Christmas Card Pictures

We went to a park by our house to try and get a Christmas card picture. Unfortunately it got dark too fast, but we still got a couple of good ones.

Christmas at Grandma's house-- December 13th

We went to Utah for a week at the beginning of December. We dropped off the kids for a couple days and went to California to check out areas to possibly move to when we are done with the residency. Then we came back to Utah and celebrated Christmas at my mom's with all of my family.

The Deckers

Edie and Ivy

Lane and Andy

Ivy and Grandma Great

Marc and Bryan

Wrestling with Uncle Bryan

Ivy even got to see Kelsi. BFFs

Christmas tree

This year we went to a Christmas tree farm and chopped down our own Christmas tree. It was so much fun! They pick you up in a horse drawn sleigh (a trailer, really) and take you out into the field where the trees are 6-12 feet tall. They tell you about the different types of trees you can choose from and give you a saw. Then you go and find yourself the perfect tree. Jude sawed us down a cute little blue spruce. They give you hot chocolate and hot apple cider. What a great tradition! I hope that wherever we live we can continue this one forever. We loved it!

Ivy's Birthday on Thanksgiving

Ivy's party with her friends

Thanksgiving dinner at the Marshall's (our neighbors across the street)

Our First Snow!

Pretty exciting, I guess. It didn't stay around for long, but it was fun while it lasted.

Halloween

Carving pumpkins

Our ward Halloween party

Ivy's party at school

Ivy and Julia

Halloween party at the Crutchfields

The costume contest winner--Cory aka Nacho Libre

Yes, you are looking at 4 men in spandex

The Figure Skaters-disturbing, really

Fall in Philly

Fall is so beautiful here! The leaves on the trees are amazing. I is hard to get a photo that really shows how great it looks, but here are a couple of tries.

Grandma comes to Philly

In October my mom came out to see us. It was so fun to show her our new place and some of the things that we have enjoyed here. We took her apple picking at Highland Orchards and to Amish Country. We picked a lot of apples this time and made apple butter from my great-grandmother's recipe. My mom loved Amish Country. We stopped by a road-side stand and bought sticky buns and relish from the Amish girl who I met on our last trip at the pretzel shop.

Apple Picking

We went apple picking at Strawberry Acres Farm at the end of September. They pick you up in a sawed off school bus and take you out into the orchard where you can pick apples. The trees are pruned so that even the kids can reach. At this time of year, we had a choice between Cortland or Red Delicious apples (cortland were the best). It was beautiful country and we had a great time tasting and picking.