The Place Where Dreams Come True

The kids voted to have a smaller Christmas so we could go to Disneyland as a family.  I even convinced Grandma and Grandpa to come with us.  We had so much fun!  We went on everything we wanted to, and found awesome souveniers (I'm all about the souveniers!).  At the Star Tours gift shop you can build your own Lightsaber.  Emma made herself a purple one (shock!), Zach made a double ended red one and Tyson made a blue one.  Tess of course picked a princess toy set and a fun princess mickey ear hat.

Tyson isn't a big roller coaster person, but he loved the rockets.

There is a fun Jedi training show where they pull kids from the crowd to learn the art of the Jedi's.  Tyson tried twice and Emma and Zach once, with no luck.  They like the younger kids in the show.  I felt so sad for them, they wanted to do it so badly.  (A fun side note.  I took Tyson back to Disneyland for his birthday two weeks ago and he was picked to be in the show that time, I'll post that later)

Don't look too closely at this photo, we don't look that great!

Tess got to meet Cinderella, Aurora, and Jasmine

Emma got pulled out of the crowd to dance during the parade. 

Tess had such a great time and was happy the whole day!  When we finally got in the car she zonked right out, but wouldn't let go of her bag with her souvenier in it!

I can't believe we went to Disneyland to ride a carousel, but it was one of their favorite rides. 

My kids are weird, but it was a great day!

BAPTISM

Baptism's are a very special and sacred event for our family.  We purposely had Ron come home for R&R after Emma turned 8 so he could baptize her while he was here.  We had tons of family come and it meant so much to us.  Unfortunately I didn't take very many pictures, which I really regret.  But I did get some of Emma and Ron after the baptism.  Emma always beams when she is with her daddy.

And per our family tradition, Grandma and Grandpa Vaughan bought Emma her first set of scriptures.  Of course the case HAD to be purple!

New Beds!

The girls have been sharing a full size bed for a few years now.  It started becoming a bit of an issue (that's a bit of an understatement).  So when Ron was here, I recruited him to help me find the girls new bunk beds.  We finally found some that fit out requirments: they needed to look similar when they seperated into individual beds,they needed to be REALLY sturdy, and there needed to be enough head room on the bottom bunk.  We had the beds delivered when Emma was at school and suprised her with them.  She was THRILLED! She has been telling everyone she sees about her new bed.  I love them!  And for now I let the girls pick their own bedding, Tess is princess of course, and Emma is purple and green with flowers.  Lots of fun!  Oh, and it came with a trundle bed, which we are currently using for storage!  Love it!

Their room is pretty small, so its hard to get a good shot of the headboards and footboards, but they are really pretty.  I'm thrilled with what we picked and I'm even more thrilled that the fights at bedtime have stopped!

P.S.  a side effect I wasn't expecting is Tess misses sleeping next to someone so now I have become her someone, usually around 5:30am!

Pumpkin Picking

I miss REAL FALL so much it's driving me crazy.  Luckily there are a few fun fall things here, like Bates Nut Farm where you can go and pick your pumpkin, buy candy, pet and feed some goats and take a pony ride.  Luckily Ron was with us to do the heavy lifting!