Train Ride to See Santa

We surprised the kids with a Santa Train Ride last Saturday. They loved it and had a good time even though it was cold and windy. We rode on the train for a few miles, saw Santa, got a gift from Santa (a wood train), ate some cookies and hot chocolate and then rode back on the train. It was fun, minus the long line to see Santa, and the kids are still talking about it so that makes it worth it. Preston loves trains so he was excited to see it, ride on it and hear it blow it's whistle. Seeing him so excited made it all the more fun.

All Aboard!!!

The train cars were all decorated for Christmas. The train guy even had us all sing Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer.

Kate's eyes are amazing in this picture. ha ha. I'm in my lemon drop coat as Kyle calls it and Lindsey was such a good baby. She was out in the cold the whole time so thank goodness for body warmth and a warm blanket.

Preston was in heaven. He was a happy kid on that train.

Santa! Kate was so excited to see him and tell him what she wanted for Christmas. Lindsey sat there like nothing was different and Preston wouldn't touch him. :)

Warming up with hot chocolate and cookies (they were hard and not very good, but we still ate them). Overall, we had a good time. They do a Thomas the Train exhibit in the summertime so maybe we will check that out next year.

Because I Have Been Given Much

Happy Thanksgiving! We had a fun time at my parent's house. Thanksgiving morning I ran a 5k with Marci, my Dad, Jared, Sara and Derek. It was only 15 degrees and for the first 2 miles I thought I was going to die. The last mile was the best. I've only been running for 2 1/2 weeks since having Lindsey so it was a stretch to run this, but I survived and didn't do too bad compared to last year. All the girls went shopping on Friday and we found some good deals and had a good time. It was snowing Saturday morning so the kids were so excited to go out and play in it. They made a snowman and by the afternoon it was almost melted, it warmed up fast.

Marci and Lindsey catching up on some People magazine reading. We thought it was funny how Lindsey was looking so intently at the magazine.

Yummy Thanksgiving food and my Mom had nice new placemats and a pretty centerpiece to make it look so good. We sang the hymn "Because I Have Been Given Much" and we shared what we were thankful for.

The kid table

Making a snowman

What a good looking snowman!

Fountain of Youth

Kate lost another bottom tooth last night. She was SO excited about losing it and getting another dollar from the tooth fairy. She showed me how loose it was so I worked at it and tried pulling it out with holding onto a kleenex, wrapping floss around it and then just with my bare fingers, but it wouldn't budge. She would kind of cry and say it hurt, but then she wanted it out because it hurt to bite down on it. So finally, I wiggled it and basically had to bend it forward enough to pull it out of there. Seeing the little tooth made me sad because now she'll get big teeth there and those little teeth are adorable and it means she is growing up. I love her spacey teeth.

A couple weeks ago, I got a new calling at Church. Kyle and I were released as Activities Co-Chairs and I got called into the Young Women as a Beehive Advisor. I'll teach the 12 and 13 yr old girls at Church. I'm excited and nervous. I haven't served in Young Women's before but it should be fun. The other leaders I get to work with are fun and the Young Women are great. I taught the lesson today and learned that the girls are the only members of the Church in their school from their ward (they all go to different schools). It made me appreciate the examples they are to their friends. I grew up with lots of youth and good youth at that. I had a great time growing up and realize what a blessing that was for me. It will be fun to spend more time with the youth and get to know them more. Tonight, I went to a fireside for the youth and all the Stake Young Men and Young Women's presidencies spoke on courage. It was a great night and I came away uplifted and wanting to have more courage.

Out With the Old and In With the New...Carpet That Is

The cheap carpet our house came with could only last so long...it was gross and would show stains like none other. This picture turned upside down, but it shows the gross carpet before (granted I didn't clean the carpets for a while because I knew we were getting new stuff so it's even worse).

The carpet installation company called on Monday afternoon seeing if we wanted to get our carpet installed Tuesday afternoon or the following week. Well, we still needed to put down a wood section by the front door and then rip out our carpet and move everything. But we figured we'd rather bust it out in one night and get it over with then have to wait longer. It took a long time to get all the carpet, padding, staples and tack strips up. My knees were killing me! Kyle got the wood entrance done and we got to bed around midnight.

All the stuff pushed into the kitchen (sound familiar?...from when we put wood flooring down in the office. We need a break from home projects!). Preston was sick so he stayed home from preschool today. It was kind of nice that he was sick because he stayed in one spot and didn't come and get into my paint when I was repainting the baseboards and walls before the carpet installers came. Normally, he'd be all over the place and I wouldn't have gotten as much done. But I hope he gets better soon. He's just not himself and has no appetite. Poor kid.

Here's the room with new carpet. We rearranged the furniture and the entertainment center. You can see the section of wood flooring and the darker carpet compared to the old carpet on the stairs. The new carpet is a carmel/tan color. The name is Capuccino by Martha Stewart and it's a shaggier carpet. We love it.

The chair doesn't really fit well since we rearranged so we might need some different furniture. I want to redecorate the walls in the room and so I have to figure that out too. The installers put the transition strip going into the kitchen on crooked so I had to call them back to have them come fix it. It's better now so I'm glad it got fixed because I knew that it would bug me with it being so crooked. It took us hours to get the room prepped last night and when the installers came today, there were two of them, they did it all in 35 minutes!!! I told them we spent hours taking up everything they just put back down. Ha! Overall, we really like it!

Leaves Anyone?

I LOVE FALL!

I love all the colors that come with fall. Driving over the mountain pass on a sunny fall day to my parent's house is breathtaking. I think October is my favorite month for all the fall colors- green, red, orange, yellow- combined with the blue sky and crisp air and you can't forget football. Love it. Washington is beautiful!

Kate has wanted to jump into a pile of leaves, but we don't have very many leaves on our lawn. When we pulled up to my parent's house and saw the mass amounts of leaves we knew Kate would have plenty of leaves to jump into.

Oh to experience the simple things in life.

Grandpa Bill's 80th!

My Grandpa Bill turned 80 in November so my Mom planned a big party for him (it's her Dad). He loved it and enjoyed talking to all his friends and family that were there.

My Mom made all the food and it was scrumptious. She did an amazing job! A lot of it was my Grandpa's favorite foods or snacks.

Me with Grandpa Bill

The kids eating...they looked so cute sitting at the table all by themselves. They quickly found the nursery with all the toys and made a huge mess, but at least they were entertained.

Kyle, Jared and Kevin. They were sitting around talking and laughing and it was a good picture moment, but once they saw me they started doing silly stuff.

Both my Grandpa's- Grandpa Bill on the left and Grandpa Paul on the right. They are such good Grandpa's too. I remember them coming to a lot of my sporting events and pretty much all of my birthday dinners. They are so supportive and I'm lucky to have been raised with my grandparents living so close. I want that for my kids too.