November and December

Where to start....

The Saturday after Olivia's blessing we were off to the happiest place on Earth...Disneyland!

After driving all day we walked around Downtown Disney to see the renovated Lego store. Outside of the store you could build your own cars out of Lego's and race them against other cars.

The next day was our first day of 5 days we spent in the park. Cars Land was amazing and I was really impressed with it. I think we went on Radiator Springs Racers 6 or 7 times total. The line to get the fast passes was crazy and they run out within an hour but it was worth it.

Olivia did really well on the trip for being 6 weeks old. She slept most of the time but when she was awake she loved looking at all of the lights everywhere. She was able to ride any ride that there wasn't a height requirement so almost everything. She always had the best expressions during the Little Mermaid ride. I had never been during the holidays and so the parade and holiday decorations was a fun bonus.

Kaleb had never been on the Screamin roller coaster or Tower of Terror and he went on both this time. Now he rides every ride and he loved the roller coaster so much he went a bunch of times. Ashton was tall enough for Tower of Terror and he went twice in a row and then was done after that. He said it was a little scary but he still liked it. Ashton liked Space Mountain too but thought the music was too loud so he plugged his ears during the ride. One of our favorite rides in California Adventures and my grandpa's favorite ride is Soarin' Over California. 

With having Olivia I didn't take very many pictures plus we were having too much fun and just enjoying our time there. Other than the Car's ride we had small and no lines pretty much the whole time there so it was a perfect time to go. Here's a picture of our group of 27 plus 2 babies on the way. We always get plenty of comments when they ask how many are in our group for rides and we say 27.

And I'll finish with this picture of Ashton. He's always such a poser for pictures. While Kaleb was getting pictures with a parrot in front of Rainforest Cafe Ashton was having a photo shoot moment with Matt. Even when she brought the bird over for a photo Ashton didn't realize it was there until we told him to smile with the bird.

Unfortunately my grandma passed away the Saturday after we returned from our trip. We knew it would be happening soon but it didn't make it any easier. I'm grateful we were able to go on one last family vacation with her. She was an amazing woman and such a great example of how to raise a family. She was a great cook and loved doing genealogy. She and my grandpa were married for 68 1/2 years and always held hands and he always carried her purse for her. We found a letter in her senior yearbook that my grandpa wrote when they were dating a page long and one line from it said, "our love for each other will never end." It was the sweetest letter I've ever read.

Olivia is growing like crazy! At her 2 month appointment she weighed 10lbs 8oz. She's a very happy baby (when she's not tired or hungry) and smiles all the time. She still wakes up about every 3-4 hours at night with an occasional 5 or 6 hour stretch so I'm sure soon she'll be sleeping longer. She's been sleeping in her crib since she came home from the hospital and so she always eats and puts herself back to sleep.

December 7th we took a trip downtown to see the lights at Temple Square and City Creek. Olivia slept the whole time but the boys enjoyed looking at the lights and playing in the kids play area by the food court. The only bad part was trying to get out of the parking garage at 10pm. It took 45 minutes and we moved about 1 car length every 5 minutes. I had never been to City Creek and I was impressed by how well they did.

I wasn't sure I was going to get Christmas cards out this year with everything going on so on December 14th and took some pictures of the kids in front of the tree so that I could get a card sent out. Olivia wasn't happy and this was the only picture she smiled in and the boys weren't interested in sitting still that long. But the next day I was able to get them sent in the mail. One more "to do" off the list.

Kaleb is in his schools choir that they do before school a couple times a week and they had their Christmas performance on Dec. 19th. What's funny is small groups would dance to each song while the rest of the choir helped sing the song that way everyone could perform and there were times Kaleb was too excited to watch what was going on on stage that he wasn't singing. But he said he loves choir and still wants to continue doing it even if it means getting up early.

Christmas Eve we had dinner at our house. The food was yummy and the boys were so excited to get to open some presents. And they loved their new angry bird star wars pajamas. Olivia just loved hanging out by the tree and watching her brothers.

Christmas morning Kaleb tried waking Ashton up at 6:30 but Ashton said he was too tired and wanted to sleep more. So about 7:50 Kaleb was able to convince Ashton to get out of bed. There were plenty of Lego's, video games, Power Ranger's and other toys the boys were so excited. Olivia didn't wake up until we were almost done opening presents so she joined in and watched her brothers open her presents. I didn't take any pictures of later in the day but we had brunch at my parents and dinner at my aunt and uncles house.

This picture is from yesterday, Olivia is always smiling and she's such a joy to have in our family. The boys just love helping out and are always talking to her and making her smile. It's so much fun to watch them with her. Ashton's always reminding me how much cuter she is than the rest of us, they really adore her. Now we're on our way to a new year and Olivia is almost 3 months old! I'm excited to see what the new year brings and I'm so grateful for everything I've been blessed with.