Year's End

It's nearly January and these pictures have been sitting on the laptop, waiting quietly for their chance on the blog since mid-November. It's the kind of thing I often want to apologize for. But then I remember that there are no blog police ready to jump out and arrest me for failure to write and hit publish...so be what it may, here is a bit of the end of 2014 just in time for 2015!

 This year our troop tick-or-treated for the first time! A sweet neighbor organized a hay ride to take all of the kids in our development door to door to all the houses who desired to participate. It was AMAZING and an even better way to meet a lot of our neighbors, or if you're me, take a tour of their house and check out what kind of flooring they have! Ha! There were nearly forty children, two trailers rigged with lights, boom boxes, and coolers of soda. It was so much fun, Abe even asked if we could "move here." "Here" being just about 8 houses down the the street.

Halloween for us this year included two red Power Rangers, Captain America (Abe) and Doc McStuffins. I am STILL finding glitter in the house from Gracie's costume. It's the costume that just keeps on giving! The kids and I also took our yearly pumpkin patch jaunt out to McCall's but this time with our homeschool group. We had such a great time, although, I let the kids choose their pumpkins on their own since I was tied up with Grace and we made it home with some wonky ones. Thankfully, they carved up okay. Two were original designs and Judah went with a stencil. I love how Ben's pumpkin has huge eyes and a small mouth and Abe's is the opposite. Twins.

In true Abe fashion, we had to sort our candy. Which made it very hard to steal candy from them when they were in bed, by the way.

In other Sloansburg news, here's Grace in her unders and doing a puzzle. Did I mention that's all she wears now? Every person in this house, including the dog, is  *OFFICIALLY* potty trained. Overnight, naps, church. All of it. We are diaper bag FREE. Praise Jesus.

And now some pictures of the day to day. Here's Ben and Grace getting their paint on.

School dog.

The boys love to practice spelling words on the windows and on this particular day, Abe left me a little note too :) Man do I love seeing them bloom in reading and writing!

Gracie and Judah washing dishes while I work with the big kids.

Mess. Every day. End of story.

And now, just a few pictures from December. Girl's day out with breakfast, coffee, and a craft show was celebrated with Gracie's first Starbucks. Auntie bought her a vanilla steamer and she called it her latte all morning. She also drank it down to the last drop.

Ju Baby and the Nativity. He can't stop, won't stop, rearranging.

A new Christmas wreath.

A certain boy on the eve of turning FIVE! Man did it feel like a big deal! We celebrated by taking the day off of school, as is our traditon, and going to a jumping place and lunch at Dion's. We had such a lovely day, despite the snow! But how can a day that includes pizza and chocolate cake go wrong, really?

We also had a cousin day at our Mimi's to celebrate these back to back birthdays! Evie turned 8 and Ju turned 5 and all the momma's sighed.