And the stockings were hung by the chimney with care

Looks like someone made a visit….

Trip to the North Pole

We completely surprised the boys last night with probably the best gift we could have gotten them. We usually open our ‘Christmas Pajamas’ on Christmas Eve but we had a special night planned so they got to open them early. And they were very pleased with their new PJs. In fact, it is 10am here and they have begged me to let them keep them on this morning.

Scott and I also wore our pjs and we took the boys to Fillmore to catch “The North Pole Express.” William was so excited to see the conductor.

The boys got a lot of extra attention. The elves were very excited that the boys brought their “Polar Express” book aboard. “Tickets please!”

Cookies and milk while a story was read “Twas the Night Before Christmas.”

After the elves passed out the “I believe” bells we were at the North Pole to pick up Santa. Time to ring the bells for Santa to come in. The first glimpse of Santa made it all worth it!

I think towards the end Harry was a little tired.

The boys already asked today if we can go back to the North Pole tonight. This has got to be one of our most favorite Christmas memories to date.

Preschool Christmas Sing

Tonight was the boys Christmas sing and holiday parties.  There is such a vast difference between last year to this year.  William yawned last year and didn’t participate.  This year was so different.  William LOVED singing.  He saw me and smiled really big and waved several times.  He was so excited to sing all of the songs he learned.  You aren’t going to find Harrison in any of the pictures because he didn’t want the attention.  He sat on his teacher’s in the front and sang the songs from there. 

Check out how tall William is.  He is by far the tallest kid in the preschool!

I am so proud of these little guys and how much they are growing.  Afterwards, we went to McDonald’s for a second dinner (per William’s request).  Then we drove around looking at lights.  It was a nice evening. 

The Joy of Giving

A few weeks ago, we hosted a fundraiser at church during Thanksgiving.  Our hopes was to raise enough money to sponsor someone for Christmas.  I wanted things to be “easy” so I ordered Thanksgiving meals from our local grocer for a lunch benefit at church.  When I went to pick them up, they couldn’t find them and when they did, they were not cooked!  Thank God the turkeys were at-least thawed out otherwise we would have been in some serious trouble.  So Scott, my mom and I stayed up until 2am cooking our hearts out for the Thanksgiving lunch Fundraiser the next day.  It turned out fantastic.  We had over 30 in attendance and we all shared a very special meal together.  It was great fellowship along with knowing there was a benefit to someone in the future.  And you can tell after we go home how tired we all were :)     This past Monday we had the special privilege of our hard work coming to fruition.  We sponsored a group home at Penny Lane.  There were 45 teenage girls that had nothing for Christmas.  Kara and I enjoyed shopping with the personalized wish lists of these girls. Instead of just buying 45 presents, we wanted to surprise them with individualized gifts according to their dreams, goals and interests.  Kara, Shelby and I wrapped for a long time while the three of us plus Pastor Katherine wrote personalized cards to each girl.  Monday night we filled our truck (the back and the seats) with all the gifts and headed to Penny Lane to deliver them.  

All the gifts laid out: A full truck of giftsPassing out the gifts   Myself, Pastor Katherine and Kara   Even better news is that we have enough funds left over to sponsor another family for Christmas.  We found a local family of 5 that need basic necessities.  We are excited that everyone at church contributed and made all of this possible.  It is such a rewarding experience (and humbling).  Thank you to all for all of your help!

Archer Tidbits with Nana

I already know that my New Year’s Resolution is going to  be giving more time to focus on blogging again.  I love doing it but lately, I cannot find the time.  I finally uploaded some pictures (over 2000 actually) and realized how behind I am.  In an effort to start from scratch, I just made a little album of some of my favorite pictures recently from my mom’s visit.  And there are some really cute ones in there that the boys took themselves.  I think William really wants to become a photographer.  He took the one of Scott and I at the beach.  Harrison took the one of Will and I playing.  They don’t take bad pictures for their age. 

 

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Picture with Santa 2011

Harrison Age 3, Santa Claus Age 191, William Age 4

Christmastime

I absolutely love Thanksgiving.  I am very blessed with all that I am given.  I am so happy that my mom was here to spend Thanksgiving with us this year.  I think it has been 7 years since we had Thanksgiving together.  But the day after Thanksgiving is so fun for me as well.  And no, that is not because I am one of the hard core shoppers to go all out on black Friday.  I prefer to get all my Christmas shopping done before Thanksgiving so I don’t have to go to any store (other than the grocery store) until after Jan. 1st.  I am a very impatient person so crowded parking lots and long lines aren’t my thing :)  But decorating the house IS my thing :) 

And this year was great because the boys were so super excited to help. So we turned on the Christmas music, put our hats on and got to work. We let them decorate the tree. They were so proud of the finished tree.  And I am so proud of them. 

 

Here is a little bit of what is around the house: Advent Calendars, Ornaments and snowflake towels Yearly pictures with Santa (this year yet to be taken but the frame has been purchased)   Still hard at work hanging window clings   The finished tree with all the wrapped presents already under the tree.     The boys were so excited to find out that Scott already bought their Christmas outfits so they insisted they had to try them on :)

And William wanted to take a picture of us in our “I believe” Santa shirts.  I got to say, the kid takes good pictures :) 

The best part is that William and Harrison were so excited about decorating the inside that they overlooked Scott was outside setting up the lights and such.  So when we went outside Harry said, “Is Christmas here? Wow!”  I think it is going to be a very fun Christmas this year with the boys understanding more and more.