my three little shepherds...

- Family Pictures - 

I like to wait until the littlest is one before we pay anyone to take pictures of our family.  I feel like it gives a better picture of who they will always be.  Plus, they are a little more cooperative.  A little.  

The day turned out great and Aaron Wilcox was just the man we needed for the job.  He was quick with the camera, and we got everything we needed before everyone melted down.  The boys did great.  It may have helped that I bribed them to wear exactly what I picked out and to smile with the promise of ice cream afterwards!  It worked!

Here are some of our favorites:

This guy couldn't get much cuter.

 We tried to stand together and then...

...we fell, and then...

... we got real life.  Silas LOVES his brother.

Si was sure to show off his cool tatoo!

And when did Amos get so old?  Is this his senior picture??

- Shepherds -

On Tuesday we loaded everything up early to head to Ft. Scott and visit the Eden farm.  Everyone and everything was in the car, except for the keys.  Aah!  I ended up breaking into our house, grabbed the keys and then hit the road.

The Corcoran's joined in the fun too! We couldn't be more excited to spend a day with friends.  They have all kinds of cool things that we don't - like cows and big swings and secret trees to hide with your friend behind.  Scout and Amos normally have to warm-up to each other a little bit, but not this time, they were in full swing from the second we arrived to the hug that knocked each other over once we left.  

After Rachel treated us to the works for lunch, we put on our Shepherd attire and went to hunt for some sheep.  Scout needed us to know that we could go look, but there weren't any sheep at his house.  Luckily, they did know a family down the road that just had a baby lamp and let us come and "find" him.  

We found other animals while there too!  Ivan was most impressed with the pig.  He kept laughing at it.

The kittens were a favorite too!  Luckily, the family has kids, so all the animals seemed pretty use to lots of loving attention.

 And just because...

- Giving -

As Amos is making connections and figuring out the whole Christmas thing, we wanted giving to be a BIG part of what we do at Christmas time.  We brainstormed some ideas on how to do that and this year we are keeping it simple by choosing an angel off the Salvation Army Angel tree.  I'll spare you the conversation details that followed Amos learning we were taking our gifts to the Salvation Army (do they use guns?) but he was pretty excited about the whole thing.  They chose the little boy and we all went shopping together. 

I was cringing inside the entire time he was cutting, but he made it all the way across!!!

And, of course, a bow on every present!

  

This guy was a BIG help, at my feet, pulling on my pants the whole time.

 Bows are serious.

- School Activities - 

Visiting the farm was definitely the highlight of our school week, but we've had a lot of fun making candy cane shepherds staffs, drawing our own shepherds and making a shepherd's flute to play in the evenings.

- Playing Outside - 

Can you believe the weather we've been having?  Neither can we?  We've been outside for large chunks of the day all week long.  We've been soaking it up as we know the real cold will eventually get here.  Definitely a nice change at the beginning of winter!  Now, bring on the snow - we're ready to build snowmen.