This week we decorated the tree...

Just look at the mischievous look Walker has... trying to get rabbit ears on his sister when I take the picture... he's such a boy!

We all have our "tree jobs" Stewart fluffs the tree, I take out all the ornaments from boxes and put hooks on them, and the kiddos put the ornaments on the tree... this year was the first year that the ornaments weren't just on the lower branches... hah!  The kiddos did an awesome job spacing them out... in the past Walker's favorite trick was to put all his favorite ornaments on one branch!

The finished tree... we had a few more "blackouts" on the tree this year and since we absolutely love this tree I think we will rewire new lights on it next year.  Absolutely my favorite place to be in the house... with a cup of cocoa... and just the tree on... love it!!

We are in full swing of Basketball games for Ainsley...

She has come a long way in a short amount of time... she's the "these are my friends" girl and "I can't be mean and take the ball".  But yesterday she played her little heart out... was setting screens... on the floor grabbing the ball and sticking to her girl during defense.

I'm not going to lie... layups were rough a month ago... painfully rough but now she's got it... she's not counting and stopping to make sure her steps are correct.  Now it's a fluid type motion... Yea!  Proud of her for working hard the past month!!

The best thing about getting up early with this lil' girl...

is that sometimes you get to take in a beautiful sunrise...

Last week Walker had his Cub Scout Pack meeting...

Their pack made $5000 dollars from selling popcorn!!!  So thank you bunches for all of you who made a donation or bought popcorn... the boys will be able to have a wonderful year!  Walker earned a Lego kit for selling over $600 and the pack also paid for his dues, he will also receive the boys life magazine (who hoo!)

This night he also got his first achievement as a Webelo... hence the W on his face.

Today we had our first taste of winter...

You can tell we aren't quite ready... Ainsley's snow pants were too small to wear and she's wearing my boots.  Walker's pants will squeak out another year and but he had to wear Daddy's really big boots... but a fun time is currently being had.

I'm off to make warm cookies and hot cocoa for when they come inside!

Currently this is the rage at middle school... rubber band bracelets.  She loves to make them... sell them and wear them! This whole outfit is just her... a skirt with leggings... cropped jean jacket... bright colored socks and an arm full of bracelets!

I love to see Luna follow exactly what Willow does... and leaves are the "potato chips" for dogs!

She also loves laps...

and Mama's slippers for naps!

A few weeks back this cutie..

decided to help out a friend by practicing choir songs with them on the bus to and from school everyday.  When it came time to try out for the auditions her friend backed out... she was just too nervous. But Ainsley decided she'd still try out... so very proud of her... it takes guts to stand in front of your peers and be so vulnerable.  She's much braver than I ever was... especially at only age 11.

While she didn't get a solo... us parents thought she was waaay better than those you did get one ( ya we're biased)  but that's life... she was fine with it... is still happy and confident enough to try out again for the next choir performance.  So very proud of her!! Here she is at her very first middle school choir performance...

The Luna story all began when we started talking about Willow needing a pal... someone to play with... someone to help her not be so overprotective... all the time!

Once the kiddos got wind of our "talks" they talked NON-STOP about getting another dog... especially Ainsley who has turned into quite the animal lover.  She forked over all of her saved up money which was $40 and started pricing out things... a collar, leash, treats.. the works. She was constantly on Petfinder.com every chance she could get.

We had no idea what kind of dog we wanted.. we just knew that we wanted a larger breed and wanted a dog that would have the same amount of energy as Willow.

We knew they would have to come from a shelter so that we could "save a life".  We keep in touch with the shelter where we got Willow and they had posted on Facebook that she had a few animals that needed homes because they didn't have room at the shelter so we contacted her to get more info.

Which led to us to taking a trip last Saturday to check out the dogs.  The shelter was off on their weeks of how old the dogs were so while we were thinking they were about 3 months old... the puppies were actually just 2 months!  Which in puppy time is a big difference!  They were so little! And while us parents were thinking that they were just "too little" the kiddos said that the one named "Cassidy" was the one... they were positively sure that she was the one to join our family.

While the kiddos get bigger in age and accumulate more "stuff" we decided this year that enough was enough and opted to go for the "making memories of a lifetime" present.

Willow has absolutely loved having a pal... at first she wasn't quite sure how to play and since she has a 45 pound weight gain on Luna there were a few "yelps" when she tried to play but ended up standing on her little paws.  By Day 2 though this was the norm...

And while Luna a mere 10 pounds does get dragged around a bit she is fearless and jumps back into playing tug of war.

Which makes for a tired pup and often plops down to rest and quickly zonks out..

Mulan was fine with it all... probably because she's bigger than Luna!!  This was their first meeting...

Mulan did a sniff and then went back to her perch on the couch... no puffy tail or hissing at all.

She has been opting to sleep upstairs with us a night lately... either because it's getting colder or she doesn't want to be awakened when the puppy cries at 5am.

So life is busy... crazy busy and overwhelming to others... but it's a happy full life to us!

Christmas came early for the kiddos this year... meet Luna!  She's a 9 -10 week old border collie mix.

We will have lots of stories to tell when things settle down a bit and this mama can think and type at the same time!  We are a bit overwhelmed with having a newborn in the house again!  But she's pretty sweet and the kiddos are over the moon about having her! Here are a few more pictures of the sweet girl...