Christmas Celebrations

As we were a week away from moving near Christmas this year, we were welcomed to "Valerie in-law's" home for a lovely Christmas Eve dinner.  Having a big house full of people always make the holidays seem more like the holidays for some reason!  



A rare good pic of just Chris and I.



Family Christmas Pic 2010

Auntie Amy's famous deviled eggs, Avery not so sure.



Taste Test




Ballard Family (plus A): Corbin 4, Amy, Ethan 2, Caelan 6, Phil, Avery 3


Everyone was way too generous with Avery, clearing out much of her Amazon Wish list, but she had a lovely time and so did we!!

A chef in the making

Chef Avery was busy in the kitchen today! She helped Daddy with Chicken Bean soup, made Pumpkin Muffins almost all by herself, except for reading the measurements and using the stove, and topped it off with crescent rolls filled with cheese and salami!  YUM! 

Snowflake Lane

What is better then getting candy from a real life toy soldier as you wait for Santa's arrival?  This has become our day after Thanksgiving tradition.  This year it rained and was really, really cold, but Avery had fun all the same!

Sometimes you have to go back to being a Kid

Thanksgiving is full of fun, traditions, family and food.  So, what better thing to do then introduce our kiddos to the silly fun of putting olives on your fingers?  We had a wonderful Thanksgiving and it is a true reminder of everything we have to be thankful for!

Kiddos getting ready for this (adult) silliness!

Who do we think liked this the most?  Uh, Phil?

Snow for Days

The snow came, and stayed and fell some more.  We had a couple of at home snow days for Avery to play and explore and she really did enjoy it!!  It is a rarity that it snows "in the city" around here, and when it does, there is no reason to venture out because people don't know how to drive and the city is not really planned for snow for days.

Walking through the snow!

Playing at the park with Hailey

When you are a kid snow is pure joy!

Trick or Treat!

It was such a fun Halloween!  Our Berry Fairy was super excited for all of the festivities, from dressing up at school for a parade, to visiting stations where mama and daddy work to actual Halloween Trick or Treating hosted by the Johnson Family!  Thank you again for a lovely time, I will let the pictures speak for themselves!

Ready for the School Parade

With her pumpkin

Smiles from a beautiful fairy!

Pretty smiles from pretty girls!

On her way and on her own

Avery, Caelin & Charlie

Trick or Treat at our hosts!

Oh a Pumpkin Picking We a Go!

We headed out to Remlinger Farms for I think the fourth straight year!  While it does get crowded, the pumpkin patch is usually just great and is pretty easy to get to.  Those this year was SUPER crowded as we had two really rainy October weekends and two quite sunny ones, gotta love October in the PNW.

As usual Avery had so much fun running through the pumpkin patch, and this year attempted to go to the very end of the patch - which I think she managed for the most part.  We had a glorious day of sunshine, not too cold weather and still enough pumpkins to make some good choices!

Picking at a pumpkin right away!

Off with Daddy and a wheelbarrow ready to fill that up!

Hmmm, where to go next.

Attempt at sitting with a pumpkin.

I just really love the color of the sky here.

Princess chariot :)

Family photo, not the best, but what we got.