Happy Birthday Crazy Daisy!

We can't believe you're 3!

Daisy and Brittany

Stockton LOVED this Candy Land entry! I couldn't keep him away from the balloons! My mom joked that I should line my hallway with ballooons like this and he'd be occupied for hours! Why haven't I done that yet?!

Daisy's BFF's

A punching balloon is so much fun for a baby!

Next to balloons, slides are Stockton's favorite obsession!

What a great birthday party! It was a cute Candy Land-themed party with a darling candy table, sno cones, hot dogs, fun inflatables, and lots of grass to run FREE! Perfect for the kids--low maintenance for the parents (other than trying to keep Stocky away from the balloon entry of course). :) We are so grateful for all the hard work that went into this great birthday party. Annabelle can't go to Paige's house without dressing up, so we were thankful Brittany let her sneak inside and get a princess dress to play in! We had so much fun watching the kids play and being there to celebrate Daisy's big day.

A few things we love about Daisy:

Her voice is the CUTEST

Her hair is adorable!

Her eyes are huge and gorgeous

She's funny

She's a little daredevil and makes us all nervous at times

She really makes you feel loved and missed

She's not afraid to cuddle with me and Josh

It melts me heart when she says "I'll miss you so much"

She's fun and entertaining

We Love having her as part of the family, and can't wait to watch her grow this year!

Happy Birthday "Dais."

Toddler Time Graduation

Congratulations Annabelle-y! You worked so hard to complete:
 34 Complete Lessons
27 Books
14 Games
71 Art and Music Activities
44 Puzzles (began on level 1 and ended on level 6)!

We are so thrilled with abcmouse.com! Annabelle loves it, has learned a lot, has improved by 16 seconds on her alphabet flash cards, and is a puzzle whiz!  :) We took her out to ice cream to celebrate! Congratulations Annabelle!

A Day of PLAY

I LOVE play days!

"We all need empty hours in our lives or we will have no time to create or dream."

Robert Coles

We love to play at Grandma's house with cousins! Not only is Grandma's house everyone's favorite place to be, but it is also a beautiful place to be!

"The most effective kind of education is that a child should play amongst lovely things."
Plato



Wrapping UP on a HIGH note

We couldn't believe Annabelle went on this ride--it was so high (for a kid)! You'd think by the 5th day we'd be use to her going on the rides, but it was still such a shocker everytime she said she wanted to go!  :) She went on this Jellyfish ride twice and had a great time.

We also went on the new Ariel ride a few more times, as well as Toy Story--how FUN is that ride?! I love it!! Annabelle was so cute with her 3D glasses and her map; she carried her map everywhere we went, and made sure we were on the right path. I remember how fun it was to get the free map when I was a kid  :)  The kids were totally tuckered out by the end, especially because they had spent the morning swimming! Swimming was so fun and Annabelle had met a couple of new, interesting friends to talk about all the Disneyland fun with--they were super cute chatting it up in the hot tub! 

Our trip was truly fantastic, made even more so by Grandma and Papa! We are so glad they decided to come with us. Annabelle loved going on most of the rides with Grandma and Papa, and she loved playing in their adjoining hotel rooms. As soon as she was ready for the day, she'd be over in Grandma's room playing with her little princesses. Grandma is her BFF, and she became much more close with Papa too. We are so grateful that we had this quality time with them, that they were so selfless in helping out with the kids, that they love our kids so much and treat them so wonderfully, and that they love Disneyland as much as we do!  :)  It was truly a memorable vacation, and we loved being there. It's pretty hard on the legs and feet to do 5 days in Disneyland--I wish I would've worn a pedometer  :)  But you never really notice until you're on the way back to the hotel for the night and every step feels like one step away from a collapse! :)  I slept awesome though, and so did the kids! Complete exhaustion will make any bed feel like heaven on earth! I'm grateful for the blessing of being able to go a 2nd time this year--we really needed it and there was so much to celebrate and be grateful for! I wish we had Disneyland here, just so we could go more often and feel that magic and joy that is completely unique. I can't wait until our trip in 2012! Annabelle is already talking about it and Stockton will be 2! Craaaaaaazy, but he's gonna LOVE Cars Land!  :)  Until then, we'll survive on memories!

Annabelle Meets Rapunzel!!

Checking out Flynn Rider, making sure he doesn't come any closer  :)

Annabelle's meeting with Rapunzel went so well compared to last time! Flynn keeps throwing her off  :) I don't really understand why she doesn't want to meet Flynn--she loves Flynn in the movie. Last time we went to Disneyland, they asked Flynn to go feed Maximus while Annabelle met Rapunzel, but this time when we asked if she could just meet Rapunzel, they just had him step to the side. It was enough to give her the courage to meet Rapunzel without shying away or crying (Yipee!), but still not quite enough to make her feel totally at ease, which is ok--she faced a fear and did well! Flynn was great! He asked if Annabelle wanted him to sign her book and Annabelle said "no." But as soon as Rapunzel finished signing it, she handed it over to Flynn and he signed it anyway. :) It was cute; he was such a good sport. I'm proud of Annabelle; she was determined to meet Rapunzel this time and give her a love--Mission Accomplished!

Fantasy Fair Face Paint

So beautiful! Grandma and Annabelle got their faces painted together, and they were so pretty! 

Princess Fantasy Fair

She finally met Jasmine! She was showing off her dress, and telling Jasmine she borrowed it from her cousin, Liv.

"So...where are you from?"  :)

I Love the pictures of Annabelle meeting princesses--they are so cute and she seems right in her element, right where she should be. It makes me so happy. Stockton wasted no time in taking advantage of the boy to girl ratio, and chatted up a few little friends  :) I decided that when I retire, I want to work here--not just at Disneyland, but in the Princess Fantasy Fair gift shop. It's the best place ever  :)

Special Time with Alice

What an experience! Annabelle decided to dress up as Alice on this particular day (her cute cousin Liv lent us this costume last year, and we saw it in the back of the closet just as we were packing dress-ups for the trip). Annabelle was so excited and had to bring it (we'll get it back to you really soon Nikki, I promise)!  :)  I couldn't believe we still had it, but we threw it in the car and Annabelle was quite obsessed with Alice from then on. She wanted to go on Alice in Wonderland multiple times; she chose an Alice in Wonderland polly pocket doll for her souvenir from Grandma; and she wanted to wear this dress two of the five days we were there. When we got to Disneyland on this particular day, the real Alice in Wonderland saw Annabelle and grabbed her immediately to join in the fun. Annabelle danced around and followed her around for a few seconds, but when they sat down, she looked wayyyy nervous. Josh joined the Dancing Dads to try and make her feel more at ease, but as soon as it was all done, Annabelle started sobbing and was totally overwhelmed  :( We did our best to tell her it was ok, that Alice loved her and wanted her to have fun, but it was no use. And from then on she was not to be called Alice or else...! It was kinda sad, Kinda funny, pretty interesting, but still totally Annabelle, and understandable. She simply got overwhelmed, nervous, a little scared, and took a while to snap out of it  :) What better way to shift the focus than to head over to the Princess Fantasy Fair?!

PS: Look at Josh's awesome high kicks and stand-out showmanship!  ;)

World of Color

World of Color is an amazing show! A few hours prior to this, we all went on Star Tours--Annabelle went TWICE and was soooo fun to ride with! She was screaming and shouting "Woo-hoo's" the entire time, and had I not been seriously close to throwing up, I would've joined her  :)  I had no idea that ride was so crazy! It was crazy fun and exciting for like the 1st 15 seconds, but then I was starting to panic! By the end I was totally nauseated. I was even more worried for my mom, who gets vertigo from time-to-time, but she did better than me! After a while, and after a little bit of that amazing Disneyland popcorn, we headed over to get our World of Color picnic lunches. Hmmmmm...not  too impressed--cold chicken? Yuck (especially when you're not feeling too well). Next time we'll probably opt for another option. Luckily, by the time the show began, I was feeling almost better, better enough to really enjoy it and have fun. Stockton and Annabelle had special preferred seating on Josh and Papa's shoulders, and they loved it! Stocky was fascinated and Annabelle loved the music and all the color!

Time in Toon Town

Look at Stocky's little shoes poking out on the right  :) Having fun playing with dad!

Annabelle gets a wave from Minnie, and then gets up the courage to meet her!

The 1st time Annabelle met a "character" other than a princess!

We loved our time in Toon Town! Annabelle and Stockton loved playing around in the little houses and playgrounds. Stockton's opposite gene kicked in a little, and each time we'd go into a house, he'd want to come out, and each time we came out, he'd want to stay in  :)  But the kids loved what they saw, and had a lot of fun playing in Goofy's playground. We also went on "Roger Rabbit" for the 1st time, and Annabelle did awesome! Josh and I were in a constant state of amazement when she kept on saying she wanted to go on the rides! We were so proud and excited for her to see and try new and fun experiences. Stockton was super tired at the end of it all, so we called it a morning and headed back to the hotel for naps--such a saving grace during our trip!  :)

Playful Posing



Stocky was grounded from rides for not cooperating in this picture  ;)



Welcome to Disneyland Susan! One of the park photographers stopped us to take pictures of Annabelle and Susan. He guaranteed us that the picture would be included in the "Small World" picture show that night  :) Unfortunately we couldn't stay and watch because we had World of Color tickets for that night. We trust that she was a super star that night!

Revved up for another day of excitement

This picture is for Annabelle. She had a little Tinkerbell camera and she wanted to take a picture of me and Josh. This was the pose we gave her  :)

This is our "Happy 5 year Anniversary" pose! Notice how gentle Josh is when dipping me; I should've checked for bruises on my tricep after we were done. Haha! I'm sure he's just trying extra hard to make sure he keeps me safe from falling  :)

We hadn't taken very many "Posed pictures," if you will. So we decided to stop and snap a few on our 3rd day, when we were ready and eager for another day in happiness. It was fun and goofy, which is fitting because right after this we headed to Toon Town for some playtime with the kids!