Princess Jasmine needs a lesson on modesty!!!!

Every year we give our kids an ornament for the Christmas tree that somehow symbolizes their year. This year we are painting little ornaments and Modge Podging a picture from their trip on the ornament. At breakfast this morning Sawyer & Jaycee were discussing who to put on their ornament-Sawyer suggested that Jaycee should put her picture with Princess Jasmine. She got the funniest look on her face and said, "I don't like Jasmine because she shows her body-she needs a better dress!" For those of you who know Jaycee, you all know that she likes as little clothing as possible. I've never let my girls wear tank tops-she is constantly in them around the house or in short crazy dresses. This comment totally made me laugh! What a funny kid. I couldn't believe what Jasmine was wearing as a mom-it's funny Jaycee noticed as a 3 year old kid! We saw her the next day in the park and she was completely covered-she looked much better!

Disneyland

We surprised our kids and took them to Disneyland for Christmas---it was so much fun!!! On the way there Casey had them totally convinced that we were lost-pretty funny. He told me I was "out of play" which meant I wasn't allowed to talk to the kids or even look at them because he didn't trust me! :) This was at Goofy's Kitchen-pretty pricey but worth every penny...it's a lot of fun and the food is good.

Crazy goofy---he really is funny!!! He visited with us for quite awhile. The kids loved it-who am I kidding???-Casey & I loved it too!

Disneyland is decorated so cute for Christmas!!! The CALIFORNIA letters are decorated, the castle is lit, New Orleans square is amazing, Small World is decorated....so much fun at Christmas!!!! We loved it!

Jaycee loved the teacups-she totally made us laugh!! It's fun to see Disneyland thru your kids eyes!

My brother and his wife came also so Melinda and I took Jaycee and Madalyn to Ariel's Grotto for lunch. Jaycee absolutely loved it!!! She told Sleeping Beauty all about her scary dreams and she sat and listened until Jaycee was done. She posed like this with Cinderella-if anyone knows Jaycee this is so not like her to cooperate and be cute especially when a picture is being taken! It was a blast to just watch her!!! Madi was terrified of the princesses! Pretty funny.

Disneyland.....

Shaylee got asked to dance with the High School Musical show at California Adventure...she did great and had a good time!! It was fun to watch her.

Sawyer and I with our drivers licenses....I am glad he won't be driving for reals for awhile! :)

The Haunted Mansion is decorated like The Nightmare Before Christmas...so fun!!!!

Casey & I in line with the girls for Indiana Jones---one of our favorite rides!

Good old Minnie Mouse-it's always so fun to find these silly characters!

Newport Beach

We decided last minute to take the kids to the beach before we left for home...Sawyer and Jaycee had never seen the ocean and we thought they needed to experience that. They all LOVED it!!

I loved this picture of Sawyer and Casey--Casey is such a great dad and Sawyer really looks up to him!!!

Sawyer had so much fun chasing all of the birds. The funniest was when he tried to attack a pelican-he had a very long beak and just stared at him like "I dare you!" Casey and I had to stop him before he got hurt-we weren't sure what the bird would have done! I am glad we didn't find out.

Shay found a few starfish. We are trying to preserve them-she loves the ocean and dolphins so this is right up her alley! The starfish aren't looking so good...dang it! :)

Our special visitor

Has anyone ever heard the story about what it would be like if the Savior came to your house?? It's been awhile but I think of it often still. Tonight I was starting to lose my patience with my kids-it was past bedtime and totally chaotic because my brother and his kids had just left. He gets everyone SOOOO wound up!!! All of a sudden there was a knock at the door-it was Santa. Here I was trying not to scream at my kids and trying to get them to pick up all of the messes so we could go to bed and the jolly fella stopped in to say hello! :) Humbling. They were excited-he brought them a candy cane and let them jingle his bells. Cute. Sawyer kept saying, "Ya-but that's not Santa!" I ignored him and changed the subject and tried to atleast keep it fun for Jaycee. As soon as Santa left Sawyer said, "Mom, that wasn't Santa. That was Brother Pedersen!" Brother Pedersen is Sawyer's primary teacher and is very easy to recognize. He was right!!! We skipped the Night of Sharing tradition our neighborhood does for Santa-you go to the park and sit on Santa's lap and give him a toy to give to a child who wouldn't otherwise have Christmas. We love it but things have been crazy and today snuck up on us so we decided not to go-Casey & the girls had haircuts tonight, all kinds of lame excuses. As he was saying "You're such a great family!" I reminded him we didn't come to The Night of Sharing and he said that was ok. We didn't go to Santa but he made sure to stop by our house to say hello to our kids. Dang it!!! We will NEVER skip it again! Way to start off the month of December feeling all kinds of guilty! :(

Blessings

What a blessing it has been to watch this beautiful temple be built. I am so grateful for my family-for the knowledge I have that our family is forever. I am very blessed to have such an incredible husband and we together are blessed to be parents to such amazing kids. It brings such peace to my heart to know that the blessings of the temple are real-that no matter what happens in this life we can be together for eternity. I know that this life is such a small part of what really matters...FOREVER!!!

Ahhh!!! Casey and I are soooo blessed!

How it REALLY is when we are trying to take a picture of our kids-sweet Jaycee is spunky and just doesn't like her picture taken! :)

Don't make our dad mad!!!

This morning Casey was making an omelet...Sawyer was being a stink so Casey thumped his head while he had an egg in his hand. This was the outcome!!! He's lucky it somehow broke all over his arm instead of in his hair! :) The funny part is we heard Sawyer tell Jaycee this afternoon, "You better stop that or dad will throw an egg at you!"