Polar Express - French Lick - 2014

Our entire family was given a very nice gift several months ago - tickets for everyone to ride the Polar Express in French Lick!  We went this past Saturday.  We were all excited for the day to come!  I made matching pj bottoms for all the kids, bought coordination shirts and iron-on letters (monogramming was too expensive), and made the girls headbands.  The kids looked really cute :)

When we got to the train station, they had several heated tents set up.  Inside were gift shops, picture taking areas, and activity areas for the kids.  They had a large dry erase wall that kids could go mark on.  Hayden drew "Santa" and a cat?  Maybe he was trying to tell me he wanted Santa to bring him a cat?  Poor Rowan (not sure who she is) - her drawing of a reindeer was killed by Krissy's red dry erase marker. 

I really wanted to get a family picture of all us.  We had several shots to choose from.

We arrived to the train station about an hour before we could load.  The tickets suggested larger groups get there early to ensure you sit together.   We kept going in and out of the heated tents.  We'd take pictures or walk to the bathrooms then go back in and warm up. 

Grandparents + the grand kids (minus Baby H)

Olive didn't know what to think of Hayden being in her face!  He loves kids!

Austin's hair looks really red in this picture, but I think it's more blonde in person.

We boarded the train effortlessly.  Hayden and Krissy didn't want to sit in one spot very long.  They sat with everyone throughout the course of the ride.

The conductor punched all the kids tickets multiple times to make confetti on the kids heads. 

The two "elves" on our train served us cookies and hot chocolate.  I'm not going to lie, I was disappointed in the hot chocolate!   Isn't the North Pole supposed to have the best hot chocolate?  My kids lapped it up.  Next time I'll bring my Starbucks and pretend it came from the North Pole...

The elves invited the kids to dance in the isle during the train ride.  The girls liked this part the best.

Hayden and Allie with one of the elves.  The elves did a good job and were super sweet to the kids.

 

This was my favorite picture from our train ride!  I need to get this kind of lense!  Everyone was looking and the kids weren't crying about Santa (like they did a couple weeks ago when they saw him!) - win win!  It was a great night and a great way to kick off the Christmas season!

Weekly Happenings - November 21 & 28

The last two weeks have been BUSY!  I'm sure everyone has had a similar non-stop vibe to their weeks too!  Here's a recap of the past 14 days...

1.  Kevin's birthday was Monday, the 17th!  He said it was one of his best birthdays yet.  I invited family over and we had baked potato bar.  Kevin got a gun he's been wanting and a new fleece jacket!  He also got boots, some cash, and giftcards from our family :)

White and Strawberry cupcakes

2.  Friday night, the 21st, we had our first sleepover.  Two of my nieces and our neighbor came over.  Kevin has been working day shift on Fridays so we figured the two of us could entertain 7 kids.  We were thrown a curve ball earlier that week when Kevin was told he would be working his normal schedule (2-10pm). That meant it was just me.  I wasn't too worried because I thought the kids would probably entertain themselves.  Thankfully, one of my besties (Whitney K) was in town and she came by to see everyone - and actually spent the whole evening with us - and I'm 100% sure the night wouldn't have gone so well had she not been here!  After the kids went to bed, we spent the next couple hours taking about life and I couldn't have enjoyed the evening any more!

3.  Hayden hasn't gotten his prize for selling popcorn yet, but with all the sales going on this time of year, we went ahead and purchased an iPad mini.  We decided to give it to him last weekend.  He's in love.  He thinks it's the coolest thing ever!  We don't have a tablet so Kevin and I have been pretty entertained by it too! And for the bad news; after 7 days of having it, somehow the screen got cracked.  No clue how it happened, and it's not a horrible crack, but it's annoying.  We purchased a screen protector and case earlier this week that didn't make it here in time to do it's job.  Bummer.

4.  I was given some new mascara last week.  Apparently it's really popular but I had never heard of it!  It's called Younique.  It's supposed to increase lash length and volume by 300%!  I've enjoyed wearing it all week!  Only thing I dislike, it sheds a little throughout the day. 

5.  Hayden got to throw pies in the cub masters face last week.  Every $400 in sales equaled one pie.  We were $20 short of 7 pies!  So, he was supposed to throw 6 pies, but they ended up running out and he only got to throw 5.  He thought it was hilarious.  All the parents were entertained too!

6.  We had a great Thanksgiving.  Kevin's family had a good turn out at their get-together, and we had a nice afternoon visiting with his everyone.  We went to my parents house for Thanksgiving dinner.  We started the evening out by taking pictures of the grandparents with the grandkids - and that's when my little niece, Addison, told everyone her mommy was going to have another baby!  We were all shocked but so happy for them!  It was a very exciting way to start the evening!

7.  Today, several of us went to a local shooting range.  Everyone took several guns which made for a fun morning.  I got to try out my new ear protection and I also got to shoot several other guns that I'd never shot before (a 12 gauge shot gun, a tazer, a 40 caliber, and a little baby colt that was awesome).  I'm getting a lot more comfortable with my gun and our home defense gun.  It was nice to go with my dad and brother who could teach me a few things too :) 

These are the little tips that you get shot with when you get tazed!

8.  I got my house mostly decorated for Christmas on Wednesday.  I cleaned a couple spots in my house that were desperately needing attention too (our home school books and supplies and our hall closet just to name a few).  I love how my house feels when it's all decorated for Christmas.  We will get our tree next weekend and I can not wait!

9.  We had our first real snow of the season on Kevin's birthday - which worked out so perfect because Hayden was off school all day!  We had hot chocolate, played in the snow, watched movies, let CeCe come in and warm up, and then had family over for dinner that evening.  I'd love to have a few more good snow days this school year! 

10.  I spent several hours this last week making matching pjs for my nieces and my kids!  We are all riding the Polar Express this weekend and I fell in love with the idea of all the kids wearing matching jammies!  I didn't want to spend a ton of money on pjs, so I offered to make them all matching bottoms.  I bought the shirts, and then made the girls hair bows.  It ended up being quite a task, but I'm so glad I did it! Pics to come :)  I made a few extra hair bows for the girls since I had my sewing machine out!

Weekly Happening - November 14

Here's some highlights from the last 7 days :)

1.  On Wednesday I took away Krissy's paci.  Krissy loves her paci.  Even when I cut the tops off, she still wanted them.  We had to take one everywhere we went, and she often stuck one in her finger during the day even if she wasn't using it.  I just decided Wednesday morning it was time, so we went around the house rounding up every paci we could find.  She loved that we had a big bag full of pacis! I took the bag of pacis, hid them and she looked at me like I was the meanest mommy on the face of the earth.  I told her she was a big girl now and no more pacis!  Then I distracted her all day.  Juice, snacks, movies, play dough... It all worked. She wouldn't nap but was never grouchy about it.  Bedtime was similar to nap time.  She didn't want to sleep but she was so tired from not napping that she ended up falling to sleep in about 15 minutes.  She slept all night and woke up and told me "paci no more" and I praised her for being a big girl.  She did have one melt down on Thursday and asked for it, but was easily distracted again with a snack.  She napped, but had trouble going to bed for the evening.  Overall, taking the paci away has been so much easier than I thought it would be!  

With paci:

Without paci:

2.  Hayden was "star student" of the week in his class.  Every week his class gets to know a student a little better.  The students answer questions, brings in a show and tell, brings in their favorite snack and book.  He enjoyed the week.  However, he came home Monday and was fighting back tears telling me one of his friends was moving to a different school.  Monday was his last day.  I told Hayden that he would get to see him again when they went to middle school and maybe see him now and then around town.  I remember how hard it was having friends move so my heart broke for him.  I'm hoping the other friendships he has continue to grow!

3.  This past weekend we went to our friends Christmas tree farm and tagged our Christmas tree!  We won't get it until December 6, but that gives me plenty of time to get the rest of the house decorated for Christmas!  

4.  On Tuesday, Hayden, Allie and I went to the Tennyson Elementary basketball game to watch my niece, Addison cheer and dance.  The game was fun but the highlight was watching the girls dance to Taylor Swift's song "Shake it off".  (P.S. Allie had a big goose egg right in the middle of her forehead!)

5.  Finally, I got some closure on the girls Christmas outfits!  I was doing my regular shopping at SAMs this past weekend and decided to run over and look at the clothes.  They had Mud Pie outfits there for $16! Best news, they had Krissy and Allies sizes!  They are adorable on and I can't wait to take their picture in them soon!

Weekly Happenings - November 7

1.  We got back the girls official princess pictures!  They turned out really cute :)

Cinderella/Allie getting her hair done.

Krissy was not very interested in getting her picture taken!  This was the best of the two of them.

 2.  Kevin had his first den meeting with our Cub Scout boys last night.  We are both having lots of fun with this new role he's taken on.  I'm constantly on Pinterest looking up ideas for the boys (the fun stuff) and he is going to meeting after meeting (the brain work) making plans.  We had a good first meeting and learned a lot too! I'm so mad at myself because I forgot to get a picture of Kevin + Hayden in their scout outfits.  I'm sure I'll have plenty more opportunities... or so I keep telling myself!

3.  I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place.  I'm trying to figure out which option is my "best yes".  I love making the girls clothes, more specifically, dresses for a holiday.  It's one of my favorite hobbies.  The problem lies in my time.  I have a jammed packed calendar this month (which already means less family time and more fast paced than I'd prefer), so do I compound that and add something else in already full schedule?  Doesn't make sense.  I really want to make clothes for them, but I'm working on a happy compromise.  I've spent several hours this week trying to figure out what that is.  I'm hoping this weekend to make some progress.

4.  My second batch of cookies got good reviews from all that tried them.  I am really enjoying making these kind of cookies :)

5.  This past week, one of the children's ministers at our church stopped me and asked if they could come to our house on Monday and hide an immunity cross in Hayden's room.  Let me back up a bit.  Hayden goes to Light Company on Wednesdays at our church.  Once a week they select a child and hide an immunity cross at their house.  It gives their grade immunity for the week.  Hayden has asked me before how we get them to come to our house.  I just kind of blew off the question because there are several hundred students that attend Light Company.  So, when I was approached, I immediately said YES because I knew Hayden would be over the moon about it!

I was tucking Hayden in bed last Friday night and looking at all the "art work" he had made on his walls.  He liked to stick stickers on the wall too.  The walls were an absolute mess and I just overlooked that fact for a long time.  Knowing we would have people in our house, taking a video of Hayden's room, made me jump into gear and want to get his room a bit more polished (all while keeping this a secret from Hayden!)

He was so bummed we were painting over his "drawings" and "math problems".  I told him he could take pictures on my phone, but the touch-up was very necessary! 

Monday morning we got him off to school and I made his bed, vacuumed his room, and tidied up a bit.  The two pastors came by about 10 o'clock and were done in about 15 minutes.  They hung the cross from his fan.  Again, for some reason, I didn't even think about taking his picture with the cross once he found it.  I failed as the family photographer this week!  I did take a video of him finding it though :)

And if you missed a picture of my kids dressed for Halloween, here's the best one I got.  Hayden was Batman, Allie was Fi-Fi the poodle, Krissy was a little pink piggy, and Austin was a zebra.