Nut Tree Park

During Christmas break we went shopping and Ben was really good so we took him to ride the train. This is him waiting as patiently as he could for the train to come back. The other day he saw the Nut Tree sign onthe other side of the freeway while we were driving and he said "Choo Choo mama!"

When is the train going to go?

Katelyn and Ben on the spinny toy.

Life size chess game. Joel is teaching the big kids to play chess so they had a lot of fun practicing on this.

Christmas!

So these are all out of order because I always forget I have to go backwards in time when I'm uploading them, but I don't want to spend the time to go back and do it again. Sorry! :)
Joel's Grandpa playing the Wii. We were bowling. We brought our Wii Santa gave us last year over because Grandpa bought the kids some new games to play.

Ben's great Aunt Allison bought him a battery powered train that he just loved to play with and watch.

Grandpa bought Ben a new tricycle. He loves it so much. And Alex and Katelyn love it just as much. They ride it all around downstairs.

Great Grandpa Mills with Alex, Ben, and Katelyn.

Katelyn opening her special present, a Tinkerbell DS game she wanted.

This is Alex on Christmas morning with the skateboard he'd been asking for for months!

Ben playing with his kitchen that Grandma and Grandpa Clift bought him.

Coming down the stairs Christmas morning.

The kids on Christmas Eve.

We had a wonderful Christmas season. We enjoyed having Joel home for a week and a half for a wonderfully relaxing vacation! More pictures to follow, but probabaly another day! :)

Making Christmas Cards.

Christmas piano party

Some of my piano students. I have 20 students, and 14 came. I always want to get a picture with all of us in it but always forget! I'm so glad I remembered this time!

This was a totally casual piano party, no parents allowed! Only some kids wanted to play the piano, and I didn't make everybody play. After all, it was a PARTY!

We had pizza, and chips, and cookies, and brownies, and hot chocolate and marshmallows, and carrots and tangerines for dinner. Totally easy, and just what the kids like! We made little ornaments. They were supposed to bring them home, but most of them put them on my tree. I love all my students they are all such awesome kids! We played "four corners", hide and go seek in the dark with glowsticks, the Wii, sang some carols, and my sweet husband did some card magic tricks. It was a BLAST! And the only complaint that I had was that it wasn't LONG enough! I'll probably do this again next year, and I guess it will just have to be longer!

Six Flags holiday in the park

We had some free tickets that come with our season passes, so we took Dad and the kids' friend Brandon to Six Flags. We rode rides (except Joel), sled down a fake hill of snow, had snowball fights, walked under sharks, had hot chocolate, and oh so much more! It was really fun!

Apple Hill!

I've always heard about Apple Hill and have never gone, so this year after 21 years living near it I took the kids. First we went and picked up their great grandparents. Apple Hill is, you guessed it, a big Hill with lots of apples. Apples, apple cider, apple donuts, apple pie, applesauce, apple syrup, apple jam, and I'm pretty sure the list just keeps going.

We walked around, ate some samples, bought some apples, and then got some delicious hot apple cider. Afterwads we went driving around for this restaurant that great grandpa Mills wanted to go to, and we finally found it and it was closed! So we ate burgers:)

It was a really fun day. We will be going back next fall!!

Sisters

I just came across this picture, it was last year. Here's why I love it: growing up Kerry and I didn't take great pictures, and Kristin ALWAYS took a great picture. So I love this because Kerry and I look great, and Kristin doesn't :) (of course she's still beautiful, it's just that her eyes are closed, but I'll take what I can get!) Love you kik!

Merry Christmas!

It's been awhile since I've blogged. We were sick most of November. We took a trip to Apple Hill with my husband's grandparents, and enjoyed delicious Hot Apple Cider! We had a wonderful Thanksgiving!
The day after Thanksgiving we took down all of the harvest decorations and put up all of our Christmas decorations. The kids had a blast and were giddy all day and kept saying, "I just LOVE this time of year." or, "This is the best day EVER!" We had Christmas music playing in the background, and it was just a wonderful day! That afternoon we went to Six Flags for Holiday in the Park and had an awesome time. We loved all the lights, decorations, hot chocolate, sliding down a snow hill, throwing snow balls, and riding rides!
One of these days I'll get around to posting pictures of our wonderful family times, but right now I don't really want to go downstairs and into the car to get our camera!