The Polar Express

Since my parents were finally able to spend Christmas with us they really wanted to do something extra special.

The kids all went in their pajamas just like in the book.  We had a fabulous time.  Hot Chocolate was served, the conductor came by and punched our tickets, we sang Christmas carols and even Santa came on board and gave the kids their very own bell from his sleigh. 

Finding our train car

Ready to ride!

The conductor punching Tyson’s ticket.  Look at the face :)

 

Telling Santa what he wanted…Thomas the Train

 

These cousins sat together for about half of the ride :)

 

Here’s a cute video of Tyson singing.  You can’t really hear him but he was moving his lips right.  I really didn’t know that he knew this Christmas carol. 

Thanks Mom and Dad.  It is certainly an experience we won’t forgot from Christmas 2011!

Fotofly Santa Pictures

I had heard all kinds of hype about a studio called Fotofly.  $20 for 5 minutes of pictures with Santa.  I saw some samples of what they had already done with other children so I decided to give it a shot.

Tyson loved Santa!  He was so excited to see him.  He waved the second he saw jolly old Santa.  It was adorable.  Andrew was a little unsure of Santa but did great.

I love these pictures so much!  I am going every.single.year.  Sure beats paying $20 for a crappy mall picture, eh?

   

Cookies and Lights

This year I had a dream to make sugar cookies with Tyson (since we had so much fun at Halloween) and decorate them and then hand them out to all neighbors and friends.  Well, it was a much bigger task that I had ever imagined.  I think I had about 30 people on my list.  I have no idea what I was thinking.  We made 3 or 4 dozen, frosted them and then started to take them to the people that lived closest to us.  Well, I ran out of cookies and the busy holiday season caught me.  I am sorry to those that didn’t get cookies.  I felt awful but there just wasn’t anymore time. 

Here is my helper, or rather mess maker that adds at least an extra 30 minutes to the process.  Haha!  Tyson doesn’t really like clothes so he tends to run around in his underwear a lot.

With my parents we drove to Spanish Fork to see the Festival of Lights.  We did this last year with Tyson and he loved it so much we figured he’d love it even more this year.  We were totally right.  That kid was just talking our ears off in the car.  He was telling us what everything was and what it was doing.  I took a video of him narrating.  We thought it was funny, especially my parents.

 

Preschool Program

Tyson did a great job at his Preschool Program.  He looked so handsome and really got into some of the movements.  He sang some of the songs, which was a huge improvement from the Halloween Program. 

 

I have a lot of videos from the show.  I’ll post a two of my favorites.

This video is really long but watch it until he at least turns around and shakes his behind :)

This one is shorter and pretty cute too!

 

 

Tyson got to meet Santa and he told him that he wanted Thomas the Train.  Figures ;)

   

This was a present that Tyson gave us from school.  I had tears in my eyes looking at the picture.  He’s adorable.

Gingerbread houses

I like doing this activity every year because it is fun to see how much Tyson (and now Andrew) have grown up.  Brain usually does most of the decorating but this year he put me in charge.   I smile at the finished masterpiece.  Tyson did a great job with the candy, I did not do so well with the frosting. 

Note:  Decorating a gingerbread house is harder than it appears.

 

Random December

During early December we did a lot of hanging around the house.  The snow this winter has been pretty much non-existent but it is still cold outside most days.  It is hard to be cooped up.  That’s when it is fun to get out the camera and snap away.

Here is Andrew when he first started to get up on his knees.  He still isn’t crawling on his knees yet but he at least gets on his knees more than 5 times a day now.  He’s taking his sweet time and I appreciate it very much :)

Tyson loved the door stoppers too.  Sometimes I turn around and Andrew is gone but then I hear the “bong” from the door stopper and I know exactly where he is.

Ty wanted his picture taken with Yogi.  Don’t even get me started on this giant stuffed bear…

This picture is pretty cool.  Tyson told me to take a picture of him jumping, so I did.  He is completely parallel to the ground while in the air.  Pretty sweet if you ask me!

I was making breakfast one morning and this is what I turned around to…

 

Living like a true man.  Eating bacon in his underwear.  I about died with laughter.

Doing the dishes one afternoon and I look up and see this…

Funny thing is he was still trying to jump occasionally while sleeping. 

Andrew eating some rice and green beans.  Man, that was a mess :)

My dad and Andrew at Cafe Rio.  Andrew loves straws.

 

This picture is so hilarious to me.  Andrew is wearing his cloth diaper.  This is one my dad put on him.  See all those snaps?  Those are suppose to go in the front.  I didn’t even know it was possible to put a cloth diaper on backwards.  I can’t even imagine the struggle that must have gone on for him to get this on him.  Hahaha!

And I love Christmas cards!

I danced on a stage

I got to dance on a stage during one of the studio’s Christmas recitals on December 16th.  Even though it wasn’t my genre of dance I had a lot of fun learning new steps and pushing my body.  I was nervous about dancing again because the last time I did that I dislocated my knee cap back in 2010.  Maybe this is too personal but sometimes I still have nightmare-ish dreams about that accident.  Oye.  I will say this…the second I stepped on that stage I didn’t think about my knee at all.  I love the power of performing, there really isn’t anything like it.

Anyway, it was a blast and I wanted to share it with you in case you haven’t seen it through email or facebook yet.  I have long brown hair and for a lot of the dance I am in the front and center. (I have no idea why it came out that way!)

I really wanted Brian to come see me dance in the show because he has never seen me dance on a stage.  He told me I did really well for an old lady. ;)  I also wanted my mother and my father to come see me dance.  That meant bringing the boys and my family said they did awesome.  Andrew just watched the stage the whole time and sat very quietly.  Tyson did great because of his snacks.  My mother said he kept asking if the kids on the stage were from my class.