Packers vs. Bears

I know I've posted about Madelyn's teacher being a huge Bear's fan. We've had a lot of fun with this special rivalry, but yesterday was probably the most fun we've had when it comes to these student vs. teacher games.

The morning of the game, we took some pictures of Madelyn all decked out in her outfit for the game.

Then I texted Mrs. Musselman (yes, we're good like that) and asked her to send me a picture of herself in her Bears gear.  I sent one of Madelyn saying she was ready to cheer on the Packers. Mrs. Musselman quickly replied with an adorable picture of herself:

Then, just to have a little fun, we posted this picture of Madelyn and Mrs. Musselman, side-by-side:

Can you imagine Madelyn's surprise when Mrs, Musselman actually showed up on our front door?! That's right! She stopped by to say hello, and of course to give us a little grief about our Packers! She stayed for a while, and even enjoyed a brat! What an amazing teacher! (but we already knew that)

And as luck would have it, Madelyn happened to have another loose tooth, to which Mrs. Musselman quickly pulled! WOO HOO!

Oh, and in case you didn't watch the game… the Packers won! :) We told Mrs. Musselman she should come by more often!

Merry Christmas!

As always, we had a wonderful holiday this year! We started Christmas Eve with a beautiful service at church.

That was followed up with dinner at Auntie Kristin's, with Grammy and Papa, of course.

Then, Christmas morning was full of presents. Never-ending presents…. Madelyn was excited to get the one thing she wanted more than anything: a Nintendo DS! She also got plenty of games to keep her busy on this new piece of technology!

 Toms!

 Auntie Kim sent Madelyn the very first tea set she owned!

 This year, we let Madelyn spend some money at the schools' Holiday Store

where she got to pick out things for Mom, Dad, Grammy, & Papa. She did

a great job choosing things for each person based on the things they like!

 Chloe really likes her new stuffed duck!

 Before heading to a late breakfast at Auntie Kristin's house, 

Madelyn and I whipped up some homemade New York style bagels! Super yummy! 

(Thanks, Auntie Kim, for the inspiration!)

 All the grandkids got Grammy & Papa an 8-foot "Packers Country" banner.

They loved it! It goes great with "Tiny" in their front yard!

After a long, fun day, Daddy and Madelyn crashed hard!

The Nutcracker Performed by the Arizona Ballet

Madelyn enjoys her dance so much and we figured she was old enough to finally enjoy the The Nutcracker Ballet. We worked it out to attend the event with one of Madelyn's good friends, Isabelle and her mom. The girls enjoyed getting dressed up for the occasion, and I think they really enjoyed the ballet, too! ;)

They each got to pick a nutcracker ornament!

Such cuties!

Kindergarten Christmas Program

Madelyn has been practicing her Christmas songs for a couple weeks now, so she could hardly wait for the day to come where she could perform them for us!

The program was set to the story of the Polar Express, and the students sang songs in their pajamas during each part of the story. I loved how the songs correlated with the story. For example, when he loses his jingle bell,  the kids sing "I'm Gettin' Nottin' for Christmas." (That was especially cute.)

Here's the video from the program (just under 20 minutes):

Madelyn & Mrs. Musselman

Madelyn and her BFF, Kadence
(two peas in a pod)

More Terrific Teddy

Remember me telling you that Madelyn really new how to work the Terrific Teddy system? Well, she did it again!

Madelyn's teacher emailed me to tell me that the class voted, and they thought she should bring Terrific Teddy to the North Pole! Well, I certainly couldn't say no to that! But my goodness. What a blessed little girl!

I did another quick video so the class could see what a fun time Terrific Teddy had with us!

Holiday Parade in Downtown Flagstaff

To top off our trip to Flagstaff, we decided to watch the parade in historic downtown Flagstaff. This of course meant getting there early enough to get a good spot for the girls to see everything, so what better way to get downtown early than to have dinner at The Lumberyard! YUM!

After dinner, we walked a couple blocks to the parade route, and were just in time to see the parade! What fun! And boy oh boy what candy! Everyone was passing out candy and toys! The girls really loved this part!

 Madelyn and Scout

 There were fancy old cars, and firetrucks all decked with lights! It was really pretty cool 

(literally, the temperature during the parade was 31 degrees).

 But the temperature was nothing a little more hot chocolate back at the hotel couldn't cure!

While the kids enjoyed their drinks, Krista and I had a Millionaire Coffee (or two).

Delicious!

Family Photo Op

A Day at Wing Mountain

We were excited to get some extra time in Flagstaff, but we were especially excited that there was snow! We packed all our snow gear, and headed up to Wing Mountain for a morning of fun in the glorious white powder!

DISCLAIMER: No children were harmed in the making of this video.

The girls had SO much fun!

So much fun that they were pooped by the time we pulled out of the parking lot!

Breakfast with Santa

What better way to top off our trip to the North Pole 

than to have breakfast with Santa!?!

 After breakfast we let the girls spend some time in the hotel room (we had adjoining rooms). 

Disney Headbands

Christmas stories and candy canes!

North Pole Experience

This year, we decided to take a new route to see Santa. For the last five years, we've ridden the Polar Express to the North Pole, but we wanted to take a ride on the Candy Cane Express from Flagstaff for a change of scenery!

We checked in at the Little America Hotel where they are gracious enough to allow the North Pole visitors to stay while awaiting their travels.

When you ride on the Candy Cane Express, you have to cover your eyes and ears, and plug your nose to make the trolley go fast enough through the magic tunnel! Madelyn took this very seriously!

The dads were excited to see Santa, too!

 Our elf brought us to the extra large door where we 

would soon get to tour Santa's workshop!

 Madelyn insisted we take a picture of these old-school 

Raggedy Ann and Andy dolls for Grammy!

We got to see the compass where the needle never stops, 

which we all know means you really ARE at the North Pole!

 The girls got to help build toys in Santa's workshop. First they got to dress a teddy bear!

 Madelyn made a cheerleader!

 Then they got to assemble some Nerf guns. And just 

to be sure they worked okay, they got to shoot them at their parents!

 I REALLY want a wrapping room like Santa's! 

Oh my! All the ribbons and paper you could dream of!

 The elves and Mrs. Clause had the kids play a game. 

They had to keep all the toys in the bins as they were tossed down the slides!

 Time for cookies and snowman soup (hot chocolate)!

Then it was off to EU (Elf University)!

 Here the kids learned everything you needed to know about being a good elf:

Then we went to the mail room where the girls wrote a letter to Santa.

After the letters were written, it was time to say hello to Mrs. Clause.

And then of course, we got to see Santa!

After the girls told Santa what they wanted for Christmas, we headed outside by the bon fire. Some of the kids even had a snowball fight with one of the elves!

 One of the highlights of our trip to the North Pole was getting to meet Gizmo, 

a distant relative to Mrs. Musselman! Madelyn could hardly believe it!

 This super duper special TV allowed kids to hold their golden tickets up to

the screen to see a special image. Each ticket had a different image.

Although there were hundreds of thousands of lights, this tree was our very favorite!

Madelyn would have been more than happy to play outside ALL NIGHT long!