Santa Express Train Ride

Last year we went on the Santa Express train ride in Boone. Ayden really enjoyed it so we took the boys again this year. I was a little worried about Cael because the train ride is at 6:00 pm and his bedtime is between 6:30-7:00 pm, but he was really good! As soon as he got fussy we gave him a bottle and he was fine. This year they couldn't read The Polar Express book because of copyright issues, but they told some other stories and sang Christmas carols. We rode to the "North Pole" and they gave everyone hot chocolate and cookies. Santa also got on the train and handed out a bell to every child. Ayden loved the hot chocolate and cookie, and was excited to see Santa. Cael loved playing with his bell and ringing it, I just had to make sure he didn't put it in his mouth. The whole ride probably lasted for an hour and twenty minutes including the stop at the "North Pole." The children wore their pajamas on the ride and they had a pajama fashion show on the way back. Surprisingly, Ayden walked right up to the front without any hesitation when she called the children up front. (We were in the last row of the train car we rode in.) He was the first child to go, and he told the lady his name and modeled his pajamas for everyone.

Waiting to get a bell from Santa.

Cael loved ringing his bell.



Ayden checking out the huge snowman on the way to the car to go home.

Visiting Santa at Jordan Creek Mall

We took the boys to see the Santa at Jordan Creek Mall one evening after Joel got off of work. The Santa there is really nice, and he looks a lot more real than other ones. Luckily, the line wasn't very long. Ayden was excited to sit on his lap, but was shy again. He did tell Santa he wanted tractors and legos, though.

Telling Santa what he wants.

Cael wasn't too happy at first. I blame it on it being past his bedtime though...

Who is this guy?!

Smiles!


We got some Cold Stone ice cream afterwards.

No ice cream for Cael, but still a happy baby.

Visiting Santa at North Grand Mall

We took the boys to visit Santa at the mall in Ames one Sunday afternoon. Neither one of them minded sitting on Santa's lap, but Ayden was pretty shy and didn't want to look or talk to him. Cael was really curious...

9 Week Challenge Results

My 9 week challenge ended on Saturday, December 4th. I lost 22.5 pounds!! I was amazed! I have gone down two pants sizes (almost three). I feel great and can't believe how much better I feel. We also ran the mile again and I shortened my time by just over a minute, which is really good considering we had to run in hats, gloves, scarves, and winter coats because it was freezing with a wind chill of 0 degrees outside. I improved on my sit-ups by doing six more in a minute than I was able to at the beginning, I did 25 more push-ups in one minute than at the beginning, and my sit and reach increased by almost 7 inches! They also gave us our before and after pictures to keep. It's amazing to see the difference in 9 weeks. I wasn't able to make it to the final party because I came down with the stomach flu for the second time in two weeks, but I came in third place for losing the most weight among all the women.

Joel is going to do the next challenge starting on January 8th, and I'm going to continue going almost every day. I love it! I've started going to the 4:15 pm class though so that I can get home and help Joel get the boys to bed while he works on making dinner. He has started going to work earlier in the morning so he can be home by 4:00 so I can go workout. He makes dinner every night too! I'm so lucky! :)

Decorating the Christmas Tree

Ayden had a lot of fun helping decorate the tree this year. He helped put up the ornaments and told us where he wanted them to go. We got a bunch of Christmas ornaments while we lived in Germany so we have lots of nutcrackers and ornaments from different countries.

Checking out the ornaments.

Cael wants in on the action too!

All done!

We got the Elf on the Shelf this year and Ayden has had a lot of fun with it. He loves looking to see where he is at every morning when he wakes up.

Happy the Elf hanging out in the tree.

Santa's Message to Ayden

I did this online and it's so cute!

Santa's video message to Ayden :)

Handprint Turkey Cookies

The boys and I made handprint turkey cookies a few days before Thanksgiving. Well, mostly Ayden and I. Cael let me trace his hand on the piece of paper so we could use it to cut out cookies, though. Ayden loves to bake stuff with me. I think his favorite part is eating the final product :) I traced our hands and cut them out on some paper and then used a knife to trace them on the peanut butter cookie dough.

Ayden helping roll out the dough.

I traced our hands in the dough with a knife.

I added feet and a waddle with some extra dough and into the oven they went. My hand didn't turn out. It was too big and fell apart.

Ayden had a lot of fun decorating with the mini M&M's.

Ayden's creations.

My creations.

First Time Bowling

I took Ayden bowling for the first time a few weekends ago. It was a rainy, gloomy Sunday afternoon. Ayden and I don't get to spend a lot of quality alone time together since Cael has been born and I thought it would be fun to introduce him to bowling. There is a really nice place to bowl at in Ames that is fairly new called Perfect Games. I had never been there, but it's really nice and clean. They also have a pizza place there, a good sized arcade, and some inflatables for the kids to jump on. I really liked that you had the option whether you wanted to use bumpers or not. We used the bumpers for Ayden, but not for me. After seeing my score of barely 100, I think I should have used them... Ayden was really excited and I found a lightweight 6 pound ball for him to use. He didn't want to wait for his turn and kept trying to bowl every time his ball was returned. It was fun watching him. He would try to roll the ball down the lane, but not get enough force going behind it so it would roll really slowly down the lane. It didn't seem to bother him too much though. Towards the end he was getting better with his technique and would actually drop the ball so it started rolling a little faster. We just played one game because Ayden wanted to get a snack, and then it was time to head home for dinner. He wanted a piece of pizza, but it wasn't ready yet so we played a few of the arcade games while we waited. Afterwards, when I was buckling Ayden into his car seat he said, "That was fun! Thank you, Mommy!"

Next time we'll have to go as a family:)

(I apologize for the photos. I didn't want to bring my nice Canon Rebel to the bowling alley so I had to settle on taking my little Sony one, which doesn't take high quality pictures like the Canon. Plus, it was a little dark in there.)

He picked a light green ball to use.

Checking out the scores.

Let's try dropping it now...

Intently watching his ball go down the lane.


Rolling it...

Yummy pizza!

8 Months Old!

Cael turned 8 months old on Thursday. He started crawling shortly after he turned 7 months old, but has been crawling backwards since he was 6 months old. He's pretty speedy now and is obsessed with shoes and vacuum cleaners. I'm not sure why he likes to chew on shoes, but we have to remember to put them in the closet by the front door after taking them off. If he hears the vacuum start up he races to it and will just watch amazed as I vacuum with it. No teeth yet, but lots of drooling. He still spits up a lot, which is very annoying. Now that he is crawling everywhere he leaves a trail of spitup for me to clean up. We go through lots of carpet cleaner! He's still a good eater, but has seemed to slow down a little bit and not eat quite as much as he used to. He is getting pretty good at eating finger foods such as his mum-mums, and puffs. He even fed himself part of a pumpkin muffin the other day that I crumbled uo for him. He still prefers to nurse, but will happily take a bottle of breastmilk if it's offered to him. What a relief for me! He's a great sleeper and takes a morning and an afternoon nap of about 1 1/2 - 2 hours. He also is asleep within minutes of laying down. At night he sleeps about 12 hours straight without a peep. He is starting to enjoy having books read to him and will pay attention now instead of just trying to chew on them. Also, something that I am really enjoying, is he is becoming more cuddly and likes to cuddle with me. He will reach his arms up when he wants to be picked up or crawl over to me and try to climb into my lap. When we rock in his rocking chair he lays his head down and will snuggle. I love it! Cael and Ayden are best buddies, too. Ayden will get down on the floor and crawl with him or lead the way somewhere as Cael crawls after him. He is such a good big brother and is always playing with him and entertaining him. I think it helps a lot that Cael is mobile now and can get places on his own. I'm sure they will be chasing around after each other once he is walking. I'm still amazed by how smiley and happy Cael is. He's so easy-going and can easily entertain himself. It's not very often that he is cranky or in a bad mood. It's hard to believe that in 4 months we will be celebrating his 1st birthday!

While I was taking Cael's 8 month pictures, he was cuddling the bear, and I got a lot of cute photos that I had to share....

Cael and Ayden playing in the hallway.

Eating his first muffin. A pumpkin one, yummy!

Center Grove Orchard, Again!

I took the boys to Center Grove Orchard earlier in October during a weekday, but there were a few things we couldn't do since I was pushing Cael in the stroller. Ayden wanted to go down the huge slide, and take a tractor ride around the farm. This time Joel came with us. We went on a Sunday later in the afternoon after the boys took naps. It was cloudy and a little cool, but there were not many people there. It was nice not to have to fight crowds. The boys had a good time and we all got to take a tractor ride around the farm this time.

Joel and Ayden going down the big slide.

Cael loves being in the carrier.

Feeding the goats.

Kissing pigs :)

Cael in the corn pool.

Mommy and her boys.