Out on a walk

Sabrina took Adie to her first Irish Dance feis and left me and the boys for a boy's weekend. One of the things they wanted to do was go hiking. I thought that would be a bit adventurous, but I did take them for a walk around the community lake. It was even kind of cold that day I think it's crazy how little they can look like brothers some times.

Christmas

Here we are, it's the middle of March, but hey, most of you still have snow on the ground, right? Well, maybe a few at least.

Mostly, it's just a collection of our kids, them being excited, and a little bit of loot.

 Our kids didn't wake up early, what a morning to sleep in a little.

 Parker just spied what I considered to be his best present of the day...

 His giant Mickey! He's also holding his "Mickey Ball" and (previously) "Mickey Big"

 And look, he got more Mickey stuff! This doesn't even show his Mickey Mouse book he got from his cousins.

 Everyone loved handing out presents.

 Oh look, more Mickey.

Adie got a face painting kit. Here she is testing it out. Mom's are champs letting kids do stuff like that.

Christmas Eve

On Christmas Eve, we were invited by a good friend to enjoy Christmas Eve with them and 2 other families. We had a great spread of food, we enjoyed some great company, and even had a surprise visitor.

 Yea, this is an impressive spread.

 Challah bread. I'm surprised I spelled it right. I didn't even use the spell checker.

 We were trying "authentic". I'm not sure how authentic bacon wrapped dates are, or Philippine egg rolls, but the glazed salmon, chicken and steak kabobs and all the rest were delicious. 

 We did the manager scene with the neighbor kids. Parker was a sheep, but his wool kept falling off.

Chase got to play Joseph, he's there with his friend who is playing Mary. 

 Hey, looks like we had a big visitor. Parker's definitely ready for bed at this point. 

 Chase really was excited to see Santa. Santa looks excited too.

One more kid on Santa's lap. I think we were all ready for bed at this point. 

Sabrina was practically begging for a chance to tell Santa what she wanted too. We let her before we went home.

Pre-Christmas Christmas part 2

On Christmas Eve, we opened pajamas and gifts from siblings before we headed over to a friend's for dinner. I do love our excited kids can get. Maybe we should just open one or two presents a day for a week. That way they would be excited like this for every present instead of getting bored by the last few presents.

Mickey coloring book. What could be better?

Pre-Christmas Christmas

Before Sabrina's dad went home, we had Christmas number 1.

Isn't Christmas grand? nothing like opening loads of presents and fighting with your siblings over them. 

 More machinery. I swear, there's a pattern among all our posts.

Hanging out with Grandpa with their presents. 

Yay for Pre-Christmas Christmas with Grandpa.

The Mesa Temple Lights

After our excursion on the Polar Express, we stayed the night in Flagstaff. After we checked out, we went to a local park and played in the snow for a while. They loved it, up until the moment they got cold, and then it wasn't fun anymore.

 Chase probably loved the snow the most. Loved throwing it, loved rolling it.

 The snowman didn't amount to much, but it was fun to pile up snow.

 Adie had lots of fun making a snow angel. This is where it stopped being fun though, as she had snow get in her boot when she got up.

 On our way back from Williams, we stopped off at the Mesa temple to see the Christmas lights (I know, it's March, right? at least most of you, our readers, still have snow on the ground). The backlighting on the picture was natural. 

 The Mesa temple is gorgeous. The palm trees add a nice touch.

The Polar Express

I'm personally of the believe that our kids have way more than they need, so as part of our Christmas presents to our kids, we chose to go to the Polar Express in Williams, AZ.

 Again, more machinery. The boys loved getting to go on the train.

Sabrina's dad had the week off, so he was able to come join us for a pre-Christmas celebration, which of course the kids loved. They always love having family, especially grandparents, around.

 Hey, look, for the third time, I'm on the blog! (Maybe it's been more than three). We're about to go on our adventure.

Adie loves to pose, and this was a fun pic. Yay for kids.

 The kids had a lot of fun playing in the snow while we waited.

 Here we go!

 Chase loved riding the train. 

 Here we are, entering the North Pole!

 Hey, it's Santa!

 The kids loved the being there and seeing santa. They also loved the bells that they received. In fact they rang the whole way home...