Polar Express!!

This past weekend we packed up and headed to Lubbock for a weekend of fun! My mom insisted this year that we all go to Polar Express, so we bought the tickets months ahead of time and I am so glad we went. My nephew, Jhett, came down with the flu just days before the trip, so they weren't able to make it. We were so super sad but definitely didnt want that nasty illness passed to us. We had a few extra tickets, so our friends, the Holster's, joined in on the fun.


The kids had so much fun. I don't think they ever stopped smiling and laughing. It was so fun to watch their excitement.

The kiddos!! Laney. cousin Aiden, cousin Avery, Kipton and Hadlee :)

Getting ready to board!

First up we boarded the train. We were told to buy the best tickets available, so that's just what we did. Our train was decked out with all kinds of lights and Christmas decor. It was so pretty. We were at the front of the train and that worked out perfectly.

Cousins.... just missing Jhetty Boy :(

My parents and my Memaw and Papaw :)

Our table we shared with the Holster's.

Poor Aunt Mammie and Gage.. always get stuck with the kids. I honestly think she likes it though. She is such a great help to us and so awesome with the kiddos!!!

Our sweet little love bugs!!!! What would we do without them?!?

After boarding, the cute little helpers on the train started reading the Polar Express story and walking down the aisles showing the page of the book they were reading. They passed out the biggest sugar cookies and hot chocolate to every person on the train. This kinda made me a little nervous with the kids sitting at the other table, but can you believe it not a single spill. haha.  Who am I kidding, I was nervous for Aunt Mammie sitting with all the kids with the full cups of hot cocoa ;)

Our nifty cups we got to keep :) Another perk to the good seats.

Next up, all the kids were given a golden ticket upon arrival. The conductor came around and stamped each childs ticket by punching holes making the childs first initial of their name in the ticket. Have I mentioned my childs obsession with his name not being Kipton but being brother bear?? Yup, he even gets angry if you accidentally call him Kipton. So.. the conducter asks him his name... and sure enough he got a "B" in his ticket for Brother bear. Ha!!!!!

Then the train arrived at the North Pole. We all watched out the windows and saw the elves and Santa waving at us. Next thing we know we are headed back to the train station and Santa makes his appearance on the train. I wasn't too sure how Kipton would do. Last year, he only liked Santa from a distance and wouldnt even come close to sitting on his lap. But this year, he was so big. Kipton, excuse me Bro Bear, needed to sit in Mama's lap but he gave him a high five and told him all about his real motorcyle he wanted. LOL. The older kids did great, and Laney asked for a kitten. I'm in trouble because Santa can't bring either one of those things ;)

We had such a great time and will have so many memories for years to come. Hopefully we can make this a yearly tradition.

(Sorry for the grainy cell pics, I'm still waiting on my mom to download the good pics from her camera).

Next up, Christmas activities. Programs and parties are wearing me out, but I wouldn't have it any other way!

Thanksgiving has come and gone!!

How is it that we are now done with Thanksgiving and are already three weeks away from Christmas? Crazy how fast time flies by! We, like everyone else, have been going and going.

We put the Christmas tree up a few weeks before Thanksgiving. I couldn't help it. We had super cold weather, we were all stuck inside, had a fire going... sounded like the perfect time to me :)

The kids actually hung majority of the ornaments all by themselves :) And check out my tiny lil puppy, Nala. Ha... who am I kidding, she isnt so tiny anymore :(

And the finished product.. Now I need to get to wrapping presents!!

The following weekend it was warm (crazy weather).. so we had fun at the new park behind Lowes. It is such a neat park and the kids had so much fun.

We also had our lil twin buggie friends, Mason and Mallory's, birthday party. It was so cute and the kids had a blast. Decorating pumpkins, pin the nose on the pumpkin, crafts and a pinata. Their mommy, Sarah, always has the cutest decorations :)

Crafty lil girls!

Happy Birthday!!

 That leads us to Thanksgiving. We had our first Thanksgiving at Landon's grandmothers, then drove straight to Baird for Thanksgiving with my family, came home had Thanksgiving with my step dad's family and finished it off the next day with a meal with my dad. Whew... we were pooped! Luckily we didnt have turkey every meal..lol. Come Monday, I was not ready for work :(

LOVE my babies!!

Love this picture of my mom with Jhetty Boy!

He was too interested in my glasses to take a picture :)

The kids loved that Jhett was walking and they could finally chase him around!

We have so many things to be thankful for!!  We were sad that we didn't get a chance to see Landon's bro and sis in law but are excited to see them Christmas!

Hope you all had a fabulous Thanksgiving as well!!!

Now on to Christmas we go!

Happy Halloween!!

We had an awesome Halloween I would say. A friend invited a big group of us over to her house for taco soup and mummy dogs for the kids before we headed down "L" street for some door to door activities. My kiddos have never experienced door to door trick or treating before. That is all I knew as a child, but now there are so many church trunk or treats that we usually do that. Let me just say.. "L" street goes all out! There was a house that had an outdoor movie, complete with hay stacks and a big popcorn machine, several houses were giving out full candy bars, another house had a Queen and King that handed you candy in their gorgeous house. It was such a fun experience and I bet "L" street will be seeing us every year from now on :)

This picture cracks me up... Landon is the best photo bomber ever.... I didn't even know he did that until I saw this pic later ;)

Laney and JP. I think they missed each other :)

Now on to costumes... this was a big ordeal. Hehe. Laney originally wanted to be the little mermaid. She already had the dress, so I bought her a red wig, but poor girl could not wear that thing for 2 minutes.. it was itching too bad. Luckily we tried that on weeks before Halloween. She decided she wanted to be Princess Jasmine after that, and luckily we had everything we needed for her since we bought that at Disney World. Now Kipton on the other hand, was going to be a knight. I found his outfit super duper cheap and he thought it was cool, so we were set. Come Halloween, he didnt want to be that and honestly I wasnt too pleased with it either. Ha. So... Landon and I had to improvise with what we had at the house and Landon had the bright idea of a Lumber Jack. It worked perfect. He has an axe that he carries around the house and says "I'm a lumberjack" as he hits things with it. So he was happy with that too. I had the cutest lil Lumber Jack and most beautiful lil Jasmine :)

Our small group at church got together the week before and put together the cutest little baggies of candies and we also stuck little tracts in there. Laney was the designated person to pass those out as we passed kids on the street. She loved it..... She kept saying, I love giving to people and I especially love telling them about Jesus. This little girl has a heart of gold!!!


Hope you all had a fabulous Halloween as well!

It's Fall Ya'll!!!

Wow, it's been awhile since I have last blogged. Let's just say life gets a little crazy :)

We have been super busy with Laney and her like for soccer. She has practice two nights a week and has a game every Saturday. I am super proud of Laney and her team, Galaxy Girls,  they have learned alot this year and have been playing great. They are playing on the "big" fields and even have positions this year.  Landon is assistant coach, so it isn't like we can just skip practices like we did in the past...hehe. She has loved having family and even great friends come and support her by watching her games!

Family pic before Laney's first game..lol

Our socer girl, playing in the rain!

Practice... see that green grass?!? That's what rain will do ;)

2014 Soccer Pictures

Daddies girl!!!

D, our nephew (in a way), came and spent the night with us a few weekends back. Landon and D have really latched on to each other lately and I love seeing the bond between them :) Such a sweet kid! We took pics after church :)

Mommy's boy!!

Landon got the wild hair last weekend and wanted to paint a wall in our house.... so weird.... I am always the one wanting to do things spur of the moment, not him.... And if I remember correctly in our last house we had to paint almost every single room and he said I will never paint another wall again. Anywho, I was all for it. We have all tan walls now, so it was time for a little color. We decided to paint the wall above our fireplace. It was a small project that really didn't take long at all. We actually did it while the kids napped. We tried a faux look and am pleased with the turn out. We also finally broke down and got new couches, the ones we had before were falling to pieces. With new furniture and new paint of course comes a new rug and new decorations :) Crazy how much a little paint can change a whole room!

A pop of color. And check out the big clock on the wall that Landon made for me by using wooden pallets :)

New furniture and new rug. We actually exchanged one of the sofas for a love seat, so it is now actually flush with the wall and doesn't hang over. We should have taken measurements before ordering..ha. Lesson learned!

Friday night we were invited out with some of our dear friends on a double date. We tried out the new Bill's Bistro, that is apart of the wine rack. We had so much fun and the food was amazing. It's always fun to see Landon and Jojo act crazy and remenice on the good ole days ;) My mom offered to watch the kids, and Aunt Mammie was in town so the kids of course had to spend the night. We were so excited to have the whole evening to ourselves. We were in bed by 11:30... old folk right here...lol.

My LOVE!!!

My friend Brandi!! 

The boys :)

Love my sister!!! Twinkes ;)

Lot's of new things to come in the Hayes household, hope to fill you all in soon!!!

Last weekend of Summa-time!

Sad that summer time has come to end but a little excited to welcome fuzzy blankets, fire places and the exciting holidays coming up. I have to admit I am more of a summer time girl. I like to go, go, go but can't do that as well when it's freezing outside. Needless to say we took advantage of the last weekend of summer, Memorial weekend and spent it outdoors swimming. Landon's Uncle Ryman was so kind and let us borrow his pool several days. Here are a bunch of pictures to sum up our swimming weekend :)

Isn't this the cutest lil thing.. haha

She is fearless!!

And of course the hubby always has tricks :)

She said watch me.... and did a flip. Scared me to death!!!  Like I said fearless!!!!

We also went to Granny's surprise 75th Birthday party. (Jerry's mom). She was shocked and cried tears of joy.. it was a sweet moment and glad we were apart of it. Here is a sweet pic of the kiddos :)

With Fall.. soccer season started. Laney has practices 2 times a week and her first game is this Saturday. I am still trying to figure out what we will do next season when Kipton gets to start. That means 4 practices a week and 2 games on Saturdays.. holy moly. We will really be going crazy then!!! But I better enjoy it while I can :)

First practice this season!

All boy. He gets to play in the dirt and with sticks and rocks every practice. Can you see the dirt all over his face.... ha!

 Here's to enjoying the last few warm days we have and preparing for fall and winter!!