Thanksgiving to Christmas (& everything else in between)

Back in November we made a trip to the Boise Science Center with Chavis, Kara, and cousin August while they were up visiting.  It was a great time with lots of hands-on activities.

The girl's and I made sure to do some festive fall crafting.  We made popsicle-stick turkeys & this cute little leaf & twig mobile.  The girls had a hay-day sparklin' up each leaf with glitter.

Having Grandma around is always a bonus for the girls (& mom).  Grandma was so fun to play games & read with.  Even cleaning was enjoyable with Grandma!

Thanksgiving seemed to feel like a low-key gathering this year.  It was especially nice to be with just my parents & all my siblings for the actual Thanksgiving feast.  We had a ball eating & playing lots of card games.  The guys spent a lot of time shooting guns around the farm and then eventually coyote hunting in the dead of night....unfortunately their only trophy was a rabbit.

A couple days after Thanksgiving, my grandparents had family over for soup and scones--two things my grandpa can make to PERFECTION.  Several years back I made it a tradition to assist my Grandpa anytime he was frying fish, chicken, or scones, so I was excited to have this special one-on-one time with him since it had been awhile.  I love that he'll grab my attention when it's time to fry some goods.

In between holidays were back in Idaho where we quickly jumped into the Christmas spirit.  We start by making our candy-cane cookies.

This cookie below was Seryn's masterpiece.  She was very proud.

Over the last several months, Seryn has become enveloped into all things pretty & dress-ups.  This girl loves jewelry, sparkly, & anything that looks like princess or Minnie Mouse.  When she's all dressed up she will stare into the mirror and caress her face and smile at her reflection.  Currently, she likes to play many roles at once, like: wear her beautiful white "princess dress" & don her Minnie ears and she instantly becomes "Princess Minnie Mouse."  If you think she is just being Minnie your wrong and she'll let you know it.

The earring in the picture is her great great grandmother's earring that she adores. The girls enjoyed their time sitting in Grandma Ket's closet trying on all her jewelry...Seryn would especially become engrossed in every sparkly piece.

Gingerbread houses & "Elf"....enough said.

Christmas Eve and day was spent at my families this year so we did a mini-Christmas in Idaho with the Jackson side. 

I adore the below picture for a couple reasons:

1) Obviously I love these 3 to pieces!

2) Sailor and Seryn definitely came to this earth as individuals.  Their personalities are so different & unique! Their clothing & appearance in this picture really shows that off.

...to be continued.