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As we have in previous years, we headed to Greenway Farm to cut down our Christmas tree. With the taller ceilings in our new house, we were looking for a taller tree than we've gotten in the past. Fortunately, the farm had lots of very tall (up to 14 feet) white pines for us to choose from. We chose this 10.5 foot tree, which gave us a little wiggle room to trim off when we got it home.

Despite its extra height, it came down pretty easily.

This taller tree hung off the back of the car a good bit. I had to drive very carefully on the way home, given all the speed bumps along the way.

We put the tree in our old tree stand. We've been saying we should replace it for the past year or two, but we never got around to it. As I was tightening down the bolts, the tree tipped and fell with a huge bang. Our sad old tree stand couldn't handle this bigger tree. So, I hurried to Target to get a new stand.

We had one evening free this week to decorate the tree, so we took advantage. Christmas music, lights, ornaments, and two very happy kids.

A lot of ornaments made it onto the bottom of the tree thanks to the maximum reach of the girls. Thankfully, they were happy to let me lift them up to put ornaments a little higher.

The taller tree meant I needed a ladder to put the angel on top, as well as some of the ornaments and lights up top.

We finished with the tree and headed upstairs to give the girls a bath. Right after they got in the tub, Jen heard a crash downstairs. The tree had fallen over - again. We quickly lifted it up to get the ornaments off. Thankfully, only a few of them had broken. We then set it back down while I ran to Home Depot to get another tree stand. This time it is one made of steel and stated to support 12 foot trees.

After putting on the new stand, then putting the lights and ornaments back on, we have a tree. Please stay up.

As all schools seem to do these days, Molly had a costume parade at her school. All the kids march around the blacktop so all the parents can see their costumes. (Leah's preschool paraded around too. See the video here.)

Leah is ready to go with her giant hair. Molly decided to get herself dressed, and we did not realize that she actually had her costume on backwards until we were walking to our neighbors house to start trick-or-treating. Oops!

We joined a bunch of our neighbors at our backdoor neighbors house before starting trick-or-treating. Here are most of the kids who met up to trick-or-treat.

The day after Halloween, Molly and Leah donated 4.5 pounds of candy to Operation Gratitude at our dentist office. The program sends care packages to troops serving overseas.

They also made Thank You cards to send with their candy. They were both eager to draw pictures and tell the soldiers "Thank You for protecting us."

Sunday was our second day of Halloween festivities. We traditionally trick-or-treat Grams's house on Halloween, but given how late Molly gets out of school and the fact that Halloween is a school day, we had to move it up a bit.

We paused for a quick picture with Grams before heading back to church for more festivities.

After a two year hiatus, Trunk-or-Treat was back at our church. Before the treating began, there were some fun activities. Molly's making a spider from two hand tracings.

Leah had a bit of trouble eating the donut at the donut swing. She eventually got a bit, but then decided that was enough and pulled the rest off.

Then it was time to go outside to Trunk-or-Treat. There were lots of great cars with lots of treats. The girls' bags were full by the end.

Between Leah's wig and Pastor Matt's beard, there's a lot of hair in this picture.

Leah ended up winning a prize for one of the best costumes thanks to her giant hair. It's an impressive wig, but especially fun given her little head inside of it.

We kicked off this year's Halloween festivities with our neighborhood's Fall Festival on Saturday. Molly requested that I make her a Belle dress (from Beauty and the Beast). Leah has been talking about being Merida (from Brave) for months, so we borrowed a crazy Merida wig from a friend to complete the look. Leah kept asking, "Why do you keep laughing, Mom?" I just couldn't get over all that hair!

The neighborhood party included a costume parade. Molly and Leah walked hand in hand.

They then decorated some pumpkins,

which included stickers and markers for decorating.

There was also a DJ who did lots of fun activities. Molly did not want to participate in the hula hoop contest, but she did want to play with them after it was over. Yes, she's hula hooping with 4 hoops there.

They had 2 moon bounces - 1 traditional one for those 4 and under, and one obstacle course for the bigger kids. Molly must have gone through this 50 times. She had so much fun!

We're tickled pink
and thrilled to say
It's a Pinkalicious Party for
Leah's 4th birthday!

When Leah requested a Pinkalicious party for her 4th birthday, she and Molly also requested dresses made by Mom. The girls looked through their Pinkalicious books and picked out the dresses to replicate. Leah's dress is inspired by the classic Pinkalicious dress, while Molly's is inspired by the nightgown in Silverlicious.

A Pinkalicious party must include a reading of the original Pinkalicious book.

Leah didn't care for all of our cries of "no peeking" when playing Pin the Cherry on the Cupcake.

The girls decorated pink wands.

And then played Pinkalicious Bingo.

Aunt EA and Uncle Scott continued their tradition of cards including audio. And like before, it's a favorite. Someone else took a video of the same card, if you're interested in what it is.

All eyes on Leah. Well, except JJ.

Leah's wanted some Stompeez ever since Molly got a pair, so she was very excited to get this pair. She actually ended up getting two different pairs for her birthday, and she loves them both.

I love birthday parties just as much as my girls, since it's a creative outlet for me too. :)

We all wore pink for the occasion - even Chad!

JJ made sure Pinkalicious's little brother, Peter, was represented. Apparently JJ had an important call to make (or maybe it's that he loves listening to his daddy's music!).

The My Little Pony purse and wand are just Uncle Scott's size.

The morning of her actual birthday meant more presents - this time from our Alabama visitors. Leah is the very proud owner of this Sofia the First book.

She requested a fancy 4th birthday dinner: grilled cheese sandwiches and cupcakes from Oh, What a Cake! It was nice to have quiet dinner after a busy birthday weekend.

You can see all the pictures from the birthday weekend on Flickr.

We had a wonderful weekend celebrating the wedding of Elizabeth and Scott. Our entire little family participated in the wedding. Chad took many, many photos and thanks to my Dad, we have some pictures from the ceremony too. Here are some of my favorites.

Mommy love at the rehearsal dinner.

The morning of the wedding was a beautiful day on a beautiful estate. On the way to breakfast, we stopped by a gazebo to relax a bit.

Flower toss. I hear this event may be added to the 2016 Olympics.

Leah has not been allowed to wear these white patent leather shoes before now, so she was very excited to be able to put them on.

We're all ready! Not sure what Leah's excited about here, but she sure is cute.

The ceremony.

The first dance.

Molly had been asking all day when the dancing would start. She was disappointed that we had to eat dinner first before the dancing began at the reception. So, of course, she was ready to get out on the floor as soon as we could.

The girls couldn't resist the opportunity to dance with Aunt EA and Uncle Scott.

Leah was dancing with Aunt EA to an oldie, when the DJ changed the song to a newer hip hop song. EA put out her arms and dipped low, and Leah didn't miss a beat before matching Aunt EA's new dance. It was adorable.

Leah took some breaks, but Molly couldn't get enough dancing. Eventually she was adopted by the bridesmaids as part of their dance circle, which she loved.

Molly made it all the way through the reception (including the last song), but Leah couldn't quite make it. She tuckered out on Grampa toward the end of the reception.

You can see all our pictures from the wedding weekend on Flickr.

This afternoon we can drop the "Almost" from his title, but we didn't miss the opportunity to celebrate Scott's big 30th birthday last weekend.

Aunt EA surprised Scott with this awesome TARDIS cake from Oh, What a Cake!.

They wanted Scott to see the cake in its perfection, so Aunt EA held the candles instead of letting them break the surface of the beautiful cake.

We headed to Atlanta this weekend to attend Mike and Mary's wedding, which featured Molly as the flower girl. We flew in on Friday and then headed to the church for the rehearsal. Molly was very excited.

Not only did we get to join in the wedding festivities, we also got to see cousins. Molly and Leah were thrilled when Emmie showed up.

The rehearsal dinner was held in a great outdoor space, and included yummy barbeque from Jim 'N Nick's. After dinner, Brian (Mike's dad) made sure to embarrass Mike with a walk through his life so far.

They also had some fun stuff for kids of all ages, including these foam swords.

There were also quilt squares that guests could sign or decorate, which Jan (Mike's mom) plans to put together for the bride and groom.

A bunch of cousins. They cross generations and don't include others, but I believe the one thing they have in common is that they were all unmarried (at least for the next few hours).

Our little flower girl on the day of the wedding, just after putting on her dress and having her hair braided.

I made the majority of Molly's dress in March, but finally brought out the machine again last week (after packing it away while selling the house) to finish the dress for Saturday's wedding. Mary sent the sash to match the bridesmaid dresses.

The key skill required for being a flower girl is patience. Molly was outstanding in this regard. Here she is patiently waiting for pictures to begin before the wedding.

Molly posing with the bride and groom.

Each bridesmaid had a bouquet with a different color of daisy. Molly was very excited that her bouquet had flowers of all the colors of the bridesmaids.

When Molly was in the picture, people would often try to get her to smile. So, when she was done being in pictures, she decided to help the photographer out in getting others to smile. She made an excellent assistant.

The four of us, ready for the wedding to start.

Final instructions before heading down the aisle.

Here comes our little flower girl.

She made it. Now we just need the bride.

Molly did a great job standing still and paying attention at the front for the entire ceremony. She even laughed at the pastor's jokes.

After the wedding picture with cousins and grandparents.

Lots of flower girls across the generations. Anne was Susan's, Michelle and I were Anne's, Maggie was Michelle's, Maddie was mine, and Molly now joins the group.

In addition to the wedding cake at the reception, they also had blue velvet cupcakes (because red velvet just doesn't work with Auburn and Georgia Tech grads!). Molly, of course, mostly focused on the icing.

Leah caught the ear of her Uncle J.

And finally, a bubble send-off for Mr. and Mrs. Batson!

Grammy's Mother's Day present from us was a jar featuring artwork by Molly. She originally drew the artwork on a mug with Sharpies and we baked it, but that was a dismal failure, so this was the backup plan.

Grammy looks right at home reading the card to Leah. As a retired school teacher, I'm sure she's done this quite a bit…

We gave Grams an invitation to tea at Tea on the Tiber in Ellicott City. This is the moment she realized that EA had put a phony event on her calendar to ensure she was available to go.

The next weekend, we all had a great time catching up at afternoon tea. It was fun to try many different teas, but Grams's choice of acai berry tea was the winner. Next time, I want to try afternoon tea at Moulin de Paris in Pasadena.

We went down to St. Mary's College of Maryland to see Aunt Caroline graduate on Saturday. We sat so far back, and outside the covered seating, that all we could see were the silhouettes of the graduates. Thanks to Chad's photography, these pictures were like seeing Caroline graduate for the first time.

Going in for the shake and the diploma.

Congratulations Aunt Caroline! You've just graduated from college with more honors than anyone else in your family (Major, 2 minors, Summa Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa). Well done.

Big smiles for a happy day!

Hooray!

The Sellers family.

Caroline and Charles, very decorated.

After graduation, we went out to lunch at Nicolletti's (which was excellent). They also had a kid's play area, where Molly found this hat and thought it went well with her smocked dress.

A quick picture before we headed back to Caroline's apartment for the most furious 2 hours of packing imaginable (sorry, no pictures of packing).