Picking Our Christmas Tree!

Before leaving Boone, Kyle, Emery and I headed over to Big Ridge Tree Farm, the place we've been going for years now (here is last year's post) to get our Christmas tree.  It was a beautiful day, with still a little snow on the ground so Emery preferred riding on Daddy's shoulders with a cup full of snow to snack on the whole time!

Feeding the animals is always a favorite part of our visit!

After walking around for a bit, we finally found one we all loved!

The winner-- our biggest tree we've had yet... 9 feet!

We also did the hayride this year which was really fun through the winter-y woods!  

Love this tradition!

Thanksgiving in Boone!

We headed up for Thanksgiving in Boone again this year and had a BLAST.  Emery and I were able to go up on Monday to see everyone and then Kyle joined us Wednesday night.  It was a week of beautiful snow, delicious food, and awesome quality time with family.  Nick's girlfriend, Anne, joined us this year which was a real treat too as she's the perfect addition to our family.  Love this tradition!

The kids had a blast sledding, having snow ball fights and eating the snow!

Kerry, Brad, Caleb & Kenzie stopped by while they were in Boone picking up a Christmas tree.  Love this pic of Caleb & Em!

Besides playing outside we had lots of fun watching the kiddos playing together inside, reading books, watching movies, playing games and just hanging out!

Grandma with all her grandkids:

Em sure does love her Grandma:

Emery constantly tells us how Tara is her best friend -- haha love it!

We also celebrated Jamie's birthday!

Triple Date Night with the "big kids" to go see Catching Fire & pick up a few things at 2 am on Black Friday!  So blessed with siblings that I never argue with and genuinely wish I could hang out with everyday!!

Hilarious game Nights with all the adults!
Campfires!

And everyone had a part on helping make the delicious Thanksgiving food!

Made my first apple pie! 

Tables all set for our big family!

Thanksgiving was so special and emotional like it always is with my family.  We have SO MUCH to be grateful for.  Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Operation Christmas Child!

We participated again in Operation Christmas Child this year!  We chose to donate to a boy and a girl both in the age range of 2-4, so Emery had a blast picking out gifts for both of them with Kyle and I one night at Target.  Such a great way to teach giving to others, while helping out those in need!

Thanksgiving Crafts for Kids & Adults!

We had a lot of fun being festive and decorating our house for Thanksgiving this year!  The first craft we did was our Thankful Tree!  Emery and I went out in the backyard and picked a couple thin branches and acorns for our vase!  

I then cut out circles out of extra scrap booking paper from my silhouette machine and strung them with raffia I had laying around.  Then every day we would ask Emery what she was thankful for and we would write it on the back of the paper and hang up.  Totally free project that helps teach kiddos thankfulness--- love it!

IMPORTANT NOTE:  I had no idea that if you do ANY crafts with acorns the first rule is to put them straight in the oven and dry them out to kill any insects.  Needless to say we had maggots growing in the bottom of ours, so our vase ended up being acorn-less in the end... GROSS!

Also on our mantle you'll see some other crafts Emery made!  She loved doing the fingerprint tree with paint and collecting leaves for her other tree.  So fun!

We also did the sticky window craft, courtesy of Pinterest.  You buy contact paper, hang it up sticky side out with painters tape and let the kiddos go to town.  I love that you can really stick on anything, but I cut out leaves and trees with my silhouette machine and she's loved sticking them together over the past couple weeks.  We'll be doing this again-- Christmas themed next month!

Lastly, I finished my "Give Thanks" Burlap Banner!  My mom and I started them when she was here visiting during the built-in project and I'm so glad we did it together.  Burlap frays so badly so after cutting out the shapes, Mom sewed around each one to keep them from fraying any more.  I printed out letters for us to put behind the burlap and then traced the letters with white paint (or mom used a black sharpie on hers!).  String together with twine and voila an easy burlap banner that you can use every year!

Love decorating for Thanksgiving through home made crafts!