The Polar Express!

This was SO fun and I'm so glad we did it! The Wilkerson's, Cramer's and Willeford's joined us in Palestine, TX, for a trip that I hope our kids remember forever! We left about 9:45 yesterday morning and after stopping for a photo op on the side of the road and lunch in Carthage, arrived in Palestine shortly before 2.


This was O when we arrived.


So I left O and Matt in the car asleep while I hit up a few of the shops nearby. O woke up about 2:30 and we headed to Santa's village.








After Santa's village and visiting an ice cream shop we headed to dinner. Dinner for 15 in under an hour... Success!


And then to the Polar Express! O was so excited! We changed her into her pj's and got ready to bored. These kids's excitement could not be contained!





This is how most of my pics turned out... Couldn't keep them still!


After boarding the train O was fading fast. But she persevered and stayed awake for the whole thing. The "chefs" we're so great. We listened to the polar express story on the way to the north pole and drank hot chocolate and ate cookies.


The conductor came by and stamped O's ticket.


And then we arrived at the North Pole! We were sitting on the wrong side of the train so the very nice lady across from us just picked O up and let her join her and her granddaughter.





Santa and his elves boarded the train from here and we sang Christmas songs and danced all the way back to the depot.





Santa passing out the magic bells.


Once it was over O caught her second wind. She and Drew ran around for a minute and watched the next group board the train.


And then it was time to head home.


We left there at 8:30 just knowing she would be asleep by the time we got back to the main road. Wrong! We were rolling into Shreveport about 10:30 when O finally went to sleep. We were home by 11:45 and she never budged when I put her in bed. We had the best day! I'm so very thankful to have the best of friends and some "built in" best friends for O.

But let me say.... I may have reconsidered having 3 kids now. I may just want one more! LOL!!

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Random Tuesday

It really was random. O had a field trip to a local nursing home. I don't think it went that well.





If this picture is any indication....





Then GG picked her up for their usual Tuesday afternoon together. This day they made hot chocolate mix for all of the teacher/special people in her life gifts. I love that she actually got a hand in this. She "made" this pretty much by herself and is genuinely excited to give it away!


I had plans for dinner with some friends so I had miss Alecia come and get o and take her to Christmas on the Lane. From all accounts she had a blast! Each sorority had a different craft and she got to see all the "big girls". When I tell her we're going to the lodge she asks if Brooke and Shelby will be there! We have been blessed with some great babysitters over the years! When I got home she had to show me her crafts. She was most pumped up about the reindeer food. Whichever house did that....good job!


Our party of 8ish dwindled to 3 by the time dinner rolled around but we didn't care!








It was a BUSY day but we all had fun!

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Sickly and 2012 Ornament

Man, my blog titles are pathetic. Last Monday we learned that 2 kids in o's class had the flu. On Tuesday it was 4. We were holding out hope it would miss us. I got the call on Wednesday abt 2:30. She had almost 102 fever. We went straight to the dr for the flu test. And it was negative! But jenny said since she'd only been sick for abt 2 hours it was really too early to know. So we started tamiflu. Thursday morning she was PITIFUL. After being awake for less than 40 min she was back asleep.





Her fever was only abt 99 that day but you could tell she didn't feel good. She did perk up a little Thursday afternoon though and by Friday morning she was good to go.


So. She either had the flu but a very mild case (I say this bc one of the kids in her class that tested positive for it was only down for the count for about 2 days according to his mom.) or, it was just some bug that moved on quickly.

This weekend I made time to make our official 2012 ornament. This started in 2010 as I was decorating the tree. In 2009 a co-worker had given me an ornament with o's picture in it. So when I hung that ornament I thought I needed one for that year too. And then last year I decided I'd make one every year. And I'm SOOO glad I'm doing it! I LOVE seeing her grow every year when we decorate the tree!



All ornaments thus far...


I think 2011 is my all time fav so far. When the lights are on they shine through the glass ball and it's so pretty. I do look forward to making these each year and it will be more fun when I start letting o help me!

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Santa 2012

Tonight was the night. We've been talking about it and pumping her up. And it was better than last year. No tears = success!!

Thinking about it...


Annual photo with GG.


Then all by herself.





Then dinner at chick-fil-a, a carousel ride and toys r us for the toy she picked out for doing so good with Santa.... A princess umbrella! I wish I was joking! Out of anything at build a bear and toys r us she picked an umbrella. And she LOVES it! Thanks GG for a fun night!


And thanks to jackie for riding the carousel with her. I hate that thing, makes me so sick! LOL!


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Family filled weekend

Matt's grandmother passed away last week so we spent the weekend in Monroe with his family. Friday night o and I went over after work and had dinner and hung out. O loves her some david grey. And she attempted to like baby Jacob but I'm not sure she just loves him yet!


To get the photo above before we left I had to bribe her with an icee. I'm ok with bribery.


Shelby came and stayed with o sat morning while I went to the funeral and after lunch Matt and I came to Ruston to pick her up and headed back to Monroe. I say all this bc o had one heck of a time with shelby. I must have heard no less than 6 times now that they met paige, murphy and davis at the park and then went to johnnys. A babysitter after her heart; park time and johnnys!

Sunday night was o's big Christmas performance at church.





The Hanging of the Greens is one of my favorite services throughout the year. Her class sang away in a manger and one other song that escapes my memory right now. Sleep baby Jesus, maybe? (this is why I obsessively blog. Bc I forget everything!)


Matt, gg, pops, jackie and missy all came to watch and this girl performed! She actually sang! We were all in shock and thrilled. So gg and pops went to dinner with us afterwards to celebrate.


So we had a lot of family time togetherness this weekend.

Today brought another almost 80 degree day. In December. Pitiful. Where are you winter???


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Kansas City Express

What a fun thing! We met mom for dinner at ponchatoula's for dinner and then got in line. 2 hours later we had visited the train. So neat! Thanks city of Ruston!























And for documentation. O got her tree decorated Sunday night. She LOVES it!








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