Family Pictures

Had fun snapping pictures of the girls at a cool little place here in town while trying to get a decent Christmas Card Photo!

Not professional but it'll work! :)

Later I will post the cool photo my bro-in-law Dane photoshopped together for us to send out...thank you Dane!

Halloween

Cute Little Garden Fairy...

I love how much use we've gotten out of this costume!

Little Red Riding Hood

More Ella being Ella. :)

I do what I can with my little Witches Hat :) One of these days maybe I'll get really creative.

Our Ward Trunk or Treat

Eating it up as fast they can!

October Camping Trip

We had so much fun going Camping with a couple of other families we know from church in October. There were 3 families and I don't think we put it all together until we were all there but each of the families had 3 girls...what are the chances! So there were 9 little girls running around together. Pretty funny. The girls had a blast exploring the camp sites, and putting on a parade complete with handmade "all-natural" accessories and decor. We had crowns, flags, wands etc all made out of sticks, sap, and leaves. They enjoyed a tame "Ghost Story" by the camp fire at night and our girls experienced their first foil dinner. So fun...now we just need to find the time to go for more than one night at a time. :)

Halloween Prep

A field trip to the Pumpkin Patch for our weekly Church Playgroup. Here are some of Maddi and Ella's cute little friends they love to hang out with on Thursdays.

It still seems so odd to me when we go somewhere with just 2 instead of 3! Maddi and Ella are cute little buddies (when they want to be). :) They had a lot fun picking out their own little pumpkin.

I bought a sewing machine last year and I think I've only used it once so I decided to put it to good use this year and take on a new sewing project....Halloween Costumes! I figured even if it's not perfect, it's a costume so no one will really care OR notice so it would be great practice, and I plunged right in. Mia wanted to be Silver Mist (a Tinkerbell fairy...she became aware of b/c of Disneyland) and Maddi wanted to be Little Red Riding Hood. I really started to think about making the costumes after I couldn't find anything worth paying for in the stores for "Silver Mist"...not quite as popular as Tinkerbell. My sister had just told me about pinterest so I looked up costume ideas and found a pattern for a fairy costume and one for a Little Red Riding Hood cape that I thought I could handle and there you have it. :) It was actually really fun because the girls both got very excited about the whole sewing process. I let them play with some fabric scraps and they sat near trying to make their own things the whole time. I have great memories of Halloween and a couple of the costumes my Mom made for me (Rainbow Bright and Lady Lovely Locks come to mind...WAY more complicated than what I attempted...my Mom is a great seamstress) so it was fun to have that experience with my Girls.

Lance's Birthday

Again way behind...but here are few pics from Lance's Birthday at the end of September! We made our Disneyland trip part of his Birthday and then celebrate the actual day when we got back. :)

Opening presents before church

October Disneyland Trip Day 2

Touring Sleep Beauty's Castle.

We decided to push through and stay until Midnight and thanks to naps for everyone but Mia in the evening time we all made it through.

Great Trip!

Fantasmic...another first for us and also just WONDERFUL. It's a lot like World of Color but with actual characters and a play-like feel to it.

The Parade. I thought it was wonderful and so worth the wait.

Maddi did this during most of the parade. Thank you Barlow's for your awesome stroller. Our friends always let us borrow their double stroller when we go to Disneyland and it's worth it's weight in gold because 2 kids can sleep at a time in it and I think every one of our kids falls asleep at some point whenever we are there.

Waiting for the parade...this was a first for us.

Yeah...Daddy's back!

Another sighting of the elusive Cinderella

Another little Jedi!

Maddi was so excited to try out the Jedi training just like Mia had done. I made sure to forewarn both girls that maybe neither one of them would get picked to go up. and maybe only one of them would get picked (although in my head I was thinking PLEASE pick Maddi!) and that we would have fun watching either way...but thankfully they BOTH got picked. Big sigh of relief!

I was surprised that Maddi was so brave to go up there. They had a blast. This is surprisingly another one of my favorite Disney things.

Little Harvest Picture

The Bears from Frontier Land

So later in the day when Lance was with us I took BOTH girls on Splash Mountain. I haven't been on Splash mountain since high school and it was one of the scariest experiences ever! There are NO buckles...I'm sure there is a good reason...but I thought going down the biggest hill that Me, or the girls or all three of us were literally going to fall out!

Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Sighting. Ella was so excited and very content to stand back here and watch from afar. :)

Look at those cute little faces! They think it's SO exciting to sit by themselves on a ride.

Winnie the Pooh ride!

Ella's all-time favorite ride. She was very worried that I was not getting in the seat with her while I snapped this picture.

Celebrity Sightings!

Mary Poppins

Cinderella...the one princess who as escaped us on every Disney trip. This was about as close as we got!

Taking a break, eating a snack, and going on Small World. I love this ride...so nice and calm...and almost never a line!

Cute Cute sisters!

I love all the bonding moments and family memories we create when we are at Disneyland. It's so fun to be away from everything and just be with each other. And it doesn't hurt that there are no chores to do, no rooms to clean, no paperwork to go through, no phone calls, or places to be, and people to pick up, and that we spend all day playing. :) Pretty easy to get along in that situation....but I think these kinds of moments are great because they help you push through in all those "other" situations just mentioned.

I took one for the team and did something I never do and rode the tea-cups with the girls. It wasn't too bad after all.

Famous Carousal

Funny thing about this picture...Mia and Maddi were SO embarrassed when they saw a BOY Fairy and could hardly contain themselves enough to get in the picture...hence the reason I was in the picture....and Ella's face tells you pretty clearly what she thought about being right next to the BOY fairy.

Aside from our first trip with Grandma and Grandpa we've tried to avoid all the "wait in line to meet the characters or princess" stuff because the lines are SO long but on this day it was not busy and almost NO ONE was in line to see Tinkerbell so we decided to take the opportunity!

"I'm wishing....I'm wishing!"

Visiting Snow White's wishing well. Maddi has always wanted to do this! The great thing about coming back over and over is that you notice things you missed on previous trips.

Disneyland at Halloween!

First ride of the day while we wait for the Space Mountain Riders. Ella was pretty hesitant this trip about all the rides...maybe it was more scary without Daddy there??? But she still didn't want to miss out. :)

So I love this picture because you can see all of Ella's curly hair! It cracks us up to see so much curl in her hair because the girls' hair never looked like this...not sure where it comes from...maybe it's the more humid climate but we just love it and are not looking forward to the day when/if she loses it. :)

Another side-note about our growing girl...right before this trip Ella decided to start potty training...and while Disneyland isn't the most ideal place for potty training she did really good and continued the process when we got home...yeah for no more diapers!!!!

Ready for another day!

Maddi and Ella playing with this water sculpture while we wait for Mia and Daddy. Lance decided to get one ride in on Space Mountain before his conference started for the day!