Our Christmas tree

We went and picked out a Christmas tree this year.  We got the prettiest one on the whole lot.  All of us decorated it until it was way past our bedtime.  We got so tired that we went to bed without finishing it, but much to our surprise, Emily and Eggbert were caught in the action of decorating our tree and when we awoke the next morning, our tree was all finished and we had a new train set to play with.

Happy Thanksgiving from the Moody's

We had a great day with our Moody family.  We played outside and then cooked a big meal.  We sat down and cleaned our plates and then played some more.  What a wonderful day!  We are so blessed and have so much for which to be thankful.

Stratton Thanksgiving

Yesterday we went to Stonewall to be with our Stratton family and be reminded of how blessed we really are.  We had a whole family picture (which we don't have yet) and then our blessing led by the girls.  They did a great job.  We missed our Uncle Adam this year but he will be home soon.  Poppa made a pile of leaves since Uncle Adam wasn't there.  We had fun in those.  We went for a ride through the pasture to see the cows.  We spent lots of time swinging and running and sliding.  What a great day!

What happens when Mommy closes her eyes for 10 minutes when the kids are awake...

DISASTER STRIKES!!!

Making Great Grandma El's fruit cake

We continued our family tradition and made Grandma El's fruit cake this year.  It was quite the group effort.  Embri mixed the fruit that Poppa cut.  Elaina threw flour and "fixed" the scale to measure the flour.  Granny cleaned it all up.  We can't wait to eat it!  YUM!!!!!

Happy Anniversary Nana and Pa

We went to celebrate with Nana and Pa their 60th Wedding Anniversary.  Wow!  Congratulations and thank you for the example that you have shown to us.  We love you!

Happy 3rd Birthday Embri!

Great Wolf Lodge

Embri wanted to go to a waterpark and swim for her birthday.  We took her to Great Wolf Lodge in Williamsburg, VA.  What a great time!  She was so brave and so big to ride the big slides.  Her favorite and most comfortable slide was the orange one in the kiddie pool.  We also prodded her to go on the big blue one.  She wanted Daddy to go down it first and "check it out."  Before he went down, she would say "see you at the bottom, Dad."  Then she and Mommy would board the double tube after he left and zoom down the slide.  She was begging to ride it over and over before we left.

She was also so brave to ride the big orange slide BY HERSELF right before we left.  She rode it 2 times and we were so proud of her.

Tweetsie

This weekend we went to Boone and Blowing Rock, NC to mine and ride the train at Tweetsie.  We had so much fun.  We pulled our camper up to Grandfather Campground, which was beautiful.  We got lots of precious gems and handfuls of rocks when we were mining.  Then we rode the steam engine driven by coal.  We got to get on a ski lift and ride lots of fun rides, like airplanes, boats, go-carts and the farriswheel.  What a great time!

Painting pumkins after breakfast