Clifton Mill

Last Monday evening we headed to Clifton Mill to see their lights and Christmas displays. It is one of the oldest mills still in existence today and they decorate it and everything around it with over 3 million lights! The weather was mild, so we enjoyed it even more. The lights come on at 6pm every night and they do a light show to music (very Trans siberian Orchestra). I love Christmas lights, so I thought it was really good!

Here is Ross standing in the covered bridge before the lights come on.


And Boom!




This is all lighting up to the music...




After the show, we walked around a bit...


A view of the mill and then a tiny replica village in the front...


The covered bridge


the bridge is a lot farther up than you think!


And a little Z for fun!


Max watching the train in the miniature town set-up! They had the miniature Ohio State marching band spelling out OHIO! He thought that was neat.



Ross giving me his best deer impression. I used the flash on my camera so I could really get them and well, its a little bright and flash-y!


Miniature town...



Here is the replica of the mill building...


And the real thing...









The kids can look in on Santa working in his workshop and then he goes up and puts presents in the sleigh!


That's a lot of lights...


They also had an entire room filled with Santa figurines from all over the world.





Such a fun night soaking up a little Christmas spirit.

O Christmas Tree!

I am not one to decorate for Christmas before Thanksgiving. It does seem to be a growing trend though, doesn't it? I try to hold out until December. Max was very anxious this year though. He kept seeing everyone else put up their lights and each day he would tell me, "now there's even more people ready for Christmas" in his best Eeyore voice.

So, come December 1, we brought out our artificial tree. Since living in Ohio, we go and cut down a real one too, but that comes later! This tree is sort of my tree. It goes up in the front of the house, in the bay window, so you can see it from the outside and it is only decorated specifically. As I right that I realize it makes me sound a little tree psycho, but I assure you, I am not. I just always loved dark blue and silver and lots of white lights. Before we had kids and any ornaments made by them or about them, that is what I did. Now that we have room for two trees and the kids love going and chopping down a real one, I just separate the decorations. So, enough of that, right?

Let's get this party started.




Max going for the star...


Just. can't. reach...


Kind of mad that he needed to get help.






Ahh... love the sparkly lights of the tree, there's just something magical about it...



And it is holiday bokeh (blurry light circles here) time... this will not be the first time you will see make take pictures of the lights like this...


'tis the season

giving thanks

Our Thanksgiving was pretty low key. We missed our families, but we were thankful to be together this year and for Ross to be celebrating in America. The holidays in Afghanistan last year just makes it seem to him like he hasn't had Thanksgiving and Christmas in forever! We enjoyed our slow mornings with the kids off of school and just hung out. The weather was full of sunshine and warmth, so we played outside a bunch too. We made hand turkeys and each wrote what we were thankful for on the fingers and the warm sunshine definitely made my list for the day!

Ten on the Tenth

The idea is to take ten photos on the tenth of the month and share it, documenting a day of your life and the ordinary moments. There is beauty in the ordinary.

so on my one day to sleep in a little, I was up with my brain running at 5:30 am. I think I still haven't adjusted to the time change! I did a bunch of blogging in the morning and then when I heard Max stirring a little upstairs I went in to see him. He heard me coming, so he covered himself, but still wanted to keep reading his book!



Zoey was still sleeping... That's Buford tucked under her arm. She has had him since she was 1!




Want to buy a house?? We are busy, busy doing stuff around the house to get it ready to sell.


We took a break for lunch and then had to get more supplies...





While we worked on some outside stuff, we had the kids ride bikes around the loop.



The kids were good about keeping themselves entertained all day while we worked... We promised to have a fun day tomorrow!



look at how straight Max is sitting while playing Mariokart. And do you see how his legs are? He's so flexible.



The kids were playing tag while Ross grilled. This was Zoey's first full day out of the Boot!!



And then we had a picnic dinner in front of the TV watching Texas A&M BEAT Alabama!! WHOOOOOOP!



and now, I am officially up to date on the blog! Hooray!

Wishing you a happy November filled with gratitude.

Fall Pictures

This year we went with another family to take family pictures at one of our metro parks. The weather was perfect and lovely and the leaves were too. And I did say we got some family pictures, that is, a picture with all of us in it! Hooray!! But, I am using one as a Christmas card, so here are just some other shots of the day!









Fall is really beautiful here.






As serious as she is sometimes, you can always count on her for this kind of stuff...