Christmas

Happy December, Merry Christmas to all of our friends and families. Happy Birthday to Jesus, this is such a beautiful and blessed day! Missing our family afar but so thankful for Skype, texts, phone calls and email to stay connected. Makes it feel a little less sad to not be with them this year. We had a quiet eve of board games, hot cocoa, snacks, treats, movies and traditional Christmas cartoon specials of Twas the Night before Christmas, The Grinch, Santa Claus is coming to town. We gave the kids each a Christmas eve present. They each received a board game and a small stuffed mouse that they had wanted. We played Beat the Parents, the game we gave our daughter and had many laughs. Then off to bed for the children while husband and I stayed up a little bit longer making it to bed by 1230am. Snow and more snow starting mid day then continuing through the night off and on and this morning on Christmas it is still beautiful and white. I told my husband that was all I wanted, a white Christmas...and we've gotten that, and so much more. My heart is full.

A few presents on Christmas day, a talk with family, relaxing, playing, eating, praising the Lord for his birth day. My are we blessed. This life, this beautiful life is amazing.

Blessed day.

Snow

We had our first snowfall of the season in our new town. Something about snowfall makes it really seem like holiday time. Its so beautiful, the sky, the mountains covered. Of course it didn't stay where we are at and the sun is beaming today so we won't be seeing any more for now but none the less it was gorgeous and we are looking forward to more!

First snow!

Life

Its been nearly a month since we've updated this space. We've spent the month of November....fencing, reading, schooling, learning, going to scouts, young women's, church, took the kiddos to see Dr. Strange at the movies, day trip to Flagstaff, working around the house and yard, animal care, and a quiet Thanksgiving at home. Novembers been busy but we've had moments to enjoy each other, relax and have quiet time as well to reflect on this thankful month.

A few photos from our month....

Life is good. Blessed but busy days enjoying each other.

Halloween

Just a few pictures from Halloween. We kept it mellow. Kids decided they didn't need to dress up and we all decided we'd spend the money we would have spent on costumes on a family day/outing instead, so in a week or two we'll head ice skating or bowling and dinner, something fun all together.

For the holiday, we painted pumpkins and handed out candy at the church trunk or treat.

 Not a costume just a new hoodie we bought for him...minecraft of course!

Fun family time.

Good Bye October!

A month has flown by. Its been a crazy month to say the least. Hubbies brother here at the start of the month, a trip to California to see family after that. Then a week worth of tooth pain, dental visits and procedures for momma. And finally here we are at the end of the month.

We finally started back to school last week after a huge 1 month long hiatus! Beauty of homeschooling...we go with the flow. And our flow got seriously crazy this month. We are definitely looking forward to November and getting settled back into a routine of schooling, learning, living, weekly library trips and homeschooling park days, activities and just getting a little normal back.

October schooling has brought life learning on our trips, and once at home we have drove into learning about space and our planets, government and elections, progressed in math, and spent time reading and writing.

A few pics from our Cali trip....a little Seaworld, a day at Old Town, a birthday celebration for Grame and a lot of visiting and enjoying our family....

And back home...

Looking forward to settling into FALL and November....

Fishing & Boating & Rain

Friday was the last day of vacation here for our kids uncle, hubbies brother. So I dropped the two off early morning at the lake for some fishing. Then the kids and I met up with them for lunch and so our son could take a ride on the boat out onto the lake. Some early morning fog, then sunshine and lastly a bit of rain and clouds! Still a gorgeous day. We said good by to him Saturday and have spent the weekend relaxing low key around the house, catching up on chores and work. Next week we are Cali bound to see family.

Lake time, fishing time....family time.

Birding, Hiking, Fishing....Adventuring

Our son deemed last week birding week. So we took the week off of our normal school studies to go birding each day....except that it rained and poured most of the week. So we went one day and the rest of the week we hung around the house planning out some birding adventures for when it clears up. This last weekend brought a scouts camp out for hubbie and our son. They froze but had so much fun. It was our sons first official camp out. We are so incredibly blessed that he got to know the boys in his group better and is making friends. They cooked foil dinners and fished and had tons of fun.

This week we have the kids uncle in town visiting us, so we've been blessed to be outdoors even more. A trip to a new lake for fishing. A day trip to view another new lake....and much more fun to come the rest of the week ahead while he's in town. Some rain today but otherwise clear and beautiful and hopefully it will stay that way through the week while he is here with us.

 Birding & Hiking....
Our son and I ventured to some trails behind the Highlands Center for Natural History. We went just the two of us. It was an easy trail and we saw a ton of beautiful woodpeckers. No photos this time..those birds were too quick! But we have plans to go back very soon to try and capture a pic of them!
Highlands Center; http://highlandscenter.org/

 Off on their camp out...

Trip to Lynx Lake, Prescott AZ
Info on the lake:       http://www.arizona-leisure.com/lynx-lake.html

And off on a day trip to Williams and Flagstaff!
The beauty of the forest and trees immediately brings me back to Idaho.
We stopped at Dogtown Lake and Campground in Williams where our son went camping this last weekend. The boys wanted to show us around. The lake was beautiful. Chilly today but we'll definitely be coming back for some fishing!
Info: http://www.recreation.gov/camping/dogtown-lake-campground

 Love adventuring together.