Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve

Santa Train, Our Purple Tree, and Snow Day

Pajamaed decorator

The expert decorator.

You should see him put hooks on ornaments!!

Yes, our tree is up!!

Cousins

The cousins enjoying each other's company today.

I've been so busy, I haven't taken any pictures

... in about 2 weeks.

Except a few with my phone.

Can you believe it?

Styling her hair

Inside a corn maze

Nobody's more careful than me!

These are some pictures I took a little over a month ago,

and I never got around to show you.

We took Caleb on his first real hike -

by "real" meaning that he had to hike on his own two feet,

rather than being carried.

He did really great, even though the 1.5 mile terrain was not the easiest.

We kept saying, "Be careful!"

And he kept repeating, "Nobody's more careful than me!"

Here, my beautiful children are freshly bathed -

because doesn't it make sense to get clean before a hike?

He navigated those rocks all by himself.

You know, nobody's more careful than he is.

He was very proud of himself.

Isn't this beautiful? Ahh, autumn in Virginia.

His rocks. Back and forth. Forth and back.

Last time I wore that carrier, Caleb was in it at Chimney Rock.
Ariana was with us too, she was a 3 week old tadpole. :)

A little sip of water... and we're off.

See that drop off next to us with the creek below?

Yeah... I had one hand on my camera and one hand hovering around my boy.

Looking for sticks, what else?

Hiking

Little man in the Big Woods

The Bridge - time for a photo shoot!

Aha! The reason for our morning bath emerges!!

Walking family

Running baby ...uhm... toddler

Just a wonderful autumn day in the Virginia mountains.

Halloween 2010

We had such a great time trick or treating with the kids this year!

Last year, Caleb never got past the first house...

But oh, what a difference a year makes!

As we were walking up the stairs to our first house,

Caleb said, "This time, I am going to be brave!"

And brave he was.

His voice rang loud and clear as he said, at least 50 times that night: "Trick or treat!"

He was not shy or timid,

he took his role as the Dinosaur very seriously,

showing off his roar.

(And Lion Ariana roared only for her Daddy this time. But she did say "tickoteet" once.)

Caleb also took his role of being his sister's helper seriously -

carrying both his and Ariana's basket throughout the night

and making sure that both got filled with candy, explaining to those at the door,

"this is for the Caleb and this is for the baby."

I guess some people didn't notice the baby being carried behind him

and didn't realize why he had two baskets.

On those occasions, when only one basket was filled,

Caleb would gently remind them,

"and one for the baby" in his sweet singy-song voice.

I could just eat that kid up. He was adorable.

When he'd get his treats, he'd make comments like

"that was so nice of her" and "I like those people."

He tripped a few times in his costume, and fell over a water hose once.

He did not say a word about being hurt,

but burst into tears at the sight of his chocolates rolling all about

on the ground, out of his baskets,

crying "My chocolates, my chocolates!"

Thankfully, this problem was very easy to solve

as we quickly gathered them all up and headed on our way...

We were out for 2 hours! I'd say that's pretty good for a 3 and a 1 year old!

Butternut squash "Halloween" soup and a glowing pumpkin finished the night,

the only thing we missed was kids coming to trick or treat to our house,

we had a few late ones, but not many

- we were out so long -

but that's okay, I'm sure we'll find some good use for the leftover chocolate.