Ice Skating

So we did this over break...

 Emily found a friend at the rink.  It was Macey's third time skating and she was such an encouragement to Emily.  Also, they are super cute together, they almost have the exact same hue of hair color.

 The pre-picture.  Notice everyone is still happy here.

 Trying it

 This is how Noelle felt after a once around.  

We snagged a walker? Emily used this for two laps and then she had it down.  So proud of her.

-You'll notice there are no pictures of Dallas.  He wasn't a huge fan.  He was mostly in a mood to throw fits and I think Rob put it best "I was mostly trying to keep the blades of his skates from cutting off my manhood."

Santa Express

We rode the Santa Express on Dallas Birthday.  It was really fun and an activity we wanted to do as a family  during the holiday season.  We drove to the Boone Scenic Valley Railway and boarded the train.  The train goes out several miles then starts to slow and you start to notice Christmas lights in the forest.  Then you see 9 reindeer and a sign for the North Pole.  Finally the train stops and Santa climbs aboard.  Santa comes by to hand out jingle bells (think Polar Express) and gives hugs.  All along the 1.5 hour ride we are singing carols, drinking hot cocoa (my kids favorite part), eating Christmas cookies, telling funny Christmas jokes, and telling the emcee what you want for Christmas.  Each car had a BSVR volunteer and they kept everything fun.  

 Sitting on the stairs of the train car we boarded

 Santa coming our way

 Family picture

Looking out the window, sipping hot chocolate

More November

 I LOVE how Emily starts to read while we are at the library.  Reminds me so much of myself

 These two love swinging on the playground while we wait to pick up Emily from class

 Tree climbing

 This fell from our kitchen ceiling.  Thank the Lord I had just turned on Curious George and all the kids were in the other room.  How does a fixture just fall from the ceiling!

 This is what it looks like when you invite 4 couples over for dinner and they each have at least three kids.  We have such a great Ames family.

 

Parts of Novemeber

 We fried up a couple of these birds with 25 of our closest friends

 I love freezing my tush off with this guy

 Our latest hotel experience had fish, they even got to feed them (and that is juice in the coffee to go cups)

 Rob got a big delivery

These two get to share a bed during hotel fun

Dallas Family Party

 He requested a General Lee on his cake

 He wanted to eat his cake with a General Lee, we let him because it was his birthday

 Bo on Dallas birthday

Lego Mater

Church Christmas Program

Emily was a cow for the childrens church program.  She was a super cute animal.  Rob has video on his phone, I will try to get it loaded to youtube.



Dallas Birthday Party

Another first for Dallas, he had his first friend party.  He invited three friends and Emily got to come too!

 

This is his reaction to getting a Phin McMissle  car from Noelle

 No matter what activies I plan, every playdate ends up in the kids running around the house in circles.  In this case all three boys were on the stick horse.

Blowing out the candles

 I took masking tape and made "roads" all over the living room for the kids to drive their cars on.

This road was under construction.