Leaves, Leaves, Leaves!!!

 Last weekend we had a family leaf raking day- let me tell you- we have a lot of leaves!!! I t was fun at first and then reality set in- we-have-a-lot-of-leaves! Even with the help of the blower, it took us all day! But the kids really enjoyed being outside "playing"!

This is the before!

Getting ready to rake

They sat here playing and "digging up the tree" for about 30 minutes!!

Cleaning up "her" yard!

All clean and window boxes planted for the winter!

Front all clean...for a few minutes! As we were taking this picture, admiring our hard work, a big gust wind started blowing leaves, and Maya, with a look of disbelief on her face, shouted, "Wait! Stop! We just cleaned up!"

We looked up to see...all these leaves still have to come down!!!!

Decorating for Santa

 Maya and I trimmed the tree one afternoon while Tate was napping- It didn't take too long since it is a 'petite' tree! This was one of those idyllic moments in time that I will always remember...  Maya was so excited to "decorate for Santa", we had the Christmas music playing in the background, she was very curious about each ornament and she loved putting the angel on top!! Once we were done with tree she turned to me and said, "May I have this dance?" and we danced to Christmas tunes for a while, I started to sing along and she looked up to me and said, "Mom, you don't have to sing"!- reality check!!

Our tree!

Admiring the angel!

Final touches!

After determining that there were no presents under the tree, Maya declared, "I'll be the present!"  She definitely is a gift from God!

Admiring the nativity scene!

Tate saw the tree and started marching and saying, "HO, HO, HO!

Showing Tate the ornaments

Daddy checking out the tree!

Outside decorated!

With lights!