the North Pole Express

Last night, my whole family came to our house so we could ride the North Pole Express! Formerly known as the Polar Express, until there was some legal issues on copyrights, the North Pole Express is a really fun {secular} the magic of Christmas experience. Based on one of my all-time favorite Christmas season books The Polar Express (and popular movie), this once-a-year event has become quite popular here in the metroplex. This was our first year ... and I think we will be going back again!  These 3 cousins had a blast!

It turned out to be a cold day ... and even colder evening ... so we bundled up with several layers under (and over) their Christmas pajamas, for our outdoor experience.  It was cold but we still had tons of fun!  Kendall saw this huge red ornament first off and asked to take her picture with it ... and with that, let the picture taking parade begin!  {Consider yourself fore-warned!}

Kendall with her cousins Mason and Tucker

We had some time to look around the train grounds before our train ride, so we checked out the General Store ... and spotted Santa Claus immediately!  It was the 1st time she saw Santa this year.  It was there that she realized and said aloud (as we saw him from across the room) "He a man."  I guess until then, to her, Santa was just a cartoon character on tv, or in books that we've read ... I didn't realize she didn't understand that Santa Claus was a guy.  But, there he was ... and a man he was ... and since there was no line to wait to see him {we couldn't believe it!}, we decided to take our turn to see him, while we had the chance.  She just kept staring at him ... couldn't say a word to him and especially didn't want to sit on his lap ... but decided she could go see him with us all together.  So hand in hand, that's what we did ..

I love that she has walked up to him, standing on her tip toes ... it's just classic Kendall, right now!

We all made our way to the pre-boarding station ... complete with heaters & hot chocolate!  And a bit of a musical show to get everyone in the Christmas mood ... to see Santa Claus!

 

 

 

 

 

Even the kids got to join in the show, singing Jingle Bells

All Aboard!  We took a short walk through the {man-made falling} snow & snow-flocked Christmas trees to catch our vintage train ... the Conductor punched each train ticket and we found our seats, ready for our big ride to the North Pole! 

 

 

my happy little family of 3

Aunt Rachel, Mason, Tucker and Uncle Mike

our side of the train ... Daddy, Kendall, Mommy, Grams & Pops

Pops, Kendall & Baby Bear ... and Auntie E across the aisle

Once we arrived at the North Pole, we received a very special visitor in our train car ... Santa Claus!  The excitement & cheering grew as he moved through the train car to talk with each child and give them a silver Christmas bell (like the one given in the book The Polar Express) ...

 

 

 

 

 

 

There were several stations set up around the grounds with fun things for the kids to do ... due to the late hour, we checked out a few of the stations, but had to stop at the ornament making one ... Kendall & Mason picked out which ornament they wanted and started working away ... while sweet 18 month old Tucker enjoyed getting out of his stroller & running free around the room!

 

 

 

The whole fam enjoyed dinner out at Macaroni's Grill (Grams' request and everyone happily agreed) ... even though it was getting quite late, all the kids did great ... having the yummy bread didn't hurt either!

 

 

We had a great family adventure at the North Pole Express ... and we were especially happy to have Auntie E visiting us from Hawaii be able to join us, too!  Mason & Kendall are already planning next year's trip to the North Pole on the North Pole Express! 

Mason turns 4

For Mason's birthday party this year, we brought an extra special surpirse ... all the way freshly flown in from Honolulu Ohau Hawaii ... Auntie E surprised {nearly} everyone there! Kendall & I had picked her up from the airport the day before ... she had spent the night with us and then the 4 of us drove into Abilene, just in time for Mason's big par-ty! Kendall was already so happy with her Auntie E visiting, and going to Abilene to see everyone, plus a party (with cake!) was the icing on the cake for her! Even better, Mason's party was at the sports center ... which is basically all fun gymnastics equipment ... now that's a party for this 2.5-year-old-gymnastics-lover! Everyone had a great time ... parents got to play too ... it was a great success! The big birthday boy & Aunt Rach ... Mason was being a little shy at the beginning of the party, but he soon warmed up! Since he loves the Disney's Jake and the Neverland Pirates tv show, he asked for a pirates party. Arrrr! Ahoy, maatee!

 

My sister always has the cutest cakes made for their parties!

 

There was plenty of fun to be had at this party ... jumping, swinging, sliding, tumbling, bouncing & foam pits ... what more could you ask for?

 

 

 

 

 

After all that runnin' around, these cutie pies were drenched in sweat and thirsty!  Bring on the drinks & eats!

 

 

the cousins ... Kendall loooooooves these 2 boys!  And they are both pretty fond of her, too!

 

After the party was over, Uncle Mike & Daddy took the kids back to their house to play, while my sisters, Grams & I ran a few errands.  Pops was still sick, on the mend, but still not feeling great, so he hadn't been able to come to Mason's party ... and therefore, did not know Auntie E was in town.  So, the original 5 Byers family hung out together to visit with Dad, ate pizza for dinner ... it hasn't been just the 5 of us in over 12 years now, so although it was weird not having our husbands & kids around, it was nice for those couple of hours.  (Pops didn't want the kids to get sick, just in case, so that's why it was just us sisters that visited him.)  Although we didn't want to, we had to drive home that evening ... we were having company come in the next morning for another special event ... Uncle Mike, Aunt Rach, Mason & Tucker, Grams & Pops and Auntie E were ALL coming to our house on Sunday for a big surprise to the kids ... we were going on the North Pole Express Train!  Choo Choo!  All-Aboard!

it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas ... and that's the way we LOVE it around here!

We held Kendall off of actually decorating until Thanksgiving weekend ... and then it was full steam ahead!  (I believe if it was up to her, the whole world would have Christmas decorations and lights up all year round.)  After we got Kendall's pink tree up for her room, we moved onto the rest of the house ... inside & out!

Somehow we never got an outdoor picture of our house this year, but Daddy, once again, did a fabulous job ... outlining our entire house & walkway in (new this year) white LED lights. We wrapped our 4 cedar pillars on our front porch with white lights & garland and hung an evergreen wreath with a big red bow in each outside window.  Putting up 47 strands of lights is definitely quite an undertaking for Ash ... an all-day task ... but we love it & appreciate Daddy's willingness to do it each year to please his girls!

Last year our poor living room Christmas tree (that we've had for 9 years, since our 1st married Christmas) finally gave out on us ... really, it was so bad, we shouldn't have even put it up as 3 out of the 5 sections of lights were dead ... so this year, we got a new pre-lit tree. We finally found one we liked that fit in our space at one of my most favorite stores, Hobby Lobby.

 our living room ...

 

 

the Christmas cards we've received so far ... hanging up across our built-in bookshelves

 

our front entry table

 

Kendall's own Nativity set (from her Auntie E)

 

 

 

Happy Decorating!

our Girl & her Pink Tree

This year we started decorating our house for Christmas a little earlier than we normally do, thanks to our sweet little excited 2.5 year old! Kendall had enjoyed all the Christmas decorations during the last Christmas season ... and when all of the stores starting putting out their decorations in September & October, she couldn't seem to understand why we weren't putting out all of our's!

She waited {impatiently} until mid-November, when I finally broke down and let her pick out her very own Christmas tree for her room. There were sooo many different kinds and colors to choose from, but she already knew what she wanted ... PINK! {Seriously ... was there ever really a chance of a pink Christmas tree NOT going up in her room?} I actually really tried to sway her into something more traditional, but pretty quickly admitted defeat & gave into her sweet little request ... and this cute little pink tree came home with us! {This control-freak Mommy is really trying hard to not control everything ... especially when it comes to little choices that Kendall can make, and should make ... when it doesn't really matter one way or another ... like whether a Christmas tree should be pink or not! And if you ask Kendall ... she would say it definitely should be pink! HA!}

The morning after Thanksgiving, Kendall & her Daddy set up her tree ... and she could not have been more excited!

 

 

Kendall has already got a bit of an ornament collection started in her young 2 years ... and we added a few new ones, as well.  {This Mommy is loving the shatter-proof ornaments we just found in the stores this season ... especially after breaking a few non-shatter-proof ones on our first day!}  She loved putting all of them on her tree and rearranging them often!  {Daddy loved that the tree was pre-lit and super easy to set up!}

 

Our GIRL and her PINK tree!