We left on Christmas to drive to the mountains of Tennessee.  Jason and I had the bright idea of driving through the night so the kids would all be sleeping.  That was a terrible idea!  We used to be awesome at road trips because we lived across the country from our families.  The drive there reminded us that we are older than we used to be!  It was gruesome and took us twice as long as we had planned, but we got there safely and that is all that matters.

For our vacation we rented a cabin in the mountains.  The view was absolutely gorgeous!  We had a three story cabin with a deck on every level and even the bottom level looked down onto tree tops.  There was a hot tub, a foosball table, a pool table, and a fireplace.  My favorite part of vacation was sitting by the fire place playing our son’s new chess game which he got for Christmas or reading our books.  We also visited the Great Smoky Mountains National Park but there was crazy traffic in the park so we didn’t explore too much.

Our cabin:

The view from our middle deck:

Playing games:

Two year old attitude (we told her she couldn’t have any more candy):

Our baby is 3 months old already!

Out to dinner:

The kids loved being in the hot tub in the cold mountain nights:

The jetted tub:

Waking up our son with a snowball (he wasn’t happy about it):

Some sleet/snow/rain mix:

Our drive to the National Park:

We got home from vacation in time to celebrate New Year’s Eve at home!  I thought all of the kids were going to make it to midnight but both of the girls fell asleep with less than an hour to go.  Jason and I rang in the new year with our two boys.  Our “Cheers” was with yummy sparkling grape juice and we had noisemakers and midnight kisses too!

Many blessings to all of you for the new year!

We hope all of you enjoy your New Year’s Eve celebrations and all the best for a terrific 2012!

We’re on Vacation Until the New Year!

We are away on vacation until the new year and will have limited access to internet or email.  We’ll process any orders and respond to emails as soon as we return.  Thanks!

The instructions on this tree say it can grow to be 40-80 feet tall!  We are going to try to plant it and see what happens:

We had elves helping the kids with coloring pages, letters to Santa, and other Christmas crafts such as picture frames and ornaments:

Every year the hot chocolate station is a huge hit!  We have whipped cream, marshmallows, and chocolate chips as toppings:

I didn’t do my Christmas baking yet but the desserts from the store were still yummy:

Balloon twisting and face painting!

Instead of reindeer and Christmas trees, the boys asked for lightsabers and swords:

Santa arrives!  The kids looked so amazed and excited:

Darth Maul meets Luke Skywalker:

As my friend Wendy said, nothing says Christmas like Darth Maul!

A pretty elf with her elf hat:

Yummy (and messy!) food:

The Darth Mauls and their lightsabers:

Pictures with Santa are always a blast!  Some kids are really happy to be with Santa, some are really NOT happy, and some could care less   Here are some smiles to start off with:

Just hanging with Santa:

And then the classic Santa crying pictures!  In this one, I love how she is checking him out and not liking what she sees:

Bet you can’t guess where her mom is standing:

1 out of 2 isn’t too bad!

Matching Santa hats:

More pictures with Santa:

Santa and Rudolph:

Santa isn’t just for kids!

Santa reading “‘Twas the Night Before Christmas” to the kids:

When the story was done, this little girl walked up to Santa and asked him to read it to her again.  So sweet!

Thanks again to everyone who joined us, and Merry Christmas!

The mini holiday sessions were lots of fun.  We had puppies, babies, kids, and families at a nearby park and at our home studio.  The discs will be in the mail for all of the mini sessions this week!  Thank you again!