Going to see Mickey Mouse!

Its the happiest place on earth....with Christmas lights!!! Lets be honest, I was just as excited as the kids were to go to Disneyland. Once Neal and I began the idea of going to Disneyland, I instantly chose a date when I would be able to see Sleeping Beauty's castle covered with lights! Unfortunately for us, we chose the one week that California barely touched 60 degrees and we even had a day of rain, but it didn't damper our fun.

Luigi's flying tires in California Adventure

I L.O.V.E. this picture! You can see how much fun Ella and Aubrey are having dancing in the street in Radiator Springs. As a parent, watching them dancing and now almost 2 months later looking at the pictures, these memories are priceless!

Ainsley did her dancing in the street from the comfort of her stroller while standing on dirty baby ;-)

 

We learned a few lessons from our 1st trip to Disneyland. The biggest lesson learned was that you will wait LONGER to see characters than most rides. Who knew??? This time, we added a character meal to our itinerary and it was worth every penny! Having a princess come to your table and asking "What is your name princess? Would you like to take a picture with me?" is probably the coolest thing you can fathom when you are 4 and 7 =) We scheduled our lunch with Ariel for the very 1st day we were at Disney so that the girls would get their character fill right off and save ourselves lots of time in line ;-)

Welcomed by Ariel herself!

Belle and Snow White

Cinderella

Sleeping Beauty. Notice this is the only princess that we could get Ainsley to focus for ;-)

Our second lesson was to buy the photo pass. This saved us time and headache as we wrangled 3 children while capturing as many memories as possible. Last time we tried handing over our camera, but if the setting wasn't quite right, the photo pass people didn't have the time nor were they probably allowed to adjust our camera settings. Seeing all the pictures we got, plus the fun borders we were able to add made the photo pass a fun souvenir.

Ainsley was so fun to watch with the characters. She ran up to Pooh, who was hiding behind the Christmas tree waiting for us. Well then she decided she should hide behind the tree too ;-)

Beautiful castle!! There is always more to learn. We stayed the first evening in Disneyland (Thursday) to watch the fireworks because they started at 7:30 instead of 9:30. We did not realize, however, that the castle is only lit up after the fireworks and we didn't stay at 7:30 our a picture =( I became that mom!I really wanted a picture in front of the castle all lit up. Saturday night, our last night in the park we napped so that the kids would be more likely to make it til 9:30 for the fireworks. It was beautiful, yay for fireworks! Then we turned into salmon swimming upstream while holding a sleeping baby, corralling 2 other children while daddy pushes a stroller head-on into the masses. Finally we make it to the roped off area in front of the castle where the photo pass people are setting up. Trying not to seem impatient or pushy, I ask them how exactly this process works for the pictures. Well, we have to wait until all of the fireworks are cleaned up from the castle....only about 30 more minutes :-0 In the end, the nice photo pass man must have felt some love for us because he told the masses gathered around the rope that the line for photos would begin behind ME!!! Thank you kind photo man for helping my photo dream come true =)

California Screamin' was Ella's favorite ride! This was the one ride Aubrey wasn't quite big enough for. And a nice setup for a holiday photo!

Radiator Springs ride and a few more family photos.

Nice photo pass man even allowed us to do a couple of different shots in front of the castle! Ella and Aubrey were such good sports; you would never know that moments before they were begging to please just go back to the hotel!!

Its Mickey Mouse!

Ella and Ainsley loving Pooh.

Ainsley was SO EXCITED to see Mickey Mouse and have him sign her book.

Splash mountain- 6 times for Aubrey!! I love that we were the only ones in our boat, no random guys large head in these pictures!!

Welcome to Pixie Hollow! Tinkerbell is always a favorite.

Can you believe how fancy the Minnie ears are now? I just love Aubrey's choice. It definitely fits her =)

Ella chose the fanciest of ears, only the finest for the princess herself! Hers had a crown and a veil!

This face sums up the fun we had!

Its a small world

We were able to meet up with Grandma and Grandpa Dodge for lunch!

This made me laugh as I was editing pictures. We had the top picture in a frame in our family room. As I was editing pictures from this trip, I noticed Neal is wearing the exact same shirt almost 4 years apart on the same ride ;-) LOL!! And wow, Ella looks the same but so completely different- such a beautiful young lady she is.

 Okay, I could post even more pictures but I'll refrain. After getting home, it occurred to me that probably the best part of this trip is that as parents we spent 4 days completely focused on the girls and making these wonderful memories. A coworker said it perfectly the other day, "we need more memories and less stuff!" This trip was full of memories!!!

Christmastime, tradition time

Christmastime is a wonderfully busy time. Add school, work, a trip to Disneyland (that will get its own post) as well as all the favorite Christmas traditions and we have a very FULL month! Poor Aubrey also ended up getting a really bad UTI the week before Christmas so she missed her preschool Christmas program =( Fortunately she was back to her happy, bouncy self by Christmas week so she was able to enjoy the holidays.

On our way home from Riddle after Thanksgiving, Amah and G-daddy met us to go Christmas tree hunting. The weather couldn't have been nicer!!

Ainsley and G-Daddy with her "tree"

Ainsley giving the tree a hug!

Aubrey helping Amah and G-Daddy carry their tree to the car.

Ella's perfect tree for her bedroom. Maybe next year Ella.....

We set the tree up while the girls napped. Ainsley could not get over the idea....she kept repeating "Tree...House." It was as if she was saying, "There is a tree in my house?!?!?!" The amazement of trees in the house continued for the entire season, wherever we were, if there was a tree in the house she would repeat, "Tree....House." =)

Aubrey took her tree decorating job seriously

Ella pointed out to Ainsley all of the Dora and Boots ornaments on the tree (sorry for the blurry picture! Our camera is dying a slow death...)

While we were in Disneyland, it was SUPER cold at home. I think there was a day or 2 with a dusting of snow. While we weren't sad to miss the 5 degree mornings, we were a little bummed to miss out on the snow. Fortunately there was a morning after we got home that gave us a dusting of snow...just enough to play in for about 10 minutes ;-)

Ainsley wasn't sure about something...

Aubrey having a blast in the snow!

Snow baby

She was trying to get the snow off her gloves ;-)

Who doesn't jump on the trampoline when its covered in snow?

Gingerbread house decorating and visiting Santa were condensed into one holiday tradition filled Saturday. Thankfully Grandma Marian had prepared all of the gingerbread house pieces prior to coming up so that meant we just got to spend the morning decorating =)

Ainsley had a hard time understanding that the candy was supposed to just sit on the house. "Ainsley eat it!" she kept telling us =)

She was so proud of her gingerbread (or graham cracker if you want to be technical) house. All month long she would point to it and say "Ainsley's house!"

Aubrey creating her gingerbread masterpiece.

Ella meticulously decorating her house. Can you tell who our type A personality child is? The perfectly straight patterned rows of candy may be a hint ;-)

Beautiful girls with their finished gingerbread houses!

We finish out our month of Christmas traditions with a visit to Santa!

Hehehe

Too many times anymore, the girls say/do funny things and I try to make a mental note to record those moments in the ol' blog....and then I forget! But, alas, I have a moment to share =)

Girls are in living room, dancing and singing along to Pandora (internet radio station) on the TV.

Aubrey: "Ella, what does that say?"
Ella: "I don't know. I can't read it."
Aubrey: "Ella, you can read anything."
Ella: "I know, but that's in Hawaiian."
Aubrey: "Oohhh. And you can only read Oregon."
Ella: "No, I can read english!"

Still makes me chuckle! Aubrey always has her own little take on life and the way she rationalizes/explains things brings a smile to my face because it is so representative of her personality!!

Insta-life December

Holiday seasons always are fun, always are busy, and always leave me trying frantically to catch up the ol' blog! Slow and steady I will get there. Here is a little sneak peek at our Decemeber....

We are going to DISNEYLAND!!!!

Taking a ride on Pooh bear....or 6!!!

The kid in me was so excited to see the happiest place on earth transformed with Christmas lights! B.E.A.U.T.I.F.U.L!!!

Ella and Ainsley driving us around Autopia =)

Exhausted from a fun-filled vacation, this little one wandered down for a late night snuggle! How quickly these moments pass...

For Ella, the perfect mommy-Ella date must include a lemon loaf cake!!

The hired help for the day ;-)

Aubrey dressed Ainsley in some of her "too small clothes." One would think they fit well, except that Ainsley has fleece jammies underneath and those are supposed to be shorts ;-)

Zoo lights with Grandma Marian. We met a polar bear, Ella showed off her hula-hooping skills and we tried to get a picture of the girls in the lighted tunnel!

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!!!

Rite of passage.... Easy bake oven and the first cookies!!

New York New Years Eve. Happy New Year!!!!