cute captures

Happy December!

While I wish I could say I've had no time to blog, the truth is that I've just spent my time doing other things! :) There are so many things to fill a day, and I want blogging to be somewhere on that checklist b/c it's meaningful to me. But reality is there are so many real life moments waiting for me that I just keep moving. So a phase indeed... :)

We were in FL for a good part of our Christmas break. It was great!! And the whole holiday itself was wonderful. We had so many delightful times with the boys. They are at incredible ages.... So many awesome and funny questions, so much thankfulness mixed in with their selfishness, so much unconditional love. It's such a joy to have them. Hope to share more this year!

Here are just a bunch of random pics. All from my phone. Trying the blogger app. Doesn't get great reviews, but thought I'd give it a try anyways hoping it might improve my timeliness :) It leaves no room for creativity, but at this point, I'm not sure I can complain!

Holiday Happenings

 We have been doing lots of festive activities around here.. We decorated our gingerbread house (our 2nd annual... think this will be a tradition!). I don't know why this is so fun, but we really enjoy it! We got our kit this year at Trader Joe's. It was the real deal and a little more technical than our kit from last year, but we succeeded! The boys did all the decorating, Jonathan does assembly, and I just maintain order. 










We also went to get our tree. For the past several years, we have cut down our tree which is a very FUN tradition! But, we had to let that go this year b/c Myles had been very sick. It didn't seem right to make him trek out into the cold and rain... so we postponed but the day we went he still was not 100%. No problem. We can be flexible, so off to the local seller. We still had a lot of fun and it was a beautiful day for tree picking!

Jonathan insisted that I take this shot of the van. Not sure why... I think he has a bit of Clark in him, seriously, makes me laugh sometimes! I love how you can be married for 10 years, and still find out new things about each other!!








The boys trimmed and hauled in the tree. We don't have many decorations. But I love it that way... it's very hard to get attached to an "expectation" of a tree when we only have a few store bought ornaments combined with some homemade items. Every year our box grows and that makes it really fun to open up and see what we have accumulated from the year before. The boys love looking at 'their' ornaments. I LOVE this time of year... and I love their ages!! 6, almost 4, and 1.5... so full of excitement of the whole season!

We ended that evening with Wyatt's preschool Christmas program. Very short and simple, but very sweet. He was excited to be on stage and loved dressing up!! It was also fun to see Henry sit and watch Wyatt. I think it was one of the first times that Henry had to watch Wyatt... it's usually the other way around. He was very supportive and excited!!












All in all, a great wknd!! And it has been fun to build the excitement of the season in the boys as well as always reminding them WHY we're excited. It's so difficult in this world to keep it all straight b/c it gets so mixed in together. But this is such a wonderful time of year to point them to Jesus with every activity. We read the Legend of the Candy Cane and then did a craft activity with it. A beautiful way to take a symbol they see all of the time and point them back to Christ.

Ok, off to make dinner... Happy Holidays!

Berry Family Christmas (pt. 2)

*Meg and Tanya*

*Tabby and Beth*

*Tammy and Kate*

*Chris, Ryan, and Devon*

*Shannon and Scott*

*David and Dad*

*Ryan and Devon*

*Sick Myles... *

We had a great time at the adult Christmas in the evening. We enjoyed dinner, drinks, and gifts, and just plenty of time to talk! Lots and lots of fun!

Berry Family Christmas (pt. 1)

*a handful of cousins*

*Henry receiving his gift from Greyson*

*Henry giving his gift to RisceAnn*

*Wyatt receiving his gift from Jake*

*Wyatt giving his gift to Jake... they had each other!*

*FOOTBALL!!*

 


On Thanksgiving weekend, we celebrate Christmas with the Berry side of the family. It is one FULL Saturday!! The past few years, my dad has started a logging tradition... the guys join out at his house on Friday morning and enjoy coffee/donuts/chainsaws! I think it's a good time... they are all really sore by Sunday! On Saturday morning, we have the kids party which includes a gift exchange and a traditional flag football game. The football started a few years ago... we have so many boys! And they're all getting old enough now for this sport... and they LOVE it! Saturday afternoon there is a break in the action, all the kids go to babysitters, and we all join back together as adults. It's a really nice time of sharing food, fun, and gifts. We look forward to it every year!!