The Polar Express

A few weekends ago we took our first to the North Pole via the Polar Express.  We had a wonderful time! There is nothing like seeing how magical Christmas is for children..

We met a whole bunch of people from Lake Havasu there. (There were 79 friends that all ended up coming!) 

 We started out the night having dinner with some of our friends.  The boys had so much fun hanging out with them.

 

 Once we got to the train, the first stop was to visit Mrs. Claus.  The boys dropped off their letters.  Ernie was particularly thrilled with this because it was a great way to get them directly to Santa without the possibility of error from the post office.

 

 Mrs. Claus signed our Polar Express book. 

Caleb, of course, would not be in the picture. 

 Some of the men with Mrs. Claus.

 Here they are, finally on the Polar Express!

 The family, ahhh.

   The memories of watching especially Caleb as he watched out the window anxiously waiting for the magic of stories and movies to come to life in front of him will forever be in my memory. I wish I could have captured the anticipation and magic that were in his eyes. 

 Santa actually got on the train! When we drove by the North Pole the first time, he was there, but then as we were headed back, he wasn't there anymore.  And then, all of a sudden he was on the train!

 He talked to both our boys, but he was going through so quickly that some of the pictures didn't turn out great.

 Santa gave them each a bell!

We were able to get a quick picture right after we got off train.  Man, they are so cute.  And the bathrobes were purchased especially for the train ride.  When Caleb heard we were going, he got so excited.  And the first thing he asked was if we could please get him a bathrobe like the boy in the movie, but without the hole in the pocket. (How cute is that? And, yes, I promptly went out to find them each one!)

Elmer

It is time to introduce you to the newest member of our family:

This is Elmer. 

He is the elf that we have adopted into our family.

My friend told me about this tradition, "The Elf On The Shelf" that they have, and I couldn't resist starting it as well.

I cannot even begin to tell you how much my kids have loved it.

OK, OK, I will fill you in.  

So after you "adopt" your elf, (Barnes and Noble or Pottery Barn Kids) you give him a name.  Your new elf flies off to the north pole every night to fill Santa in. (How else do you think Santa could know everything?) Every morning he comes back and is in a new place and the kids have to search for him. 

I hear them in the morning talking to Elmer and explaining the lego sets they are dreaming of receiving Christmas morning, or just life in general.  

You see, you may talk to your elf all you want, but Santa's rule is that he can't speak back to you and children must never ever touch him or his magic will disappear.

I love the innocence of youth. And I hope I am able to help my children hang onto it for as long as possible.

I had no idea how into this my kids would get.  It is absolutely wonderful.  Elmer is going to help us hold onto that magic of Christmas for much longer than I ever thought it would be here. 

Thanks Elmer.

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Santa Season

We are the folks who don't breathe Christmas in until Fall is officially over: The day after Thanksgiving.  As much as I LOVE LOVE LOVE Christmas time, I adore fall.  However, starting in September, it's hard to even find fall decorations.  They already have Christmas stuff up.  I feel so bad that so many people cut it short.  Poor Thanksgiving.  I still love you.

After that introduction, you will love what this post is about.

We participated in our first Christmas activity this weekend.  It was purely by accident, I swear!  We were shopping at Town Square (a fabulous mall here that they created to resemble a small city, with cute streets and a fun center with a park).  It happened to be the first Christmas parade that they do through the streets there during the Holidays.  The kids got so excited, and I had no idea what a fun ting it would be.

 They aren't the best pictures ever of Santa.  But I am pretty sure he was the real deal.  None of this helper stuff for this parade.  And Mrs. Clause was there too.  So much fun!  I was so glad we happened upon it. 

But here is to a great Thanksgiving............

Sweet Moments

I enjoy motherhood.  Some moments more than others :)  

Yesterday night I finally sat down on the couch after a very long day.   My sweet and adorable 5 year old must have sensed that it was a long day.  He brought over a blanket and then stood behind me and gave me a shoulder rub.  *sigh*  And that my friends why I have had a hard time with him growing up.  What a relief that he is still that sweet amazing little boy, just a little older so more apt and in tune to things.

I know it may not seem related, but that night I remembered a funny little story about Ernie. (Well, I will be completely honest.  He may or may not have been one of the reasons for the LONG day, so the memory came as an effort to remember the wonderful things about him.)

When he was a little younger, he was very hospitable.  He has always been a VERY early riser.  When we would have guests stay, he would go downstairs at a very undesirable hour and poor them a bowl of cereal.  Milk and all.  He would then deliver them breakfast in bed.  Sometimes he would make them toast. Those lucky guests would sometimes even get their breakfast fed to them weather they were ready or wanting.  That's right, spoon directly in mouth.  Ah, the memories.  

 

I am grateful that my boys are not boring.  I am grateful they keep me on my toes. I am also grateful for the hugs, I love You's and shoulder rubs at just the right moments.

Two Knights and a Castle

Apparently my boys are really into the Knight and Shining Armor thing right now.  I was really surprised at their costume choice, but couldn't have hand picked a more perfect one.  It was so adorable. 

 

 Their favorite part of the whole Holiday was passing out candy.  They were so funny.  (I wished I would have video taped it)  One of them would stand here, by the gate and raise their sword and say, "welcome to our castle." Then the other one would hand out the candy.  I was dying all night.  It was too funny.

So, now I will go back through the weekend events.  My Grandma came, and it was so wonderful to see her! Unfortunately, she wasn't feeling very well, but we did get this picture of her with the boys.

 We just love Truck Grandma! We are glad she is feeling a little better.

 This year was probably the best pumpkin year ever.  Nat and Mark drove down with Grandma and we had a little carving party the night before Halloween. 

 Some of the gang with their creations.  Mine is an owl, and I thought it was the best.  However, the judge deemed the WIXOM pumpkins the winner. The judge was my dad.  The WIXOM pumpkins were his.

 My mom was helping out with a get together at their church, so we popped over for a little bit.

Cowgirl Layne and Cowgirl Sophie (My parents Exchange student)

 All the pumpkins at the Trunk or Treat.

I must say that I was very impressed with my dad's life long dream of carving Wixom pumpkins.  They looked pretty awesome! 

And here it comes, they did deserve first place.

The Finer People In Life

The past little while, I have been contemplating the people in my life who have made me who I am.  I have mentioned often that I am grateful and feel very blessed for the family that I have; both my own and the one that I married into and now claim as my own. 

The past six months, I have been especially aware of my Dad.  My admiration for him is deep, and I wanted to share just a couple of things that I have thought about often.
I always knew that I had a very special person as my father. Anyone that meets me and knows who my father is has nothing but absolute praise and admiration for him as a person. I have never left one of those conversations without it generally going as follows; "you must feel so blessed and proud to have such a man as your father".
I remember one day a year or so ago, when he was serving as the Chairman of the Board of Regents, I was able to attend a meeting where they were presenting him with a gift of appreciation.  I remember so distinctly the words that one of the other Regent's said.  He said, "I have never and will never meet someone for whom I have more respect, nor a finer individual than Michael Wixom."
And he is MY Dad. 

He is absolutely the finest father any of us girls, and now 3 sons could ask for. 
Life is so precious, and the time we have with the people we love and admire so dear.  I am blessed beyond words could ever express to have the parents and siblings I do.  I will never (I pray) ever take for granted any of the incredible opportunities that we have to be together. 

Citizen of the Month

So, our son earned the Citizen of the month Award for October.  Let me tell you what the Award was for, and you can guess who it was.  This month is was for Responsibility. Hmmm, any guesses?  I bet you only needed one :)

 Here is the "Responsible" student.  Two things about the picture.  First, it was the day the kids got to wear their Halloween costumes to school.  What is Ernie? I'm thinking he was dressing up as himself. All of our requests for him to wear his actual costume were to no avail.  He informed us that he did not want to wear it because he did not feel it would be the best representation of himself for pictures of getting this award. Yes, he I'm thinking they gave it to the appropriate child.

Second, no, those are not kids in a younger grade.  All 2nd graders. 

One kid that did not need any persuading to wear his costume.......

 He was a little disappointed.  He is a Knight, and I am pretty sure a lot of the reason he wanted to be one this year is because they carry a shield and sword; neither of which were permitted at school.

We have the two most amazing boys.  We love them to pieces!

Fall Fun Fair

We took a trip down to Havasu recently to be there for our friends (the ones that my family would gladly invite to any family gathering) son Max's Special Day.  He didn't even get sick or anything :)

We LOVED seeing all of our friends, and we miss you guys! We didn't get to see everyone, but we saw quite a few people, and it was so nice.  You really have no idea how much like we felt like we were part of a huge family there.  So many GREAT people that we hope we are like when we are all grown up :)

 

Afterwords, we went to Red Robin with some of our friends.

Here are a bunch of the kids.  Notice which one is not looking at the camera....that's right.  Leave it to Caleb to not cooperate with the picture taking thing. He doesn't even acknowledge that I am talking to him.

But if I encourage him to pose, then all of a sudden he can hear me.

Here are a few of the grown ups. (Yes, May Lee totally counts as a grown up.)

We chose the perfect day to go.  It was the Fall Fun Fair in Havasu. I think it is now a tradition to go.  Two years in a row definitely means the start of a tradition. 

 The first thing Ernie asked about when we told him we were going to Havasu for Max's Baptism was if he would see Dewey.  Dewey was his favorite friend from school last year.

 They had so much fun together.  They ran around for a few hours at the fair, and Ernie could not have been more thrilled to get to see him!

  Last year, Ernie and our friend Dan had a little contest.  They raced through the blow up obstacle coarse. Last year Dan won, and so as soon as they saw that it was there again, they decided it was time to face off again. 

Here they are waiting, and I even got some video for you to enjoy.  But I think I should warn you that I am very loud.  I need to learn to stop talking when I am filming things, but I just completely forget that I am being recorded as well.  So, you were warned.  Turn off your volume. 

 Caleb with Tyler and Logan while they were waiting fora turn in the bounce house

Ernie with Dewey and Max