"All aboard..."

Part of Christmas this year for our kids was a very special trip on the one-and-only Polar Express!  :)  We kept it secret until we pulled in the parking lot!  (Which is really saying something, it's a 5 hour drive from our house! hahaha.)  And the minute they saw the train, we knew all the whining and bathroom stops and stress and crying (mostly by Reagan) had been worth it!  :)  (Although they were truthfully just as excited about the snow!  hahaha.  We probably could have just stopped at that!)  They were elated about all of it!  We got checked in, ate dinner and the ride just couldn't come fast enough, they were so excited!

Here we are in line to get on.

In our seats, ready to go!

These were the looks on their faces the entire time! 

Reagan liked it too!  She was SO tired, but she loved the train... and the dancing chefs!  :)

She was being so funny!  Practicing her scowls!  :)

We got our tickets punched, listened to the Polar Express story and had hot chocolate and cookies.

Then... we made it to the North Pole.  And someone joined us on the train as we headed back... When Harrison realized Santa was on the train, I seriously thought he was going to start crying... out of shear joy!  :)  The looks on their faces were priceless!  In Patrick's own words "Watching Harrison dang near made me BELIEVE!". 

There were magic bells too...

"I believe.  I believe.  I Believe!"

It was an amazing experience!  And it was so much fun to bring the magic of the story to life! (A story that both of our boys truly love!) 

And, like I said, they loved the snow too!  :)

We got some pics of the "real" Polar Express engine before we headed back home.  It SO much fun!  And a really great way to get us in the holiday spirit!

Family Pictures 2011

We finally did it!  And by the time we were done... I wanted to cry!  The kids (all three of them) struggled!  Jackson likes to day dream, which means following direction is very hard!  Harrison has a pirate face whenever he encounters light... not even bright light... just light!  And Reagan pretty much had a meltdown 3 minutes out of the car!  Full on meltdown... wiping dirt on her face, snotty nose... tantrums!  It was awesome!  So it's a miracle (REALLY!) that we got a single picture!  Sigh... But we did it... :)

I LOVE this picture!  :)

I love every single one of the kids pictures!  Especially the candid ones!  They turned out SO great!  They are the cutest kids in the whole world... so even with tears, boogers, pirate face and wondering eyes... there was a good chance of at least one great picture... and we got a few!  :)  

Fun with Grama & Papa

Grama and Papa Salisbury came to town for a nice long trip!  They got here the weekend after Thanksgiving, which worked out really well for our belated Thanksgiving dinner. Sunday we had our big feast!  We also planned a couple of fun home improvement projects for Papa and I to do! (By "Papa and I" I really mean "Papa"!  He did most of the work!  But he did let me play with his cool saw! :) Always fun!  We made these valances:

The idea came from here.  We made 6 of them for the kitchen/dining/family room. 

And this for the wall!

It finally feels like I've decorated a little!  Here is the rest of the room and colors.  I am loving having it come together! 

And I LOVE the way everything turned out!  :)  Thank you Dad!  It took us a while to get it all done, but it was so much fun to do together!  ...They were also here for our ward Christmas Party and then took the boys to Home Depot for the Kids Crafting session.  The boys had a blast... and they got to paint!  :)  They also took the boys on a movie date to see The Muppets!  :)  The kids were really spoiled... ok, we all were!  :)  They babysat for Patrick and I so that we could go to his work Christmas dinner.  And they also took us all out to dinner at my favorite place, Texas Roadhouse!  :)  I even got to have a Girls Night Out, just me and my mom and a Twilight movie!  hahahaha.  It was so much fun to get to have them here! 

A couple of nights before they had to go, they let the kids open up a couple of presents early!  

Tradition... Christmas pjs and slippers! :) New travel gear and... of course, Angry Birds!

We felt very lucky to have them come and stay and play with us!  And we were especially glad that they got to stay longer than they planned!  :)  They left us a load of presents under the tree and excited for their next visit!  It's always SO much fun to have family here!  We love and miss them so much!

(I somehow always manage to miss out on picture taking while we have guests at our house!  I really need to do better!)

Just because it's funny!

We have some little white-boards (because of a project to be posted soon)... we've been playing with them a lot and the boys asked me to draw a picture of them the other day... so I did! hahaha.  I am not an artist, but I did think they turned out pretty funny!  hahahaha.

They were totally cracking up over it too!  It was hilarious!  :D  There is the tiniest bit of resemblance!  hahaha.

Santa!

Our ward party, the official "Santa Meeting"!  :)  It was a great party, with lots of wonderful people and food!  And when it was all over, the big man showed up!  The boys were smart and hurried into line.  (The line was INSANELY long!  We have something like 200+ kids in our ward!) 

Jackson just kept talking, which is normal. And he had a long list. :)

Harrison only got a couple of things out, smiled for a picture and then he was done.  This shy boy knows his limits.  But he was brave!  :)

After they were done I realized I should have just gotten in line with them to get Reagan a turn too.  But I was slow thinking, and she and I were very last!  :) 

She actually really liked Santa, she just sat there petting his beard!  hahaha. 

They are all getting so big!  Time is just going too fast!  But I love that they are still young enough to completely light up when Santa enters the room!  :)  I though Harrison was going to tip over in his chair!  hahaha.  I love the magic of Christmas!  And I LOVE getting to experience it through these little people!  :)

Grama and Papa were here for the party too.  I don't have very many pictures, but our adventures will be in another post! :)

Dear Santa,

The boys decided they wanted to write letters to Santa this year.  It was pretty funny to sit down with them and do it.  Jackson wrote his all by himself, I didn't help him at all!  I was very impressed!  And Harrison dictated to me while I wrote.  He knew exactly what he wanted!  :) 

(Dear Santa,
I would like Mario Kart for my Wii and a real Harry Potter wand and Harry Potter Lego set.  Have a great Christmas. 
From,
Jackson E Swain)

Harrison wanted to be sure to tell Santa he had been good, just in case. :)  They are the sweetest boys!  I am getting so excited for Christmas! 

Annie & Oakley

Oakley is our dog, she is 5 years old.  She has been the best dog, especially with kids!  But moving to the desert has been kind of hard on her!  No room to run around.  No grass to lay on.  No horses to coral around.  And of course there's the HEAT!  She was in need of a friend! 

And so...  as part of Christmas this year for the boys (Patrick included) we got a new PUPPY!  Introducing Annie!  :) 

She is pretty cute!  And it's a good thing, because she whined all day and night for the first 2 or 3 days.... and after no sleep on my part, she almost got fed to the coyotes on the other side of the wall!  Ok, not really!  Fortunately, poor Oakley gave in and has become her new mom.  And she whines no more!  (And when I say she gave in, I mean Annie broke her!  hahaha.  A couple of times I got up to she if the puppy was dying, because she sounded like she was.  And Oakley would just look up at me from the dog kennel, where she is trapped at night with Annie... and the whining, and I swear to you she was begging me with her eyes to make it stop... or wondering why we would do this to her!  hahaha.)  Despite the rough start, they have become fast friends!  And Annie has been a great addition to our family!  :) 

If I could make a list...

...of the things I am grateful for, I would start with the irreplaceable.  The people.  And even just that would be a LONG list. (You know who you are!  :)  But for now, I want to say how extremely grateful I am for the ones closest to my heart.  They are the ones I live for.  The ones I want to be better for.  The ones I want to keep forever!  I'm not very good at putting words to how I actually feel about them... I'm not sure the right words exist.  I just love them so very very much!  And I am so very grateful for the blessing it is to belong to them! 

It is the season to be Grateful!  I tried to actually count my blessings the other day, and I was literally overwhelmed (to tears) with the list! I couldn't even finish it!  The more I thought, the longer the list got.  And then I started to think about how time sneaks by so fast and I forget sometimes how VERY blessed I am!  ...And then I thought about my trials, as if my life were hard... and how very small they really are!

I realized something after all of this thought.  There were a great many things on that list of blessings I wouldn't have written down or even thought of a few years ago... or appreciated quite so much.  My list was longer, better even, than it would have been... if there had been no bumps in the road.    


I am grateful today! For EVERYTHING! But especially for the things (and/or people) that change us, make us stronger, better, more loving and kind people! Even when they are the things that seem like they may break us. There is beauty in the breaking! And we see the world differently when we put it all back together! I wouldn't trade anything for this view!

Happy (Late) Thanksgiving! 

(I wrote this post on Thanksgiving Day.  I am late in posting it, I know.  But life happened, and it had to wait!  Along with about 5 more posts that are coming!) :)