Snowy Christmas Eve!

We awoke to our boys saying "Mommy and Daddy it's snowing!" this morning. We figured it would melt by noon, but now we are looking at blizzard like conditions and no end in sight. In fact they have cancelled Christmas Eve Mass - when have you heard of that happening? So, the boys, their cousin Adrienne, and I went out to try to build a snowman and play in the snow. Thank goodness for Nebraska snowpants that we had in our garage! :) Merry Christmas!

My second favorite Wichita Falls holiday tradition

Wichita Falls has two wonderful holiday traditions that I positively enjoy:

City Lights Festival, and Electricritters. We went to the City Lights Festival

and parade last weekend (but no pics) and this weekend we took my Mom and

brother to Electricritters at River Bend. They fill the nature trail

with lighted Christmas displays, and at the end of one of the trails is

Santa Claus. It is so much fun!

Halloweeeeeeennnnnnnn

Only one of my boys dresses up for Halloween...Aidan. Luke gave it up when he was 7, because he has issues with going to strangers houses and knocking on doors and accepting candy (maybe he is right!). Anyway - Aidan went as Harry Potter - inspired by a trash can that talked to him at Disney World and called him Harry Potter. Hehe it's a funny story...ask me sometime. Anyway - he took his role seriously. Even put a "spell" on a gorilla we encountered at one house. And he shared all his candy with his brother when we got home. Luke got to watch football while Aidan did all the work! :)

We took a much needed family vacation to Disney World...

Our hotel: All Star Sports

Downtown Disney...

this sea dragon is all out of tiny legos

T-Rex Cafe (think Rainforest Cafe but with dinos)

Build a dinosaur

Cool hot air balloon ride in Downtown Disney

ANIMAL KINGDOM:

Safari ride (so fun!)

On th3e way to Expedition Everest - Tibetan prayer flags

(MY favorite ride, my guys least fav - they don't know what a good

roller coaster is!)

Darling face painted child

Tree of life- this tree had the most amazing

carvings all the way up its trunk

See the mountain in the distance? THAT is

Expedition Everest. The roller coaster goes

into and out of that mountain

EPCOT:

Germany - a cool model train set

Italy

One of MANY Disney characters Aidan had us wait

in line to meet!

This line was over an hour long. Aidan wanted to know

why they didn't have a "fast pass" - the way to

get on rides faster. Haha

Bruce from Nemo ate my kids!

This is the way most nights ended...

The morning we were at Magic Kingdom, I was really

thinking "Disney is great, but there is no sign of

God or faith here." How amazing that about that time, a skywriter

wrote this above my head:

Jesus loves you

U+ God = (smiley face)

MAGIC KINGDOM:

Oh how I love a parade!

My boys loved how the castle changed color at night

HOLLYWOOD STUDIOS:

Oh yes, they even had Star Wars there! My boys were in heaven!

Stunt show

One more character greeting - this time Aidan

drew a picture of Mickey for Mickey - so he gave Aidan

a thumb's up!

Indiana Jones show - can you see him to the right of the 3rd statue?

The Toy Story 3D video game ride - pretty fun!

And the finale....Aidan conducts both the fireworks at Magic Kingdom

and the fountains at Epcot