Christmas

It is August, and not at all the appropriate time to be thinking about Christmas, but I was uploading pictures from my camera, and I found some pictures from a couple of Christmases ago. They made me think of all the Christmas pictures we have taken over the past (almost) twelve years, and since this is my blog and I'm the only one who reads it anyway, I figured I would compile all those Christmases into one place. Even if it is August. And the first day of a new school year. And actually I should be posting those pictures instead.

2006

This is roughly our first Christmas together. We didn't actually own a camera until after Christmas had passed, but this is close enough. I think you can see the Christmas tree behind us if you squint, but don't let that fool you. We left that poor tree up until February.

 Also not really a Christmas picture, but it's in November 2007. This is actually the ONLY family picture I could find from that time period. We look awful, because we were brand new parents and didn't know how easy having only one child is. 

 2008

 2009

 We look tired, because we were tired.

2010

2011

 We had just moved into our first house, and since we went to Colorado for Christmas, we might not have even had a tree.

2012

2013

 I could not find a complete family Christmas picture from this year, but it's the year we moved halfway across the country, and I know I was pretty stressed at this time. That's not even our Christmas tree the kids are standing in front of. 

2014

2015

2016

I actually do have a family picture in front of our Christmas tree for this year, this one is just so much cuter.

2017

I thought I had a pretty consistent picture taking tradition, but looking through them all together, I can see it's pretty hit and miss. And we didn't even start taking these pictures until 2008. Oh well. It's still fun to see how our family has grown over the years. I can't wait to see what our 2018 picture will look like!

Henry, who is four, wanted to write a blog post with me. This is what he had to say:
"I love to play with my mom. I love my mom. Sebastian is my frenemy. My heart is beating when mom is here. I love mom."
He said he needed a picture to go with it, and this is what he chose. :)

Treasures

Today Ivan and I went for a walk. Normally I would say that Oklahoma fails at fall colors. Dismally. In fact this is the first autumn that we have been here that I have not felt like I completely missed the season. I'm not sure whether there really is something different about this year, or whether I've just gotten used to seeing a lot more brown, but I have loved every pop of color I've come across, and I'm convinced that this has been the best fall yet. Just look at this tree!

It was a beautiful morning, in a beautiful place. Recently I've really learned to appreciate the beauty of Oklahoma. It is rather different from where I grew up, but I really do like it here. There may not be mountains or tall trees, but you can't argue with that sky, and prairie grasses make a music of their own.



I was a little early to pick up Henry at school, and his class was outside on the playground. He saw me pull in and ran to the fence, jumping up and down, waving and shouting, "Hi, Mom! Hi!" Pretty soon there was a whole swarm of four-year-olds at the fence saying, "Hi, Henry's mom!" I said hello to them all and gave Henry a high five, but before I could walk away to wait on the bench by the school entrance, a little boy poked a piece of bark through the fence for me. "Here you go," he said. "It's school bark." Of course that meant I received several more treasures as other classmates joined in the gift giving. I was even given a tattered leaf.


This was probably the best moment of my whole week and made me so happy in ways I cannot express. I loved how happy Henry was to tell his friends, "That's my mom!" I loved the innocent generosity of children who were immediately ready to accept me as a friend.

Barak's baptism

Barak turned eight this month, and so he was baptized. :) I think he was excited about it, and I hope he felt how loved he is. Isaac's parents were able to visit us for a couple of days, and we took them to the science museum in OKC and the splash pad in town. I can't wait for our family reunion next summer, and now I'm trying to figure out another scheme so we can see them again sooner...

How we pretend we are:

                                 The real us:
    

The first day of school

School started a couple of weeks ago. I was not quite ready for summer to end, but also I was.

Lizzy started 4th grade

Barak is in 3rd grade

Sebastian is in 1st grade

Henry started Pre-K. 

And Ivan is my only friend home with me in the morning. We have a good time, just the two of us, but sometimes we miss the little crazies who are at school.

Giant Sequoia

While we were in California we were able to spend a couple of days with Isaac's brother and his family. I wish we could have stayed longer. They took us to the Trail of 100 Giants, where we saw the most enormous trees. I think my soul needs big trees and the ocean. Besides my family, I think these are the things that I miss most about the west coast.

We need to convince some of our siblings to move out to Oklahoma. We need cousins nearby!

Robber's Cave

Also this summer we were finally able to go camping at Robber's Cave. This has been on our list of things to do since we moved here, and I'm glad we finally did it. Camping in Oklahoma is very different from where I grew up. We did not need to pack any sweatshirts or long pants. The campfire was strictly for cooking and was extinguished before we were even done eating, because it was a little unbearable to sit next to it. We brought fans for the tent at night, and Isaac still couldn't sleep. We were covered in sweat all. the. time. However, there were not too many mosquitos, and the hiking was beautiful. On our second night there a thunderstorm rolled in and dumped quite a lot of water on us, but our tent was perfectly dry on the inside, and the storm brought the temperature down just a bit.

Lizzy loved crawling up these rocks.

Sebastian refused to stand with everybody else, so he looks like he's creeping up behind the tent. I promise we let him sleep inside.

I almost forgot the chickens! There were three chickens that must have lived at the campground, because they kept walking through our campsite, inspecting everything. I hope they didn't get sick from all the cheetos they found on the ground. Ivan was completely delighted and chased them every chance he got.

Isaac and I are terrible at taking selfies. I don't think we've ever taken a picture together where we both look like normal people. But maybe that would be expecting too much...