the magic of a look

I love these pictures I took of my children this weekend. As we went to a nice park and an old farmhouse that has been refurbish. There was some fresh snow on the ground and the light was good for pictures. To top it off there was a sweet couple who offered to take one family picture, we all look in the same direction and decent, it is a cherished one for sure.

The children where sporting the Holiday's best. To make it perfect they where in the mood for a little photo shoot.

I just love catching simple moments, smiles, joy of life or pure innocence.

cookie exchange

These delicious Ginger Snap are for a fun girls night out cookie exchange that will take place tomorrow. I am so looking forward to it. Fun times, good food, and good cookies!

These have turned out great and I have made over 8 dozens so I have enough for my exchange and some for the family to enjoy!

This recipe is from my sister in law, she is the best at baking and so miss her this year for the Holiday season =0)

I love to cook and bake and this past week I have made 15 mini loaves of bread to share with friends to local shut in. What an experience that was for my kids. Next week I get to bring a few meals to a couple families and after that the preparations for the great Christmas Feast will begin!

Father & Daughter Ball

Tonight Olivia went out with her daddy to a ball. She was so excited and happy to be on a special date with her father.

We had to put on her special dress, do her hair put on blush and sparkly lip gloss, and perfume. Then a few pictures I took and we can definitely see the adoration she has for her father.

This would be a special night with nice music, good food, and a chocolate fountain. Very special moments shared with just the two of them.

Booties

This is what I saw this week in my kitchen, our youngest one eating under the table those great veggie booties.

All my children loved those nutritious puffed rice and corn with sprinkled spinach, kale and broccoli powder on them.

Well and they are good for you. This little guy could not get enough of them at dinner so he went back and got the back from the kitchen table!

here comes the bride

Here is the new bride and groom!

This past Saturday we had some friends and their children over for an afternoon at our house. What fun we had.

Julien was the only boy besides Xavier amongst 9 girls. Julien was good to partake all their games and plans. Even as to plan and make a wedding. So he dressed up as the groom and presented us his new bride. As you can see they have the glow on their faces.

We had a good laugh and thought all their planning and parties where clever now, we'll see how that goes in 10 yrs!

playing in the leaves

Just played outside to enjoy some warmer weather and beautiful sunshine before it goes and hide from us as the colder months are approaching.

The children raked a big pile of leaves while Xavier loved taking them in his hands to look and playing with them.

Of course I had to take my camera along and take a few pictures, so here are a few favorites.

First tooth

Wednesday November 11 is when we saw Xavier's first tooth come out! Finally after almost 14 months he has a tooth. He is still smiley and happy as ever even though it looks and seems painful to see him bite on things. We can also see that the second tooth is not far behind, so in a week or so, maybe even less he should have another one. That will help him eat real food that is not all soft and pureed all the time!

Our baby is sure growing up.

special

got to do a little scrapbooking last night and this is what I came up with.

I really like it since it is a page of 2 very special people in my life that I treasure! (hope they like it)

Then it is a little different style that was fun to explore something new!

I just remeber taking those pictures on the beach a couple of years ago and thinking how much fun they where having talking, and just sitting together. A simple moment to cherish and remember.

double page

Here is my page for last week. Been working on this one for a long time. and I know it is nothing fancy, just short on time, so I have been working in little burst of time then came a total loss of inspiration. so I finally sat down and decided to finish it one night. One thing that was difficult is the fact that it is a double spread, I am not comfortable making those but since I wanted to use all of those pictures without having to make 3 or 4 different pages I combined into a double layout.

It is finish and I like it now on to a new page, much easier and simpler

another nice fall day

Last Wednesday was a nice day, in the morning we had plans to go to the Children's museum in Grand Rapids, we had a great time. As we came out the weather was very nice and I took my camera for a few urban shots in the center of town. then home for a lunch, as we came home Francois was waiting for us, so we quickly ate and then of to the trails at Hemlocks crossings, we had a great time walking and looking at leaves, and of course a few more pictures. It was a great fun filled day.

sunny autumn afternoon

is the perfect time to go take some pictures. The children where not to happy about it at first but as we drove and got there then it changed as they saw it was a good place to play and explore. I had seen this place hundreds of time or maybe more and never thought much of it until I started to think pictures.... Yes it was a fun place with much potential, of course I was quite limited today since I was by myself but still enjoyed myself and so did the children as we saw nice leaves, grapes, pieces of wood, and play in the water (Olivia).

I had a good time with Julien who was my most cooperative one of the gang today! then I would say Xavier was next and Olivia the challenging one. She did not want to do it and thought it was not fun, oh well it cannot be perfect, but I made the most of it.

I even got to have a few pictures of myself that are not too bad as Julien got a hold of my camera (scary) but he did a good job.

I decided to post a strange picture of Xavier that I do not like but since the chances of catching it again seems pretty slim, I went ahead and put it up.

All in all it was a good time together, of course it would of been better with daddy, so I guess we will have to do it again, maybe tomorrow as he come back home!