Fall break goodness and PICTURES!!!

Fall break is starting out quite nicely here with sister snuggles,

Momma making a Thanksgiving shopping list, and the biggest sister practising clarinet.

And, of course, Zachariah is wearing my tennies!

Yes, that's right.  Celestia has decided that she wants to be in band next year, since Anna High School doesn't offer choir, and she's not particularly enjoying drama.

In other news, our family pictures came back, and turned out quite nice, if I do say so myself!  Thanks to Kalie Evelyn for taking such great pictures!  :)

I can't believe it took us having another baby to begin taking yearly family pictures!  It's so worth it to have such beautiful memories captured.  <3

40 lashes with a wet noodle for me!

I know, I know.  My blogging habits have been woefully inadequate this year.  I could make excuses.  I could tell you that Zachariah sees the laptop out and thinks that it's out for him to play on.  I could say that getting the girls transitioned into public school has been a much, much bigger undertaking than I anticipated.  I could easily say that Jonathan has been gone a LOT and I've been struggling to keep my head above water.  I could use studying as an excuse.  All that would be true.  The fact is, however, that if I had really wanted to find time to blog, I could have made the time.  It has been much easier to upload photos directly from my phone to facebook with quick little captions.  So 40 lashes with a wet noodle for me!  I have neglected my blog, and I will try to be a little better about it in the future.  It looks like the last time I posted any pictures here was in July, so here is a very brief synopsis of what we've been doing in the months since then.

August
Celestia and Ana have returned to public school this year.  I cannot begin to describe what an enormous transition this has been for all of us.  The first few weeks, Zachariah looked for his sisters frequently and was considerably more prone to breakdowns.  Our mornings getting the girls out the door look something like this.

September

Ana turned 13!!!  I am now officially a mom of two teenage girls!  AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Ana's first school dance on her last night of being 12!

 

Being silly outside the Rainforest Cafe.

October

Jonathan and Zachariah had birthdays!  I seriously can't believe our baby is TWO!

Zachariah and I went to the Dallas Zoo together to celebrate his birthday and had SO much fun!

Playing in the water at the zoo.

Yum, birthday cake!

Daddy was out of town for both his birthday and Z's, so we went back to the zoo!  :)

November

Hey look, I'm caught up!  We had family pictures taken.  So far, I've only seen the preview, but I think good things are to come, don't you?

Everyone should go check out Kalie Evelyn's page right now!  She is a recent graduate of our homeschool co-op and is starting her own business.  If you're in north Collin County, I highly recommend having this young lady take some photos for you!