Hayden's Toy Drive

This is my nephew, Hayden. He is an amazing guy. Hayden was born with heart problems and underwent open heart surgery twice in his first week of life and since this time has endured several more surgeries. He has spent a lot of time at Phoenix Children's Hospital, but is now doing great! Last year, at the age of 4, Hayden decided that he wanted to start a toy drive to help the kids that will be spending Christmas at the hospital. He received toys during his first Christmas at the hospital and many times since then. He says that it makes him feel better to get a new toy when getting a scary procedure done and wants other kids to feel better as well.

I am proud of my nephew for thinking about other kids at such a young age so I am doing all I can to help support his cause. Brooklyn and Hayden went through their toys throughout the year and held 2 garage sales to benefit the toy drive and have passed out cards at school functions and around the neighborhood to get the word out. I figure if a 4 year old and a 5 year old are willing to give up their toys for other kids then we as adults need to help them collect as many toys as we possibly can this Christmas.

If you would like to donate new toys, gift cards or money to Hayden's Toy Drive please email me at jdavisphoto@gmail.com and I can either pick the toys up or give you an address of where to send the toys/money. Phoenix Children's Hospital will send you a donation receipt if you include your name, address, phone number and list of donations. Thank you in advance for your generous donations. I will post pictures of the kids delivering the toys to the hospital in the next few weeks. We will be delivering toys this weekend and next, but we will continue to collect money and toys throughout the year.

Polar Express

So this post is WAY late, but better late than never I guess. I have all of my holiday orders out finally and I have to get back to my neglected blog. Anyways, the weekend before Thanksgiving we went on The Polar Express in Williams, AZ. This was our second time doing this and we had a wonderful time. For those of you that have not done this--it is a MUST! You get on a train all dressed in your jammies and go to the "North Pole." After reading The Polar Express book you get hot chocolate and cookies and then you pass an area that is decorated like the North Pole. Santa then gets on the train and gives each child a bell. It is the greatest!

After the train ride we went to Mrs. Claus' workshop for some crafts. Brooklyn LOVED Mrs. Claus because "she's a girl." She was terrified of Santa.



Brooklyn even wrote her first letter to Santa. How cute is that?



Here she is putting her letter in the mailbox to Santa. You better believe I went and took it out when she wasn't looking. I had to have her first letter to Santa. The "elves" just laughed and said that a lot of moms do the same thing.



Here are just a few pictures from our weekend.