Magical Forest

Our good friends the Cooke's gave us a few tickets to the Magical Forest and we went a couple days after Christmas.  We haven't been in a few years and were amazed at all the new things they had.  (We were not amazed at how much they have jacked up the prices though!) 

 The kids loved this Cinderella carriage.

 They always want to be photographed with pigs. So strange.

 The Grinch is always a favorite.

 Jason had to get a picture with a Superman display.

 I loved this tree decorated with pencils.  So creative! The star on top is completely made out of pencils.

 My sister loves to say "only in Vegas" when she sees crazy things here.  I loved this display and loved it even more when I saw that Lee's Discount Liquor was the sponsor :) Only in Las Vegas!

 The Blue Man Group had a fun interactive display.  All the kids had to get in on the action.

 This display reminded me of Cars Land at Disney. I never knew air filters could be so Christmasey :)

 We got wristbands for the kids so they drove these pedal cars maybe 20 times.

 Eventually the crusty worker told them they couldn't get back in line anymore. Crusty!

 I gave Ryan a lift while waiting in line for the train.

 Jason had the fun of Ryan with him in the train.

 They had this amazing tree that changed it's lights to a song. It was really cool!

 They also had this super fast slide. I could only talk the kids in to going on it twice. It was crazy fast.  The best part was they had a conveyor belt at the end that a worker put all the tubes on and they met you at the top. Genius!

 We went inside to check out the awesome gingerbread houses.  Years ago the entire gym would be surrounded in gingerbread houses from all the different casinos.  This year they had about 5.

 We even made our way over to the miniature golf area.

 It was a little scary but the kids LOVED it. Who knew? I need to take them to more miniature golf.

 We had to jump on the train for one last go around before we went home.

Thanks Cooke's for the tickets!  It was a great night!!

Christmas 2013

Christmas morning I woke up at 6:30 and waited till 7:30 for anyone to get up.  Tyson was the first kid up.  He could not stop shouting "yes!" and making these crazy faces.

 He was so excited to get skylanders and infinity.  He was sure he wasn't getting either.

 Taylor was the next up.  We were trying our best to keep this girl out of the hospital this year. I don't know what it is about her asthma and Christmas they just don't mix.

 Tyson "organized" the gifts.  It was pretty wild.

 Taylor begged and begged for Monster high dolls and was shocked that Santa actually brought them for her.

 It was so exciting it triggered a breathing treatment.  Asthma fun!

 Hayden rolled out of bed around 8am.  She is not a morning girl.

 She also takes a while to get going in the morning.  She was freaked out by all the stuff on the couch.

 Then Tyson showed her her new doll and she warmed right up.

 Ryan made her entrance a little after Hayden and then it was present time!

 The girls loved their new big dolls.

 Darrell loves anything.  He was so excited to smell like a wolf.  So funny!  Darrell got a new TV, 2 cologne sets, and clothes.

 Tyson got a guitar, legos, DS games, and other miscellaneous toys.

 Hayden loved her new Dora chapstick bracelets, Dora doll, baby crib, and ballerina barbie doll.

 Ryan got a mini pillow pet, pj's, and a new bike.

 Not too mention this fashionable candy necklace and brush set :)

 Taylor got a Hello Kitty watch, Merida dolls, shoes, and a ballerina barbie.

 We went back to our favorite buffet for lunch and had Grandma Brenda meet us there.  We thought about going to see Frozen again but decided to stay close to home.  Taylor didn't eat much and started coughing in the middle of lunch.  We went home for another breathing treatment and a nap.

 Hayden is a buffet queen.  This girl can pack it away!

 She seriously ate this entire watermelon and would not let us cut it up.  Such a nut!

Merry Christmas!!!

Christmas Eve 2013

Christmas Eve was really low key for us.  We had pastrami sandwiches, shrimp, apple cider, and egg nog.  We opened new pj's made by Grandma DeMille.

 Aren't they the cutest?  Jason and I were bummed we are too big for the pj's, we thought they were the cutest ever.  Thanks Grandma!!

 Hayden is always the one who is wild in pictures.

 Gotta love that girl.

 Here is the living room when the kids went to bed.  Ryan has demolished many ornaments this year.  The poor bottom of the tree was looking pretty sad by Christmas Eve.

 Here is the living room after Santa came.

Yeah for Christmas!!!

Christmas Sunday clothes

I love buying the kids Christmas clothes for church but this year I refrained because I had just bought everyone new clothes for the baptism.  Lucky for me we found Christmas like clothes for everyone anyway.

Gotta love these cuties!

Gingerbread House Day

For the last day of school before winter break Taylor brought her teacher and the kinder helper a surprise.  She was so excited to wear her pajamas to school and watch polar express.

 I never get that great of pictures but Tyson's class had a party and I was in charge.  We played a white elephant game which the kids loved or hated (depending on what they got), made gingerbread houses and played a Christmas trivia game which was hilarious.  A few questions made the kids sing the next line of a Christmas song, so funny!  Some of the kids had never played white elephant which I was surprised about. They could not understand the concept of "gag gift". They kept asking me if it would make them gag.  Some examples of my "gag gifts"  were applesauce and a plastic spoon in a nice fancy box & a stick of gum wrapped up nice.  The funniest gift that wasn't a gag gift went to a boy named Anthony.  It was a package of sparkly girl pencils.  Everyone laughed and laughed.  Poor Anthony!  Another sad part was poor Leon. He has special needs and got so upset by his gift(a penguin craft) he started bawling and had to be removed.

 On the houses I was stressed! I am a little bit of a perfectionist and wanted Tyson's class to have the most amazing houses in the school. (I'm a little too competitive too :)  I talked a public school lunch lady into selling me milk cartoons.  It is totally against the rules but I assured her it was for a school project.  I just left out which school :)  I emptied all the milk into a gallon jug, washed the cartons, and then glued them shut and to a paper plate.  I also made all the frosting and put them into individual ziploc bags.  I wish I had taken pictures of my kitchen covered in all the materials for Tyson's class, it was awesome.

 The party was probably the funnest one yet! I love how the kids know Tyson's Mom means party time. That is meant in the elementary school party sense not real parties :)  I was very worried about the frosting and had done several timed tests to see how it would hold up and had several people taste it. I thought it was yummy but you never know about kids.  The funniest part was how many of the kids we caught trying to eat the frosting straight out of their bags instead of using it on their houses.  I am very worried about one girl named Mercy, she was a crazy frosting eater. We may have started her down a wrong path of sneaky frosting eating.

 Two kids were absent and missed all the action which meant the party kept going when we all got home.  Hayden and Taylor loved getting to do something the big kids had done.

 Taylor took all the candy she had gotten from her Christmas party at school and decorated her house with it.  Gotta be an original!

 Ryan is always in on the action, especially if candy is involved!  I can never take just one picture of this ham, here is her yuck face.

 Here is asking for more candy face.

 Being shy.

 In your face face.

Super fun day!  Totally worth the stress and craziness :)