story time with ali

christmas tradition "the nutcracker"

we all got dressed up and went to the orpheum theatre to watch the beautiful holiday ballet "the nutcracker". we all had such a wonderful time, and it definitely got us all excited for christmas!

my sugar plums.

working hard

we spent an entire day making cookies. these two are naturals, they even attempted the. oh so delicate "candy cane" cookies, and they turned out wonderfully! baking is the BEST, especially with these two.

backyard fun

"clancy" the snowman. unfortunately, it snowed again that night, like about 9 inches of heavy, wet snow, and our snowman is buried...poor clancy.

yep, sister is watching through the window, perfect opportunity to throw a snowball:)

all tuckered out

shopping is so exhausting!

christmas figurines

we all assembled this lovely winter wonderland one night while sitting around the dinner table. i think we may have stumbled upon a hidden talent;)

oh christmas tree

what a grand tree! we had to rearrange the room, but it's totally worth it.

quinn's section of the tree.

afternoon nap

we all had to crash out after the tree hunt, so quinn found a cozy spot right next to daddy. they napped like this for almost two hours. not sure who enjoyed it more;)

the "perfect" tree

headed to "summer's tree farm" to find us the perfect christmas tree. we went on sunday morning, and luckily for us, it snowed 5 inches on saturday.....perfecto!

jesse's first time at a "cut your own" tree farm, quite the difference between a snowy field, and a parking lot, but i do think it's WAY better!! it just feels right;)

the pose, with the cut tree (i love how ryder is just sitting on the trunk). the kids are both freezing now, quinn has to pee, the walk back is seeming long, but it's still worth it, and we keep on singing christmas songs!

and now it's time to drag it all the way back to the car, and we, of coarse, walked the entire field and found the tree in the furthest corner from our car, but it was the "perfect" tree. ha!! what a tradition. the kids never did this before, it was a memory keeper for sure, regardless of the aches and pains, we were in a snowy field cutting down our very own christmas tree, i mean that is just too perfect:)

first snow fall

we have been waiting so patiently for the first snow fall, and it finally came;) ryder was outside by 7am to check it out! SNOW!!!!!

holiday train show

we went to olbrich gardens to check out their holiday train exhibit, it was pretty spectacular! tons of flowers, trees, lights, trains, and cookies (we all got a plate of cookies, not just one, a plate! yeah, that doesn't work well with ryder. he has no control when it comes to sugar! do you think ryder just ate one? NO! oh, he was a wild wild boy afterwards too, ugh). fortunately, we got to see the trains first and had the cookies afterwards, then we made him run around outside for a awhile:)