Georgia in January

In December we were supposed to close on our house in NH but it was pushed back until January 23. Since we were living with friends at the time and January  is cold and a little dreary we decided that I should head south with the kids. It was a good way to burn up the time while we waited for the closing date to roll around. 

The weather was in the 70's while we were there and it felt toasty warm to us northerners. George and Edith kept asking "is it summer?".  

Nathan's dad (papa) had his winter garden going and George had a blast helping tend and harvest some squash and cabbage. 

Edith was thrilled to be swinging again. She would have been out there for hours if she had someone to push her. 

Sweet Rosalie hanging out on the front porch enjoying the amazing weather. Not having to bundle everyone up was so nice. I even got out for a few runs by myself and in just shorts and a t-shirt. So warm!

Take note of Edith's thumb sucking in both grandparent pictures.

So when Edith was little, like around 14 moths, we visited GA and my brother Phillip had just gotten his chocolate lab Lulu. Edith loved Lulu and even sat on her back and layed on her. Fast forward to the last year and Edith has pretty much been terrified of dogs. On this latest trip though she was super attached to my brother Wesley's dog. They were best friends! She would go out and tell him things as soon as she was up in the morning and then you'd look out and see her plopped down on the hill chatting away while he tried to nap. It was the sweetest. 

She asked for a dog last week...not happening.

And a picture with great grandpa. George is very into his dinosaur claws that he's showing off in most of the pictures. 

It was another great visit but I think I'm road tripped out for a while. 

Christmas 2016

Here is Christmas from 3 months ago! Life has been a little crazy...actually a lot crazy but that's a different post. We were living with friends during December so we celebrated together. I think it's going to be a tradition because they came to our house last year. 

Like always my mom makes the kids matching Christmas pajamas. It's crazy to see how much the kids have grown since this picture.

Christmas was on Sunday so we decided to celebrate on Saturday since Sundays are so busy for us with church. The kids opened stockings first.

We filled them mostly with snacks. Unlike tiny toys once they are consumed they're gone. It makes everyone happy.

Rosalie's first Christmas :)

I made our traditional Christmas wreath bread for breakfast. Along side it I made baked eggs with spinach and tomatoes.

Behold! The Christmas pickle. 

Our friends the Wilhelms have a tradition that who ever finds the pickle on the tree gets to hand out the presents. George was the winner.

Mrs. Christen demonstrating how the new toys work.

Everything is for eating, right?

Trying out the new bike helmet while playing with her doll house. Christen and I stayed up late the two nights prior assembling that doll house. It was crazy but we got it done and she was thrilled with it. 

Thanksgiving Weekend

 Thanksgiving weekend is always relaxing around our house. We don't visit family during the holidays because of the distance and most of our friends are out of town. Instead of cooking a huge meal for just our family we decided to make homemade pizza. The kids were thrilled and I didn't spend hours in the kitchen. Everyone was happy!

Thanksgiving day was chilly and we ended up getting a few snow flurries. We bundled the smalls up and took a long walk in downtown Dover. There were quite a few people out walking off their Thanksgiving turkey. Even in the chilly fall when all the leaves have fallen and everything is gray it's still beautiful. One of the reasons we love NH!

The Saturday after Thanksgiving we drove over to Kittery, Maine for a few hours. We checked out the Evergreen Festival at Second Christain Congregational Church. We didn't find anything that we couldn't live without but we did find Santa. George was obsessed with Santa this Christmas even though we don't "do" Santa. It was hilarious how excited he got every time he saw someone dressed up. You can tell by the look on his face.

And you can't be in Kittery without grabbing a cruller and coffee from Lil's Cafe. It's one of our favorite spots around these parts and the kids are constantly asking to go. They think Lil's and Kittery are the same thing. 

Lovely downtown Kittery and her classic streets and houses.

Fall Festival at McKenzie's Farm

That apple cider donut that we had at Apple Harvest was from McKenzie's Farm in Milton, NH and it was so good that we had to go check out their fall festival a few weeks later. We did underestimate how packed it was going to be. What a huge crowd! We're glad we powered through the craziness of parking and walking because it was a lot of fun.

Since October the kids have been getting they're face painted about twice a month with all of the festivals. Both of them are pretty obsessed. 

We went on a hay ride around the orchard. It was a ton of fun and George and Edith were elated. 

These views never get old. New Hampshire truly is a beautiful place all year around.