The Holidays (part 1)

Just thought I'd catch up on a few family events that I wanted to include on this sort-of journal of mine. We joined our good friends, the Dempsters, at their newly finished vacation home in Sisters, Oregon for a couple of days before Thanksgiving. That's right. It's two days after Christmas and I'm writing about an event that happened before Thanksgiving. This is Ryan and Allie "breaking the rules" and sitting on the kitchen counter. What buddies!

Blake and Avery made a fort. Allie has a knack for pushing her way in and insisted on being a part of it. It's what 3 year-old sisters do best! So, Allie is the one in the picture with him, not Avery!

I have no idea when I even took this picture. The girls were being some sort of super-heroes with bike helmets on. I love Allie's face here...

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We don't usually jump on the Christmas bandwagon that early, but there was good weather and we had a free evening, so we went on Thanksgiving weekend to get our tree. I'm so glad we did! This was the most fun Christmas season I can remember! The kids were finally old enough to really be a part of it and I experienced Christmas in a totally new way - as a mom feeding off of and contributing to the excitement of my daughters with each holiday-related activity.

Avery took this picture. She's been really wanting to experiment with taking pictures. Lucky for me (and my camera), Nana got the genius idea to buy her a kid-tough camera for Christmas. I'll do a post of some of her photography sometime soon...

We had so much fun decorating the tree together. The kids' excitement is truly contageous! I decided I liked the tradition of letting the youngest put the star on the top of the tree. Next time we'll save it until the rest of the ornaments are already on...

Aunt Jana made Avery an ornament from her handprint when she was around 8 months old. No way she's turning six in three months!!

So that's the first installment of the Rowzee Christmas season. I know you're waiting on pins and needles until I continue the saga. :) Merry Christmas (two days late)!