Santa

I wasn't really sure how Miles would do with Santa this year. Last year he was only a few weeks old when we went to see the big man in red. He did fine though. A few times he turned to look at Santa like, "Who are you?" Will told Santa that he wanted a race car and race track for Christmas.

Will's Christmas Concert

Will had his first real Christmas concert this year at his preschool. They practiced the songs and hand moves and such for weeks! He did such a great job. They sang several songs and recited Bible verses about Christmas in between the songs (okay, really that was the older kids). His concert included the preschool, pre-K, and kindergarten classes. We also discovered that Will is by far the tallest kid in his class--by several inches! I did record the whole thing on our camcorder, but I think it would take next to forever to upload, so you'll just have to imagine 60+ three, four, and five year olds singing.

Dressed up and ready to go:

Christmas with Doo

When my brother was here the kids got to have early Christmas (and late birthday for Miles) with Doo. Ryan's really into biking and had asked if he could get Will his first bike. Will's had a tricycle for awhile, but he's so darn tall it was getting really hard for him to pedal it without his knees hitting the handlebars.

Waiting for Doo to bring in the bike


Trying it out inside


Miles opening presents


Taking the bike for a spin on the sidewalk

Lemons

For whatever reason both my kids liked to chew on lemons when they were little. Will still does it occasionally, but Miles has just started the trend.

Zoo Lights

Will has been talking about going back to Zoo Lights for a year now, ever since we went last year and saw the "dancing trees." My brother came to visit a couple weekends ago, so we decided to take Doo to see it with us. It was, of course, really crowded, but Will loves it so much. And it is a fun thing to go do every year. The animals aren't out, but there are animals made of lights everywhere.

The Polar Express

Most of our friends here in AZ have been to The Polar Express train at Christmastime. We didn't go last year as Miles was so little, but we made reservations for this year last December. It fills up FAST!! We went with our friends the Bowmans. They basically recreate the book. You leave the train depot, you get hot chocolate and cookies on the train, travel to the "North Pole" and Santa gets on the train, then he goes through each car and every child gets a bell. Then there's singing of Christmas carols and that's about it. It was fun, but none of us were sure it was worth the money we spent on it. THe kids enjoyed it, but Will said his favorite part was the hot chocolate. Let me tell ya--it would have been a whole lot cheaper to buy a box of Swiss Miss and have it here at home! It was a fun experience, and we will probably do it one more time when Miles is older, but it's definitely not something we're going to do every year! Maybe if there'd been snow it would have been more authentic!

Thanksgiving

I can't believe how far behind I've gotten with our blog! Well, I can, because December has been crazy busy. I figured I'd get some updates done while I have some time to myself. And apparently I need to find some hobbies if this is the best use of alone time. ;)

We spent Thanksgiving in San Antonio with John's family this year. We used to go every year, but the last time we were there Will was just a baby, so it had been a long time since we'd been together with his whole family. Will was so excited to see his cousins--it was all he talked about for weeks leading up to the trip. I wish he got to see them more often, but being so spread out it's hard to do.

We had a busy few days there. We went to Bass Pro Shop, toured some caves, went fishing, and spent quite a bit of time playing street hockey. Here are some highlights from our trip:

A conversation with Will

We were on our way home from the grocery store yesterday afternoon when Will and I had the following conversation.

Will: Mom, I don't want to leave our house.
Me: Will, we aren't going to leave our house. Why would we?
Will: When we go to heaven. I love our house and don't want to leave it.
Me: You don't really need to worry about that because that won't happen for a long, long time. Plus in heaven we'll have an even nicer house than we have here.
Will: But our house is nice now.
Me: Yeah, but it says in the Bible we'll have even nicer houses in heaven.
Will: I hope our house in heaven has a bathroom upstairs.

Oh man...it was too much for me! I was trying so hard not to laugh because he was completely serious about it. I thought it was so sweet. When I told John about it last night he said I needed to write it down so I didn't forget it, so I figured putting it on the blog was the best way to keep it.

Miles Walks!

My baby boy has started walking. he's still doing some crawling--especially if he needs to get somewhere fast or is chasing after Will--but if he's just cruising around, he's walking. I would have loved for Will to walk this early...how come the second one has to do things so much faster?! I would have gladly waited longer for Miles to walk. My brother requested video of his nephews, so here's one to keep him happy. I need to go through what I just uploaded from the video camera to find more to appease him. ;)



We thought it was pretty impressive he can drink and walk at the same time. Had he not been distracted by his water cup, he probably would have taken more steps. I don't know why I feel the need to add that disclaimer, but I do. :)