Allyson sings "The Best Time of the Year"

Allyson loves singing. And she's wonderfully oblivious to anyone listening. Here she sings one of her favorites from Polar Express.

Driving in a Winter Wonderland

My friend has a huge cookie swap party every Christmas. This year it just happened to fall on one of the worst snowstorms of the year. Did that stop me? Uh, no. We're talking getting out of the house + eating a ton of cookies. By the time the party was over everything was covered in snow. It was so beautiful! This song was on the radio as I left… I just had to video. 

Nicole was an elf in her school's Polar Express Musical. It was just the part she wanted. And she did so great! One of the videos shows her dancing with Elf-Elvis! 

For the record, I was told the kid were only to wear elf colors … red, green, black, white… I was pretty bummed when I saw a bunch of parents had gone all elf-crazy. Oh well. Nicole didn't care. On the other hand, Allyson did care what she wore. It had to be a dress and it had to be her new fancy shoes.

We were thrilled Papa Sedenko could be in town to see the production!

Her art teacher, Mr. Zimmerman was awesome! He's the only male teacher in the school and everyone loves him.

Don't worry… I won't leave you hanging… I'm having trouble getting her solo to upload. So, you'll want to click on this link to see Nicole's big dancing and singing debut! She was so cute leading up to the performance, telling me that she was going to have to dance with a boy! (Elvis to be specific!) 

You can't have a Polar Express musical without hot chocolate!

With our friends, Essie & Zion

I hate my car seat

Mallory loves being held. NOT tied down. 

Real Tears. 😢

The Great Leaf Adventure!

One thing I love about living in the midwest is fall. The colors of the leaves are breathtaking. There's usually one particular day (or two) that is exceptionally spectacular. It's the day that just begs one to take a drive.
 

We decided to take a drive to Hangar Kafe, an airport/restaurant in the middle of farm country. My plan was to take pictures when we arrived and then have dinner.  Here are pictures from our drive.

We finally made it to the airport. Duh. It's an airport. (Okay, a field with a runway.) But… there's no trees around the airport! Ugh. (That wasn't going to be the only thing to not go according to my plan tonight!)

We took a quick drive down a dirt road, made a few turns and… we found some beautiful trees!  We started clicking pictures… 

Now… there just happened to be a school/church across the street on this little two-lane road. 

Allyson noticed the playground before we even parked. 

The gate was open and there were a couple of kids playing. So the deal was… if she took good pictures she could play for a few minutes at the playground when we were done. (To be continued…)

Okay… so pictures are over. Let's go play! The girls took off running and Britt, Mallory and I walked behind them. They went straight for the teeter totter.

Suddenly I hear crying. I didn't worry too much. Until I hear Nicole scream, "MOMMY!!" I sprinted over to find Allyson on the ground crying. Her lip bleeding pretty bad. Seems Nicole was going a little too fast on the teeter totter and Allyson flipped off, hitting her face. 

The strange thing … it seemed as if we were in the middle of nowhere. But suddenly people were pouring out of nowhere, coming to help. They took us to the church area where there were people (it wasn't a church night). In the small crowd there just "happened" to be a dental assistant! She checked Allyson's mouth and her now-loose front tooth. She'll be fine. Her tooth will probably come out sooner than later, though. But, wow, did she have a fat lip. Poor baby.

Turns out the church was having a youth convention that night. What are the odds? Amazing people.

Well, we let the girls play a bit more… on something a little lower to the ground.

Then we went back to Hangar Kafe. Just in time for the sunset and a small rainstorm. Look how beautiful!!

Poor Nicole was afraid we were going into a tornado. :(

And we made it to Hangar Kafe…

The runway! (Seriously.) 

Nicole had her first taste of frog legs!

And Allyson… well, she was fine. :)