The Trolley

We had to take our annual trolley ride with sweet Phil this year,
and as always, we loved every minute of it!
It has truly become one of our favorite Christmas traditions!  

Best friends!  Carsyn, Belle, and Kennedy

Daddy's girl! 

All the little kids love Camryn!  

Melissa, Camryn and Zac

The ice sculptures were just as impressive as always! 

(I can't even imagine trying to do this out of ice!  

I'm pretty sure I'd say several naughty words!)

Santa's reindeer were not nearly as happy to see us as we were to see them!

Belle, Carsyn, Kennedy, Camryn and Tyleigh

Zoo Lights and Cousins!

We spent a fun night with our cute cousins at Auntee T's house!  

We exchanged gifts, ate too much yummy food, and went to the Hogle Zoo to see the lights! 

These girls love being together!  We always miss Kaylee and Claire though!

Camryn, Tyleigh, Addie, Gracie and Carsyn

The Zoo Lights were really amazing!  

It was fun to see all the animals in lights! 

Unfortunately, it was too cold to see a lot of the real animals, but we loved it anyway!

Christmas Magic and the Happiest Place on Earth!

Disneyland in December is really something magical.  

EVERYTHING is decorated so cute for Christmas!  

We spent three crazy/wonderful days together with the cutest girls in the world

doing nothing but fighting crowds riding EVERY ride in both parks!  We had one really windy day, one really rough day (seriously, it was bring your dog, your cousin, your great-aunt, your stroller, and your wheelchair day), and one day of perfect everything, which was the perfect way to end a great trip! 

With only 245 pictures to choose from, I tried really hard to cover the basics . . .

We met lots of fun characters all over Disneyland, but didn't stand in line for too many.  The girls literally set a goal to go on every single ride in both parks, and that's exactly what we spent our time doing!
Rides are not always the best place for photo ops, but watching the girls experience each of them was priceless!  From Splash Mountain, Space Mountain, California Screamin', and Tower of Terror, they did it all! We even caught up with Santa, Mrs. Claus and the Reindeer on one of our days there!

It was such a fun way to kick off the holiday season at our house, 

and an even better way to spend some time with these growing munchkins! 

The castle was all lit up at night  . . . and they even made it snow in Disneyland!

Hope your holiday season and home is full of magic and love!  

Vegas!

We decided kind of last minute to take the girls to Disneyland for Christmas this year.
I have always wanted to see it at Christmas, and so have the girls . . . and since no one seems to be getting any younger at our house, we decided it was a great time to go!

We spent our first night in Las Vegas. We walked A LOT, and saw some amazing things . . . in all sorts of contexts! It was the same weekend as the Las Vegas Rock and Roll Marathon, and the Rodeo Championships. Holy Moly! It was packed! We tried to stay on the cleaner side of things by visiting the beautiful fountains, MGM, and of course M & M world. Vegas really is something to see, but Rod summed it up best when he said "everything you think and imagine Vegas to be is exactly what it is!"

We did stay in a great hotel off the strip with the most amazing pools and views, but it just happened to be one of the colder weekends there with temperatures hitting a high of 53, so no swimming for us!

It was definitely just the start to our adventures!

The Angel Madsen

Our Ward Christmas party theme was "Come to Bethlehem."

Rod was asked to be the angel in the Nativity story. 

My mom and dad came up with a great costume for him, 

and he played the part flawlessly!

He makes a pretty cute angel if you ask me! 

The girls were asked to sing one of the songs during the play.
They did a great job, especially since they were the only ones we could actually hear singing!