Christmas train and Santa.

We were finally able to make it to Des Moines! We missed coming last week due to sickness, and then of course there were winter weather scares, but we made it and I'm so glad! Friday was my mom's birthday and Tuesday is mine, so we got to celebrate both of our birthdays, and Christmas too obviously! We will not see my family over actual Christmas, so I'm very thankful we got this time.

We had briefly talked about riding the Christmas train at the mall with Norah over Thanksgiving, and it stuck with her! She brought it up several times over the next weeks, so we headed to the mall when we got there, and she could barely wait through dinner to get on that thing! It was cute. (I'm still a tiny bit upset that I remembered to bring my camera to Des Moines, but then forgot to take it to the mall, so I had to settle for phone pictures.)

Norah thought this reindeer on the bench was funny. (She's also not super great at smiling for pictures, so you get a lot of blank stares.) Here's Norah with Grandma, Aunt Kayla, and family friend Whitney.

Family Christmas shot! (The best one we could get. I'm also 25.5 weeks in these photos!)



Norah has the best grandparents! We are very thankful for two sets of grandparents that love her so much!



On the train!



Riding with Aunt Kayla! Norah thought she was really driving it. :)



Visiting Santa! That morning she happened to see Santa at the doctor (for my OB appointment) and he gave her a candy cane, which was a good warm up. She would walk up to the general area, but did not want to touch him, so we got a family shot! She's arching her back to get away from him, but I'll call it a win because it went so much better than the Easter bunny. Then, she went upstairs afterwards and was waving, "Hi, Santa!" to him through the glass, so I think she secretly liked him.



Trying to get her to give him a high five. It was a no go. (And I know I'm carrying twins, but woah, check out my stomach!)



Grandma trying to get Norah to look, but she was watching the train!



It was very fun! Being with family, celebrating Christmas, and letting your kids do special things is so great!