Christmas Tree Cutting

For the past several years we've bought a real tree to display our Christmas cards and to put all of our handmade ornaments on.  Well, we've always wanted to go cut down our own tree and there just isn't a place nearby that you can cut a frasier fir.  So we drove to North Carolina and were able to pick and cut down our own.  You can call it cheating if you want, but we let the guys that work there use the saw to cut down the one we chose...it didn't change the experience!  When we first got there we had a picnic lunch and it was quite cool in the shade, but when we headed up the hill to pick a tree it was much warmer in the sun.  It was an absolutely beautiful day and a wonderful family trip!  I can't wait to do it again next year!

 The scenery surrounding the tree farm was beautiful!!

 There was obviously a wedding this day or either they leave this sign up for weddings, but we had a little fun with it!

When we got home, our elf had come for the Christmas season with a gift of Christmas pajamas!  Let the fun begin!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving!  We have so much to be thankful for this year!  We will be making a list of all the things we're thankful for and putting them on a tree in our house this year.  I can't wait to do this and to make it a yearly tradition!  I'm very thankful for a wonderful husband and these two beautiful kids that were pretty cooperative for me to take some pictures of them before we had our Thanksgiving meal!

Caught in the Act

Garner got caught stealing chips out of the bag.  Well, when mommy moves the bags, he just climbs on the table completely to get to them.  I guess he was too hungry to wait a few more minutes.  :)

A Little Horse Riding

Horse riding was the fun activity of the morning!  Garner and his horse had to stop and admire the Christmas tree!

Tis the Season to Decorate

I love having the house decorated before Thanksgiving.  Partially because that's what we always did growing up and because I want to get everything decorated before Raleigh's birthday.  Garner and I started working on getting the tree up and fluffed while Raleigh was at school.  Then later that night we worked on decorating the tree.  We have lots of ball ornaments at the bottom of the tree and all in one spot.  They may or may not get moved later.  I love how excited Raleigh gets now to decorate and she's getting really good at putting things in various spots.  Garner...well, we still need to work a little more!  Thankful for my little family to help me decorate!

Kindergarten Thanksgiving Feast

Raleigh had a little Thanksgiving program with all of Kindergarten before having their feast.  They sang several cute songs and she even had a small speaking part.  After they sang we all headed to the cafeteria for a Thanksgiving Feast.  Garner even enjoyed some of the popcorn!  After we got everything cleaned up we were able to head out and get ready to enjoy our week at home for Thanksgiving!!

 Raleigh with her friend Tori