Santa came to our house early and dropped off a Polar Express book at our door and gave us tickets to the Polar Express in Palestine (about 1 1/2 hrs) from our house. The girls were so excited! To prepare we watched the movie, made hot chocolate, and waited patiently for the day to arrive (4 days later).
Watching Polar Express
We checked out Ashlyn early from school and made the trek to Palestine. It was a beautiful drive where the leaves are changing and it is just filled with trees (I love that about East Texas). The weather is starting to cool down where it is in the low 70's.
The girls were all in the princess pjs! We finally got there and it was so magical with Christmas music, lights, decorations, and elves.
After taking lots of pictures, we finally could get on the train when the conductor yelled, "All aboard". We found our seats and it was actually really warm on the train (Derek finally figured out how to open one of the windows because it was getting quite hot and the North Pole wasn't quite as cold as you would expect it to be;)
The train was decorated so fun and there were waiters that danced in the aisles (and sometimes with the kids). They served hot chocolate and cookies during the ride to the North Pole and read the book Polar Express (we brought the book so Ashlyn could follow along). When we got to the North Pole, Santa was waving and the elves were all dancing. Santa joined the train. He spent time talking with the girls and have them a special gift- The Christmas bell. You can hear it ring only if you believe in Santa. At one point of the ride, Ashlyn was ringing her believe saying out loud, "I believe" with a huge grin on her face.
That was the most magical point is seeing the light in the girls eyes and the big smiles throughout the ride. It really was magical!
The North Pole is at the end of the video.
Brinley dancing with the waiter
(I love the smile on her face)
The girls are waving to the elves before we departed.
Daddy was playing with Brinley and threw her in the air and when she landed, she landed on it weird and cried. She wouldn't put weight on it for three days so we decided to take her to the Dr., who sent us to the hospital to get x-rays. We got the results the next day that said that she just had a sprain. We were so happy. Derek and I have been so impressed with Brinley because she has been happy and cheerful, without even complaining. She hopped, crawled,and scooted all around the house to get around. We love this brave girl and we are glad that her foot is ok.
Brinley ate all her chocolates for the avent calendar in one sitting. I am not surprised!
We dropped off our neighbor gifts and the girls were so excited to she our neighbors Sophie and Gabby.
Lufkin is really fun during this season. They had a community light parade (on a Monday night and most of the community comes to this event. The floats are all decked out with lights and music and creative with the theme. This year it was Rockin' around the Christmas Tree.
A nice woman gave us candy canes and Desi is being silly.
I love this stage!
Ashlyn had to go to the bathroom during the parade and there were no bathrooms in sight, so dad got creative and made a pee zone for her.
Ashlyn really loves to read. This morning while Derek and I were making breakfast before school, Ashlyn was reading a long story (A book that I usually summarize because of how wordy it is) while eating blueberries. Her sisters were loving every minute of it!
While waiting for Brinley's carpool for school, these three were playing so cute and I had to snap a quick picture. I absolutely love their
stages!
We went to another community event called Old Bethlehem where the Methodist Church reenacts the night of the first Christmas. We went with one of our favorite families in Lufkin, the Grisels. There kids are all teens, but they absolutely love our kids (it is Sable's family - our weekly babysitter). Our kids would play around laughing and having fun playing with the Grisel kids.
We found baby Jesus
The girls did tapestry, candle dipping, pet donkey's and goats, people pretended to sell oil, ointment, bread and many more. It gave me a perspective of what that night would have been like the night Christ was born. Everyone would ask, "Have you found the baby yet?" It was a great evening.
These girls are so blessed to have great uncles and aunts. Uncle Trevor write each girl their own individual letter and drew them separate pictures of what they liked. Thanks Trevor, they absolutely loved it! That is so thoughtful of you to take the time to draw these amazing pictures and write them a letter.
Trevor drew princess Aurora for Claire because he read on the blog that she got an Aurora dress-up for her birthday, Brinley to a drawing of an unicorn because she loves unicorns, and drew Ashlyn a picture of her rock climbing because he read that she was so brave to do that.
Thanks you Trevor!!!
We went to the mall to eat at chick-fil-a because we had 2 giftcards that expired in a couple of days. We saw Santa while we were there.
I love watching my girls play and giggle together. Even though I have been so sick and not able to play with them as much as I would like, I am so glad that they have each other!
I bought two spotlights for our house. One for outside and one inside. It looks so amazing at night with our high ceilings.
The girls love to play in front of the spotlight outside!
I love how much art is a part of Ashlyn...she is always doing great work.
Derek and Ashlyn's artwork from watching a youtube video.
They did a great candyskull
Brinley's artwork from preschool.
Picture of Brinley's class with Ms. Melissa.
Brinley's individual shots... she is so photogenic!
Desi is getting so brave! She had no fear going down this huge slide.
We had to go to Houston to pick up the girls' Christmas present and we had to strap it to the top of our car. It was an adventure coming home. But while we were in Houston, Dad went to IZOD to get some pants with a giftcard that he has had for over 2 years! While he was shopping we found a store for the girls to delight in.
Ashlyn is thriving in her after school art class. She absolutely loves it and looks forward to each Monday. This week she painted a monkey sock puppet and she did fantastic!
A few weeks ago, she made these out of clay and painted them.
It is a cat, cupcake, and pumpkin.
This weekend we went to the High School play of The Christmas Carol.
These girls are two girls in my young women's. They girls got so excited when they would see them on stage and then after begged to get their pictures with them.
More pictures of the Old Bethlehem
While everyone was asleep in the house, I had a movie buddy watching a Christmas movie on Netflix...the Christmas Prince is really cute (Derek says that they are too cheesy so he won't watch them with me).
Claire put on my boots and say, "Hey Mom, I'm Santa!"
So I haven't had my beloved treat Diet Pepsi since Halloween night!!!! It really is amazing!!! I have been wanting to give it up for awhile now, but being sick with this pregnancy has made it a lot easier. I even have 3 of those bottles in my pantry (which says something because usually if it is in sight, it is gone in my tummy).
I am curious how I will do in Utah because that is the time that I usually indulge in my Diet Pepsi!!!
In MOPS today, we had a fun activity where we were given a variety of candies and we had to use our creativity as a table to come up with a creation. This is what we came up with and I thought it turned out cute.
It is the nativity if you can't tell what it is.
I found this gem and I can't believe how much she has grown and matured. I sure love my sweet Ash and she is turning into a beautiful, inside and out, young lady.
We had Thanksgiving with 3 other young families in our ward. It was fun to have our kids play with other kids on this holiday.
We went to the movie Coco! It was really cute!
I told Derek that I was going to Tyler (2 hr. away) with the kids and he felt left out. He called in "sick" that morning so he could join us. I will give him credit that the day before he had a lot of cancelation with the holiday and it drove him crazy, so he only worked one day that week.
We had fun at the children's museum with our friends Addy and Ethan.
Ethan is really good friends with Ashlyn. He likes to tell his parents that he is going to marry a Williams girl...ha ha.
Addy and Claire goofing around in the Hurricane Machine.
Robot Station
Random kid joined the picture when I was taking it of the girls...ha ha.
News Room
Store
This is one of my favorite views: all the girls surrounding their daddy!
We also went to a dinosaur museum on the break.
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