ALL ABOARD!!!

We have this great family that lives in Duncan that adopted us. Joe used to work for this family when he has a lot younger and they adopted him then and the kids and I were adopted as we came along. They got us tickets to ride the Polar Express Train for Christmas this year because they knew how fascinated the boys are with trains. It was such a sweet gift and we can't thank them enough.
I don't know who was more excited to ride a train, Darrell and Tad or ME! They had so much fun. We boarded at 6:30 p.m. and they gave all of us hot chocolate and chocolate chip cookies. They read the Polar Express book to us on the way to the North Pole. After about 30 minutes we got to the North Pole and we saw SANTA! Who knew he would still be around. He got on the train and visited all of the train cars. He gave each of the kids their very own bell. Darrell and Tad LOVE them! The ride back was for 30 more minutes and we sang Christmas Carols and had a ton of fun. It was to stinkin' cold to put them in their pajamas so we looked like hum-bugs in regular street clothes. Oh well. We are going to go back but I think next time we are going to go all the way to the grand canyon and stay the night then come back the next day. These aren't all of the pictures I wanted to post some are on another camera so I will post them as soon as I can get them.

Joe, Darrell, and Tad

Our Conductor

Darrell, so excited to finally be on the train

Joe and Tad on the train

They had so much FUN!

Darrell with his Hot Chocolate, Tad didn't want to drink his.

Darrell getting his bell from Santa

Darrell with his bell

Tad with his bell.

Outside the Train Depot they had tons of amazing lights

Their Bells

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!

Last night we finally got our tree put up and decorated! It only took till the middle of December to do it but we DID IT! Darrell is so excited. All he talks about is the Christmas tree and Santa Claus. It is starting to get a lot more fun, the older the boys are getting. Darrell and Tad got to put the ornaments on the tree. It had a nice band of colorful balls around the bottom. I think there was to much tree for Tad to decide where to put his so he just put all of his on the same branch pretty much. Santa's little elf had to rearrange after they went to bed or it would have drove her CRAZY! We hope everyone has a Very Merry Christmas!

Somebody call Calvin Klein ....

Because he LOST his model! Who knew this years fashion would be Mr. Incredible undies and IRRIGATION BOOTS! This has been this young mans attire for the last 3 days and he is so stinkin' CUTE! Our little midge looks so silly in his little tiny undies!


Darrell made it to the end of his train chart!!!!! So this was the prize hiding inside of the treasure chest! He will not put it down for the LIFE of him! He is so excited about it. All day he has walked around the house saying," Mom, I'm playin with my prize!" or "Mom look at my present, it's a little baby tractor!" He is so funny. They both are doing great! Only 1 accident from each of them today and Darrell is starting to tell me when he needs to go before he starts to!

Hopefully the end.....

The end of diapers anyway! I am taking on my biggest challenge so far with my children.......

POTTY TRAINING!

I have been working on this task for I don't know how long with Darrell and he is finally starting to get the hang of it. I still have to take him to the bathroom but for the most part he will tell me when he has to go. As if Darrell wasn't enough, I decided I would potty train Tad as well. He is showing all of the signs of being ready so why not! Today was our first day and Tad only had 2 accidents and he had a dry nap! Hooray! Darrell had a good day also! I made these potty charts and they are the only thing that has seemed to work with Darrell. Tad wanted one so bad that his is working great! Wish me luck! This week is going to be the toughest!

This one is Tad's. He loves everything about horses, riding them feeding them and petting all over them. When the horse makes it to the sack of grain, Tad gets a surprise. If he has an accident, he has to go backwards.

Darrell is obsessed with trains so I knew Thomas would work great for him. If he has an accident, he also has to move back a dot away from the treasure. He does not like that very well!

Ahhhh.... What a good day!

Today was a great day! It was a day filled with great company, great food and a whole lot of laughs! Joe's brother Ky and his family came and had Thanksgiving lunch with us. None of us are big fans of turkey so we decided we would smoke some pork instead. It was sooooo good! We stayed up the night before making pies and smoking meat. Thanks Ky and Lynaya for keeping me awake and making the great food that you did! I normally hate posts that have what people made to eat in them but this just was too good not to share!

This is a really bad picture. At the bottom is our pork. It was so yummy! Just look at that smoke ring! Ky made the best rolls from scratch! They were whole wheat and to DIE for!


This is an apple cranberry pie. Ky made the filling and I attempted the lattice top. It looked so much better in person.


And this was my yummy Cherry Chocolate Chunk Pie! Oh my holy canolie was it good! If you can't tell the cut outs on top are leaves. Again much cuter in person!

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!

Happy Anniversary Tisha and Jim!
We Love you!

Small and simple things....

I took my little boys for a walk today to the store for a treat for cleaning up their bedroom. It was so sweet. We got to the store and got our drinks and cookies and headed for home. We live right next to the park so as we were walking by, Darrell asked if we could go swing. I figured why not, it is such a beautiful day today. Most of the leaves have fallen off the trees. So as they were running to the swings they heard them crunching under their feet. Darrell is obsessed with Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom right now so he of course knew he was munching bugs under his feet. I had to laugh. This is my absolute favorite season of the year. Some of my favorite things are.....

* The sound of leaves crunching under my feet.
* The sound the trees make when the wind blows through them.
* A roaring fire in our wood stoves.
* Sweaters that I get to pull out of my closet and wear.
* The crisp cool air in the mornings and evenings.

I am more thankful this time of year for obvious reasons. Thanksgiving is here to remind me to be. I want you all to know I am grateful for you and your love and friendship! I am thankful for 2 little boys and a wonderful husband that give me many reasons to be thankful.

Happy Thanksgiving Month!

Gummy Mummy

I haven't posted in forever so I have been looking for any reason so here it is. Lame I know but it was to cute. I gave Darrell his gummy vitamins around noon with his lunch. At about 2:00 he comes running in to me laughing as hard as he can and saying look mommy look. When I looked over at him he had his vitamins STUCK to his face. I laughed so hard. I asked what is on your face and he said, " look, my gummy's mummy!" He is a crack up some days.