First snow, sledding, and a snowman

Last year, we had a couple school days cancelled for snow before Thanksgiving, but I haven't minded easing into the snowy season a bit slower this year.

Saturday, we had our first snowfall and the girls were SO excited.

Camryn waking up Saturday morning - first reactions to the snowfall.

Playing on the back deck

Sledding - so many giggles, and SO much work for me hauling them back up the hill, and getting them going with a running start each time (there wasn't a ton of snow, so it was a bit hard to get started :)).

Taylor was aiming a snowball at me while taking these pictures...stinker :)

And something that I have never done with the girls is make a snowman - but the snow was PERFECT packing snow and made it easy to make one!

Curious what winter will be like THIS year...hopefully a bit more mild and less snowy!

November Randoms - car accident, CrossFit, no cavities, conference for Tay, the start of Christmas!

At the very end of October, I was heading home from the gym, and watched a person run a red light, hit a truck in the intersection, which then crashed into the front of my vehicle. It was one of those frustrating moments where you watch it happen, and there is nothing you can do to prevent it!
Luckily, two weeks later I got the Pilot back - good as new. :) Taylor was concerned about if they would have "black parts" to fix it. ;)

My favorite way to start the day continues to be getting a good sweat in with these people.
This coach has me SO close to getting a ring muscle up!

 And I love my 5:45am chats with this girl

And the picture above was a Friday morning fun picture where I was wearing my new "Buddy the Elf" shirt I got - it says "I just like to lift. Lifting is my favorite." :-)

The girls had a sleepover at Mem's house for two days this past weekend, and I got lots of fun pictures while they were gone.

And then when I picked them up, they slept almost the whole way home. Mem's lake house = tired out ladies from all the fun. :)

Just a couple of random pictures of the little ladies. ((Love))

The girls are getting so big, so much older in so many ways. One way that has been a HUGE difference from when they were young was our most recent dentist visit! Taylor was so hysterical her first two visits when she was little that they didn't even get to clean her teeth. And then in the spring we had Cam's first visit with Tay. Cam had to sit on my lap, but at least both girls got their teeth cleaned. But THIS time, both girls went to their own chairs, got their teeth cleaned, and Tay even had her first xrays. Whew! So much easier now!

This was them watching the train go by on the track overhead in the waiting room - they were pretty excited about this, which probably helped the visit start off smoothly!

Speaking of getting older, Taylor has started working hard at her sight words. We practiced and practiced her baseball words, and she was SO excited when she passed this first list!

Her drawing and coloring has also come pretty far - her drawing of Rudolph!

We had Taylor's parent-teacher conferences - my first time being on the parent side of the table!
Bottom line, we are going to work on some math concepts and name writing, she can sometimes be a bit of a daydreamer when instructions are being given, but she is a rock star in terms of behavior and being a friend to others in class.
Here is her self assessment

This part cracked me up.... "what is hard for you in school?"....

A peek at her report card so far

And a writing sample. This kid loves the movie "Inside Out". I LOVE how she sounded out so many of the sounds in the words as she wrote!

We are very proud of our Kindergartener!

And another part of the start of November is the START of the holiday season in this house! On November 1st, just like last year, all the Christmas stuffed animals and toys "flew back from the North Pole" and surprised the girls! They were so excited!

This was a snapshot of the video of them sprinting out of their rooms to discover all the toys by the fireplace.

So excited

Except Cam - who in true 3 year old fashion - her moods change every minute, and she was all of a sudden sad about me wanting to take a picture. Lil drama queen ;)

The girls love to play with the Christmas toys at Meijer, too!

And we do have one little Christmas tree up in the house until we get our real one. The girls love redecorating it over and over!

Bring on the holiday season!

Halloween 2015

Last Halloween, we didn't really do much with the girls. We went to trunk-or-treat at our church, and passed out candy at our house, and that was about it. This year felt MUCH busier around the holiday!

It started with pumpkin carving at Grandma and Grandpa Slagh's house.
Aunt Liz had made cute little bags for each of the cousins.

Carving time...Cam wanted a happy face, Tay wanted a scary face

Cam was all about touching the inside

Taylor....not so much ;)

Chris and Liz were hard at work

And so was cousin Annie :)

The finished pumpkins

Tasty cupcakes afterward

As for costumes this year, Taylor knew she wanted to be Rainbow Dash. Camryn had a hard time making up her mind. :-)
First, she thought she might want to be a black kitty

Then, she spied the white tutu from Taylor's costume last year, and made up her own costume as "Snow Fairy Sparkle". This was her costume she wore the most.

The day before Halloween, I had off from school, so I got to go in and help with Taylor's class party!

We made crafts

Played pin the spider on the web

(A stinker smile from Tay because she peeked ;))

After the crafts, I got to eat lunch with Taylor. It was fun to see what it is like for her in the lunch room. She had a whole routine for how she laid everything out before she started eating. Made me smile. :) It was also fun to listen to her conversation with little friends.

After lunch, I helped Taylor and some of her classmates get dressed and ready for the costume parade.

Mem came to watch, too!

Lots of kids and parents!

The whole class. :)

After Taylor's fun day at school, we picked up Camryn, and headed downtown Zeeland for the trick-or-treating.

Camryn was NOT a fan of any male dressed in any sort of a black costume. She is still not so sure about the scary Halloween costumes.

And then after dinner we headed out AGAIN with just Camryn (Tay was tired, and stayed home with Mem) to check out the fun at Van Raalte farms. They had lit trails, treats, live animals, crafts, and a wagon ride.

Finally, on the actual Halloween day, it turned cold and windy and rainy.

The girls went with me to a Halloween party at the gym, and we hung out with a bunch of Crossfit Lake Effect friends. Cam decided to be Elsa for this party. :)

Tay loved playing ladder ball.

And Cam loved the rings (the Elsa dress got in the way of her fun ;))

Ashley was my partner for the workout that day. :)

The whole group!

That night, Ryan went out with the girls for just a little while on our street - and got completely soaked. :)

It was a BUSY, fun Halloween this year!!