School parties

Last week Mon. Audrey had her school Christmas party. She was all shy with the parents there so this is the only picture I got.

Then, Tue. Carter had his party. They had a special lunch and treats.

They made candy cane ornaments for their craft.

I was excited to see he also made a santa hand print ornament :) Carter also made a wonderful painting but I still need to take a picture of it.

Raking leaves

Last weekend we raked up all the leaves in the backyard. The kids started out being good helpers but then realized it was more fun to play in the big pile. They are always so funny to watch.

They would run down the hill and jump into the pile

Even Sasha dove in! She was probably the funniest to watch.

Sasha would jump and try and catch the leaves Carter would toss in the air

santa ornament

Audrey had a lot of fun at school this month making all sorts of Christmas ornaments. Out of all of the wonderful ornaments she made this one is our favorite.

So cute and creative! A hand print santa face :) It has her name and date painted on it too. I always love art projects that involve hand prints so you can remember how little they were when they made it.

No story behind this picture. Just posting it because she looks so cute in her coat and hat.

Polar Express

Last weekend we went for a ride on the Polar Express! It's actually called the North Pole Express (I think copy right reasons) but we called it Polar Express with the kids. They love the book and movie so they were very excited to be riding the "actual" train. We went all out and rode first class. This was another item on our things to do before moving list. We are so glad we did and the kids had a blast!

Of course they wore their pajamas and robes for the train ride. They were so excited to be at the train station!

Carter thought it was so cool to hold his own ticket and hand it to the conductor to get punched

Family pic on the train before pulling away from the station
Once on board the kids got glow sticks and the adults got menus. Once we started heading toward the North Pole they turned out the lights. Carter and Audrey had a lot of fun waving the glow sticks in the dark. We also listened to a story and sang Christmas carols.

Audrey glued to the window during our arrival at the North Pole. They had the North Pole all decorated with lights. Santa & Mrs. Claus along with their elves were in the middle waving and welcoming us.

The elves came on board first to greet us and get us excited for Santa. They passed out keys to everyone (related to the story) and were super sweet with the kids.

The best part according to Carter :) Santa and Mrs. Claus!!! They were so nice and Carter just loved it! Audrey was apprehensive but managed to get close for the picture.

After Santa left, the chefs came on board. We got to snack on delicious double chocolate chunk and apple cinnamon pecan muffins.

We washed down the muffins with hot cocoa served in travel mugs we got to keep. They have the North Pole Express logo on them.
Before heading back to the station the elves came back to hand out presents. A real nice North Pole Express ornament. The kiddos were excited to get home and hang them on their trees.

We were lucky to get to ride with friends. The Graham family rode with us and our seats were together. The kiddos always have a good time with Noah. They were quite entertaining on the way back to the station on their sugar highs.

One more family pic in front of the train car.

The kids had an amazing time and truly thought it was magical. On the drive home Carter asked if we were back in Alabama yet. I think he thought we really went to the North Pole :) So precious!

Christmas Program

Last week Carter had a Christmas program at school. The 4K classes were the animals and Carter's 5K class was the nativity scene. Carter was assigned to be a shepherd.

Carter was so cute walking into the church. He was smiling and waving to everyone :) He did a pretty good job singing all the songs but occasionally got distracted by his staff and rope belt. I tried to video tape it but I wasn't in the best spot. I did catch a few good moments though.

Class shot after the program. They were done standing still by this point.

When we got our Christmas decorations out Ernie made his return. He's always a good reminder for the kids to make good decisions. It's fun to see their excitement when they find him in a new spot every morning. Looking for Ernie is the first thing they do when they wake up.

St. Nick

The night of the 5th St. Nick came and filled the kids stockings. :) He was so generous some of the gifts didn't fit!

The first thing Carter did when he woke up was check the stockings. He was so excited to see that St. Nick came! He grabbed both his and Audrey's stockings and brought them into the TV room. Even Sasha had to check it out.

Princess Belle lip gloss and a new nail polish!

Bumblebee legos

A Barbie with a purple dress
Audrey also got a Tinkerbell shirt and a princess outfit for baby Stella. Of course there was a bunch of chocolate too :)

Carter LOVES the Vader hat and gloves St. Nick brought that he had to wear them to school! Carter also got a cd and Iron Man ornament along with his chocolates.

Christmas trees

The Saturday after Thanksgiving we got our Christmas tree up and a few other decorations. I didn't go all out with decorations this year since we're trying to pack things up to get the house ready for market. The kids were a huge help! It's so fun that they are at the age that they can truly help out.

The kiddos digging through the bins to find the perfect ornament.

It was a little strange putting up Christmas decorations when it was 70 degrees outside. But it was the only day we had Chuck home to help get it all done.

Carter is such a good helper. He also assisted Chuck with the outside lights this year. Now he keeps asking for snow :(

All the ornaments end up on the bottom 1/3 of the tree when two toddlers are doing all the work. Chuck and I eventually filled in the rest of the tree.

We've always had a small tree that we put in Carter's room. This year Audrey wanted a small one for her's. She loved this tiny tree because, "it's tiny like me". She picked out a pink sparkly star and a purple sequined skirt. She put all the ornaments on herself. Every night we plug it in and she gets so excited!

Thanksgiving Day

We had Thanksgiving dinner at the Graham's house with all our surgery friends. This is the 4th year (I think) we have done a potluck with our medical family. We all have our usual dishes we make and it always results in a ton of delicious food. I wasn't good about taking pictures but Meredith managed to get some.

Chuck, Matt & Brooklyn, Lee & Ellis

Ashley & I

We now have 5 big kiddos at the kid table

The adult table with all the yummy food

Paul & what's left of the 25 lb. turkey

After the kids were done sitting at the table they went in the other room to watch a movie

They actually sat still for a while. It didn't last long though :)
It was a great time as always. We'll miss it next year.

Movie night

The other week we took the kids to the dollar theater to see the Smurfs. They loved it! It was our first time taking them to a theater. The kids always ask us to have a sleepover and they like to try and sneak into each others rooms at night. One night when Chuck was home we decided to have a family movie/sleepover night.

We blew up the air mattresses and made caramel corn. The kids picked Monster's Inc. to watch that night. Carter turned out all the lights to make it dark like the theater.

Carter & Daddy got one air mattress

Audrey & I got the other one.
The kids loved it and actually slept well that night. They didn't want us to put the mattresses away the next morning. Maybe we'll have to do it again over Christmas break. :)