reunited!

earlier i mentioned that we had a couple special weekends in a row. the first was to arizona and grandma b's (see last post). the next weekend we headed out to the desert to have some more family time. we gave my mom (grammy), a belated birthday with her girls and grandchildren. we arrived late friday night, had a quick visit, then off to get some sleep. the next morning we were treated to some bright smiles and cheerful play.

aleah very happy to wear the gingerbread headband grammy brought with her :)

we spent a good part of the morning hanging out in our jammies!

after our late breakfast, we headed to the park. i loved these of atticus.

nova playing in the sand, wearing one of my favorite sweaters. she is so sweet. xoxo

and aleah was very tired. we had been up late and then she woke unusually early (probably excited about seeing grammy, atticus and nova). i can see the sleepiness in her eyes. we lasted just a short time at the park before trying unsuccessfully to take a nap in our room.

after some rest and recovery, we had lunch and more playtime.

grammy watched nova while she napped and the rest of us took a little boat ride.

pretty swans on the lake.

a happy girl!

checking out the fancy birds in the hotel lobby.

atticus out of focus, but well, still adorable to see these two!

now that's a christmas tree!

back in the room, we ate dinner and watched polar express. aleah sat through the entire movie without getting up. she was mesmerized! since that time, we have watched some or all of it 100 times, i'm quite sure. she has begun to memorize certain portions of it. what a great start to her second christmas!

eventually it became time to say goodbye. testing out atticus' suitcase for size :)

a few more shots before saying our goodbyes:

i will miss you! i will miss you!

thankful for...

...i am thankful for family. we had a couple of sweet weekends in a row with family. first, grandma boughton's for thanksgiving with bruce, sarah and thor. it was a special time. the guys went golfing, and there was a hint of an impending engagement in the air...we ate delicious turkey, ham and all the other traditional dishes that grandma prepared for us. i was thankful for the beautiful fall color we found, even in arizona :) i am thankful for a sweet grandma and uncle bruce who are so fun to be with.

it's always fun exploring grandma's big yard. we especially like the pine tree in the front yard. later we put lights on!

the weather was mildly cool and windy. i loved the hair blowing and aleah proudly wearing her boots :)

no strawberries in the patch this time of year:

the day after thanksgiving bruce took us to a beautiful nature trail. we took some pictures (including one for our christmas card). the colors all around were amazing!

so happy...sarah and thor :)

chosen for our christmas card this year:

my absolute favorite! i had several prints made of this one :)

another blog coming soon. i have so much more to share at this beautiful time of year! love, anne.

dressed for the ball

i love to dress up for a special occasion. i enjoy putting time into finding the right dress, shoes, accessories and then taking the time to be sure the hair and makeup is just right. this is how i imagine sarah and drew felt as they got ready for the marine corps ball! really, they look gorgeous and i think of fairy tales when i see them.

thor and vince looked incredible too. the guys were cool as usual, alternating playing with aleah as we tried to get some memories recorded. so here they are...