Christmas at home

This year we started the Christmas season with an Advent activity.  We chose to do the Jesse Tree advent.  Starting December 1st we opened one gift a night.  Each night is a new ornament that has a bible story to go along with it.  It goes through the Bible starting with the creation of the world and ending with Jesus's birth.  It has been awesome to tell the story from the begining and show Avery and Alia how it all ties in from the Old Testament to the New Testament.  We have The Advent Jesse Tree book and like it.  It is a few simple paragraphs to go with the ornament and then gives a Bible verse from the Old and New Testaments. 

After Thanksgiving we headed to our annual tree farm and found what we thought would be the perfect tree.  It was a Blue Ice, cute right?  It looked amazing outside and was perfectly formed, however, when we brought it home and put ornaments on it it acted more like a shrub!  All of the branches are connected at the base and when you put an ornament on any of the branches they all stuck straight out.  Scott had to use the Christmas lights to wrap the tree to keep it from looking too crazy. 

This year we made a wreath with a hula hoop.  When we moved into this house I always thought that the space over the garage would be the perfect place for a large wreath but I was never willing to put the money into a large wreath.  When the kids were playing in the basement a few weeks ago with a hula hoop the light bulb came on!  It made the perfect base for a wreath. 

 It's a perfect fit!

Once the tree was decorated I asked the kids to stand in front of it for a "nice" picture.  I guess we had a different idea of what nice looks like!

Nice!

 
These Plasma cars were by far the best gift this year.  They are strong enough for adults and go pretty fast.  Our house has been a race track all weekend!  The most memorable moment was when Scott and Avery were on one car and Alia and I were on the other.  We were chasing each other around and pinging each other with foam balls. 

This was our birthday cake this year for Jesus.  It was a chocolate cake filled with chocolate mousse.  Alia had fun baking it using the cooking utensils that Grandpa and Grandma Davis gave her for Christmas. 

Probably a bit heavy on the mousse, but no one seemed to care.  It was chocolatey and delicious.

Happy Thanksgiving 2012

 Grandpa and Grandma Davis and Aunt Laura and Uncle Tony were able to spend Thanksgiving with us this year. 

 Avery loved the leg. 

 The weather was perfect while they were all here and we spent so much time outside.  Avery loved jumping from rock to rock at Line Creek.

 Alia wanted to try rock skipping too.

 We were even able to find some geocaches at Cochran Mills.  Alia loved the treasure hunt. 

 We found the perfect tree to climb.

 We spent an entire afternoon at an elementary school enjoying the sun and playing on the equipment. 

 We even played kick ball!  Once both kids got the hang of it, they loved playing.  Alia loved kicking and running around the bases but didn't like the outfield.  Avery loved pitching the ball and kicking and running the bases.

We even found time to look through a science book and make a wind gauge. 

Silver Comet Trail

We decided to head out to explore The Silver Comet trail.  It is a paved trail which is 13 miles northwest of Atlanta.  The trail in Georgia is 61 miles and runs from Smyrna Ga to the Alabama border and then continues on as the Ladiga Trail for another 33 miles.  We decided to do a 16 mile stretch.  It was a great trail to take the kids on and the Fall colors were beautiful today.   

 

 

 We stopped at one of the many picnic spots for a snack break.

 Alia had extra crazy hair!

 There was a park at one the trail heads and the kids loved taking a break from the trail to play train conductor. 

Pumpkin Demo Day at the Rock Ranch

  We enjoyed a gorgeous day at the Rock Ranch yesterday.  I would say gorgeous Fall day but it was 80 degrees outside! 

 They loved climbing all over these pumpkins.  It was pretty funny when Avery's foot went through a rotten pumpkin. 

 They picked out the pumpkins they wanted to drop from the crane.  I was actually surprised Alia was willing to go on the crane.   


There it goes! 

 We all enjoyed watching the Monster Truck crush the pumpkins and the cars. 

Cow Train

 Time to smash the pumpkins.

I love their faces here!

We had a longer drive and really wanted to take the Nissan Leaf .  It was far too long to make it there and back on a charge so we would have to stop somewhere.  We had to drive about 110 miles which is about 20 miles further than a charge can take us.  Our plan was to stop on the way back home at a Nissan dealer and eat dinner next door at the grocery store across the street.  Two little problems.  The Nissan dealer was closed and the grocery store was a vacant lot.  Lucky for us one of the salesmen had just shut the gate and told us to drive up on the curb to get to the charger.  They had free wifi so the kids watched movies on their nook while we added the 20 miles needed to get home.  After about an hour and a half we were on our way.  Taking the car was not as convenient as we would have liked but it did work.  Next time we will have to do a bit more planning to make sure we know what is actually open.

Halloween 2012

 We picked our pumpkins at Whitley Farms this year.  They had fun running through the patch and looking for the perfect one.  They were both fascinated with the way the pumpkins grew off the vines.  Avery liked his pumpkin because it was perfectly round and Alia loved her tall, little pumpkin.  We let them draw faces on this year and we carved their creations.  Avery made a ninja and Alia drew an elephant. 

 It was really cold this year and the winds were pretty strong from hurricane Sandy's storm so Alia found a "snuggley", warm place to hide. 

 Meet the elephant and the ninja.  Avery said the ninja was sneaky because he had a knife carved into his back. 

 We did the tradional caramel apples this year but I wanted to avoid the packaged caramels so we made our own.  They tasted great but the caramel wasn't stretchy and gooey. 

 Scott needed an appetizer for work so we made Greek deviled egg spiders.  I made the traditional egg recipe but added feta and black olives to it. 

 Meet Spider Girl!

 She requested spiders for her hair. 

 
This was Alia's first school party.  It was so weird being there for her party because she was in a carrier when Avery had his Halloween party in the same room 3 years earlier. 




Spider Girl and Bat Girl

 Officer Davis joins Spider Girl.  He was in such a hurry to start trick or treating he didn't want me to tuck in his shirt.  He loved being a police officer this year.  He filled his side holster with hand cuffs, a gun and a cell phone.  He loved that many people gave him 2 or more pieces of candy so he wouldn't arrest them!


The neighborhood crew is ready to go!  It was a great year for them both.  This year we actually made it around the whole neighborhood and they wanted to keep going well after dark.  Avery's favorite part was handing the candy out at the end of the night and Alia loved going door to get candy.   

I can almost picture him as an adult here.