North Pole Express

Shane's parents took us all on the North Pole Express at the beginning of December. I was really looking forward to it because none of us had ever been and we love "The Polar Express" book and movie.

We had pizza in our van on the drive up to Heber City, which the kids thought was a super cool picnic.

Kaden, Lexi, Ryley, and Ari ready to ride

 

 

 

I tried so hard to get one good picture of Ryley and Lexi where they were just smiling....

So close

I'll take it! Even with a forced smile from Lexi. haha

 They had homemade cookies, which I assumed would be store bought because that's a TON of cookies to make for everyone. Um, no. They were honestly homemade and REALLY good homemade ones, too. Mrs. Claus said they were her personal recipe and gave me a copy of it. :D

Our entertainment. She was so much fun with the kids.

Can't ride to the North Pole without hot chocolate!

My one complaint about the event is that there is only one bathroom on the train...and it's at the very front...and we were at the very back of the train. It's a 90 minute ride with young kids, people, get another bathroom! Of course, Ari HAD to go potty 2 minutes before Santa was coming. An elf helped us get to the front (which was honestly scary going in between the cars - it was soooo shaky and windy) and back, but Santa was almost through with our car when we got back. So I stole these pictures from Shane's mom.

This last picture is Ari and I with Santa. We made sure she got to meet him. 

But seriously, he was the real Santa. 

He 100% had ME convinced. 

I've never, ever met a better Santa. Amazing. And the best part was that all of the kids had name tags on, which at least Ari forgot about, so every elf we passed on the way to the front of the train would say, "How you doing, Ari? You having a good time, Ari? Need another cookie, Ari?" And every time she was blown away that they knew her name, and then Santa did as well, so it really added to the magic.

Everyone on board got their own Christmas bell with a ribbon tied to it so you can hang it on the tree. It was so much fun! This will definitely be a yearly tradition for us!

Chuckles

Our elf on a shelf, Chuckles (yes, still a super creepy name for him), came back this past Christmas! He wasn't going to, but the kids kept asking if he would, so he changed his mind.

I don't think it's fair that the elf gets to make trouble while the kids are expected to be good, so I decided he would mainly just move positions this time.

A poem Chuckles brought

The kids loved the "magic snow" he decorated with.

These are the only pictures I took the whole time he was with us, but that's because he just moved around the rest of the time. ;)

Getting ready for Christmas!

Shane and I have been ready to decorate for Christmas for the last two months, but made ourselves wait until the Monday before Thanksgiving (we seriously couldn't wait any longer than that). We blasted Michael Buble's Christmas album and went to town!

Shane fluffs while I get the ornaments ready.

The kids helped fluff, too.

Ready, set, go!

Time for the star! See the patience on his face? haha

Tying the tree skirt

Ta-da!!

 The kids and Shane watched a Christmas show so that I could put up the rest of the decorations in peace. ;)

One is mismatched because Ari.

My "mantle" on top of the piano.

I made this years ago and it's showing it's wear and tear, but the kids still adore it.

New this year: a wreath! Finally!

Let the joyous season begin!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

As usual, we had three yummy Thanksgiving dinners!

The first was the Saturday before Thanksgiving at my dad's.

The second was at my mom's the night before Thanksgiving.

Cardboard Natalie and the baby of the family, Christopher.

Jacquelyn and her husband, Gary.

My adorable grandpa and grandma.

I just want you to know that I'm the only one who can get my grandpa to smile with his teeth for pictures. Normally he just grins with his lips together, but he and I started a little inside joke earlier this year (where I treat him like a toddler getting their picture taken) and he always smiles so big for me. He's had a lot of health issues this last six months, so it's always nice to see him really smiling.

Kids table!

Everyone said Cardboard Natalie was looking thin, so we fed her some rolls. ;)

Our third and last Thanksgiving dinner was at Shane's parent's house, but apparently I didn't take any pictures of that. I was running on 4 hours of sleep, so that's my excuse. haha After filling up on good food, I went to work at Old Navy. I'm down to one day every three months, so you won't hear me complaining. I worked until 1:00 am, came home, and crashed for 9 hours. It was heavenly. 

A great holiday for us!

Tower of Terror

Alright, it wasn't a tower of terror, but that sounded better than control tower. My cousin's significant other, Chris, works in the control tower at the Salt Lake airport and invited us all to go down for a tour. I'm 99% sure I was more excited than the kids.

It was a stormy Saturday and extremely windy. Going up 300 feet (25 floors) didn't really help that, either. ;) The kids loved watching the planes come and go (although there weren't too many because of the storm), but Kaden was entranced. He asked so many questions and was genuinely interested in all of the equipment and what it did. There's a catwalk at the top that we're allowed to walk on (with a very thick, concrete, almost shoulder high railing), but when we went out there the wind was CRAZY and Kaden was sure we were all going to fall off, so we didn't spend much time out there (maybe 20 seconds). haha

The super nice guards at the front let the kids keep their visitor's badges, which they all loved. :) 

With her badge  :)

 

Community Circle

November 14th was the first grade's turn to lead community circle for the school (which is their name for the assembly). Out of 90 kids, about 10 are picked to help with the program and Kaden was thrilled that he was asked to report the weather. His shyness has come so far the last couple of years. Before he would have been paralyzed with fear to stand up and speak in front of the entire school and their parents, but he wasn't nervous at all. It only lasted about 30 seconds, so I didn't get any pictures, but I did get a video. I should figure out how to post that because he did a great job. :)

After the morning updates, the administration did a presentation that I loved. It's really crappy quality pics because of how they keep the lighting in the gym, so sorry.

Anyway, one of the lunch ladies has been battling cancer. They've done fundraisers for her and are doing as much as they can for her two children who attend school there as well. It was announced that someone on staff had gone around the school a few weeks before and gotten a thumbprint from every one of the kids, then they used those to make a huge quilt for her (she gets REALLY cold) and it has hearts all over it and just let her know she's so loved. 

They also made blankets for both of her kids as well. One thing that I absolutely love about Voyage is that every child is treated like family. The entire school bands together to help a family when needed and I love it. Last year there was a girl in Kaden's class whose mom died of cancer and the school did a fundraiser for her as well. They truly, truly care about these kids.

 After the assembly, Shane and I got to go see Kaden in his classroom to see what they've been working on. They've been learning about the plant life cycle.

The kids also had parent/teacher conferences and they are both doing amazingly well. 

I'm so proud of them!