Cutting Down Our Tree

After we went to see Santa we went to cut our Christmas tree down (N2 did change first).  It's our tradition to go to the same Christmas tree farm, take along Grandma and Grandpa Weidner and search for the perfect tree.  Well I search for the perfect tree while everyone else follows along.  They had HUGE trees this year.  They were too big for me to see the shape so it took us a while to find the tree.  The tree we chose was quite large and we left a couple feet at the bottom.  I picked out a different kind of tree this year-no White Pine for us this year!  It was a nice day out-not too cold so no one minded being out for a while this year.

 My kids like to balance on stumps and pretend to be the angel on the top of the tree.  I think Grandma Weidner started this a couple years ago.  This year there were tons of branches laying around and N2 picked them up and pretended to have umbrellas and be peacocks.  These pictures of them are them being peacocks.

 Here they are with our tree.  See how huge it is???  Then came the daunting task of trying to cut it down.  It had quite a large trunk!

Now the tree is down and we have to carry it to the tractor.  Noah was such a big help!

Going to see Santa

We decided to take N2 to Home Depot of all places to see Santa.  During one of their kid's workshops they had Santa there.  I had them all dressed up to see Santa and then they did the workshop project too.  Santa was great and really paid attention to what they were saying plus he really talked to them.  He is definitely the best Santa we have seen!

They were supposed to have painted the projects and then put stickers on but we decided not have them paint in their nice clothes!

Peanut the Elf

I know Christmas is over but I thought I would share with you what Peanut, our elf, did this year.  He started out the year by putting post it notes all over the hallway to stat that he was back.  N2 were very excited that they could read his note.  They even wrote him back.

 

The paper says "Peanut" "Noah and Natalie" and the top note says "we can kiss you peanut."  Those were written by Noah.  The other two notes say "We love you Peanut" and "We can hug you Peanut."  Those were written by Noah.  I think Natalie probably copied Noah's format but that is just my guess.

Peanut made them elf donuts one night.  Brian didn't even get to see them!

Peanut taught some squinkies, firemen and lego men how to read.

After we set up our tree, Peanut decided to help us try to decorate the house.  He was not quite successful.

N2 have been fairly short with each other this month.  They have been pushing each other's buttons and arguing.  Peanut wrote them a note one night.

Peanut took a ride with Barbie in the Barbie car one day.  N2 enjoyed pushing the car around the house.  The next day he disguised himself as a snowman.

Peanut planned a scavenger hunt for N2 and hid in Natalie's boot.

Peanut wanted to bake cookies one day. Another day N2 hadn't put away their laundry so Peanut found their underwear and put it on the tree.

 Peanut called Santa one day because it was on his to do list.

Peanut cut out mustaches and put them on N2's pictures around the house.

Poor Peanut was sick one day.  But another day he was well enough to fix Barbie's car.

 A favorite in our house is elf pancakes.

And last but not least, Peanut read all the Baby Jesus' from the nativity scenes the story of the Nativity.

Leaves

Our leaves started to fall at the end of October but we still have quite a few leaves on the trees but have snow on the ground.  Guess those aren't going to be bagged up this year.  We raked leaves twice this year.  N2 love to help rake and they love to jump in the leaves.  We have to remind them not to take the leaves from the neighbor's yard since we don't want to pay to get rid of those leaves!  I tried to get good pictures of the kids in the leaves in October and I tried again in November.  They weren't the most cooperative.

Snow?

We had a very minimal amount of snow last weekend.  N2 wanted to go out and play in the snow so we got them all decked out in their snowpants, coats, gloves and hats to go out and play in the immeasurable snow.  By the time they got out there the snow on the driveway had started to melt.  They scraped all the snow from the driveway, sidewalk and yards into a pile to try to make snowballs.  It was pretty pitiful.

The snow did not stick around long and we haven't had anything stick since then thank goodness.  I'm not ready for snow.  We have had snow flurries quite regularly though.

Apple Picking

Back in September we had one weekend available after the start of apple season so we decided we better go get some apples before it was too late!  We really liked Empire apples in the past but knew those weren't ripe so we figured we would try a new orchard.  We visited More Than Delicious Orchard and discovered it wasn't that far from our house!  Normally we drive about 35-40 minutes to get to orchards-this one was on the other side of McHenry.  This orchard was small but had quite a few varieties.  They only were letting people pick one bag of apples and the apples were on the smaller side but they were quite delicious!  I think our favorite apple and the one that we picked the most of were the Lustre Elstar.  They were very sweet and crisp.  It's always nice to discover new types of apples!  I can't even remember the other types of apples we picked.

It didn't take us long to pick apples so I didn't get many pictures.  The kids were tired and not in the best of moods.  There were also tons of bees in the orchard which freaked Natalie out as she always seemed to have a half eaten apple in her hand.  Here are the few pictures I got of that day.