Trains at Northpark

We went to Northpark Mall today to check out the new model trains this year. The kids loved it, so if you are in the Dallas area I think it is worth going to check it out. This mall has TONS of Christmas activities. Santa has story time, puppet shows and different bands were there playing Christmas music.

Not our best family photo, but its what we got. :)

Part of the train exhibit.

They have the Santa and his reindeer up every year. I thought I should have a photo to remember it this time! The reindeer are made of pecans, and it looks like Santa's beard is made of marshmallows. I am sure it is all in their brochures, I just did not get around to reading up on it.

Mason & Kate checking out the ducks.

School Christmas Party

Mason, Kate and Caroline celebrated Jesus' Birthday today at school. The parents got to attend their chapel time and then went to their room to make crafts and eat cookies of course! They were so excited and had a great time.

Tonight I got to go to our ABF (Sunday School) ornament exchange for the gals in class. Ahh, so nice to have the chance to talk! And I did "steal" some really cute handmade felt ornaments a girl in our class made. Maybe I can find the time to follow in her footsteps and make more for my tree.

Kate and Mason with their teachers.

Caroline with Daddy.

Gingerbread Village

Yesterday we continued our second year of making gingerbread houses. Last year we just did one, this year an entire village! They LOVED every minute of it. For me it was a little messy, but worth the excitement for them. This morning somehow they had managed to take all of them upstairs to their room, without making a mess!?! This afternoon I also found a princess in one of the houses, so they have really been playing with them! (Not just for looks or food at our house.)

Tonight we went through the Christmas Journey which is a drive through live nativity at the First Baptist Church of McKinney. It was really neat. A long line, but I think it was worth it. I hope it will help the kids have a better picture in their head when they hear different stories about Jesus this coming year. Kate seems to remember EVERYTHING, so I am sure I will hear about different parts quite a bit. I did have to explain when we got home that we did not go to the real Bethlehem, we were in McKinney and that they were pretending. I think Kate thought she was seeing the real thing! :)

Mason and his house.

Kate and her house.

Caroline and her house

Our Village

Making Marshmallows

Our first experience making homemade marshmallows, yummy! First we tried to make peppermint ones, the kids actually like them, but I think they are a little too minty. So, second time we have tried original vanilla flavor. We could not have just plain white around Christmas, so we added red and green! The kids LOVED eating the left overs on the spatula and in the bowl and mixer. The main part where they could help was dipping them in powdered sugar. I think Caroline might be eating these for supper!

Can you tell we like it?

Kate and Mason helping dip all of the marshmallows.

Christmas Cookie Makers

We have started our cookie baking early around our house. The fun part besides eating the cookies is watching the kids get so excited about picking out which cookie cutters they want to use. I got to hear a lot of "Wow!" and "I want to use this one, no this one!". Perfect entertainment for a cold afternoon.
Mason & Kate each got their own packet & bowl this year. No one arguing over who got to stir.

Can you tell he was happy?

Caroline was taking a nap during the baking, but she did not miss out when they were done!

Thanksgiving Time & Getting Ready for Christmas

Happy Thanksgiving! This year even bribing with treats I could not get a good shot with all 3 looking at me! This year we are staying here for Thanksgiving, which I love not having to travel for one holiday. The dressing, sweet potato casserole and a squash casserole are already made and waiting, plus the turkey of course. Just a few minor items to add and Thanksgiving will be ready to go! This past weekend we went to a tree lighting in Allen with some friends and got to see Santa go by in a carriage. Plus we got the tree put up with ornaments on Sunday. We will do the rest after Thanksgiving. Hope everyone has a wonderful time with family and friends this week!

Excited to decorate the tree!

Kate was helping with the tree skirt.

Brent and Mason waiting to see Santa go by.

They had samples of cookies and true melted dark chocolate, not just hot chocolate. Check out Mason's mustache!

San Antonio Vacation

Last week we took our first family vacation. We left Monday and came home Friday, which was the perfect amount of time to be away from home on a real vacation. :) We went through a drive thru safari on the way down there which the kids loved. Then Tuesday we did Sea World all day. All of the shows and fun stuff for the kids, Wed. was Sea World again, but the water park side of it. Thursday we were going to go to the zoo, but it rained, so we did the Children's Museum and then another museum that had a dinosaur exhibit going on and after that we got to drive by the zoo and still got to ride a train.

This is how close the animals got to the car!

Mason feeding a goat. I was surprised that he was not scared of them. We tried the same thing earlier this year, with fenced in animals and he would not do it.

Pappy, Della and Kate.

Entrance to Sea World. After waiting in line for tickets we were ALL HOT!

My one vacation pic! It was so bright outside it was hard to do anything without the sunglasses on. Luckily I just took them off for the picture.

Caroline "fishing" while M & K went on the kids roller coaster.

She won a pet gator. :)

Pappy, Kate, Daddy and Mason on the coaster. Kate wanted to go again! I think she is the adventurous one!

4 D movie. It was neat, but the kids freaked out in parts of it. I would not recommend for children this age. Of course they don't tell you that until you are in there! :)

Getting ready for the Azul show to start.

Caroline and Kate at the Children's Museum.

They had fun on the plane in the museum. They were all concerned with buckling up!

They also had a fake HEB grocery store and the kids got to shop and check out. All of the kids were going crazy in there!

Train ride outside of the zoo. This was really fun and not an expensive to do!

Birthday Cake for Mommy

My birthday was last week and the only thing I REALLY wanted was a Baskin Robbins ice cream cake. YUM! So Daddy took the kids and picked one out for me. I actually went along for the ride as well, because lets face it, who can turn down a trip to Baskin Robbins? The kids were more excited about the cake than I was and they sang "happy birthday" to me all day, which was a wonderful present in itself. :)

It is a Strawberry Shortcake themed cake. Chocolate chip ice cream with white cake.

Ballet Class

Kate went to her second ballet class today and loved it. The girls all love these ribbon wands. They are all so cute in their ballerina outfits. She is already signed up for ballet/tap for the Fall.

Mason patiently waiting to LEAVE!!

They do at least have a lego table set up for all of the siblings waiting.