The Polar Express!!

This was definitely one of the highlights of our December!  We took the boys to Bryson City NC to ride the Polar Express.  I’m pretty sure I was more excited than they were!  What made the trip even more fun was that we went with some of our favorite friends….the Ratliff’s!!

We decided to drive up and do the ride all in the same day.  It was a 2.5 hour drive so we spent most of our day in the Tahoe…..but the company we were with made it fun and the kiddos were so excited to be riding in the very back, side by side, and watching movies the whole way!  They were extra comfy in their Christmas jammies!!  Kee Kee brought them all a Christmas stuffed animal!

Group shot!

We stopped at my favorite road trip restaurant….Cracker Barrel and ate an early supper.

I went off and forgot some very important things.  My good camera (thank God for iphone cameras), my coat, and an umbrella.  As you can see from the picture below it was pouring as we were waiting to board.  The umbrellas were in the car but it had stopped raining when we arrived and we forgot to carry them with us!  Party foul!!

You can only board if you have your special golden ticket!!

Tickets are all in hand….here we go!!

As you can see….I got soaked standing in the rain!  My hair looked a hot mess the whole trip!!  Keleigh has natural curl so her hair stayed looking fabulous!!

Love their faces!!!  Taking it all in!

First on the agenda….all the kiddos got in the aisle and danced to the Hot Chocolate song!!

And then they served us our hot chocolate.  It was seriously the best hot chocolate I have ever had!!

Then they served us some chocolate chip cookies!!

The guy came around and punched holes in their tickets!

Ryder enjoying his cookie!!

These faces!!!

We have arrived at the North Pole!!  Looking for Santa!

Maddox loves some Elynd!!

Cheese!

Here comes Santa!!

The first gift of Christmas….a bell!

We also sang lots of Christmas songs and they read the book to them!!

They finally knocked out about an hour from home!!  So cute!!!

This was such a fun event for our family to do!  Great memories and an especially fun time with great friends!!!

December in Review!

Wow….is December seriously almost over?  I feel like it just began!  Once again…no blogging this month….and of course we had lots going on so I had lots to blog but for now…here is a snapshot of December.

I love our Christmas Decorations at night!

 

The boys loved decorating their trees for their bedrooms!

WOLFIE Returned!!!!   He was up to lots of fun stuff….from toilet papering Maddox’s room to playing Candy Land….we just never new where and what we would find Wolfie doing!

I love that my High School girlfriends still get together!  Our Christmas Party was at Emily’s new house this year.  We have the best time catching up , eating and playing dirty santa! 

 

We mad a gingerbread house.  The candy mysteriously disappeared from the gingerbread house over the next 24 hours….hmmmm.

We made sugar cookies and decorated them!

I got to keep this precious little babe a few times!  I could just eat her up!  She is the sweetest and best little baby girl!!!  Her cheeks and chunkiness just make her even more irresistible!!  Love my sweet Stella!

Look how much she looks like Maddox at 4 months old!!  Stella top…Maddox bottom

Celebrated with my heart sister Holly for her 36th birthday!!  Love her to pieces!

Fun and Festive Manicures!

My wreath I made!!

Hired my cousin Kyleigh to babysit so that Chris and I could have a much needed date night!  The boys LOVED her!!!  Maddox cried when she had to leave! 

One of the biggest highlights of the month was taking the kids to ride the Polar Express train!  It was a blast!  More details to come!

Went to watch Caine play basketball and also got to see Kyleigh cheer….the boys were so excited to see her again!

Visits to see Great Mawmaw!  I loved this pic of her reading to the boys!!

Maddox’s Christmas program at preschool!  I was really impressed….the 4 year olds sang so loud….they have came a long way since their 2 year old class program!

One of my favorite things was reading Christmas books before bed!

I got crazy and signed myself up for a 5k and didn’t have but 1 week to train….and I had not ran in 5 months!!! I didn’t meet my goal on time but had a blast with my girls Holly and Jackie!

Loved dressing the boys up!

Birthday parties….this was the second one.  It was at the new Kids Rock…Chris and I was so impressed with Ryder….he mastered every inflatable in there.  Nothing was stopping him or slowing him down….big change from the summer when he wouldn’t even climb his rock wall on his play set in  the back yard!!

Christmas Eve is always a blast with this fun crew!! More details to come.

And of course Christmas morning was magical!

More details to come.

I know that’s far from everything but a quick glimpse of this great month!

Hope your December has been wonderful!

I’m looking forward to starting a new year….setting some goals and working hard to achieve them!