Disney Part 2

So many pictures...

Here is the whole crew (I stole this from my SIL's blog. Thanks Amei!) We had matching sweatshirts and looked awesome if I do say so myself. The real magic of Disneyland was that we were able to get a family picture with everyone in it. We did have to deal with some serious grumbling from some of the children and men folk but we made it happen.

Julia doesn't have a current princess dress that fits her so my mom brought my little sister's old Minnie dress and bought Julia some Minnie ears. I liked it even better than a princess dress. She was thrilled with it and even wore the ears the entire day. Even better Jody was able to find the very same dress nearly 20 years later for her girls so they all matched.

I of course had to dress Audrey up as her very favorite princess.

Here's all of the men of the trip...

and here's the girls.

And here's the people that made all of this possible. Not only by giving birth to all of us but for giving this most wonderful gift. Best. parents. ever.

Can you go to Disneyland and not get a churro? I think not. The smell wafts through the entire park. I defy anyone to resist.

I think my favorite ride of the entire trip was the Tower of Terror. So much fun. I am not always a fan of the really scary rides but this one was awesome. The true miracle is the fact that we got my mother on it. She even went on it three times! Jody had her so psyched out by the time she went on it I think that even the scariest ride would have seemed like a pony.

Do you think Carli and I look like sisters in this picture? We literally have the exact same expression.

The Bug's Life show. Gotta take pictures with the awesome glasses.

My sweet girls all dolled up and ready to go.

Some pictures of the dressed up day. Audrey and the little Max prince charming was one of the cutest things I've seen in my life. And all those little Minnies. Seriously. Many a picture were taken that day.

This following collage of picture documents the most magical day of Audrey's life. I was waiting in line for a ridiculously long time to go and see the princesses. It wasn't moving quick enough and we had reservations for lunch. Luckily the "Princess Coronation" began right as I was about to give up on the line. It was awesome! The girls learned a dance, saw the princess and got to dance with the princesses. Audrey was in heaven. Julia cowered in the corner because stuff like this makes her nervous. Either way it was a great moment.

We went to Goofy's Kitchen as well that day. We ate a ridiculous amount of food and several of the characters that would come to our table. It was definitely a big highlight of our trip.

They saw Goofy, Jasmine, Cinderella and some others. Who cares about anything after Jasmine and Cinderella? Jasmine sat and talked to Audrey who sat starstruck and mezmorized. I was so glad that some of the princesses were there.

The last night we went and saw the World of Color show (awesome!)

Now finally some videos. The first is Julia doing the Jedi training. She is fighting Darth Vader here and kicks some serious trash. Okay, let's be honest. Her cousins are obsessed with Star Wars and Julia was there and raising her hand so was also chosen to be a Jedi. Julia does not know what a Jedi is. Julia did not know how to open her light saber. Julia plays with princesses and ponies all day. But she was a good sport and caught on pretty quickly. She only had to have help with her light saber 4 or 5 times.

The next video is Audrey at the Princess Coronation practicing the dance with my mom. It really is too cute for words.

The Happiest Place on Earth Pt. 1

There's just no way I'm going to be able to squeeze this into one post. There are just too many pictures. So here is part one of our wonderful Disney vacation.
My parents decided for Christmas this year that instead of presents they would give us the ultimate present...a trip to Disneyland! What more could you possibly want? Our whole family was together at the happiest place on earth and to top it all off the weather was perfect and most of the time we were there the lines were short. Living so far away we just don't get to see these guys often enough. We had such a great time. I cannot even begin to express what a great time.

Audrey is posing with the Brother Bear crew. She was a little nervous at first but she began to warm up to all of the characters as time went on. It was the same with the rides. Some of them scared them at first but by the end they were going on nearly everything.

Julia, Audrey and Brookie posing with Pluto in Toon Town.

More pictures of our many adventures.

Julia and Audrey definitely became best friends with their cousins while on this trip. It was so fun being there with all of them. Their excitement was crazy big. The first day we went together to the park Julia and Brooke were literally screaming out loud with excitement.

Waiting in line for rides.

Seriously could these girls be any cuter? The teacups were a big hit. Especially with daddy spinning the cup really really fast. I could hardly walk when I got out.

Can you tell which one is which? I had a pretty difficult time. These girls were inseperable the entire time.

Julia decided to do this rope swing at the Brother Bear Treehouse. We took a little video...we thought it was pretty awesome.

Sometimes It's Like That

So I am on the tail end of an astronomically crappy month, or well maybe month and a half. Do you ever feel like life is a ticking time bomb? I know that's a really pessimistic way of looking at things but you know when things are going pretty good, nothing to complain about and then BOOM. The you know what hits the fan. Between a...

• broken computer (meaning no computer for over a week),



• a $2000 car repair (yes that is three zeros. And if you are thinking, "didn't you pay over $2000 dollars for that car just a year ago?" You would be correct. Indeed we did.)



• It took two weeks to get that car fixed. Bryan and I are really good at hitching rides these days.



• another car that is making some kind of awful noise.



• a broken garbage disposal (if you have been to my house you know that when we turned the old one on you may of mistaken it for an earthquake is was so loud. I think Audrey was convinced a monster really did live in there.),



• a broken toilet that left a rather large puddle



• a broken doorknob



• I think you get the idea.

So what have I learned from all of this? That even through all the bad things there are always good things. We have had to ask for a lot of help this month. That is not something I am comfortable with or enjoy at all. I like to think I can do it all on my own. But you know what? I can't. We have been blessed with such wonderful people that have helped in so many ways this month I can't even begin to express my gratitude. So I guess in feeling really unlucky, I feel REALLY lucky. I have the best friends and family anyone could ever ask for. And if you have to have bad things happen to fully see that, I guess I'll very grudgingly take the bad. Dang it. I'm not sharing all of this so you will feel sorry for me. In fact I really hate it when people feel sorry for me. I guess I just wanted to record on my blog so that I can look back in a few months and laugh. I'm not quite ready to laugh yet. But I will. Big belly laughs.

Until then I think I have some catching up to do on pictures (if you recall from above the computer was broken for awhile.)

Does this smile just not melt your heart. This little girl makes me very happy. Every once in a while she'll come up to me and say, "You the best mama in the whole world." She's a sweetie this one.

I ventured over to the second hand store to find some snow gear and could only find 4t snowpants for my size 6. I grabbed them anyways because she refused to wear anything but pink. When we got home they fit perfectly! Total score. So see? Some good things have happened this month. Audrey's new snowpants matched her coat perfectly too. Double score.
Julia loves being outside. So I send her on the deck and sit in my warm house. She'll stay out there for over an hour.
Oh I just love this girl.

Audrey is not quite as hard core. But she loves it still the same.

We even went sledding one day.

This is the picture I took right before my computer broke actually. I really wanted a picture of my girls with their Barbies. They play with these things constantly. Julia wasn't being as cooperative as I would have liked. That aside, this box of Barbies has offered hours of entertainment. I LOVE to listen to them play. Julia's favorite Barbie is named Barbie of course and Audrey's name is Ileena Chandelier (where did they come up with this? I have NO idea.)

Well the cursed January is over. I have LOTS of great things to look forward to in the upcoming months which make me very happy. So here's to February, then warmer weather. I'm feeling better already. Maybe I can laugh sooner than I think.

And it wouldn't be right signing off without some live actions shots of our sledding adventures. I have to thank the Nye's for leaving their sled for us. I'm not sure if they remember doing that, but you did. And you live in Vegas now so finders keepers.