Tate's Preschool Program!

Tate had his very first preschool program today! It was held at the Draper Theater. Tate was so thrilled that he "got to be on a stage and everything!"

It's The Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

Oh what do you do in the winter time, when all the world is white?

Every year my parents neighborhood has a neighborhood party. Everyone brings canned food to donate instead of doing neighbor gifts. Each year, Santa arrives in a fun and unique way. This year he was preceded by his own marching band of neighborhood young men, then arrived in grand style in a Hummer. It's always fun to see what they come up with!

Max and Grandma visiting Santa

Tate and Max at Gardner Village seeing the elves. It was freezing, so we ended up seeing more of the cookie store!
Tate would stay in the snow all day--he loves it!
I know. I'm mean. Great blackmail when he's a teenager though!
Seeing the dinosaurs for the umpteenth time...
Max posing just like Tate did for his picture by the dinosaur. Please note the glass case behind and to the left of Max. In about a split second after this picture was taken he had walked around to the case. It was a few inches out from the wall so Max decided to scoot behind it. He ended up knocking the case over and creating a reverberating "thud" throughout the museum. A few ancient rocks took a tumble but seemed to survive. I'm beginning to understand those mom's who put their kids on a leash!

The Miracle of The Christmas Train (and other such stories)

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving. It was wonderful to be home with family for the first time in 4 years. We loved it! The only thing missing was the "other" family we spent making in the time we were gone! Alas, the grass is always greener...

On Friday, Chad and Tate went to Home Depot to get a Christmas Train that had been advertised in the paper. The store was all out when they got there, but soon found another store willing to hold their last train for 1 hour. Within 15 minutes Chad and Tate had scurried to the store to pick up the train. Tate was ecstatic! A train just like Nana's! Unfortunately the local Home Depot Grinch (aka the store manager) decided that items could not be held on that day and sold it just as Chad and Tate got there. We had one very upset 3 year old! A couple hours later who should appear but Nana, with a toy train she had picked up a few years ago (unbeknownst to us) to give to Tate when he was old enough. Without knowing what had happened at the store, she showed up with the train and saved the day! It may not be a "real" miracle, but sometimes it's the little things that count.

Tate and the train

On Saturday I had the opportunity to be "Santa's Helper" and take pictures of little one's with Santa to benefit a local museum. It was so much fun to see each child's reaction to Santa. The Santa was awesome, and spent quite a bit of time chatting and joking with each child. He really was great. Tate was happy to talk to Santa...from a safe distance. Max was just completely unsure of what the heck was going on!
Tate and Max with cousins Jaxon and Lindsey

We traditionally put up our Christmas decorations on the day after Thanksgiving, but we were pokey this year and they didn't make it up until Sunday. The boys had a great time decorating the tree-or undecorating the tree-as was the case with cute Max. Their favorite part of course was making the train go in a million and a half circles underneath the tree.