holidays are here!

Halloween kicked off our holiday season and we have jumped in feet first!

We spent a morning during Thanksgiving break with my sister's family riding the miniature train in Fort Worth. We are loving being less than 30 minutes from Fort Worth AND Dallas; our entertainment options have doubled!

Beau is going on about a year of extreme interest in trains and he was so excited for this 'choo-choo'!

Davis and I were just along for the ride:

We had a nice Thanksgiving with my family and grandparents at my sister's house and I took zero pictures. It was great though! 

As soon as we got home from Thanksgiving dinner, I had Mark start bringing the Christmas decorations down from the attic. Bye, Thanksgiving! Hi, Christmas!

We put our first artificial tree in the playroom and decorated it with all of our sentimental and non-breakable ornaments. 

Beau woke up the morning after Thanksgiving and was so excited to see Christmas decor! I talked Mark into letting me get a bigger tree for our 10' ceilings in the living room so I'm hoping to post some photos of that soon. House tour? We'll see...

With holidays come matching outfits! I've been building their wardrobes for this since I got pregnant with Davis! Here's Beau's thoughts on matching:

Like it or not, it's happening!

Davis likes to keep me company while I fold laundry so here he is giving you a sneak peek at our big tree!

Our church hosted a Polar Express themed 'Breakfast with Santa' and Beau was ALL about it. When we walked into the building he stopped in his tracks when he saw that it had been transformed into a snowy wonderland!

He ran over to the toys and the faux bedroom setup first. 

Santa and Mrs. Claus made their appearance shortly after we got there and Beau was shaking in anticipation in Mark's arms! He ran right up to Santa's sleigh and anxiously waited his turn to sit in his lap before he turned shy.

Lots of our small group friends were there!

We moved on to the snowball fight and after a moment of hesitation, Beau jumped right in!

He was blissfully unaware of the 'train' outside because once we rode it, it was hard to leave it!

We ended out the morning with some lincoln log fun!

Up next (on a different day) was pictures with THE Santa! For some reason,  Beau had his first Santa pictures at NorthPark Mall. After that, I felt like he needed to have the same Santa year after year for consistency...right? This is our third year with this Santa and while everyone thinks I'm crazy for waiting in the line for this particular Santa, we caught Beau staring at last year's framed photo earlier tonight. I can only imagine what was going through his head!

Anyway, first up was Davis. I tried to get them both up there but Beau was suddenly shy so we just plopped Davis right up there. Santa had some awkward moments trying to get Davis to face the camera, but overall it was fine.

Before Beau could break down and start crying, I hoisted him up on Santa's lap with instructions to tell him what he wanted for Christmas (cars). They exchanged glances and then posed for some solemn photos...haha

Here's what I ended up purchasing (yes, I'm a sucker):

I never thought they would sucker me into TWO photos but this one just melted my heart!

After Santa, we headed over to the Trains at NorthPark, an exhibit benefiting the Ronald McDonald House that is put on every year at the mall. I had told Beau that we were going to see trains but he had no idea in what context. He was most excited about this part of the day and went BERSERK when we walked in. 

Those tippy toes!!!

We were with our friends Amy, Emma, and Luke and while Emma was interested initially, she ended up chasing Beau around at the end and bossing him around.

Action shot. ;)

There are TONS of trains. Too many to count. The empty store space is full of incredibly detailed landscapes and landmarks and it's really just too much to take in at once. I know that Beau was totally overstimulated!

Davis was just there for the socializing!

It was totally magical and I loved watching him be so awestruck. 

It was so good, I'm thinking we might go back if our busy December schedule allows!

That's it so far for holiday happenings. We have lots more on the calendar so I'll be sure to update you all after we've checked those things off our list! Merry Christmas!