All aboard!!!!!

To the North Pole Express, that is!

We, along with our neighbors, took our girls to Grapevine, TX a few days before Christmas for this magical train ride!
The kids (and some parents, too) wore their pajamas, just to make it feel a little more like a bedtime story.

Claire-bear wasn't quite so interested in getting her picture taken...

Sweet sisters!

Can't really see it, but once you entered the cedar tree maze it was snowing like crazy!!!

Boarding the "real train"!

Here's are "ticket puncher", not quite sure what his actual title it, but he went to each passenger & punched their ticket. Kella thought he was pretty awesome!

The Miller's

Ryan LOVED her bell. The "big guy" himself passed out special Christmas bells to each child.

There he was....Kella could not hardly contain herself. They made his entrance so magical, she couldn't quite figure out how he got on that train (since we were moving and all) but she completely mystified!!!

Look how great he looks! He had the most amazing white eyebrows! I just love Christmas!!!

Kick-off to family Christmas's...

I guess part of getting married is combining families and with that, their traditions.... this year marked a change for our family. My brother wouldn't be at my Grannie's for mom's side of the family, so we decided to get everyone together the weekend before Christmas at our house! I was so excited to host. Mom & Skip arrived pretty early to help get our dinner prepared. Here's Kella & her Gibbie making some of the desserts. (Kella in true form - a princess dress, no doubt. Looks like today's choice was purple!)

Kella helping Skip with his gifts.

Kella could hardly contain herself as she opened her new collection of princess shoes.

Ryan seemed to like Cash's presents more than hers...

Lovin' on his new pillow pet...

Cash's new tricycle... Kella brought hers in shortly after and the two went round & round the living room, it was great night with the family. We loved having everyone here!

Christmas party x 2!!!

I'm playing catch-up so keep scrolling through the posts cause I'm on a roll!!!!!

Two schools means two parties...
This is Kella's M-W-F school. With only 1 teacher and 10 kids, it feels a little less hectic come party time!
We've enjoyed this class so much this year. Kella & one of her best buds, Sterling, have turned out to have lots in common. Her mom is from Oklahoma, went to OU and is a sorority sister to a good friend of mine from high school. Kella thought it was pretty cool to learn that Sterling's grandma & grandpa live in Oklahoma too!
The setup for these parties are pretty special. Two child's parents are in charge for each party, bringing the snacks & planning the activity, each gets to add their own special touch.
Hannah & Connor were in charge of the Christmas party.... here's Connor with his recordable book of "The Night Before Christmas" which had his grandpa's voice reading the story...(tear)

They also provided chocolate cupcakes with all the "tools'' to turn it into a reindeer!

Finished product! Funny story - when I told my mom about this activity and how cute it was, the school teacher in her dissected the entire activity, explained each detail & how it was such a great learning activity! Very true, Connor's mom led the class (following direction), told which piece to use (color & shape recognition), where to put it and even had printed pictures of what the finished product should look like (visual recognition). Thanks Mom!!!!

Connor sharing his story book...

Party #2... This is Kella's Tue-Thurs class with 18 kids with 3 teachers, so it's a little more hectic, but still a great party! Each child brought a tiny carton for their gingerbread house...

we covered them with icing, attached come crackers and voila! A Gingerbread house!

The class had put together a little ditty, but first started by reciting the Lord's Prayer. They say this everyday in class, but wanted to show the parents as a group. It was adorable! This was followed up by a classic rendition of jingle bells!

Ryan was enjoying the festivities as much as we were!

How 'bout them Cowboys!!!!!

There's a new doc in town, Kevin, that is (center) and one of his patients works for the Cowboys. She was so sweet to offer Kevin 4 tickets....he was so sweet to ask Kipp....he was even MORE sweet to let me tag along!!!! But probably the sweetest thing of all was the "Media Passes" that came along with the seats. We had front row parking, sideline passes and access to most areas inside the stadium..... SAH-WHEEET!!!!!

3 Chiro's...

Jason Witten

I think this guy talking to Tony won some sort of "Meet.the.quarterback.we'll.tape.you.while.telling.him.your.biggest.dream.is.coming.true." contest. He was so animated & Tony's face was hysterical during this fella's big moment! Too bad his "Romo" jersey was dirty that night!

We didn't venture too far from this glassed-in area to watch the game.

Thanks Kevin for sharing an amazing experience!!!!!

Christmas in rewind...

As most holiday season's are, this one was a whirl wind of festivities. With each event I snap away thinking to myself "I can't wait to share this on my blog"...but time passes, filled memory cards sit...waiting...patiently...

To start off, here's this year's, or should I say, one of 3 of our Christmas cards. Being overly efficient this year I ordered a proof of our first card before committing to the large order....nah, surely I can do better... designed and ordered another, slipped my mind that 5x5's require extra postage, sent those out, list kept growing, designed and ordered another set, 5x7 this time!!! Here's the final design...
Remember I mentioned something about being overly efficient... I think it was still November when we took pics with Santa. Out decorations weren't even up in our house yet, which, note to self, would've been helpful for Ryan to know who the heck the man in the big red suit was! This was probably the first time she'd laid eyes on the guy and, well, her reaction speaks volumes...

The entire group of 3's put on a Christmas program for the families.

Here's our little deer waiting patiently to make her musical debut!

Holding her "props" like a good-little-performer!

Next was cookies & cocoa in their room...

Dad even got to break away from the office for this one!

Kella & Mrs. Kuhlman