Princess Hotel

This is our third year going to the Princess Hotel around Christmas, and we love it! The kids got to write Santa and mail their letter to him. Logan asked for golf clubs and Yugioh cards. Taylor asked for Legos. Kendall asked for a phone (yeah, right). And Alexis asked for a cat (nope).

We tried to get on the train, but the line was a mile long (aka 2 hours long). So although this is our 3rd year going, we've never actually rode the train. Oh, well. Instead, we stood in line to see Santa and only waited half an hour. When we came out from seeing him, we noticed that it had rained. Thankfully, it meant a lot of people left. But it also meant that they shut down the Ferris Wheel and that we had to stand in line, in the rain, for the giant slide. After that, the rain wasn't too bad, so we rode the carousel and roasted marshmallows for s'mores. I felt bad that Roxy got rained on while we were gone... but as William says, she's a dog. And for the record, she lived.

Gingerbread houses

The kids still need a lot of coaching on these, so William helped the older kids, and I helped Alexis who didn't have a gingerbread house this year but a Frozen Castle! It was a fun Christmas Sunday activity. And to finish off the day, hot tub time! It's become a Sunday tradition.

Illuminations

I think this is our second year doing this, and we love it. Seeing the lights from the comfort and warmth of our car is pretty awesome. But before the awesomeness comes the wait. Our tickets were from 9 PM to 10 PM because the other time slots were all sold out. We got in line at 8:45 PM. And we finally got into the park at 10:10 PM. All I gotta say is, Thank goodness for DVD players in cars. And because we were staying in the car, we brought Roxy along! She was very happy about that! She snuggled up to Kendall while we waited. Then when we got in, she and Logan came up to share the front seat with me, with the window down so that she could take in all the smells. Alexis came up front, too, to steer the wheel on daddy's lap. Taylor and Kendall just moved up one row, but they still got good seats. It's a fun tradition.

McCormick-Stillman & Old Town Scottsdale

I've been wanting to go to the McCormick-Stillman Railroad Park for as long as we've lived in Phoenix. It's the highest ranked park in Phoenix. Why didn't we go until now? I don't know... because it's all the way in Scottsdale? It was cute and fun, and I was glad I'd purchased the fast passes for the train ride, even if they did cost us $90. We only waited 10 minutes vs the 2 hours we would have had to wait in the regular line. Yeah, crazy!

Unfortunately, we didn't spend much more time there. We looked at the mini train sets, but we skipped Santa because the ticket line was super long and because William wanted to see the Santa at the Princess Hotel.

Instead, William convinced the kids to go to Old Town Scottsdale, have ice cream at Creamistry, drink hot chocolate, and take a golf cart around the town. We did have ice cream. And we did take a ride through the town in a golf cart. But we didn't get hot chocolate because it was already 10:30 when we finished the ride and Alexis hadn't napped that day. Ooof, and we have church tomorrow at 9 AM.

Dance Loft Christmas Performance

Alexis continues to impress me with her stage presence! Today was her dance performance. Although memorizing the dance at 3 is tricky and honestly too much to ask, she did a fantastic job! And when we screamed her name at the beginning of the song, she waved at us with the biggest smile on her face and then danced her heart out. We were all so proud of her!

We celebrated by eating a late lunch at Rodizio and it was heaven on a plate. The kids even ate pretty good. Well, Alexis wanted everything on her plate but didn't actually eat that much. But it was fun.

Jingle Jog

Sadly for me, Kendall's Jingle Jog was at 9 and Taylor's was at 10. So I spent 2 hours at Haley! 

I was totally dressed to run, but when I asked Kendall if she wanted me to run with her, she said that I wouldn't be able to keep up with her with the stroller. Um, ok. So I waited at the finish line. And I waited. And I waited. And I waited. I thought maybe I'd missed her. But then, after seeing a bunch of Kindergartners run by me, I saw her walking hand-in-hand with Brecklyn. Walking! I could have kept up with that! 

And then when I asked Taylor if he wanted me to run with him, he said No thanks. But Shelley and I ran behind him and Brady anyway. They lost us pretty early on, though, because I couldn't pass people easily with my stroller. So Shelley and I missed them going through the finish line, sadly. But it was fun catching up with her.

Preschool Christmas Performance

Another performance for Alexis and another WOW moment for me. This girl was born to perform! She was up there smiling and waving and not really caring about the people watching her and smiling at how cute she was. She said her line, she sang the songs, and she looked super cute doing it all. Good job, Miss Jodi, for putting together a super cute Preschool Christmas program for all the parents, which William, by the way, was able to attend. Yay!

Cheer Competition

William was post-call and the boys hate going to these things, so I left them at home to look after Roxy. I knew it was going to be a busy morning/afternoon. The girls and I woke up around 6 to get ready for the competition. When we got there, the line was already super long, so I texted Kelli and Meghan to jump in line with them. It saved me 100 ft of line. When we got inside, our seats weren't great, they were in the back, but at least they were centered. 

The girls did an awesome job! And Kendall and 4 other girls got to show off their round-off back handsprings.

This year, though, Haley had 2 squads, a K-2nd squad and a 3rd-6th squad. In fact, I was late signing up for the Fall semester and Kendall was on a waiting list until they added that second squad. Phew!

So anyway, the K-2nd got first place for the cheer portion AND for the dance portion of the competition. So, yeah, it was kind of disappointing for the 3rd-6th girls not to get any trophies, but at least Haley brought home 2 trophies for the school.

I was supposed to go straight home, but William was awake and Santa was in Layton Lakes, so... we stopped by to see Santa and play in the snow for a little while. We also got hot chocolate and donuts. 

After that, we came home and I took Kendall to a birthday party. The parents really insisted that I stay and eat some food, but we had lunch plans with Lily and Paul. We wanted to get sushi, but the restaurant isn't open for lunch on Saturday, so we went next door to the breakfast/brunch place. That place is sooooo good. Like, every time we go, there are at least 5 things I want to get.

After lunch and picking Kendall up from that birthday party, the rest of the day was a little more chill, thank goodness.