Prayers

Each night since Ragen memorized it a few years ago, we've been saying the "Now I lay me down to sleep" prayer with him (he says it, we listen). A few weeks ago Maggie asked to have the prayer said in her room as well so we started saying it for her. A couple of nights ago she asked if she could say it herself so we figured this might be good entertainment at least. We were so impressed! She only needed prompting once and was cute as could be saying her big girl prayer.

(I left the lights turned low for ambiance but I think I might need to retake the vid and leave the lights on!)

It's the holiday season!

One of my favorite days of the year is the day after Thanksgiving! It symbolizes the start of the holidays and I just love everything about it - even the rush of shoppers at 4am (not that I've ever participated at that ridiculous hour however for the first time ever I did make it to Target at 6:30am this year to pick up the Disney Princess Vanity for Miss Maggie - shhhhhh!).

Growing up, we'd go cut down our Christmas tree the morning after Thanksgiving every single year. Rain or shine! We'd go with my cousins & aunt/uncle to the same tree farm and go to breakfast. It is a special tradition I hold close to my heart. Jeremy and I committed the 1st Christmas sin and have a fake tree (for now at least!) so we have bypassed that tradition but I look forward to picking it back in in years to come.

So now that we're not freezing are tooshies off in a tree farm on this day, we have a new tradition. We take the kids downtown to see Santa and catch some of the Macy's parade. In years past, we'd be standing in line for Santa (for 2 hours) and catch the parade as it went by. For the past few years, we've been fortunate enough to have a "hook-up" and get to go by appointment to a VIP Santa in the upper floors at Nordstrom. I have to tell you it is heavenly! The kids did so great sitting on Santa's lap. I was very nervous about Maggie - she's hit & miss but she did a fantastic job. After Santa we did a little shopping and then went on the carousel at Westlake.

Once we were home, we got out the Christmas decorations and holidayized our house. We are now fully immersed in Christmas cheer and I'm loving it! It really doesn't matter to me what we do on the day after Thanksgiving, as long as I'm kicking off the holiday season with my family, I'm a happy girl!

The "real" Santa photo arrived today and I'm thrilled with it!

Macy's has a wonderful program where in the stores you'll see these "Believe" mailboxes and a letter writing station. For every letter that is dropped into the box, they'll donate $1 to Make-A-Wish. I love this campaign!

We couldn't believe that at 1pm on it's first day, there was virtually no line for the carousel.

So very thankful

The list is endless. There are too many things I'm thankful for this year. First and foremost is my family. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving day with the perfect blend of some quiet time along with the craziness of extended family. Jeremy and I snuck over to the Tennis Club to hit with the ball machine (I'm so thankful I took up tennis!). Then we spent the afternoon at home with the kids before heading to my parents house for dinner. Unfortunately Mark, Melissa & the kids couldn't make it up for the holiday but we were blessed with a large group of relatives on my mom's side. I think my grandma was in heaven having that many of us together. We had a lovely dinner and quality time with the family.

At the top of my THANKFUL list :)

The kids donning the hats they both made in celebration of Thanksgiving at school. Ragen's was a head-dress and Maggie's was a turkey complete with dangly legs

My grandma with 3 of her 6 grandchildren

School Thanksgiving

At Ragen's school, they did a Thanksgiving feast where the kids were wearing hats signifying the Pilgrims and the Indians (I mean Native Americans). Everyone brought Thanksgiving food including one friend who's family tradition is to eat potstickers on Thanksgiving :) Ragen polished off 10 turkey rolls setting a class record!

They had made placemats stating what they are thankful for and then the teacher read them to all of the parents. The answers ranged from "my family" to "sugar."

The Thanksgiving feast

All the pilgrims & indians

Ragen's Native American self portrait :)

Why can't they always act this way?

I had to share this sweet moment between Ragen & Mags. We were at Kelsey Creek farm trying to get a Christmas card photo and in between takes, they were snuggling like crazy. I was able to snap them in a moment. I find myself chuckling at this picture because they are so hot & cold. A lot of the time, they treat each other exactly as portrayed here. Other times...not so much!

Disney on Ice...in style!

A couple of weeks ago a few other moms and I took our girls to Disney on Ice up in Everett. There were 4 moms and 6 little girls and we had a blast. As a special treat, we took the girls up to the show in a limo (thanks Vanessa!) and then went out to dinner at Anthony's in Everett beforehand. Watching the girls lip synch and have a dance party in the limo was hilarious. It was raining like crazy that night so we were thrilled to not be driving. The show was fabulous and we had incredible seats. I was actually sad for Ragen that he wasn't there because despite the lean towards all things girly, he would have loved it. The show featured The Little Mermaid (Maggie's favorite), Cars (one of Ragen's faves), the Lion Kind (another Ragen fave), Mickey & the gang, and Tinkerbell. It was a really special night out with our little ladies!


Maggie, Ellie, Ella, Grace, Reese and Josie riding in style

Up close & personal

First of many "rounds" - these were the $72 snow cones in a Tinkerbell cup

Aerial & Flounder

Another "round" - this time was $72 cotton candy in this Tinkerbell hat

The NEW bouncy place

"Bouncy places" have been all the rage in our house for the past couple of years. Both kids absolutely love them. With Ragen in school full time, we don't go nearly as often as we used to. Back in the day of having both kids home a day or two a week, I was always looking for things to do. But now our days off are limited.

On Veterans day (I know, I'm way behind!), Ragen went to a birthday party at the NEW place to be if you're a kid in Bellevue. Sky High Sports is a giant warehouse full of trampolines! It was a drop-off party and when I went to pick him up a few minutes before the end, I felt truly sorry for this brave mom. She had 7 five/six year old boys running around like crazy in what can only be described as chaos. They were sweating profusely and having the best time!

If you're looking for something fun to do, you should definitely try this place out. They have a jousting area for older kids and one set of trampolines looks like it might be for the younger crowd. There's also a set of tramps that go right into a foam pit taking me back to my gymnastics days.

Word of caution...don't go on a day when there's no school! They do take reservations ahead of time and even sell out so plan ahead!

It was incredible to watch the height these boys could get!

Maggie snuck her way onto the trampoline when we picked up Ragen