To the Pole and Back

December started out appropriately with a trip to the North Pole via The Polar Express. We started by getting Gma and Gpa and driving four hours to AZ. Then we got in our pjs and boarded the train. Then we enjoyed hot chocolate and snicker doodles while traveling through space and time to get to the North Pole. Santa got on the train and gave all the kids a bell. Then we spent another few minutes with Mrs. Clause and when we got off the train we were back in AZ and rode the four hours back home. It was a really wonderful and fun trip! Except for when Rachel decided to throw up the whole way home. But it really was ironic because I had been praying that we could get through all of our important events without sick kids. I specifically asked if we could avoid being sick the day of the train ride. I didn't think this prayer was going to be answered so literally. But it was a blessing in disguise cause it was past time to take apart the carseats and wash them. And no one else in the family got sick after her. That was the biggest miracle of all. We must have picked up some magic in the North Pole. 

Only Adam got a picture with Santa because of course Rachel was in the background screaming, "I don't want to see Santa!"

Later, when we asked R what she wanted for Christmas, she replied, "I already got a present from Santa." It was so sweet. She did get another present on Christmas morning though :)

In case you want to know what the North Pole looks like

Thanks for the fun trip, Gma and Gpa!

Christmas Time

This was a really great Christmas. We had fun the whole month of December. Here are some phrases that were very common in our household at Christmas:

The movie of choice this year was definitely The Grinch. So there was also a lot of singing the Grinch songs. And Adam had his own interpretation that I thought was funny. After all of the "ah hoo dorays" or whatever it is they say, I think the correct words are "Bring Your Light". But, Adam liked to say "Bring Your Wife".

Speaking of marriage, Rachel got a little mixed up with Married and Mary. Now any girl or bride with a veil or head covering is considered, "Married".  "Is that Married?" she will say. Just tonight we looked at our wedding picture and R glanced over and said, "Married?".  I haven't had the heart to correct her because it's too dang cute. And then she always asks, "Where's the baby Jesus?"

We also got a little mixed up with the ornaments. I had just explained that things that make music are called instruments. Well, since a few of our ornaments play music, Rachel insisted on calling ornaments=instruments.
As a side note, last year Rachel flung her "baby's first christmas" ornament across the room and it shattered. I cried and they didn't touch the ornaments after that. This year, they were taught how to handle ornaments and they did a good job. But somehow Adam's matching "baby's first christmas" ornament found its way off the tree and it got smashed too. This time, however, I just shrugged and figured it was meant to be. I really didn't like them in the first place, and I figure I can just order some online that I like better and make sure they are shatterproof this time!

The last phrase we heard quite often around here was "I don't want to see Santa!" This was most often uttered after the question, 'What do you want for Christmas?" I don't know why Rachel decided to not like Santa this year, but I blame the Rudolph movie. That Santa is just mean. However, she LOVES the Grinch. Go figure.

More Christmas posts to come...and then maybe I can talk about real life again!

The End

Once the leftovers were gone, we decided it was time to get ready for Christmas...too bad we still had to come home and do our tree. But, we finally learned how to do this airport thing...

Thanksgiving in STL

The Birthday Party: Josie is 3!

Not that we needed an excuse to do more partying :)

Ring around the Rosie never looked this good

Thanksgiving in STL

The Zoo, or: My Everyday Life

Thanksgiving in STL

The Day Of:

Those who helped stuff the turkey were not too grossed out and were still able to eat it

mostly

josie recovered from her "finger in bottle" incident

It's always risky to let a non Livingston do the pie trick, but luckily it turned out okay

The 50 cent piece game was good in theory

but it's a lot more fun to burn off pie by doing laps on the table

Thanksgiving in STL

Cousins and Feeding Ducks aka: Wild Life

Thanksgiving in STL

Missionaries at the Home Storage Center:

My parents are service missionaries at the home storage center. That includes, but is not limited to selling people food storage. So we got to go have a tour and some little helpers canned some black beans.  

We didn't cook them for Thanksgiving though :)