Festival of Lights

For the second year in a row, we've gone to the Cincinnati Zoo for the Festival of Lights. We had a perfect night to go with temperatures in the high 50's. The lights were bright & beautiful and the animals were fun to see, as always! The girls were mesmerized by the lights. This display of lights were flashing in rhythm to the music from Mannheim Steamroller. Very neat!

Claire is over her fear of "puppets" as she refers to them. Anna, well... not so much!

The cutest thing we saw all night was undoubtedly the baby cougars. They're only two months old and oh so playful and ADORABLE!

Petting the goat and sheep!

The live nativity!

On the train!

Would be perfect if ONLY Anna was looking at the camera!

We rode on the Carousel a couple times!

Once again... Anna.

Beautiful lights!

The elephants are always entertaining. Of course, the highlight for the girls was watching the elephant relieve himself (it was quite a sensory overload).

What a FUN night!

Gingerbread House

The girls just made their annual gingerbread house at Grammy & Papa's! It's a fun Christmas tradition. It's hard to know whether they really like decorating the gingerbread or just like chowing down on candy! Either way, it's a fun time and the house always turns out so cute!

The masterpiece!

McDowell Thanksgiving

As I mentioned in my last post, we spent Sunday with my family for our Thanksgiving. It's great splitting up the holiday over two days. It's hard eating two wonderfully delicious meals in one day. We truly enjoyed our time with our families. There is no place we'd rather be than with family!

Nuna, Papa & the girls!


Love my mom's mantle and sleigh with Santa!

My mom's lovely Thanksgiving table!

The "little girls" table (plus Connor!!!).

The "big kids" table (minus Connor... remember, he was with the little girls!). Clearly, Jillian wasn't in the mood for pictures!

The "adult" table (and that term is used lightly since my brothers are sitting there!).

What a fun holiday! Thanks to both sets of parents for preparing a yummy meal for us and always making things so festive!

Cutting Thanksgiving

We had two Thanksgivings this year. We spent Thanksgiving day with the Cuttings and Sunday with the McDowell side of the family. We had a wonderful time with our family and we hope you were able to relax with family, enjoy delicious food and give thanks to the Lord for all the blessings he gives us!

The girls making dumplings with Grammy! They really enjoy helping in the kitchen.

Dumplings are my FAVORITE! Mmmm!

Our turkeys!

Grammy's beautiful Thanksgiving table!

Papa reading a Psalm from the Bible before dinner.

Beth & Steven's first Thanksgiving as a married couple (with Buddy!).

I just adore this photo so I had to post it again! Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving

Enter his gates with thanksgiving, into his courts with praise. Give thanks to him and praise his name!

Psalm 100:4

Anna's Birthday Card

Starstruck Birthday 5x7 folded card

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Pheasant Hunting 2010

Ben went on his annual pheasant hunting trip today. He took our nephew Connor as well his best friend Philip, his Dad and a friend from work. They had a fun, manly bonding time! I know Ben looks forward to it all year long so I am always glad that he's able to go!

Group shot with their kill.

Decorating with Grandma

We went to spend the afternoon with my Grandma last week and while we were there, we decided to help her decorate for Christmas. The girls had fun helping put ornaments on the tree. We always have fun at Grandma McDowell's house!

Claire has learned from her big cousins that Grandma makes the BEST milkshakes. So now every time we go over, she asks for a vanilla milkshake!

Grandma's helpers!

They really got into it!

Sweet memories!

Possum Creek

We have really been trying to enjoy the unseasonably warm weather we've had in November. We took the girls along with Grammy & Papa to Possum Creek for some outdoor fun! They were having a corn exhibit and the girls enjoyed using a pre-Civil War corn press. The cracked corn and the cobs were then used make food and bedding for the animals at the farm. Very neat!

Grammy & Papa walking with the girls through the scare crows!

Throwing the corn into the corn press. They let the corn dry for 6 months-1 year before using it.

I couldn't believe the strength of little Anna to turn the grinder!

Claire is very task oriented so she loved having a job to do!

Quite a contraption!

My farm girl!

Cracking the corn for feed!

They let the girls have several scoops of the cracked corn so they could feed the animals!

The girls loved feeding the ducks and geese!

Feeding the sheep!

And the donkey!

This goat was like a dog! He let Anna pet and hug him. So sweet!

We can't forget to feed the sweet goat!

We love Rosie the horse! Such a big, beautiful and gentle animal!

We saw these pigs in the spring when they were just tiny little piglets. I think they've been well fed!

We always have to end our trip with some time on the playground!