2015...Part Three

Sorry for taking a couple of days break from this - I had the first two posts prescheduled, thought I would get the third one done, and I never did...so, let's just jump back in!
August meant back to school:

One in high school, three in middle school!

I always love trips to the farmer's market around harvest time:

We stopped at an awesome pizza place afterwards:

Football season started back up:

We took the kids to Shiloh National Park (I love taking little trips like these and making history come to life for our kids!)

My hubby and I put in some work updating our front porch (this is the before, as we were just getting started):

We painted the shutters:

 (we them from a faded rose red to a rich navy blue)

The twins went to their first middle school dance:

 I got to chaperone, so I got pictures inside:

This is the porch mostly finished-still on our agenda to paint the floor and redo the mailbox...

The bigs got glasses:

September meant 8th grade recognition night for Evan and the other football players/band members/cheerleaders:

 More fundraising for the eighth grade trip:

And we gave our mailbox a makeover:

Time for fall decor, because it's my favorite:

October brought fall break, which meant 4H camp for these two:

And Evan turned 14-with donuts instead of cake:

We decided it was time to paint the porch- but we hated the color after we put it on (Renovation Realities!) Way too orange!

 So. We started over with gray:

 Here's how it looked when we finished:

 Caitlin wanted burgundy hair, so we went for it. It took 3 boxes of dye, and two dye sessions:

Basketball started up for the twins:

The twins decided to stay home and pass out candy (and torture the cat a bit...but it is cute!):

They also carved pumpkins:

And made cupcakes:

In November, we went to Jocelyn's Baby "Sprinkle":

And we shared a wonderful Thanksgiving with family (and way too much food):

And in December,

We had more basketball:

We put up lights and decorations:

Both inside and out:

Did some more fundraising:

Our elf, Snowflake, came back for a visit:

We had an amazing English Christmas dinner; Prime Rib, roasted green beans and shallots, yorkshire pudding, butter, garlic, and shallot roasted potatoes. Mmmm.

 This Christmas break, I had a great time with the kids! Cecilia made awesome pancakes:

I worked on some past December Daily albums:

We made gingerbread cookies:

And we played board games. My favorite was Scattergories!

And, that wraps up 2015! Onward to 2016!

2015, Part Duex...

Moving on to April...
There was a career fair at the twins' school-Cecilia went as the president, Natalie went as a computer programmer:

We celebrated Easter Sunday at church:

My azaleas bloomed:

We had the basketball end of year party at a local swimming pool, for the kids' privacy, I'll just post a photo of the trophies:

And, I started my job! I still love where I work and the people that I work with:

The twins passed the threshold for Advanced Reader points and earning a Nook e-reader (650 points). It was the second year for Cecilia, so she was given a Barnes and Noble gift card instead.

And, the twins had their spring concert:

Along with solos for each of them-

May was a busy month for us, starting with the Strawberry Festival (Evan got to ride in the Humboldt Utilities Bucket Truck):

Mother's Day rolled around, and the girls made me breakfast and a pencil bouquet:

And went to church with me:

 The twins rocked out their school's Science fair. Natalie won first place, Cecilia won second. So proud of them!

 Evan got to go to Nitro Circus with Nate (a long time best bud, cousin):

 Caitlin got her class ring:

The twins had their 5th grade graduation (I made the door sign):

The fifth graders walked out to "Uptown Funk, and I wish I had a video. Natalie hammed it up, and it was so cute and funny!

The kittens were finally ready to leave their mama, so we tried a couple of them out to see which one got along with our dog the best:

We settled on this one, and called her "Bambi":

I got to tag along for the twins final elementary school field trip, to the Discovery Park of America:

 Caitlin turned 16-I can hardly believe it!

And I had the opportunity to photograph the Warrior Half Marathon:

June meant a lot of senior photography, so not too much photography at home. We did a lot of planning for updating the front of our house a little bit:

The twins brought home flowers from an AR trip to the high school's ag science building, and the sunflower bloomed on our back deck. Unfortunately, the squirrels feasted on it after about a day.

July started off with some fantastic bbq served up by my hubby. He's the best at smoking meat!!

The rest of my July was a whole lot of work:

And late night crafting for my sister's baby shower:

Washington Trip fundraising: 

Our Anniversary was on the 20th, and we came home to a little treat from the kids:

The shower came around, and was a smashing success (if I do say so myself):

This post has run a bit long, so I will come back tomorrow with more of our past year.