Merry Christmas

We had a good day. Kids were up at 5:30, opened gifts, had breakfast, went sledding, took naps, and had dinner! Sledding was probably the best part of the day. Reagan turned into our dare devil and went down alone and LOVED it!

The Polar Express

We took a trip to The Royal Gorge to ride on the Polar Express. We got on the train, got hot chocolate, got cookies, got to see beautiful scenery, rode on the outside part of the train, and passed through the North Pole!!! Santa was outside his house an jumped on the train with a couple of elves. The elves walked around and asked the kids what they wanted, sang songs, played games, and read books. Then Santa came and visited all the kids and handed out bells!!!! I was a fun ride... A perfect way to spend Christmas Eve day! Now if they would only go to sleep Santa would be able to come and go to sleep himself:)
I just looked at the pictures and see that it cut some of them off... Click on them to see the whole thing.

Candy Store and Coors

Friday we went to Hammonds Candy Factory for a tour. Unfortunately, there were minimal people working so we didn't get to see a bunch of candy being made, but we did see some candy canes being pulled and hooked. The kids thought it was neat to watch that, but if you ask them what the best part of the tour was they will tell you getting free samples at the end!
After the tour we went to IKEA which was the highlight of my day!!! I wish we had one of those near us, I could spend all day and ally money in there:).
Then the guys (and me) pilled in the car and headed to Golden, Colorado to the Coors Brewery. We toured that (and it was guided... It's normally a self guided tour) and it was really interesting. The best part to me was learning all the neat facts about the company and how they give back to the community and how they recycle and so on. If you ask the guys what their favorite part was they will say the end of the tour where we all got 3 free beers to sample.
It was a long but fun day! I think the kids are finally on the right time zone. They have been going to be at 7 and waking up at 5 or earlier, but last night they went to bed at 8:30 and slept until 6:20!!! We are off to the Polar Express today!!!!
Oh and I just realized... I don't think my phone puts pictures in the order that I put them in, sorry. There is a pic of the kids getting ready for the candy tour, Jason next to a car w/beer in the truck (that is how it used to be transported illegally b/c not all states sold it), going into the first tasting room, and then us outside in Golden.. It was freezing up there and very icy! I almost fell a few times:)

Tubing and Sledding

Yesterday we went up in the mountains and went tubing. It was supposed to be a nice morning and then start to snow in the afternoon. Well, it started snowing on our way up there, so we tuned in the snow. I think the snow hitting you in the face made it a little bit colder, but the kids didn't seem to mind and love it! Reagan cried when it was over and we had to put the tube away. Then last night around 5 it started snowing here at my sister's and when we woke up this morning we had about 6 inches and expected about 6 more throughout the morning. It had snowed all day and is still snowing now!!! We tried to sled a bit this morning, but it was snowing so hard that the kids didn't last long. It was fun... I liked that you crash at the bottom in the piles of fluffy snow! I'm sure we will be sledding a few more times before we leave.

Gone Fishin'

What A Mess, What A Mess!

I made sugar cookie dough last night and left the flour out. Jason wants to return our elf for one that's not so bad, haha!

Muscles

Every time Reagan eats she shows us her muscles and claims that her eating is making her big and strong. She did it this morning after she ate breakfast and then she went over to the desk to get a coloring book out of the drawer. She tried to pull it open and BAM the front of the drawer came off! Hahaha... Guess her muscles are getting bigger than we though:).

Email from Santa

So there is a website where you can make a video from Santa and you can make the kids be on the naughty or nice list. I made some for the naughty list, but it was sad and I was afraid Reagan would cry because Riley continuously tells her she is on the naughty list and it upsets her so much. So instead Mr. Elf was propped up by the computer this morning and when I turned the computer on there was an email from Santa. It told Riley and Reagan they need to do the things I have been yelling at them about and that Mr. Elf would give an updates report later this week. Hopefully they will be good and can get a Nice list video from Santa! Unfortunately, I don't think they really understood:(. Oh well, worth a try:).

TP'd

I guess Mr. Elf thought our tree needed a bit more decoration! Riley saw it first on her way out the door to go to school. She was so concerned with cleaning it up and wanted to make sure I would clean it up right when Reagan woke up, haha! Reagan came out an said "oh no, mommy clean it right now"! By the look of their playroom you wouldn't think cleaning is top on their list:)

Artist

I think this girl has some talent!

Dance recital

Riley and Reagan had their Christmas dance recital today. They both did awesome and were so cute. Reagan danced to "I saw mommy kissing Santa claus" and Riley dance to the Chinese song from the Nutcracker (brought back lots of Melissa and Margot memories!). I would post the videos, but Riley was being mean to Reagan in the car not letting her see the videos on the phone and deleted both of them!!! My phone is now off limits to both of them:/

He Strikes Again!

Mr. Elf engaged in a snowball fight with some other animals last night. Reagan said "naughty elf"... She tends to sound a bit British sometimes due to Peppa Pig:)