our house this Christmas

the polar express

We took a trip up north last week so that Austin could see the snow. When I put the Christmas tree up, he yelled "it's Christmas?". I told him yes and then he said, "it's going to snow?". I told him "no, it doesn't snow here, even if it is Christmas". He is SO confused.

We traveled 3 hours north to ride the "Polar Express". It was a magical night and we all had a great time! And yes we even saw a little bit of snow.

TICKETS PLEASE!

TICKETS

At the last minute Travis chickened out from wearing his PJ's.  I even bought him a cute new pair for the ride. So this picture is of his BAH-HUMBUG.

Make sure you can still hear the bell this Christmas.

thirteen

I can't believe that thirteen year ago I was in the hospital having my first child. It seems so long and also such a short time ago. I do know I never felt nervous, I always knew being a mother was what I wanted to do. I feel so lucky that my plan worked out for me.

As I am being nostagic that my only baby girl is turning into a teenager (13), the only thing that Chloe has talked about for months is this-

Nothing about her birthday mattered, except that she get this cell phone. She couldn't have been more happy (but not really surprised), and I thought it was cute that the boys were almost as excited for her!

Her birthday went on for a few days.  The night before her birthday she opened presents and we took her to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner.  She already has expensive taste.

The morning of her birthday she and I flew to Idaho Falls for a birthday get-away, a hair appointment (for me) and the annual Milligan Family Christmas Party in Logan.

We ate at Frederico's Pizza that night and then swam with cousins at the hotel.

She pulled her cousin Michael's first tooth out.

Chloe and her Grandma

A very fun trip....Happy Birthday Chloe!

fun in a box

I am not exaggerating when I say that this box has entertained Austin for 2 entire days while I had the Christmas decor strewn ALL over the house. He played in the box from the time the kids left for school in the morning until dinner time both days. Give this kid a box and a Sharpie and he is happy. Makes me wonder why I am about to buy him more toys that he doesn't really need. Maybe I should consider a box.

thanksgiving recap

I don't want to skip a summary of Thanksgiving even though I am weeks behind.  Thanksgiving turned out FAR better than I ever expected.  This was our first Thanksgiving ever away and I wasn't sure I had the skills to pull it off alone, but it turned out just fine.  I think I even enjoyed it.

Michael, Carly, Avery & Pierson joined us from California and Jarrett, Priscilla, Carson & Brookelyn joined us from Lake Havasu.  We had so much fun with everyone!

Oh, and we had another dinner guest, Matt Williams from Mesa.  Matt & his family were our neighbors ten or so years ago in Idaho Falls.  It was fun to see him again.  I thought it was interesting to find out that my old Ford Probe that I sold to Matt's younger brother Jake in 2001 is still running. Jake is still driving the old silver bullet (as Travis used to call it).

The boys all spent the morning at the "Turkey Bowl" and the men came home with injuries and needing Ibuprofen for the next couple of day.  Nothing to serious that would prevent them from returning next year though!

And the women spent the morning in the kitchen. Sorry Carly about the not-so-good pic but it was the only one anyone snapped of our hard labor.

Priscilla and Carly let me take all the credit in this picture but they REALLY did help, a lot!

everything was delicious!
the kiddos table

and the adult table



And what is an Adams family dinner without black olives?

I might of made it sound like the women did all the work while the men played, and oh that wasn't so.  After the men played they all helped out A LOT!

After Thanksgiving there was football watching on T.V. and at the stadium, shopping, movies, playing games and shopping, oh I already said that.  Well, there was a lot of shopping.

Boys an ASU game.

The kids all got along so well, we were all surprised.  I felt like the whole weekend was a break because Austin was so entertained by his cousins, I hardly heard from him.

At the movies, watching "Tangled".

We hope our guests had as much fun as we did...until next year.