Holiday Happenings

I think the last time I updated was right before Thanksgiving. Now it's past Christmas so here is probably my last post for this year! Nothing too crazy going on over here. Since we last checked in, Samara turned 10 months, Anayah performed in her first Christmas program at preschool, we all had the stomach flu, and the holidays came and went in the blink of an eye! Nothing new going on over here so I'll just show you what we've been up to for the last month or so:

 Christmas program at school:

One last trip to Disneyland before the end of the year. She was beyond excited to see Sofia!! Samara still isn't quite as enamored with the place hehe:

Checking out the lights with her bestie Jack:

 Samara and Bruno tearing up the house:

 
First present "opening" of the season. Daddy did an amazing job putting this thing together the night before! There were soooo many parts!

 Christmas Eve with the whole family:

 Christmas morning...waiting for everyone to wake up so they can open presents:

 Samara's first Christmas:

 Anayah was spoiled blessed again this year with tons to open!

 I love her screams in this video:

Day 3 of opening presents. She may not look too excited about this chair but this was the ONLY picture I could get because she wouldn't keep still from jumping for joy when she saw it! Thank you to great-Grandma S. who surprised her with it. The pictures on the left are the pictures she took with my phone of her dolls sitting in the chair. Haha they had a photo shoot apparently :)

This cracks me up. In Anayah's words: "this is me and this is sissy" Bahahaha!!!

Hoping to post Samara's 10 month deets tomorrow. We'll see if it actually happens. Hope you had a wonderful Christmas!

Mommy & Me Night

Every now and then I think it's important to spend one-on-one time with each of the girls. Last night we made a very spontaneous trip to Disneyland for a couple hours. It was good to get out of the house, spend time with friends, and more importantly spend time alone (without daddy or sister) with my favorite toddler (or is it preschooler now?)

Because it was soooo hot and humid it really wasn't very crowded and we got right on most of the rides in CA. I think the longest we waited was about 10 minutes. We were able to get on quite a few and managed to head out by 7pm so she was home in time to get to bed at a decent hour. My favorite pictures of the night

 

She was being silly in the first one, giving me some cheesy grin, then the ride started going and it was fun to watch the progression of feelings in her expressions. This, though, is my absolute favorite...

Man I love this kid! 

Our Disneyland Adventure

The last time I remember going to Disneyland was when Brian and I first started dating in 2005. Before that, I honestly don't know. I knew I wanted to take Anayah there eventually because she, like most kids, loves all the Disney shows and is enamored with all things Minnie Mouse or Daisy Duck! I also knew that with the price of tickets these days I wanted to take her while she was still free. Call me cheap but a trip there for just me and Bri is equivalent to a car payment! Add a ticket for her and we'd need to take out a loan hehe. So we kept putting it off and saying we'd save more and take her soon. Well "soon" never came then I was pregnant then had the baby and there just never seemed to be a good time. So when a situation came my way which would allow us to get in free, you better believe I jumped on that! Despite it being a Saturday and a somewhat busy time of the year, we decided to just do it.

Obligatory button:

Meeting as many characters as possible!

Ok, not a character but apparently exciting, nonetheless...

This one slept ALL day...I think I had to wake her to eat which is rare...but she had fun too!

When she wasn't bored.

After a long day and only 5 rides (all at California Adventure, mind you) we headed home...I think I enjoyed California Adventure a lot more than the main park. The Disney Jr. show and Crush the Turtle were awesome and I'm so glad we were able to catch them. I'd love to go back when it's less crowded (is that even possible) and check out Disneyland again though.

One more picture. She didn't meet the "real" Daisy so she made do with the parking structure! Hehe

All in all it was a good day. It was definitely crowded and definitely hot, but it was worth it knowing our little girl was having a great time! Next time though, if there is ever a next time, I wanna go during the winter. On a weekday.


*All these pictures were from our phones so excuse the quality.