Muffin Tin Advent Calendar

I'm sorry my posts have been so completely out of order. I'm so behind, I can't remember what came first, but this one is from November! I had my Achievement Day girls make these Muffin Tine Advent Calendars for Christmas. The papers are Magnetic and behind each one is a candy and an activity for the girls to do like "clean your room," or "choose the right," or "give everyone in your family a hug." I think the girls had a really fun time and they turned out so cute!

Christmas Morning!

We woke up Christmas morning and Santa brought buddy a GIANT stuffed Buzz Lightyear (thanks mom) and Abbi a box of Tinker Bell Dress-ups. Then Grandma spoiled them with every princess and toy story toy you could ever imagine! When My siblings and I were finished opening presents, my kids were not even half way done. I felt bad! Good thing though since I really didn't get them anything.

Buddy and Life-sized Buzz!

Abbi trying to wake up and take it all in!

New Tinker Bell Outfit

Princess tent, complete with backpack, air mattress, sleeping bag, flash light and compass!

A few hours later Abbi fell asleep on Grandma's lap. Sparky was a little jealous!

This video is so cute. We were all laughing about something and Abbi started laughing in her sleep. Adorable!

No More Dreaming...It Really WAS a White Christmas!

We went back east to see my family for Christmas this year and were pleasantly surprised to find 2 feet of snow on the ground! This was my first ever white Christmas, as well as my kids! Paul's had plenty of White Christmases and White Summers in Canada though! We had so much fun playing outside in it for about 1 hour and then we had our fill. Abbi was into it a little more than Jack. She would throw clumps of snow at us and say "I'm snowing you!" Jack liked it as long as you were holding him so he didn't have to walk in it. It was up to his waist, poor guy!

Sparky peeing on our snowman

The kids jumping on the trampoline with Grandma after spending an hour clearing the snow and ice off of it

Abbi after being "snowed!"

Our lame attempt at a snow blob. We named him Bob the snow blob. He has donut eyes and a carrot nose. My brother Jeremy told me we needed olives for the eyes. We would have used coal, but who has coal lying around these days?

Runn nose Buddy not too happy to be in the snow at first.

We tried to make snow angels but this one just sort of turned into a snow chair. She was stuck here for a few minutes. It was pretty funny!

Disneyland for Christmas!

We took our kids to Disneyland for the first part of our Christmas break. We stayed with my grandparents and it was so nice to see them. Disneyland was so crowded on Friday, but Saturday was perfect! We got fastpasses for everthing and the crowds were small. We got there early in the morning and did everything we wanted to do early. It was 75 degrees all day. We ate dinner with the princesses. The park was decorated beautifully for Christmas. Life just doesn't get better than a perfect day at Disneyland!

Dinner at Ariel's Grotto with the PRINCESSES!

A hard day at Disneyland

We did Single Rider for a lot of the rides. It was so fun to be able to ride the big rides. Here is a picture of Paul on Splash Mountain. He is in the very back. Doesn't he look scared?

Brigham Young's Hearse Carriage all pimped out for the Nightmare before Christmas at the Haunted Mansion

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Buddy actually got to drive his own car! I think we held up the whole ride though. Our car kept breaking down!

My Birthday Present from Paul

Paul surprised me and took me to this really fancy French restaurant in Brea that I've always wanted to go to. It's called La Vie en Rose. The food was so yummy. I had this Lobster Bisque for an appetizer that was probably the most delicious thing I've ever tasted in my whole entire life! Best pate I've ever had too. It was really fun and so sweet of Paul. We had just flown in and spent the day at Disneyland before that and had no nice clothes so we felt really out of place walking in with our jeans and crazy hair!

Best Lobster Bisque Ever!

Carolers that came and sang at our table

They had it decorated so cute for Christmas I just had to snap a few shots. I wish I'd had my camera. These pictures don't do it justice.

Thanksgiving and then the REAL Holiday!

I didn't get many pictures from Thanksgiving because Jack was not feeling very well. He broke 8 teeth in 2 weeks and just had a rough time of it. Poor little guy. He wouldn't let go of me for about a week straight and just cried all the time. See how sad he looks? But we had some delicious Turkey courtesy of Mom Hunt and lots of other yummy food! Paul built a water bottle rocket launcher and all the kids decorated their bottles and launched them at the park. This is a tradition we've done the last few years. It's Paul's favorite and he spends weeks building the launcher. Here's our one picture from Thanksgiving. And then there are a few pictures of the REAL holiday...Black Friday of course! This year all the nieces spent the night at my house and we got up around 4 and hit Walmart and other stores. It was so much fun! Don't they look tired?

Play Dough Cookies

I made sugar cookies with the kids before Christmas. They thought it was great fun. They didn't do too much cookie making, but a lot of playing with the dough and eating it! Abbi told me the next day that she wanted to make "play dough cookies" again!

Apple Hill 2009!

Every year we make the trek up to Camino, CA to go to Apple Hill. It's one of my favorite places! I love going in the fall when the air is crisp and the sun is shining! But my very favorite thing about Apple Hill? The food of course! They have the best Apple donuts you've ever tasted and so much more! It was so much fun. We went with Paul's sister Heather and her boys. What a blast! I can't wait till next year!

My favorite guys!

My Big Cowgirl

My Little Cowboy

Cousins

The Campbells

The Hunts

Heather and our Feast of Donuts!

My little Sweet Tooth Fairy!

Abbi watching them make caramel popcorn

We saw the cutest little car there called a "HUMMBUG." It is basically a mini Hummer body on the frame of a VW Bug. Isn't that the cutest thing you've ever seen? I want one bad!

Huntley pretending this is his car