EVERGREEN Aviation & Space Museum

This is really late, but I still wanted to blog about it. During Christmas break, my family went to this really cool museum that's about 40 min. away. To be honest with you, I wasn't super excited to go, b/c my dad likes to take FOREVER in museums. I was worried about my little ones getting tired and fussy. Well, it ended up being sooooo fun! Even Porter and Hudson had a great time, and with no naps! We ended up staying all day.

Ready for take-off!

Porter informed me that this was his favorite airplane. I think the color had something to do with it!

Hudson and Grandpa spending some time together.

Grandma showing Porter how things work.

Uncle Ben found his place in life!

The coolest thing about this museum is that it is home to The Spruce Goose, which is the world's largest wooden airplane! And from the pictures, you can see how massive it is!

That's Uncle Brandon poking his head out of the top.

Porter and Hudson doing their own flying.

One of the buildings included in the museum was a space museum. Porter was fascinated by the rockets. He didn't want to stand by the bottom of this rocket at first, b/c he was worried that fire was going to come out of it while he was standing there!

We had such a fun time, but were all pretty exhausted by the end! Thanks Grandma and Grandpa for such a fun time!

Santa's BIG Surprise!

We took Porter outside to our patio to try out his new bike, and this is what caught his eye!
"A Playground!" as he calls it.

"Santa" did such a good job building it, but he was very tired from all of the late nights leading up to Christmas!

Opening Presents

Porter was a present-opening machine! He opened all of his presents and everyone else's also! He was so sad when there were no more presents to open. Hudson was just happy with whatever.

Christmas Morning

I was so so so excited for Christmas this year! I think I was more excited than my kids! Even though Porter had gone to bed sooooo late (11 pm) I couldn't wait for them to wake up on their own in the morning. I told Brandon that if they weren't awake by 7:30 am, I was going to wake them up! And that's just what I did! That's why they look so tired in the pictures!

Porter when he saw what Santa had brought...

... a BIKE that he had been asking for for like 6 months!

Hudson got a kitchen...

... with a phone!

Porter found some good stuff in his stocking, also.

Hudson thought he should get a turn on the bike. BTW- he was climbing on it all by himself! I'm in trouble!

Merry Christmas!

We want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas! Hope you have a wonderful time with family and friends.

Last weekend we had our Polar Express Christmas Party at the church. It was a lot of fun to go dressed in our jammies. Santa came & Porter was soooooo excited to sit on Santa's lap. By the time he got up to the stage, there was already a long line of kids, but Porter shimmied his way up to the front! I didn't even have a chance to get a picture. When he was done, he was just beaming!
*Side note: The ONLY thing that Porter has wanted from Santa this year is a bike. He tells me almost daily that he is going to ask Santa for a bike.*
Well, when he got back to us, beaming, we asked him if he asked Santa for a bike. His expression went immediately from bliss to so sad and he said "Oh no! I forgot!" He was devastated that he forgot to ask Santa for a bike! There was still such a long line to see Santa, so Brandon and I promised Porter that we would take him to see Santa again another day. We went today so that Grandma and Grandpa Perry could come, also. Today is Christmas Eve and there were a lot of children that needed to see Santa still, so we ended up waiting in line for 2 HOURS! But Porter thought it was well worth it, so I guess I did, too. And this time Porter remembered to ask Santa for a bike!

Christmas Eve

As I was going through all my pictures, I realized I didn't take any on Christmas Eve. I was using our video camera and didn't have Brandon take any pictures, so when I figure it out, I will post the video on here.

For Christmas Eve, we had Porter help tell the Nativity Story with his Little People Nativity Set. It was so cute for him to find baby Jesus and put him in the manger and point out the Angel, etc... Porter helped set out some cookies for Santa, some Reindeer milk (egg nog) and some carrots for Santa's Reindeer. Porter put a sugar cookie on Santa's plate, then picked it up and took a bite out of it, then put it back down, then picked it back up and took another bite. Then he decided it wouldn't be good to leave Santa a half-eaten cookie, so he ate the rest of it! Luckily we had plenty of goodies to leave for Santa!!

After my little guys were in bed, sound asleep (or so we thought), we played a spirited game of Christmas Jeopardy! (Thanks, Emily!) It got pretty competitive, and I think some of my brothers cheated, but everyone had a blast! During the game, I kept on checking on Porter and Hudson, and I would notice that the light was on. Porter kept quiet, but I knew he wasn't asleep b/c he would turn his closet light on. He was sooooooo excited for Santa to come that he just couldn't go to sleep. He finally fell asleep at 11pm!

All Aboard The Polar Express!

Our ward had a Polar Express Christmas Party. Porter had been talking about it for a long time and was so excited to see Santa! We all got in our Christmas jammies and headed to the Polar Express (Church). It was a lot of fun!

I decorated two of the cake trains that they used for centerpieces. It was a lot of fun to do, but took a long time. I thought they turned out really cute, though!

Gingerbread Houses

I wanted to make little Gingerbread Houses with my boys before Christmas. They both had so much fun & were hyper from all the sugar they ate! They loved making their own Gingerbread House. This is a tradition I want to do every year.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Christmas cookies, the Nativity, and Gingerbread houses... it must be almost Christmas!

We had the funnest Family Home Evening over at the Grimmett's. Porter, Maisey, and Peyton helped tell the Nativity Story with the Little People Nativity set.

Then we got our creative juices flowing to decorate Gingerbread house. Here are the expert Maughan's. I'm convinced that John secretly took a gingerbread house decorating class!

The Grimmett's on the other hand... just blame it on the Gingerbread House Kit you bought, right? wink, wink!

Porter was in charge of decorating our house. He had a lot of fun, but he ate more than he put on the house!

Hudson, on the other hand, was not having such a fun time. He couldn't believe that someone would actually leave him in this baby toy! He was mad that he couldn't get to the Gingerbread houses!

The finished products! Two Gingerbread Houses and one tent:)

I love this picture, because look at Maisey's face in the background! She couldn't believe that Porter would actually lick his house! Well, since we brought it home, I keep on catching Porter trying to pick off the candy from the rock-hard frosting. I guess Porter's not picky when it comes to sugar!

Thanks, Grimmett's, for such a fun, fun night!