Boy oh boy could the kids be any more excited about Santa coming?

Brookelynn and Rylie try to catch snowflakes on their tongues! As you can see ther is no need for a jacket here at our house. not like back home.

Here is what our house looked like when we came home from riding the Polar Express!! what a treat!

The Snow was a fun surprise for the kids. Shelby has never seen snow befor. We are not prepared for snow here in the desert. The kids came in from playing in the snow soaking wet!!

Thanks to mom for the snow man making kit.

Since Christmas is coming we decided to take the kids for a ride on the Polar Express. The kids had a great time and they got to see Santa, sing Christmas songs and drink hot chocolate. What a fun way to get us all in the Christmas spirit.

Everyone received a bell from Santa as "the first gift of Christmas. We were hearing bells all night long. All the kids were wearing their pajamas and slippers and bathrobes. The train took us to the "North Pole" where Santa boarded and wandered through the train for picture taking opportunities.

Rylie has a swim meet this weekend. This was her freestyle.

check it out!

We got everyone involved in Jake's birthday party. Rylie, Lindsey and Brookelynn walked around yelling "PEANUTS, POPCORN, PRETZELS!" The boys would take a little break for a snack and then they were right back at it... throwing the football, racing through the tires and tackling the blow up dummies with the referee shirt on it.

Brent spent most of the afternoon running them through plays and timing them on the tire run or keeping track of their points on the football toss.

Jake had asked for a "FOOTBALL" theme birthday party. Brent was so creative and built a miniature goal post to place in the back yard. We had tires laid out so the kids could run through them and Brent also made a game of football toss, where the kids had a chance to throw the football through several holes marked, Touch down, 30yd pass , 20yd pass...ect. They all got to put a little black under their eyes like the big leaguers do. They looked to cool!

They all showed off their muscles after running through a couple of plays. They look pretty tough eh?

We had the opportunity to celebrate Brent's parent's 50th wedding anniversary on the same day as Jake's birthday. It was a huge party in our backyard. We hadn't had a family picture taken for probably 10 years and so we took this time to have one. We were all there except one. (Mark's daughter Sarah, was at college and couldn't make it down.) We had some fun shots taken of the kids. Between Shelby and Maddie we were lucky to get a shot where we all were smiling. The photographer did a great job!

I love this one of Brent's parents!

Jake's birthday is coming up he's going to be 9!

He's real excited about this one for some reason. With his birthday so close to Halloween it's like a 2 day celebration for him. Candy, Candy and more Candy. Don't forget to throw in a cake too. He wants a Sports themed party this year. We're thinking about a tailgate party. he wants all his buddys to come on over for some backyard football, basketball, baseball... whatever kind of ball they can find. Sounds like dad better warm up that throwing arm.

The kids have already had one Halloween party and there are still two more to go. here is a preview of what little trickers and treaters will be heading your way.