Christmas Eve

Well, nothing says "Merry Christmas" like pummeling someone in the face with a ball!  Right?!  hahahaha.  Some fantastic friends in our ward organized a dinner for Christmas Eve and we were lucky enough to get an invite!  It was wonderful... with SO much good food!  They also organized a Dodge Ball game.  :)  We met up with several families at the nearby high school... and the violence ensued!  ...Ok, so it wasn't that violent.  There were a lot of kids, so for the most part it stayed pretty mellow.  Competitive... but mellow.  :)  We had SO much fun! And I was laughing pretty stinking hard most of the time too!  Hilarious!

Then afterwards, we went back to our friends' house for dessert and chimes.  I just want to note that it should be ok to eat your weight in food on Christmas, it just should!! Because I'm pretty sure that I did!  hahaha.  But the chimes... were very cool!  They played about 8 or so Christmas songs.  I loved the looks on their faces, the level of concentration was very high... and serious!  hahaha.

We finished with the Christmas story out of the scriptures, and then we cleaned up and headed home.  It was so much fun for us to get to be apart of their fun night, especially since we usually celebrate without our families! 

We got home and hurried to put out the reindeer food. 

Then we hurried to get kids to bed, it was about 10:00 pm when we got home and we had early church in the morning. (We have to get up at 6am for church around here.) They were so warn out, they actually wanted to go to bed!  :) 

I don't think we've had a Christmas Eve this fun since we moved away!  It will definitely be one we remember for a long time!  Thanks to all of you who made it so special for us!  And to our families and friends far away, who made us feel very loved!

Merry Eve of Christmas!

"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!)