Deck the Halls with Boxes and Paper

Christmas this year was celebrated among boxes and packing paper at our house this year. We did have stockings hung and a barebones tree to place gifts under, so needless to say we still felt rather blessed. Santa did get the shaft though... these are the cookies Santa gets when you kitchen happens to look like this

 Our three beauties brought us all the joy anyone could ask for on Christmas Eve. Life just doesn't get better then this

 Elli was nervous whether she was on the nice or naughty list. She was quite relieved when she saw that Santa brought her a wagon.

 Even with puffy sleepy eyes, I am in awe of her beauty.

 Santa's gifts of Princess playdoh and Olivia legofriends set kept these two busy all day while Karl and I built the girls their bunkbeds.

After a few days of work, we got the girls room set up with the gifts from us, bunkbeds, bedding and pink walls! They just loved the new room.

Owl Blanket Project: Seven Months

So this post is SUPER late, but the photos were taken on the correct day December 24, 2012. It just so happened that our moving truck arrived on this day, so we have been rather busy the last couple of weeks, still lots of unpack. 

I decided to attempt the owl blanket pictures from a new angle... with Elli sitting up!!! Yep, that is right, she is our big sitter now. That is the biggest milestone of the last month. She can't be left without pillows around her but she finally is sitting.  

Other big changes: she has been growing hair like crazy. The jury is still out about whether it is curly. Stay tuned for the verdict.

Also, Elli loves to eat. With the move and vacation she hasn't had too many meals, but the few she has had she loved. She loves peas, pears and bananas most.

Due to our measuring tape and scale being in boxes we didn't get her measurements this month. Hopefully I will get them in a couple weeks for the eight month mark...wow I can't even believe she will be eight months soon... time to start planning her first birthday party, don't worry I have been mentally planning for a while now!

Disney 12-15-12 Happy Birthday Reese

This is what our newly four year old woke up looking like...just like my favorite Reesey Poo

 Walt and Minnie were so impressed by her!

 So we choose to spend our fourth and last day in Magic Kingdom again. The first day we didn't even get half of the stuff done, so we knew we could still have a full day here.

 It was a day full of meeting the Princesses because that is what our birthday princess wanted most. Well that  and riding as she said "Small world AFTER ALL". If you said yes we will ride "small world", she got angry and said "I want to ride small world AFTER ALL!"

 The girls were sprinkled with magic pixie dust. three weeks later it is still in their scalp, yes it is that magical...

 Then onto Cinderella's Castle to celebrate Reese. Brady enjoyed the lull in the line to have a personal conversation with Cinderella. She learned that Cinderella's grandma sews her dresses and Prince Charming is in the military.

 The hostess asked Brady to carry her wedding dress train, so Brady tried to come to me to fix it, but the hostess was hasteful which embarrassed Brady so she broke down. The hostess felt bad so she kept trying to help. When she went to help us sent up our autograph books, she saw all the big pages were full, so she went and got us brand new ones.

 Look at this fancy dessert that Karl and I got!

 Reese once again enjoyed sprinkles :) But she told us she wanted a Mickey Cupcake. So we got one for her later, turns out she only wanted the oreo ears...most expensive oreos ever!

 Reese got a bulls-eye on first archery lesson.

 Mirada, from Brave, a movie they haven't even seen but they insisted on meeting her.

 And Reese's favorite part of the entire trip...

 We loved our trip to Mouse Country. We are already talking about our next trip...when Elli is four!

 Elli's first time ever in a pool

Disney 12-14-12

Today was our day spent at Animal Kingdom. I love the face painting they do there, so we made it our first stop. Might as well get a full day of fun out of it. Brady choose the princess kitty and Reese choose the Rapunzel tiara.

 Reese was very reluctant about all the animals at the beginning  I think she thought they would all be roaming around the park. But after a few 'safe' viewings she was elated to be there.

 So by the time we rode through the Safari she was soaking it all in.

 Next stop; Tucker House for another character meal. This was the best food out of all the character meals we had... I suggest it to all.

 Daddy and Elli had a ball too!

 Reese loves her some 'sprinkles'...has completely forgone the cupcakes by now.

 In Dinoland's jungle gym, there was a gravel filled excavation pit. Reese spent at least an hour and half playing in there. She just couldn't get enough. She was doing somersaults and rolls, filling buckets, handing our full buckets and making sand angels.

Brady loved the parades through out the week. She would take lots of pictures with her little digital camera. Ignore the size 12 month vest she is wearing...she thought it was a good idea to sport her baby sisters jacket. 

 Lots of characters posed for Brady when they saw she had a camera. This is her shot of Pluto!

 Next stop and my favorite of the entire week was the Finding Nemo musical. The cast just did an amazing job and their puppets were captivating.

Since Animal Kingdom closes at dusk, we headed to Epcot for a quick service meal. The girls had what they call the best Chinese food ever. Reese loved the caramel ginger ice cream and Brady savored the Lychee ice cream. Silly girls.

 Then before we left the park we had to ride the Evolution ride inside the giant golf ball! Starting off at the cavemen Brady started asking questions. I started explaining how they used to not have TVs or lights or microwaves, and then Brady asked if grandma lived in a cave...

 Tomorrow Reesey Poo turns four, so who better to celebrate with then all the Princesses...

Disney 12-13-12

Someone once gave me a great piece of advice before I planned our first Disney trip: allow for a day in the middle of the trip where you don't go into the park.  A down day allows the kids to reset so they can enjoy the rest of the trip. We had planned to look at all the hotels in the Art of Animation resort; Cars, Lion King, Finding Nemo and Little Mermaid. We also wanted to swim in the beautiful pool at Finding Nemo. So basically a day spent at the hotel.

The building we were in was the Luigi and Guido building. Here are a few pictures from the entrance to the building. 

This resort left no detail unseen. It was so much fun staying there. 

 Sally, the girls personal favorite. Brady doing her crazy poses and Reese beyond excited.

 This is the 'ka-choo' pose.

 All three of the girls saluting for Sarge.

 This was the entrance of the building across from us.

 Perfect description of Reese!!!!

 Prefect description of Brady

 Excited about Doc Hudson

 We went to breakfast at the Beach Club Resort, Cape May Cafe.

 Elli was a hit again.

 Then we went back to our resort and checked out the other buildings. I still can't get over how great of a job they did on these resorts.

HAKUNA MATATA

 This is one of two family pictures we got while there. We are in front of the pool for Finding Nemo.

 So the day ended up being much colder than predicted. So we scratched the pool idea and rode all the forms of free transportation at Disney; bus, monorail and boat. We rode the bus to Epcot, got on the monorail to Magic Kingdom, rode the boat to the Grand Floridian, took the monorail to Epcot, and the bus back to our resort. PHEW!

 Took advantage of this photo op outside the park.

 In the Grand Floridian there was a three story gingerbread house, yes it was really made out of gingerbread, the smell filled the lobby.

 This is a random picture from our hotel window. Every night at 9:30 we would hear the Epcot fireworks show. This is the view we got. It looked like something was on fire ;)

Tomorrow, off to Animal Kingdom!