Getting a Christmas Tree in Kansas

We finally found a Christmas Tree farm that was going to be the closest thing to how it was in Utah. No, tree permit and walking in the snow to find the perfect tree but, this was pretty good!

We got our saw and were off to find the perfect tree!

Brooklyn loved this activity. It was warm enough that we mostly wore hoodies and jackets.

The kids played hide-n-seek in the trees.

We got all the way to the end where they were getting ready to plant more trees and hadn't found the perfect one. Apparently they only grow scotch pines here in Kansas and Mom wasn't thrilled about this type of tree. She was too used to her lodge pole pines. Luckily, they had shipped some different trees in and had them in the barn.

So, we walked back to the barn and picked out our tree!

The tree farmers were SO nice and the kids got coloring books and hot chocolate.

Brooklyn hardly stands still long enough to get her picture taken, let alone looking at the camera.

The hot chocolate was yummy!

The kids walked the balance beam as the farm hands tied the tree on top of the Tahoe.

We had a great time getting our Christmas Tree.

 

 

Arboretum Luminary Lights

The Arboretum does a luminary walk each year. It gets bigger each year and I am sure there were a few THOUSAND people there..it was pretty spectacular. 

There were so many people that you just kept in line as you walked through the entire Arboretum. It was quite the walk.

You could walk through the tunnels(which I am sure are gorgeous in Summer).

The kids got to play in gingerbread houses.

The biggest event, was standing in line to sit on Santa's lap. He asked the kids what they wanted for Christmas. Isaac, said he didn't know.(Now, that is a first)

I guess the other kids followed suit because Kaden didn't know either. So, Santa started asking him about a list of things he could want: a Nintendo, IPad, Ipod, Computer. So, Kaden settled on wanting a Computer. Great santa: Just what he is not getting. This santa must have come to a rich area....but, not everyone is getting that stuff for Christmas.

Abbie and Santa had a good little chat!

I didn't hear what she wanted for Christmas.

Brooklyn does this cute thing that if she closes her eyes, you don't exist. So, she puts her finger over her eye and POOF...you aren't there. I guess it's better than a crying picture.

Santa helped hold her hand down and we finally got her to open her eyes. So cute!

There was a Caboose to look at with a train yard set up. The kids loved watching the trains on three different tracks.

Isaac, Kaden and Abbie with the Train Man.

Playing at the Gingerbread house.

So many light displays.

The pond was awesome to see because the lights reflected off the water.

Even the little tool sheds were decorated for the holidays. This was quite the event and the kids LOVED it. It was worth going to see!

We will probably make this a tradition!

Brooklyn Avery

Our little princess is such a funny little nut. She loves to smile, play peek-a-boo and she recently found Abbie's sunglasses. She thought she was quite the little star.

She is SO sweet! We just love her in our Family!

Thanks for making us smile!

Happy Thanksgiving!

This was our first Thanksgiving as just our little family. We wanted to make it special so we planned a FHE where we would decorate a special paper that would have our top 5 things we were thankful for.

We spent Monday night(FHE) decorating our cards. Then we spent all week thinking of our top 5 things we are thankful for and wrote them down. We wanted a lot of thought put into the things we were thankful for.

The kids helped me set the table as soon as I got home from work. Reed had put the turkey into bake and peeled the potatoes. I had done all the prep work the night before but, something can only be done the day of Thanksgiving.

We used iron stone and silver, silverware with german cloths as place settings and napkins.

We got everything set and i wanted to snap a few pictures. I snapped a few and then Reed asked if we could just eat...he was starving smelling it all day!

Reed carved the turkey and Kaden asked the funniest thing....if he could have a whole turkey leg. Reed and I looked at each other and decided that, "why not, it's just us to eat this bird!"

So, Kaden got his wish and ate an entire turkey leg (which he really ate the entire thing)

Happy little man! Yum

The last thing we did as a family was to clean the kitchen up together. We even washed the remaining dishes by hand. Kaden made the comment, "We should wash dishes together more often!" I didn't realize that I usually do it alone and you are right Kaden, We should wash dishes together more often! It was really fun!

Happy Thanksgiving!