I'm combining this Photo Hunt with a regular post today. We went away for a few days this week, and I was going to post about the great family time we had. Since this Photo Hunt is entitled family, I thought combining my posts were appropriate.
My family means more to me than anything. They are my support and encouragement when I need it. They show me unconditional love despite my short-comings, and they bring me so much happiness! God blessed me with a husband and two beautiful children whom I am proud to call my family!!!
We headed to our favorite place...the Yankee Candle Shop. If you've never visited their huge stores, they're like a Disney World for candle and country decor lovers! That's me! Here are Lionel and Sweet-Pea in the museum part of the store.
Lionel made a very cool wax form of his hand. It was creepy in a way (reminded me of 'Thing' on the Addams Family), but cool at the same time. He dipped his hand in liquid Dawn detergent first, then in ice cold water. After the water he dipped his hand into the clear wax several times to get a real solid form. Once it was done, he chose a color for the outside...of course he chose blue. It came out great and we even were able to get it home in one piece!! That gentleman in the background with the tan shirt took several photos of Lionel for Yankee Candle postcards, so maybe one day there will be a postcard of Lionel dipping his hand! Cool!
Lionel and Sweet-Pea posing beside one of the displays. Sweet-Pea wanted to take the reindeer home with her.
I caught her kissing this little deer in the stuffed animal section of the store. She has such a sweet spirit to her...just like that deer!
Here she is telling Santa what she wants for Christmas this year. She talked to him for a while since no one else was around. They hit it off and were talking about the reindeer, going down the chimney and his list of good/bad children. How funny they were together!!
While she was talking to Santa, these two goofballs were trying on every hat in the store! They do this every time we come here and it never ceases to amaze me how much fun they have doing it. Here is Uncle Sam and a friendly Pilgrim.
Lionel is studying about the Medieval period, so this photo was most appropriate. He loves anything to do with Armour, and the battles in England/Scotland/France during the 11th and 12th centuries.
Sitting on the huge bench waiting for it to snow inside. This section of Yankee Candle is really fun. It's dark inside, there are lots of Christmas trees, and it snows every 4 minutes.
Posing outside by the gorgeous flowers is tradition for us. I love comparing the kids photos throughout the years standing in the same spots!
OK, this is exactly why I love my family - they know how to have fun! They aren't afraid to be silly, even in public! Here Edward is 'driving' and the kids are pretending to be scared that they're going to crash. Gotta love their expressions!!
I took another photo of them with Sweet-Pea at the wheel and then Photo-Shopped it into a country scene. What a riot!
Another day we stopped in Old Deerfield, MA to visit their historical homes. I have ancestors that came from this area - one house in particular, so it was exciting to see. Here are the kids standing beside the boarding house sign...hmm...I wonder if it's too late to enroll them! ha ha
Here are a few houses in the historical town of Old Deerfield...simply gorgeous!!!!
Can you imagine living here? This was my favorite home here!
Simple, yet elegant!
This is the home of my ancestors (family) that date back to the 1600's. Awesome! We took a tour of this house to see what it was like. It's the one house that was owned the longest by the same family in Old Deerfield.
This beautiful church is also in Old Deerfield. The family of God is another family I am most proud to be a part of. Being a child of God is the absolute most important thing in my life...the only thing more important than my own family here on earth!!
We got there thinking they'd be pretty big, but we were quite mistaken! These little guys are so adorable!! They are extremely soft and although shy, they will walk right up to you and let you pet them. Fortunately none of them spit on us, but we did see them sneeze a LOT!
I thought I was doing pretty good after my Dad's death until I wrote his eulogy late last night for the memorial service this Saturday. I sat here at my desk and thought about Dad and how much of an impact he truly had on my life. You never really know how much someone means to you until you lose them! That's really sad. We so often take for granted when our loved ones are with us, not realizing that God could call them home without a moment's notice! We knew Dad was dying, and yet it's still so painful.
We have kept up our daily schedule this week but still haven't done much school. Sweet-Pea has been skating and Lionel still has had his violin lessons, but that's pretty much it. We did go on one pretty awesome field trip to an Alpaca farm...I'll post more photos and tell you about it another time. Cody has been
a good boy for us. He has kept us smiling and laughing at all the silly antics he's been up to. He has a new favorite toy...a bouncy orange ball. He goes NUTS over the thing. If it gets stuck under something, he'll stand there forever until someone helps him get it out. Gotta love him!
