A Snowy Day for Catching-Up

These last several weeks have been quite full! We have had a wonderful time with family and preparing for the Holidays.

Michael took Noah on an adventure in the woods, off our nearby Monticello trail.

Noah and Ethan are having so much fun being brothers.

We had the joy of hosting a bunch of our teammates from Peru before Thanksgiving! Amanda and Jeremy Ross and their girls, Kayla, Bella, and Janna visited for a couple days along with Susan Crenshaw and Anne Langhorne. It was so much fun to reminisce about our time together in Lima and great for Noah to see old friends!

Noah and Bella are 3 weeks apart in age and Janna and Ethan only 10 days!

After our Peru reunion, we left for North Carolina to have Thanksgiving with Baba and Papa.

Cindy, Marlea, and Harmony joined us too!!
We all explored my uncle John's boat that Dad is helping to refinish. They're making good progress!

Proud Papa on his tractor. Now every time Ethan sees a tractor, he says, "Papa!"

Cousins!

There were 13 of us altogether!

Harmony read to Noah before bed.

Noah got his ride with Papa too.

We had a great visit with Michael's parents and Matthew & Kerry after being in NC.

We picked out a Canaan Fir from Stonehearth Tree Farm, near Culpepper, VA.

Noah and Gray got to decorate sugar cookies this week.

Michael and Noah went to NOVA this past weekend and got to visit Union Station with Grandma and Grandpa. It's fun to see a similar picture if you look back to December 2006's blog posts.

And today was our first Snow Day!

We're lucky enough to have Grandma snowed-in with us!!

We ventured out altogether this morning and walked to Noah's eye doctor's appointment. His eyes continue to improve with his glasses and patching one eye a couple hours a day.
Now we are eagerly anticipating Christmas and even more time to be with family, dear friends, and neighbors. We love this season and all the hope and joy it brings to the darkest days of the year.

October Fun

This month just flew by with all the fun that was packed into it.

As a gift from our family, we had a photo shoot with sweet friend, Eric Kelley, one of Charlottesville's best photographers. What a treat this was. If you want to see the rest of these click below and enter Salvatierra as the password
www.erickelleyphotography.com/events

The boys and I had the chance to visit an adorable petting farm

Noah is living up to his name as an animal lover!

Let us introduce you to Ally. She is a JMU grad and a Trinity Fellow who I get to mentor. She has jumped right into our crazy lives with us!

Had to make a visit to a pumpkin patch. This year it was Round Hill Farm in Culpepper, VA.

Ah, yes our dear Robin Hood...

...and a cute little pup.
(This costume was made for Noah in Peru for a Mother's Day performance.
See May 2008 posts if you want to see Noah in it.)

We had several occasions to dress the boys up in their costumes this year; the All-Saints Fair at church, Mainly Music, and of coarse, Halloween with Grandma! Just before she arrived our town was visited by a rather important national figure - here we are in line waiting to see if we would get into the Pavillion to see President Obama.

Even though it was late by the time we picked Mom up from the train station, the boys just couldn't wait to read a bedtime story with her.

The next morning we carved pumpkins with our neighbors, Clay, Sara, and Knox Daniel.

Then, we enjoyed a trip over the mountain to visit our Alma Mater.

Some friends gave us 4 season tickets that they couldn't use, so we got to see the game!
Sadly, JMU lost to UMass.

But we were there to see the marching band anyways. (c:

Ethan really got into Halloween this year and had fun sorting through the candy with Noah.

Another fun trip up to Carter's mountain with Grandma!

Noah's newest favorite past time - writing.

My first ever attempt today at canning, with a lot of help from Jen Sauder, a friend from Bible Study. It yielded 9 pints of fresh, unsweetened, tastiness to be enjoyed in months to come.