Christmas Tree Decorating Day

We decorated the Christmas tree today, and Dyl thought it was so much fun! She carried all the less fragile ornaments over to the tree and helped pick out spots to hang them. :)

"Mermaid." Pointing at her ornament from our trip to the beach this summer.

This is what happens if I ask her to smile, lol.

Making Lemon Ginger Scones

"Mixa, mixa, mixa!" she chants, in the words of Daniel Tiger. (Definitely her favorite show!)

"This is so much fun!"

Momma's big girl - she wants to be part of everything these days. :)

Thank you for the delicious recipe, Judy! We love it! 

A Snowy Saturday

It started snowing here around 4 o'clock yesterday, and kept snowing until about 1 am. We woke up to quite the gorgeous winter wonderland this morning, and decided to squeeze in a quick round of sledding since Dylly loved it so much last year. She wasn't feeling the greatest, but she still had a lot of fun! Every time they got to the bottom of the hill she would immediately say "More, Daddy!" :)

This pregnant Momma is jealous of all the sledding fun! Such a cute sledding companion! :)

Love these two SO much!

This one makes me think of Narnia, because of the lamp post. 

Daddy almost had Dylly convinced to try making a snow angel, but then she decided lying down in the snow was a terrible idea, lol.

"Hmm... a snowball. What do you do with this?"

"I wonder if you're supposed to eat it..."

"Ice cream!" (Her words, truly!)

"Mommy, bite it!"

"Daddy, bite it!"

Learning how to make snowballs with Daddy. She liked to turn the snowballs into snow pancakes.

My little snow bunny.

We love the weekends & having Daddy home! 

Snow gear might be hard to walk in, but it sure is cute.

Winter is much more fun with snow than with rain!

Learning how to shake the branches to make it 'snow'. 

A Rainy December Day

Playing with her klip-klop horses. 

Posing in front of our Christmas tree we're going to decorate this weekend!

Modeling her 'Grump Face'. She's pretty good at it! ;)

Practicing her jumping skills! She started gymnastics class this past Tuesday, it was so much fun!

Long Legs McGee.

Snuggling Baby Madeline, watching PBS, & mouth-breathing on this rainy day. Poor cricket was diagnosed with a Sinus infection today - she picked it up somewhere along our travels in WI & she just hasn't gotten better, so we went to the doctor today. No fever so far though, so we're going to try to wait it out since antibiotics really aren't her cup of tea. But we have a script in case she gets worse over the weekend. Here's hoping lots of rest & a nice weekend will make this whole family healthy again!

Thanksgiving in Wisconsin

We had a wonderful trip to Wisconsin for Thanksgiving this year! We stayed at Matt, Mandy, & Will's in Chicago overnight on our way to Wisconsin. Then we stayed at Grandma Wisconsin's for almost a week. Melissa, John, Kylee, & Connor came for a couple of days while we were in Lodi & for Thanksgiving. Patty & John hosted a wonderful Mitchell family get-together on Sunday afternoon (and thank goodness there were good picture takers at Patty's, otherwise we might've been in Wisconsin for a whole week without a single picture! Shame on me!) We saw Granny & Grandpa Lee a couple of evenings, Grandma WI took off the whole week and spent lots of quality time with us, and then the Lee-Richerson clan came for wood cutting & Thanksgiving! It was a family-filled, wonderful week. It was so great to catch up with everyone - we miss you all the whole year through & sincerely wish we lived closer! 

Dylan & Aubrey playing kitchen at Patty's. We also went to Aubrey's (& Niki's :)) for a playdate on Wednesday, and Dylan STILL talks about it! If only these 2 lived closer to one another, I think they would be fast friends. 

All the extended cousins who made it to the Mitchell party at Patty & John's! What a crew! I can't believe how much these kiddos have grown and changed since I joined this great family. Mitchell (the oldest kiddo pictured) was only 2 when I first met everyone - most of these kiddos didn't even exist yet!

Somehow Derek & John are cut out of this picture - I'm sorry! But they're there behind Melissa & Emily. :) It was so great to see all of you - Chad is lucky to have so many great cousins!! 

Chadmo & the girl cousins - they were really just the first to respond to picture requests, but this picture still amuses me for some reason! Connor's in there too though, so he's not the only guy! ;)

Chad, Diane, Dylan, & I went to Ella's school play at the Waldorf School in Madison. It was amazing to see what the 4th & 5th graders in her school could remember/act out/sing! Afterwards we got a sneak peek at Ella's classroom, and Dylan found something she fell in love with: 2 guinea pigs! Their names were Vanilla & Lucia. Dyl now frequently requests to look at pictures of guinea pigs online. I've promised her she can get one when she's 3 if she still wants one. ;) 

Ella holding Lucia so Dyl could take a closer peek (though Dyl is distracted by a classmate in this picture.) 

Dylly's 1st Trick or Treat

Dylly's first trick or treating experience was a wild success - she absolutely loved it! Our trick or treat in Logan was this past Sunday, and the weather was beyond perfect. It was our first time seeing the Hill Top in trick or treat mode, and it was craziness! It looked like something from a movie scene. It was all around a wonderful day - I love my little family so much! 

Our peacock in serious contemplation about trick or treat routes. ;) 

She was so excited!

Mmm, suckers are a favorite.

Daddy demonstrating how one might wear a peacock tail. :) 

Trick or treating with the Demmlers! A pumpkin, an angry bird, and a peacock made up our crew.

Waving to the trick or treaters after she was done and we were handing out candy with Grandma & Papa at our house.

Another group shot with the Demmlers. Poor Josiah didn't feel very well, so they only went with us part way. But it was fun to have them along.

Hill Street is seriously neglected for the first hour or so of trick or treat, then they finally start to make their way over after they hit up the main streets!

Glad we finally convinced our peacock to put her tail feathers on! She loved them until the day of, of course, but she was bribed into them with promises of suckers. ;)

A mouth full of sucker, but sneaking some more treats out of our candy bowl and into her bag before we headed out. 

'Hmmm, are milk duds a good choice??'

She is so much fun! 2 year olds may have tantrums, but really they're pretty awesome in general!  

Silly girl!

This is it. We are living life and loving it. How did I get so lucky?

Our pretty peacock, anxious for trick or treat. 

Inspecting some Nerds to see if they're a good choice.