Christmas Tree time

Oh boy, I am SOOO behind on blogging! I really want to get Thanksgiving and Abi's b-day blogged about but I need to get out our big camera to upload the pics and it just hasn't happened yet. One day...

We had so much fun last year cutting down our own Christmas tree that we decided to make it a yearly tradition. This year (after a failed attempt at going to Schmidt's Tree Farm in the bitter, bitter cold) we tried out Shamrock Tree Farms. This was a fun place to go. Instead of the customary wagon/hay ride this tree farm acquired an old train and made the tracks run from the parking lot up to the tree fields. The kids LOVED it! We boarded the train and headed on up to the top. Once there we decided to hit up the blue spruces, yes, we did this with some ulterior motives...blue spruces are POKEY!!! We thought this might deter Jason from playing with the tree too much-you know what, it's working! :) I know, we're mean parents!

This pic was supposed to be last but for some reason it won't move, so here (at the beginning) is the end result!

All ABOARD! Just starting out on the train. The kids thought this was the best part of the day.

You can just see how much fun this pretty little thing is having-look at that face!

At the top they had these long wagons you can pull around with you to help you carry your tree back to the train. Well, as soon as we got off the train the girls were already saying their legs were tired so we decided to load them up on the wagon. (I only put Jason on for the pic, he wouldn't hold still and I was worried he'd fall right off) The girls were feeling super goofy so I could only get pics of them with these faces :)

Here it is!

At this tree farm the trees are the same price no matter what size they are so we decided to look for a tree-big or tall-that we liked and then we'd make it work. Here's the one we decided on. I think we ended up cutting a few feet off the bottom.

Good thing daddy had some strong helpers to pull this massive tree back to the train! Abi thought it would be more helpful if she pulled on Steve while he and Emma pulled the wagon. It must have worked, we made it back!

Then we took it home (Steve had some cuts on his hands from this super prickley tree), Steve cut it down to size and put it in the stand, I put the lights on (ended up with some scraped wrists from the pokey needles) and then the girls and I decorated it. Now it really feels like Christmas around here!

(Imagine the picture of the finished product here!)