December

What a busy, busy month!

First we celebrated my birthday with a fun afternoon bowling and later with a super yummy Baskin Robbins Chocolate Chip ice cream cake. What a treat. We had so much fun bowling. Brendan fell down on his first turn, Kaeden was awesome about taking turns and he loved pushing his ball down the lane. Audrey did very well practicing to walk and roll the ball down the lane.

Sunday was Kaeden's birthday party again and he was thrilled to see his friends and have cake! He liked his presents too. The kids had fun playing in the backyard and the ones that harvested the most limes won presents. And Brendan didn't have to do it for days! The extra limes went to friends and to the food bank.

The next weekend we drove up to Williams Arizona for a ride on the Polar Express - what a wonderful trip that was. I posted pictures for friends and family at Flickr. The kids were so mesmerized by watching out the window, it didn't bother them that it was dark out, or that it was chilly. We all snuggled up in our pajamas with blankets and enjoyed hot chocolate and cookies while we listened to the Polar Express book being read. All the children were so excited when we arrived at the North Pole and they all crowded the windows on our side of the train to see - it was such a pleasure to share in their joy. There was a huge decorated tree with lots of presents, and buildings made out of Christmas lights - and Santa on his sleigh with his helpers and the reindeer. On the ride home we sang Christmas Carols, Santa came through the train and all of the children a jingle bell, and it started to snow! The children woke up the next morning and opened the drapes of our hotel room wide and shouted about the snow! We bundled up and went to play in the snow - Kaeden did not like his sleeves getting snow on them. Audrey and Kelden had fun running around with other children but we were freezing cold!

The next weekend we drove around to local Big Train Operators that opened their displays to the public for Christmas time. The three we went to had beautiful train set up in their backyard. Kaeden was jumping up and down squealing and Kelden was mesmerized. One yard had a set up so large it filled have their backyard and was running 6 different trains - including a miniature Polar Express.

Christmas Eve Audrey and Kelden really enjoyed tossing out the Reindeer food. Audrey put so much oatmeal out the Reindeer couldn't eat them all and we have had a lot of feathered visitors stopping by for snacks!

Christmas was great fun and the children enjoyed all of their presents. Audrey woke the boys up at 5:30 AM and they kept busy with their recorders - Kaeden calls it his "whistle". They sure were noisy! About 7AM we opened presents and the kids had already sorted them all out into piles of what belonged to whom. Audrey was very excited about her Electronic Snap Circuit set, colored socks and especially her umbrella, Kelden enjoys his board games, and loves his sleeping bag and umbrella. Kaeden was ecstatic about his fishy game, new "Leapster" and football.