Preschool Christmas Party

The last of of Preschool before the Christmas break, was a cute little Christmas performance for the parents.  Luke made his adorable reindeer shirt.  It's his footprint and hand prints.  They sang songs and the whole party finished with a visit from Santa.

Luke LOVES his teachers, Miss Patricia and Miss Naomie.

Ice Skating

As part of our daily Christmas activities, we decided to go to the Live Nativity performance in Henderson.  It was the first week of December.  So we tagged along with the Stuarts, who were also celebrating Carlee's 6th Birthday.  The nativity itself was pretty cool, but the logistics of it, and the venue where it was held, was a nightmare.  We were sitting on a set of high school sized bleacher, with about a million other people.  It was the first time I felt claustrophobic while being OUTSIDE.  I was seriously worried about the bleachers collapsing underneath me.  It's hard to get into the holiday spirit when you're worried about such wild things.

Anyway, after we left we decided to go ice skating.  It was the first time I'd been ice skating in I don't know how many years.  Probably before I was married.  I've taken the kids several times, but it always seems like I had a baby at the time, and found myself sitting on the sidelines.  So this was my first time on skates in a long while.  It took a little bit to get comfortable, but after a while we all really had a great time.  Luke used a little skating walker for the first half, then he was skating on his own.  I was so proud of him.  Ella just held hands with anyone that would take her out there.  She LOVED it.  And Joe took her a few times at super high speed.  That was her favorite.  Here's a little video clip of Carlee and Luke without the walkers.

And here are some photos of our fun night.

Ward Christmas Party

Our Ward Christmas party was on Saturday December 8th at 10am.  It was a breakfast with a musical performance by the primary and a visit from Santa.  The kids loved it.

I'm pretty sure Cole and Luke are up there somewhere.  I think they were hiding in the back, doing their best to avoid singing.  

Decorating the Christmas Tree

For the past few years we've had two Christmas trees at our house.  The artificial one we purchased about 10 years ago (that's been through three different moves and is still kicking), and stands in the front room.  And a REAL tree that holds all our family ornaments and stays in the family room.  We set the artificial one up a couple days after Thanksgiving.  It holds all the matching red and silver ornaments, so the kids could care less when that one makes an appearance.  All they care about if the family tree, because they get to decorate it with the ornaments they've collected over the years.

I asked them if we could just do the artificial one this year and skip the real tree mess, but they fought me.  And in the end I found myself at Costco buying a real tree.   I'm sure it was quite a sight watching me put that tree up.  I told the kids we couldn't decorate it until December 1st, because it was our first activity to kick off the holiday season.  So early in the morning on Dec 1st, the kids begged me to get the ornaments down.  And as you can see from the pictures, they did all the work, while still in their pajamas.

All set for Christmas!

My Beautiful Kids

Here are the latest pictures I took of my beautiful children.

Mia 10 years old

Cole 8 years old

Luke 5 years old

Ella  2 1/2 years old

Thanksgiving 2012

So Thanksgiving this year was really nice.   It was just me and the kids, plus Drew's parents, and my nephew Brecon.  I made the dinner and it turned out really nice.  I tried a new recipe for Ginger Maple Sweet Potato mash and it was divine!  Unfortunately, because I was busy cooking and setting up, I didn't get any pictures of the actual dinner.  And Melvin and Dixie could only stay for about three hours, so we took this picture just before they left.  Brecon was waiting in the car and didn't want to be in the picture.  Oh well.  

After they left we went to see "Rise of the Guardians" with the Stuart family, then hung out at their house for dessert.  It was Jake's birthday so we enjoyed birthday cake along with the traditional pie.  But I must say, there's just something amazing about Joe's pies.  Good thing I don't know how to make them, or am married to someone that could make them, because I would have a serious over eating problem if I did.  They are amazing.  

It was a big bummer that Drew missed Thanksgiving, but we know that we are so fortunate and have so much to be grateful for, so there's no reason to complain.  Life is grand!

Little Miss Secretary

For the entire month of October, Mia was running for Student Council.  She made a poster, gave a speech in front of a camera (to be shown to all the students), and passed out stickers to get votes.  All her hard work paid off.  You're looking at the new Student Council Secretary for the Elementary School.  We found out about it while we were at Disneyland.  We are so proud of Mia.

Shortly after the election, Mia and her fellow Student Council officers were sworn in.

The best part is that Mia gets to work with her friend Katelyn, who was elected as President.  It doesn't get much better than that!

DISNEYLAND!

We took the kids to Disneyland on November 6th, 7th, and 8th.  They hadn't been there in two years so the anticipation was overwhelming.  Especially for me.  I'll be the first to admit that I'm a sucker for the Happiest Place on Earth.

Along for the adventure was my sister Jill and her family, plus the Stuarts, Hathaways, and Eckersleys.

Before the big trip we decided to give the kids some awesome Disney shirts to wear their first day.  We couldn't find any that we loved and would fit all the different ages, so we decided to make our own.  I bought 4 clearance shirts from Justice and three gray shirts from Walmart and sewed Mickey ears on them.  They turned out so cute.  Then Jill made the cutest souvenir bags.  She glued on Mickey ears and wrote their name in Disney font with fabric paint.  She filled each bag with a Disney coloring book, Disney crayons, and a Mickey ears ring pop.  So cute!

We arrived on Monday night the 5th.  It was horrible traffic and took us a lot longer to get there than we'd hoped.  But we were able to get settled and packed the stroller for the following day.  The the morning of the 6th, we had breakfast then walked to the park.  It took us about 12 minutes to walk from the Marriott Residence Inn hotel to the park gate.  Not too bad.

We spent the first day at Disneyland and it was a blast.  I was disappointed that Indiana Jones ride was closed, and Fantasy Land was closed for most of the day while they filmed a Tom Hanks movie.  But we had a great time anyway.

My sister Jill and her cute family.

Our good friends the Hathaway's.

All the cousins in their matching Mickey shirts.

When the gates opened, we headed to Adventure Land first, because everyone was running to Tomorrow Land.  Our first ride was the jungle cruise.

Then we hit every ride we possibly could.

The girls on Thunder Mountain Railroad

ToonTown

 Getting Goofy's Autograph in ToonTown

Thunder Mountain Railroad.  The boys love this one.

They were excited to see Wreck-It-Ralph and even play the Fix it Felix video game.

Mia's favorite ride this trip was Splash Mountain.

Nemo ride.  Definitely for the little kiddos.  They loved it.

Mia met up with her great friends Katelyn and Audrey.  

 Ella was so excited to meet Mickey.  She loves Mickey Mouse.  You can see in the picture that she's holding his hand.

At closing we went shopping in the Downtown Disney district at the Lego store.  Ella loved the building area outside the store.  Then we walked back to the Garden Walk shopping center and had dinner at Johnny Rocket's on the top level.  It was chilly, but we had a great time.

DAY 2:
We spent our second day at California Adventure.

I was actually able to get Mia on the Tower of Terror, which she swore she wouldn't do.  She was scared to death, and practically scratched my arm off trying to leave, but she did it.  Let's just say that her Mom is great at giving her guilt trips.

On the Toy Story Mania ride

California Screamin'

I couldn't believe the kids did this ride about 4 times.  They were soaked.  And it wasn't warm out.

The highlight of California Adventure was the new Cars ride.  Obviously I loved it.

When the park closed, Drew and Brock went back to the hotel with the babies and Jill and I took the older kids to the World of Color show.  We were completely exhausted by the time we got back to the hotel.


DAY 3-
Our last day we started off at California Adventure, then ended the night back in Disneyland.

I swear I do Ella's hair everyday, and this is what it ends up looking like after an hour.   I spent most of the morning hanging out with these two girls.  The older kids rode the bigger rides and I took the little ones to the Disney Junior show on stage, and the Little Mermaid ride a few times.

Jill took this picture.  I'm not sure why Luke looks so sad.

So we finished the night in Fantasy Land and it started raining.  But nothing could rain on my Disney spirits.  I was still having a great time.  And Brock was SUPER excited that "It's A Small World" opened with it's Christmas dolls display.  So of course we had to do that one.

I stopped in the Penny Arcade on Main Street to get one of their Peanut Butter Sandwiches.  If you haven't had one, you're truly missing out.  It's a thick graham cracker, topped with a thick layer of peanut butter cup filling, and smothered in chocolate.  LOVE LOVE LOVE!  And believe it or not, we left the park before it even closed.  The kids wanted to get their souvenirs so we didn't want to go when the rush was there.  It's always so hard for me to leave Disneyland on the last day.  I'm glad we don't live right by it.  As it is, Disneyland is a super special event.

Notes from the trip:
*Mia and Cole loved the "Animation Academy" the most.  It's in California Adventure.  They teach you how to draw the disney characters.
*The best food is at the Pacific Pier in California Adventure.  Soup in a bread bowl is my favorite.
*Disneyland will be a lot easier without a stroller.  Maybe next time.
*We love the Petersons.

And we were lucky enough to spend a few extra days with the Petersons.  We saw Wreck It Ralph at the theater, and played dress up a lot.