Getting Ready for Christmas

20 Weeks

I'll be the first to admit it has been harder this time around to get these pictures. I am not sure why, but I forget mostly. Here I am at 20 weeks. My regular doctors appointment is tomorrow and he is going to do a sonogram to check out the baby and hopefully find out what it is.

Putting up our Christmas Tree

Last Monday, Michal Kate didn't have school, they were still out for Thanksgiving, and we spent the day decorating our house for the holiday season. The older kids really enjoyed getting to put the ornaments on the tree this year, and were asking about each one.

Jack liked going behind the kids and taking the ornaments off that they have just put on the tree.Noah reaching for higher than he go.

Decorating their Christmas Trees

Last year after Christmas I found a princess tree on the 50% off sale at Wal Mart. So this year I also bought the boys a tree. We let them decorate them all by themselves, which is hard for me to release and not come in and fix the limbs that have 3 or 4 ornaments on it, but I did it.
Here is Michal Kate and her finished tree.

Noah with the boys tree.Fun with Lights

I got this idea from a friends blog and loved it so I had to try it with my kiddos. I used a black table cloth for my back drop and bought one strand of colored lights. I put Michal Kate on the table first to test out my camera and see what I would have to do to make her and the lights show up. I think for the most part they turned out pretty cute. Michal Kate and Noah loved it, but Jack thought I was nuts and was not crazy about the lights.

The big kids were blowing the lights on like Barney.

Breakfast with Santa, Or Not

On Saturday the kids and I went to Idabel to Paul and Adria's church Breakfast with Santa. The only issue there was Santa was sick and couldn't find his suit so it was breakfast without Santa. It is a really incredible morning where they ate donuts, sang carols, listened to the Christmas story, then got to decorate gingerbread houses. They had a great time.
Michal Kate and her finished product.

Trying to keep Jack trapped so I could help Michal Kate and Noah.

Noah was very serious about getting his Fruit Loops on his roof.

They also had someone take pictures of all the kids. Of course I had to take my own and this is the best it got.

Connor and Cambri in front of the tree.Christmas Train

After the breakfast we went and got McDonald's for lunch and went back to Paul and Adria's house to eat and let the kids play for a bit before we moved to the next event of the day. We then drove, all together, thank goodness, about a hour and a half through the mountains to a little town were the Kansas City Express was pulling through with their Christmas Holiday Express train. The drive and waiting in about a 40 minute line was well worth it just to see the boys faces when they saw the engine for the first time. They thought it looked like a Thomas the Train car and it even had a name, Rudy.

After waiting in the line you get to walk through 5 of the 6 cars and they have it all decorated with trains and Christmas decorations.
The cars were amazing inside and out. Here is Michal Kate on the car, above, and standing outside waiting in line in front of one of the cars, below.
Connor and Noah waiting.
Cambri waiting in line.

Once on the train, in the very first car you get to see Santa. Michal Kate had even written him a letter, drew him a picture, and took it to him. He put it in his mail box next to his chair to read later.
I thought the older kids did great with Santa, though Jack was less than thrilled.
Connor and Cambri with Santa. Again, Connor did great and Cambri didn't care for it to much.
After the train, which only takes about 10 minutes, we took the kids to a train car restraunt. The food was good but it took forever. The good thing was when we left it was dark and we were able to go back by the Holiday Express and see it all lit up.


Sorry for the long post. I hope this finds you having the happiest of holiday seasons and a Merry Christmas. More to post tomorrow assuming we know what we are having!