Christmas Time

We had a great Christmas season celebrating our Savior's birth, hanging out with family and friends and heading south to enjoy some warmer weather!

 

It's a tradition that my friend Alissa and I always make Christmas sugar cookies together. This year we decided we better let the kids join in on our fun! Then we did dinner and exchanged gifts...Chris and Alissa hit a home run this year and the kids LOVED everything! Thanks sweet friends!

 

 

Then we celebrated with Mike's dad. Kara is so into baby dolls and finally got a baby doll and stroller for Christmas!

 

 

What's it going take to get a good pic of these kids?!? I love how the boys look like a choir singing in the middle pic! :)

 

 

No seriously what's it going to take?!?!

 

 

 

Obviously something was very funny!! Probably me yelling at them for not smiling right just made them laugh harder! :)

 

 

I love this pic! And I kind of want a big, puffy, soft jacket just like Kara's!

 

 

On Christmas day we headed to Tucson with my parents. Mike's aunt and uncle were out of town on a cruise and so graciously let us use their house! We were out of cold weather and snow so immediately we headed to the parks!

 

 

Who says parks are just for kids?? My mom and I couldn't resist getting on this spinning toy and seeing how many times we could go around without putting our feet down. It wasn't easy I might add, we had to keep those legs swinging!

 

We had a blast just hanging out with my parents and getting to enjoy some beautiful weather! But all good things must come to end so it was back to freezing Flagstaff we went!

Polar Express

There's a nearby town that has the Grand Canyon Railway. Every year around Christmas time they do a Polar Express train. We've been wanting to take the kids and thanks to some sweet friends, who gave us tickets, we were able to take the kids this year. Grammy and Papa came too so that was really fun. So we put on our pajamas and headed for the train.

 

At first when we got there it felt like we were the only adults wearing our robes! It seemed like everyone was giving us funny glances (they were just jealous of how comfy-cozy we were!) but then we started to see some other adults in their pj's too!

 

 

We are all bundled up because it was REALLY cold this day! But the cold made it super fun and we were all ready for the hot cocoa and cookie on the train.

 

 

I absolutely love this pic of Mike and Jason!

 

 

We all had so much fun!!! We don't do Santa at our house, not because we don't think its right but neither Mike or I grew up doing it in our houses.  So we've talked with the boys about Santa and how it is something fun that some families do. So this polar express train takes you to the "North Pole" and we pull up and they have Santa standing in a sleigh waving. Well, Trenton yells, "he is real!!" It was SO funny! With all the other kids on the train I was not about to yell "No he's not!" :) So on the drive home we chatted more about Santa and then we talked some about Jesus and celebrating His birth.  So Trenton says, "Mom, I wish Jesus came down and put presents under our tree." I love that kid! Sometimes I ask the same question instead of truly grasping that Jesus IS our present! What a fun night we had!