It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

The annual tradition in the Lawlor house is to put up the tree and deck the house the day after Thanksgiving, or at least that weekend.  I love Christmastime and the decorations, food, traditions, and celebrations that go along with it.  This year we even decorated our new puppy!

Locks of Love

Ember has been growing her hair out for almost four years and it's so beautiful, and healthy and shiny and thick.  It has been her distinguishing feature for so long, and she decided to give it up today.  Her best friend donated her hair awhile ago and it's been on Ember's mind ever since then, since her friend's family is dealing with cancer in their family.  Ember's also had family members suffer from cancer and she wanted to do something to show her love and support.  She did the only thing a 12 year old child can do... cut off her hair and give it away to make wigs for those enduring chemotherapy.  I am so proud of her and the choice she made.  She looks so much more grown up with her short, stylish haircut, and now her distinguishing feature isn't her hair, it's her sacrifice and service and love for others.

A weekend away

Austin and I escaped to the cabin this weekend without any kids (or dogs) to celebrate our November birthdays.  It was a great escape, and while we were there we got a two day snow storm that blanketed everything in beautiful white!  We drove up to Pinetop on Saturday night, during the storm (which was exciting in a good/maybe-a-little-scary way) to go to Charlie Clark's, the best steakhouse in Arizona, for our birthday dinner.  Usually it's great to come home from a vacation, but this one could've lasted a little longer.

I worked on my digital scrapbooking while I had some peace and quiet. 

 I got six month's worth totally finished!

We don't have a windshield scraper.  Bummer.

The branches on the apple tree looked really cool covered in snow.

Here's the cabin from the street view.

My hair kept my ears warm :)

School Pictures 2012

It took us awhile to get Ember's photo, since they do things differently at her JUNIOR HIGH (I have a 7th grader... it blows my mind).  Ben is in 5th grade, and Grace is in 2nd.  Also, my scanner isn't working all that great so for Ben & Grace I just used my camera & took a picture of a picture.  They turned out ok, good enough for a blog.

More from our Girls Retreat

I got some more photos this week from our girls retreat in the mountains a couple weeks ago that I wanted to add.  I love these girls, and I had such a good time!

This is my sweet nephew Casen, who came along for the trip.  Noelle got some amazing pictures of him.  In that one on the couch, it's me he's smiling at  :)

Here's us working on our watercolor crafts.  Mine turned out pretty good  :)

Here's a few of the pumpkin jars we made

And a few more pictures of the girls hanging out on the front porch.

I lurve you Cindy!

Halloween

Say Trick or Treat.  I dare you.

 Austin and I went as soldiers this year.  This is how we maintain order in our household, Army like conditions.  We hold rank and the little soldiers fall in line!  Hahahahahaha!