Ryan took some pictures of the kids real quick before we when to church. They looked so cute in their new outfits they got on Christmas. This is also the start of one  of my New Year Resolution's, which is to take lots of pictures of our four kids together. I was looking at our photos from this year and only found one picture of all four kids together. Kinda sad :(

Country Lights

One of our favorite Christmas activities is to go to the Lake Farm Park for their Country Lights event.  There is a workshop where the kids can build a wooden toy with the help of "Santa's helpers". They have a wall of toys to choose from to build, then you make it and paint it. Next you can go on a horse drawn ride to see lights which they have put up outside. Going on there are milking demonstrations, model trains set up, a horse show, and sitting on Santa's lap. This is our third year going to this, it is definitely a highlight of our Christmas festivities! 

Kaitlyn and her helper with the owl they made

Evie putting some muscle into it

Evie showing her princess castle

Lincoln and Reuben painting. Lincoln made a train and Reuben made Superman.

After the horse show the kids went on a pony ride

Lincoln loved Santa can't you tell? 

I am sad to say that this is the only picture we took all year of the four kids together. I was looking for a picture for Christmas cards and realized that we have a bunch of them not all together but not one with all of them. So... here is my first new year's resolution, to take lots of pictures throughout the year with all four kids in them.

Leaves

I have to say my Dad is such a good Grandpa! The kids had so much fun jumping in his piles of leaves. He is always so good at spending special Grandpa time weather it be going for a walk, watching them jump on the trampoline or playing legos. Thank you Dad! We love you!

Mount Vernon

We were able to go to Mount Vernon (George Washington's house) while we were in Virginia. We had a tour of his home and then there are a bunch of other buildings all over the property such as the blacksmith, overseer quarters, salt house, slaves quarters,carriage house, greenhouse and much more. The kids had a lot of fun doing a scavenger hunt and learning about life back then. Since Christmas is around the corner the visitors center had a couple of beautiful Christmas trees up and decorations. One of our favorite parts was a hands on kid area in one of the exhibits. They had a huge Mount Vernon doll house, dress up clothes, coloring, piecing together artifacts and much more. I was so glad that my parents were able to come with us! We love to hang out with them!

Thanksgiving

This year we were lucky enough to go down to Virginia again for Thanksgiving. It was such a fun and relaxing trip. We went to a parade one day and Mt. Vernon another day. But mainly just had fun being together. I had so much fun cooking with my Mom, it is one of my favorite things to do! 

Graeter's

I have gotten a little behind on my posting... Last month we were able to go down to Columbus with our good friends the Gaskin's. So we drove down and took turns watching the crew while the other couple went to the temple. Ryan and I took the kids to an awesome ice cream store, Graeter's which has some of the yummiest ice cream ever! (especially if it has chocolate chunks in it!) This ice cream store has a huge room for the kids to play in for free. The kids had a blast and almost didn't want to get ice cream because they were having fun playing. So if you need a place to take your kids down in Columbus (or just want some yummy ice cream) their address is:   

2555 Bethel Road
Columbus, OH 43220

It is about 15 minutes from the temple.