Valentine's Week

We had a fun week of Valentine's stuff. Bryce and Tara babysat Friday night so Gentry and I could go to dinner and a movie. And they brought crafts AND stuff to make cupcakes :) I'm sure Raya was in heaven.

It was so nice having a leisurely dinner. We're at that phase with Kallen where eating out is nearly impossible, so it was awesome to go out to dinner and eat as slowly as I wanted :)

The actual day of Valentine's I was trying to go to Gentry's work and surprise him for lunch, but his car was in the shop and he had mine so we couldn't do that. Instead my Mom came over and we had lunch and went for ice cream. I'm sure that was Raya's idea of a perfect Valentines Day! 

 Target's $1 section has the best stuff for kid's presents. I'll take any excuse I can to dress up in Holiday inspired outfits and put together little gifts :) I love decorating and being festive! So of course they had stuff to play with Valentine's Night. 

Oh and did I mention in between Valentine's Lunch and Valentine's presents at night my CAR WAS STOLEN?!?! Uhhhhh. Soooooo sad. It was stolen from the parking lot at Gentry's work sometime between 7:30am and 4:30pm. Did you know when you get your car stolen its actually really sad? I can kid now, but I seriously was borderline devastated. I love, love, loved my car. We've had it for 11 years and it runs great and is in such good condition, AND we did so much in that car! So it was sad to think that our family car full of road trip memories was gone. I'm constantly joking with Gentry about how if he for some reason surprised me with a new car I'd take it back because I so loved my Tahoe and it was perfect for me! And literally last week we finished installing all new lights. AND the windshield wiper fluid holder thing has literally been broken for like 8 of the 11 years we've had it, but we never fixed it because it was always so much money for this little tiny fix. Welllll, my Mom got it fixed for us when we were in Texas so we got to use it for all of 6 weeks. Grrrrrrrr. Well yesterday we got a call from Inglewood police that they found my car and it was at a tow lot in Inglewood. The tow yard closed before we could get out there and see it, so I have no idea what it looks like. I'm guessing its totally stripped. Both of the carseats were in there too, so I'm guessing those are gone. Basically anything that could be removed is probably gone :( Sad times. My insurance agent will go see it Tuesday and we'll go from there. So that's whats been going on this week!

I took this picture last Saturday, 2 days before it was stolen. Ahhh, my baby ;) 

Happy New Year! and Merry Christmas :)

We're back in the swing of "normal life." The past 3 weeks were busy, but amazing! I hate that its all over. BUT, we had a super fun Christmas, an awesome 2 weeks in Texas AND we have a 1 year old! So 2012 started with a bang and hopefully that means this year is gonna be rockin :) My goal is to do a separate post for each event because I have a gazillion pictures...so hopefully this week I'll have some nights to Blog.

Christmas definitely took the cake this year. I know I've had some great Christmases, but this year, with a 2.5 year old, man oh man! It was so fun watching Raya open presents and hear all the commentary that came with it. She was full of pure excitement. Like true, "OH WOW!" and "Oh my gosh!" phrases we're coming out of her mouth left and right. It was so great. Her facial expressions and the enjoyment that was written all over her body was priceless. I've never had such a fun Christmas. We made cookies, talked about Santa, made sure to be "Nice and not Naughty." All the things you think make Christmas- yah, we probably did it. And because I'm OBSESSED with Christmas its not hard to see why I loved every minute of this season. The kids got A LOT of presents. In fact I'm pretty sure she's been opening presents for over a month, so I'm working on how to help her understand that opening presents like this doesn't happen year round. She loves opening presents. The 25 Days of Christmas was a total hit and, lucky for her, her baby brother really didn't care too much about opening any so she got to open all his too. We opened presents Christmas Eve at my Aunt's house. Then all day Christmas Day. Then had 2 more Christmases when we got to Texas, so Raya got lots of present opening opportunities :) Here's some pictures for your viewing enjoyment:

 We started Christmas morning at our house

After presents at our house we went to my Mom's (aka Santa's house ;)

 Last year Raya got a Mercedes and this year they got this! They are some lucky kids :)

He clearly was enjoying his 1st Christmas!

Coolest kids on the block

Apparently global warming is in FULL EFFECT. Its not weird to have weather like this in Cali for Christmas Day, but it was also this warm when we were in Texas! Wth?!

Christmas Dinner with Uncle B

Just a few of her presents: A princess house and sleeping bag/pillow. And headphones for her iPad. She had a great Christmas. And the next morning Kallen was enjoying them just as much :)

I was so thankful to be with family, to watch my kids enjoy 3 Christmas with all their grandparents, for beautiful weather and for beautiful children!  It was an incredible holiday season and I feel like the luckiest girl in the world :)

Disneyland!

I can't believe this is only my second post for December! Gotta do better :)
Last week we took Raya to Disneyland for the first time. It was the best day ever. Seriously! Going to Dland with a toddler is a whole different story. The whole "seeing it through a child's eye," yah that. It was amazing.

When we got there the "Big 5"-you know, Mickey, Mini, Donald, Pluto and Goofy- were all out and Raya got to meet them and take pictures. She LOVED seeing them. She's really into The Mickey Mouse club and knows all the characters. The day before Dland I asked if she wanted to go to "Mickey's House," which of course she did, so it was fun to have her wake up the next morning and tell me she was ready to go to Mickey's House.

The weather was perfect. It was sunny! A little chilly, but not bad at all. We got there about 10 and went to Fantasyland, which is where most of the kiddy rides are and all of the princess attractions. I was so excited to go on the Dumbo ride with her! But when we got to it she didn't want to go on it. At all. I begged her ;) So we made our way to A Small World. My all time favorite ride. It was pretty cool to have one of those "this is mama's favorite ride and now I can share it with my daughter" moments. She wasn't as moved as I was. But thankfully she wanted to go on it! Haha. So the first part she was fine. She was looking around and enjoying the boat ride. But about 2 minutes into she started crying a little. It was too loud for her. She really doesn't like loud things and it kinda freaked her out. Soooo, we only rode it once. Ahhhh, I couldn't help but laugh. Here I am so excited to take my daughter on this ride. This momentous moment at the Happiest Place on Earth and it all just freaked her out and made her cry. LOL! However, Kallen LOVED the ride.

Ok, but get this. So we go over to Toon Town and play around. There's a roller coaster there and as soon as Raya saw it she immediately wanted to go on it. WHAT?! Yes. I was sure she was too short to ride, but oh no, she was tall enough. I asked her if she wanted to go on it with Daddy and she said "YESSSS!" So we let her go. As my Mom and I waited for them we thought she's either going to be forever scarred or, because she's such a dare-devil, she's going to love it. Welllll, wouldn't you know, this daredevil LOVED it. So Small World makes her cry but a roller coaster is a-ok. Ah, my girl <3. After that ride we walked by the Matterhorn and she kept pointing at it and asking if we could go on that next. If you don't know Dland, the Matterhorn is one of the "scariest" and fastest rides, so she won't be going on that until she's at least 3 ;) I remember my cousin Alyson would go on some of the scariest rides when we were so little-and she always loved them. I'm guessing Raya's going to be just like her.

After a few rides we went to lunch and then got ready for the big Christmas Parade! Gentry and Kallen camped out and got us a good spot while Nana took Raya to the Disney store. Oh man, you definitely want to be with a grandparent when you visit Dland for the first time! Raya got all kinds of goodies :)

So we sit on the curb for an hour and as soon as the parade starts guess who has to go to the bathroom? Yep. Raya. Uhhhhh! So Gentry takes her and, well, it would be when she has to take the longest dump ever. LOL!!! She's going to be so mad at me some day for this. But seriously! I was freaking out because she was missing the best parade ever and Gentry's texting me that she's "kinda busy." HAHA. Luckily she finished in time to get back outside and see the whole parade. It was a really good parade too!!!

After the parade we waited around for Pluto. He was the only one we didn't get to meet in the morning, and of course the only one Raya kept asking to meet. He never came, so we went across to California Adventure land. Both kids fell asleep so my Mom stayed with them and Gentry and I got to go on a ride. After, we did dinner and headed home. I really wanted to go back to the park because it "snowed" when it was dark, but it was just too cold. I didn't bring their super warm jackets because when we parked it wasn't' that cold at all, so I left them in the car. We'll do it next time :)

This was Tower of Terror. You basically get in an elevator and it drops. Repeatedly. And then drops again and shoots you back up just to drop you again. Lord! 

It was such a fun day!!! Man, I"m so glad we went. And at Christmas time too! Disneyland is amazing during the holidays. And it wasn't even packed. It was just perfect! If you have little ones and you have the opportunity to take them to Disneyland, do it. But I'd probably wait until they're at least 2. Kallen wasn't nearly as impressed as Raya was.