiful snow :)

I truly do have so much to be thankful for.

Hope everyone had a wonderful thanksgiving!

Seasons

2 weeks ago I looked out my window and saw this

(couldn't help it...)

2 days ago, I saw this

Love this time of year :)