{family additions}

we have some new additions to our family.  and the best part is...no shedding, no sneezing, no walks around the block.  these hermit crabs may be the perfect pet! 

miles learned the hard way though that kissing your crab is not the wisest.  i ran up the stair to my screaming son to find "fire claw" hanging from his bottom lip.  i guess his name suits him...ha!

the only downside may be that the kids keep telling people, "guess what...we got crabs!"  nope...that's not embarrasing at all in the checkout line.

{baby smitten}

we can hardly get enough of baby lana.

aiden cried when she had to give her back.  smitten i say...totally smitten.

{our father}

for your viewing enjoyment. 

i may be a bit biased, but he melts my heart everytime i hear it!

{what would have been Christmas pics}

i haven't seen Christmas cards in years.  i absolutely love to get them from friends and family and see pics and read what eveyone is up to.  a few years ago, i just couldn't pull them off.  three little ones and the time and money investement seemed overwhelming.  i instead justified not sending them so that we could give the money we would have spent on cards and postage to advent conspiracy.  and you know what...i never regretted it!

i do, however, love the opportunity the holidays brings to take a new family picture.  most days time feels so fleeting and the kids are growing so very fast.  i don't ever want to forget what our family was like at this stage. 

here are some our sweet friend kate took for us this fall.  i held off sharing because i wanted them to be a surprise for family who got prints with their Christmas gifts.

i know they appear to be hugging but i am pretty sure they were about to engage in a wrestling match.

this one makes me laugh out loud everytime i see it.  seriously...what is happening here?
 (if i had a nickel for everytime i asked myself that question!)

playing his guitar sweater.  not sure this kid could love music more if he tried.

thanks kate for capturing my family so well.  the kids were crazies and i wasn't an easy job, that's for sure!

(btw...i tried Mpix for my photo printing this year and was really impressed.  didn't love the shipping costs, but the print prices were very reasonable and the quality and color were fantastic.  i would totally recommed them!)

{family pics...some outtakes}

our dear friend kate took pictures of the kids recently...no easy task. 

here are some outtakes.  not exactly frame worthy, but make me laugh out loud for sure!

 

kids wrestling, laughing, not cooperating, making silly faces...generally not interested in picture taking.  (although miles does seem to be posing like a champ in that last photo!)  this is our life.  and while i do wish we had a model perfect family photo, these tell the story of our family so perfectly.  this is real life...ours anyway.  these kids crack me up and bring me unbelievable joy and i am thankful for them (and their crazy antics!)

{october & november MIA}

fall was a complete blur.  there was so much going on around here, i'm not even sure where to start.

#1- i got to take a photography class with the amazing wendy from bluelily.  i have been wanting to take a class since we got our dslr when miles was born.  it was crazy...a group of ladies were supposed to take the class cancelled the day before and so i got wendy all to myself for two hours!  i still have SO much practicing to do, but feel alot more comfortable shooting in something other than auto.  big accomplishment! 

#2- i got this crazy idea i should turn the upstairs dumping ground office into a guest room.  our neighbor steve moved and gave us a double bed which should fit nice in there.  mike went to a conference in il and took owen with him to visit the grandparents and his new cousin asher.  the kids and i ripped out nasty hot pink shag carpet and started painting the wood paneling.  (and we haven't made much progress since.)

#3- we went apple picking quite a few times at our fav orchard.  i can't say enough about those cider donuts!

#4- REUNION launched another location!  we planted a second site in somerville oct 23rd.  this has been a dream of ours to be a multi-site church since before we moved to boston.  it was truly amazing to see it come to fruition...total God-thing!  it was alot of work for sure and the team was pretty tired once we came off the high of the first sunday.  we dubbed that exhaustion that followed, the "somerville hangover".

woody insisted on wearing rain boots.  And we have pocahontas and a transformer.

#5- halloween.  we went trick-or-treating in the neighborhood with our friends lucca and levi.  good times and yummy candy!

this leaf had a heart-shaped hole.  see it?!

 

#6- gorgeous fall color.  seriously, you cannot beat new england in the fall.  breathtaking!

#7- thanksgiving feast and plays for aiden and miles.   lots of fun stuff happening at school.  aiden was asked the day before to step in and take the lead in a play she wasn't supposed to be in because "squanto" had to go out of town.  may be a first...a female squanto.  and she wore her great grandma's apron for her role as a pilgrim mama in play #2.

 #8- LOTS of writing on my part for life after sunday.  you can check it out here.

i think i may be caught up.  so is that good or bad that i can boil two monthes down to 8 bullet points???

{cider hill}

one of our favorite places to visit as a family is cider hill farm.  they have all kinds of things to pick; apples, blueberries, peaches, raspberries, and i can't even remember what else. chickens to feed, tire swings made into "horses", pumpkins, a hay maze and the ever popular apple cider donuts.

cousin chris & amy were visiting from wisconsin and we loved showing them one of our favorite hangouts.



cute picture, right?!

then we take a stab at a family picture. 

in usual form, we don't get a keeper.

all smiles until a bee swarms aiden...

followed by much screaming and hiding behing her bag.  owen seems to think holding his breath will help.

aiden is completely freaked and owen is still holding said breath

how is it possible that this is the best shot?  this always seems to happen to us. someone teach me photoshop so i can replace the faces on mike and miles.  (although miles does kind of crack me up.)

we miss you chris & amy!  please come visit again soon.  xo