Frozen

Mark and I took the kids to see the new Disney movie Frozen on Saturday.  It was a really good movie, the girls really, really, really liked it.  Colton did great considering it was longer than 30 minutes. They had a bucket of popcorn and lots of coke to keep them satisfied too.  After the movies, we did a little more Christmas shopping and then we came home to make Christmas cookies.  They also had hot chocolate with whip cream and marshmallows and we watched the Muppets Christmas Carol.  They loved it.  Hayden's class is going on a field trip Wednesday to the Alliance theatre to see A Christmas Carol so her teacher has been reading it to her class.  She can tell you every thing that is going to happen before it does.  I guess that makes her an excellent listener at school.  She tends to have what I call selective hearing with me!!! 

There are only 8 more days until Christmas, in case you were wondering.  If you are in doubt just call Hayden and Gracie they can fill you in.  They are so excited.  It makes me so excited watching them.  They squeal every time they see another present under the tree with their name on it.  They also shake them all to see if they can guess what it is.  Even though they are excited about the presents, they also understand other important parts of Christmas.  This morning they were talking and they made me heart melt and put a smile on my face.  Hayden said that she loves Christmas because she gets to spend it with her family.  Gracie of course said she liked the present part but that she knew it was baby Jesus' birthday.  I love them so much.  I can't wait to see what Colton thinks this year.  I see him being like the Tasmanian devil opening present after present.  He is going to be amazed with it all. 

Mark and I already have every thing we could ever wish for.  We are so lucky that we get to be the Mommy and Daddy of 3 of the most wonderful kids in the world.  They are all 3 loving, caring, healthy and full of happiness.  They are truly the best gifts in the world. 

Chipper and Snowflake are still up to no good!  Hayden doesn't even open her eyes good in the mornings before she is looking for them. 

I love all our traditions!

I love Christmas time, mainly because I love all of our traditions.  We get the tree right after Thanksgiving.  We all go to pick out the tree at Jacks Creek.  When we get home the girls help me put lights on it.  Then they mostly decorate it, and they do a great job.  We also listen to Christmas music in the car every where we go for the whole month.  Hayden helps me wrap presents and she is very good at it.  We watch Christmas shows / movies every single night all together in the living room.  We drink lots of hot chocolate and eat candy canes like crazy.  We have two silly elves that create a mess every night.  They wear Christmas pajamas every night, well unless I am behind on washing clothes.

 I love that my tree is decorated with all their homemade ornaments and ones that they pick out when we are out and about.  It has every thing from Princesses to tractors.  I love that the kids picked out all my wrapping paper and none of it matches!!!  This is the first year I have been able to use bows on presents because all my babies are old enough to leave them alone.  Although it means that they are all growing up so very fast.  I love how excited they get counting down the days...Gracie puts a cotton ball on Santa's beard every night to count down the days and Hayden has a magnetic Christmas Tree that Mimi gave her.  They let me know every night how many more days!  I love that Hayden always wants to buy every one something really special.  I love that they ask every day if they can open one present.  I can't imagine where they get that from!!!  I love that they do know the true meaning of Christmas and that they love to talk about it.  I love that they pick out a Christmas book every night and we read it before watching our Christmas shows.  I love that they got their videos from Santa last night and their faces as they watched it.  It is truly priceless.  Hayden and Gracie made the nice list but little Colton is undecided.  He was told he had to work harder and be a good boy!  The girls were saying Oh my gosh, the whole time!

Most of all I love that I have a wonderful family to share it all with and that we have some amazing traditions.  I hope that my kids will do all the same stuff when they are grown!

 

 

Welcome Snowflake!

Since everyone at school has two elves, Santa decided that our family needed two also.   He seems to think that Colton is a handful so Chipper may need some assistance.  The girls were so excited because it is a girl Elf, she even has a skirt.  Yes, that is what they were most excited about! Go figure!  They named her Snowflake, which I think is very cute.  Snowflake and Chipper are being very mischievous and bringing a few gifts here and there.  The first thing they do every morning is sit up,  wipe their eyes and go to find their elves.  It is so much fun!!!

Here are a few pictures of what they have been up to so far!

Disney World 2013

We surprised all of our babies by taking them to Disney World over Thanksgiving Break.  Well, Mimi and Pop kind of surprised us all by taking us to Disney World.  I will not ever be able to totally let them know how much we loved and appreciated every thing.  The girls were so surprised.  Mimi and Pop rented a van and brought it to our house.  We told them that it was Pop's work van and we had to take it to him. They had no idea that anything was up.  They thought they were going skating and Mimi was going to go and race with them.  When we got to Mimi and Pop's house we gave them a present each.  It had a shirt in it that said "I am going to Disney World", it also had their name on the back of it.  They opened their gifts and Hayden really didn't believe us.  Keep in mind we may or may not trick her a lot!!!!  We finally convinced her that it was true and they were so excited to be going to Disney World instead of skating. 

It was a long ride but very well worth it.  They were all so good.  When we got there they just wanted to go swimming but it was cold outside and we still had to find dinner somewhere...and we were waiting on Kim and Pop to still get there.  They flew there instead of riding.  The girls were so excited when they arrived and they got to sleep with Aunt Kim.  She is definitely their role model, and I am so glad because she is such a great person and aunt. 

We went to Hollywood Studios first for breakfast with Jake, Oso, Jane and Handy Manny.  They were so excited the whole time.  Colton was in awe of Jake.  He loves Jake and the Neverland Pirates.  It was so much fun watching him  be so excited.  After breakfast we watched a Disney Junior show and all of them LOVED it.  You could just see the magic in their eyes!!!  

After that we went to the Animal Kingdom.  It was so interesting.  We rode the Safari ride and saw all kinds of animals....Giraffes, Monkeys, Elephants, Gazelles, Pink Flamingos, Lions, Crocodiles and Hippos.  It was amazing and very interesting.  The kids loved it. 

Then when we went to Epcot for dinner at a Japanese place, and since it took a while for our dinner we got to see the amazing fireworks on our way out.  It was the most amazing thing ever.  It was the world going around in circles and lots of big, bright fireworks around it.  Pictures did not do it justice.

After that it was time for some rest.  The next day was the Magic Kingdom, which was probably their favorite.  Oh, and Chipper appeared and left them Disney ornaments and brought  stockings and a tree!!!  They had so many surprises on this trip.  Mark, Kim, Myself and the kids all rode the tea cups and the Dumbo ride.  They all loved it, especially Colton.  Then Hayden wanted to ride a big roller coaster ride with Kim, so we told her she needed to try a small one first.  We rode the Goofy Roller Coaster.  Gracie rode with Kim and Hayden rode with me.  Hayden was absolutely terrified the whole time, she screamed and cried and I tried to comfort her the whole way through it.  I mean she was pale when we got off!  Gracie LOVED it and wanted to do it again.  You just don't ever know what they are going to think. 

After many more rides and meeting lots of characters it was time for the girls to go to their Princess Dinner and the boys to entertain themselves for awhile.  Dinner was fun but busy with the Princesses but we got all their autographs and pictures.  Then we went back to the Magic Kingdom to watch the fireworks there.  It was PRICELESS.  That is truly the only word to describe it. 

It was such a Magical couple of days.  Thank you so much Mimi and Pop for every thing.  Thank you Aunt Kim for sharing your bed and riding lots of rides with our babies.  We love you all very much.