Disney Disney and More Disney...

The next 3 days we spent in Disneyland. We started with a full day at California Adventure, and any time we called it just California Abby would quickly correct us by telling us to call it California Adventure! Yeah you may think cute...but it got old real quick when the kid kept correcting EVERYTHING we said! Both the girls were tall enough to go on ALL the rides and LOVED ALL of the rides! The funniest thing happened that first day. We walked into the new Cars Land and we were all looking around and Elizabeth said, "Wow, they really out did themselves with this one!" Josh and I just looked at each other and laughed! For the rest of the trip we would say about EVERYTHING "Wow, they really out did themselves with this one!"  I love that kid!!! We had so much fun. We spent the next full day at Disneyland and then the third day going between both parks! On Friday it was Josh and my Wedding Anniversary. I made Josh wear a button that told everyone that it was our tenth anniversary. He HATED that, but he did it for me. We were in line for a ride in Disneyland and the worker wished us a Happy Anniversary then asked us why we couldn't get a babysitter and looked at Josh and told him the 10 year is a special one....He took it real well as you can imagine!! But for what it is worth I had a WONDERFUL anniversary!!! During this trip Josh took such good care of me I couldn't of asked for a better man to be married to!! Here are a few pictures from our days at the wonderful world of Disney.....

I did pretty good on this trip and kept up with the rest of the family until the last day at which my body was done with walking ALL day and wanted to cry. I have never been so happy for the next day to drive to Vegas. Spending half a day sitting was wonderful! We hung out in Vegas and left the next day for home. Driving home took a little longer then we thought because as soon as we entered the Valley it was snowing SO hard we moved like 20 miles an hour the rest of the way home! But we finally made it home, and I had 9 days of laundry to unpack....yes a mothers job is so much fun!!

Day 4 Universal Studios!

Day 4 we were off to Universal Studios. It was another warm day. The girls I think had fun but by the end of the day it wasn't their favorite, they liked SeaWorld and were ready for Disneyland. The funniest thing though did happen here. Abby wanted to go on the Jurassic Park ride so we got in line. Right before they took the picture a dinosaur pops out. When we looked at the pictures after the ride Abby's face was the BEST! She had a completely freaked out, terrified face. It was SO FUNNY!!! My only regret was that Josh and I didn't buy the picture, because we never got another reaction like that from her! The girls did get their souvenirs and yes we spent a great deal of time looking for what they wanted. Elizabeth got one of those movie action slappy thingies and Abby got a friendship necklace..one of those that comes with two necklaces that each have half a heart on it that you give to your best friend. She plans to give the other half to Kaitlyn Andersen.  I didn't take as many pictures this day because we forgot to charge the camera the night before! But here are a few of that day...

Day 3 SeaWorld!

Day 3 started out with crying as we headed down to San Diego to go to SeaWorld! The girls LOVED it there, which I knew they would getting to see all the animals. I don't know how it happened but we have two animal lovers in our family. The weather was in the 80's and coming from 6 degrees it was HOT! We did not bring the right clothes for the trip and I was reminded of that by the girls more times during this day then needed to be! Josh of course is the only one of us that brought short sleeves so the girls and I just rolled up our sleeves and stayed cool by getting wet at the shows! We sat in the second row for the Shamu show and wouldn't you know it we didn't get a drop of water on us! The girls were VERY upset and so when we got seats for the dolphin show we made sure we sat in better seats, which were also the second row but this time we got drenched! And wouldn't you know it the girls were upset they were wet!! We got to feed the sea-lions with fish, Abby didn't really want to touch the fish while Elizabeth was so into it she could of done it all day! We rode the rides there and of course we shopped at the shops! When Josh and I were planning this trip we were trying to save money and do this trip as cheaply as we could. Knowing our girls and their LOVE of the souvenir...I know they get this from me I just love me a souvenir....we decided to tell them to save their money and they are in charge of buying their own souvenir's. They got money from Grandma and Grandpa Tippetts and Great Grandpa Ford from Christmas and so they payed their tithing and saved every last cent! Before they left my mom gave them each some more money to buy souvenirs with, so that by the end each of them had about 60 dollars to spend on our trip. They were SO funny, they were VERY cautious about not spending it all the first day because they wanted something from each place we went! So they checked ALL the prices and the first day they did ask us for a lot of treats but each time we asked them, "Is that what you want to spend your money on?" And after that they didn't ask us for anything! It was wonderful!! There was no begging, or whinnying, they carefully thought out what they wanted to spend their money on! This however did make us spend a great deal of time in EVERY gift shop because they wanted to see ALL of the options! But by the end of the day Elizabeth picked out a stuffed dolphin and Abby picked out a stuffed Shamu in a pink purse, and they both were happy as can be!

... 3 Days down...

SoCal Family Vacation!

We just got back from a NINE day vacation with the girls! Josh told me I should take my computer to download all the pictures and to just blog about it each night that we get back to the hotel, but did I listen to him....NO! So now I'm stuck with the task of remembering what we did when we did it and all the funny things that the girls said and did, and let me tell you they said and did some funny things. I am going to take this one or two days at a time. Yes I'm dragging this out! Our first day was Saturday January 19th. Josh and the girls dragged me out of bed early and we left for Vegas. I am really not a morning person, but I got up and only had to snap at my family for their insistence that I move faster a couple of times. We made it to Vegas about 3pm and went straight to Josh's parents house. There were cousins there and the girls left us and went straight to them. I don't really remember seeing them again for the rest of the night....The next day we woke up early, yet again, to drive down to Southern California. Here is a picture of the girls and Mark and Trudy before we left that morning. Trudy didn't cry when we left, at least in front of us, because we were coming back through the next week!

Our first stop was the hotel to unload all of our things, then we were off to the beach. When we left California to move up to Utah Elizabeth just turned 4 and Abigail was only 2 so their memories of California are not too vast! I am not sure how much Abigail liked the beach, she is my girl that doesn't like to get too dirty, but Elizabeth fell in LOVE right away. Pretty much as soon as she spotted the first sea shell on the sand! Her mission was clear from that point, to collect ALL the shells on the beach to take home. This kid is such a hoarder, it's a little scary! So being the mean mother that I am I told her she could only take her favorites...then I had to change that because they were ALL her favorites to she could only take a few. So of course she collected a plastic bag full of shells! There was one that was supper special to her and when she saw it she named it. It's name was Clammy! It was a full clam like shell that had both parts so you could close it! Now we told her she would have to be careful if she didn't want it to break before we got home.......

And what do yo think happened? Yes it was broken by the next morning! The tear balls that followed were something else! She cried and cried, and then she would cry for the rest of the trip anytime Josh would mention Clammy! And yes Josh is that mean!!!

 

Two days down....This was a very LONG trip!

New Year...New Projects

So I have FINALLY finished piecing together my quilt! I love this fabric. This is my FIRST full size quilt that I am making. I am not done with it yet I still have to take it to the quilter and have it quilted then once they do that I have to figure out how to put the edge on....wish me luck! But I thought that I would show it off of what I have finished because who knows how long it will take me to get it to the quilter! I saw this quilt back in Oct. when I went visiting teaching. My visiting teaching partner is a avid quilter and so is the lady that we teach. The lady that we teach had this quilt hanging in her house and I fell in LOVE with it. So I went that day to the quilt store and got me the fabric to make it! I must of been crazy but I decided I was going to make a quilt....well sort of I was going to piece it and have someone else quilt it...Josh says that that is cheating but oh well! So here is some pictures of the quilt and a close up of the very cute fabric....

The fabric is called "The Ghastlies" I just LOVE the family in it, don't you?!

10 Years!!

The 25th of January will mark 10 years to the day that Josh and I entered into the Los Angeles Temple to be sealed! I wish that I could say that I remember it like it was yesterday, but honestly I can't. I feel like it was a million years ago.(Of course we have known each other for 16 years so that might be the reason it feels longer)   I can remember small parts here and there, partly because of my remarkable memory (that is sarcasm!). Thankfully Josh has a good enough memory for the both of us. It has only taken me 10 years but I have finally put my wedding pictures on CD from the negatives and am only now starting to make prints of them. Yes I know I am a little slow on things! Here are a few of my favorites from that day...

These 10 years may not of always been easy! But really what fun is easy? There is no other person that I would rather laugh with, cry with, or just be with then YOU, Josh! You are and always will be my BEST FRIEND!
Before we got married my dad asked me why I wanted to marry you? I answered, because I love him. He told me that I did not know what love was yet but to give it time and I will. At the time I did not understand I thought that I loved you so much that I knew what love was, but I was wrong. You have taught me and shown me over the years what love truly is. I LOVE YOU JOSH! Happy Anniversary!

Little Girls Book Club Book #2

Our little girl book club's second book is Anne of Green Gables. I LOVE this story and was excited for the girls to meet Anne Shirley! I found this book at the $1 Store and got two of them one for us and one for the "little" Andersen's. It is a young readers book so it is not the full detailed story, but I think the girls will still get the idea, and I thought it would help us get through it faster and keep the girls interested in the pictures on EVERY page! My plan worked the "little" Andersen's finished in three days, it is taking us a little longer, but we are almost done with it. Our book club will be at our house, and the girls are already planning the BIG EVENT!!

New Year's Eve Party

Once again we ended another year with our friends! The Andersen's put on their (now it's going to have to be) annual New Year's Eve Party! I have to say they put on the BEST parties!!! And I stole all of these pictures from Amy's blog so if you read her blog this is just going to be the same...I might even just cut and paste what she already typed...or maybe not! We had LOTS of yummy food to eat and games to play. We started the night with an old fashion boys vs. girls show down of minute to win it games! At which the GIRLS won!!! Yes us girls won after last years defeat. The men took it rather well I think.

Next we showed off our dancing skills. (Side Note: Josh and I took dancing lessons when we lived in California. Josh is so nice I knew he didn't want to but he signed us up because he knew I wanted to learn with him so that we could go dancing at Disneyland on Saturday nights with all the old people. Anyway, we, I think, only took maybe two or three classes before they nicely suggested that we just stop. We never improved and I think were getting worse each class. And so ended our career as dancers! We have no coordination what so ever and never have wondered where our girls get their lack of grace! If I am going to be honest that is.) We played this game that projected our images up on the wall while dancing to Micheal Jackson songs and dance moves. I think the Andersen's have sort of a sick sense of humor in wanting to make complete fools of their friends. I think this is what I LOVE most about them!!!

And then of course Amy has to get out her camera and document EVERYTHING! So here are some of our AWESOME moves...and yes Josh, after a GREAT deal of persuading finally got up to show us his own moves!

After making fools of ourselves and laughing at everyone else also making fools of themselves we made the traditional rockets to launch at midnight! I opted out in making one Josh made one for the both of us. It was SUPER cold outside, but very fun watching the rockets go up also seeing the fireworks that someone else was shooting into the air was just an extra bonus! Next year however I have to remember to dress warmer!!! I think I said the same thing last year.

 Here's hoping we get the invite next year to attend this AWESOME New Year's Eve Party! Thanks Andersen's for the memories (some of which I wish I never saw)!

Last FHE In 2012

New Years Eve this year landed on a Monday, so for our Family Home Evening I wanted to have my family set some Resolutions. We have never been much of resolution setters in the past, in fact I don't know if we have ever really written any down since Josh and I have been married. I grew up with parents that were big goal setters and we as kids were encouraged to write down our goals every year. I think that as an adult I stopped making New Year Resolutions because I didn't seem to ever keep them, or I would set such long term goal that I never would see the end of them. I must be having my "AH-HA" Moment because I now understand the importance of setting goals and writing them down, and teaching your children to be goal setters. And Josh says, "When mom has an "AH-HA" moment EVERYONE is going to have it to!" Which he is right, ready or not we are all going to set some goals and learn how to be a goal setting people!!!
So of course I went onto my favorite website Pinterest and looked up some ideas to do with kids. I found this printout that we all filled out. It first goes through the past year and then looking forward to the next year. I made everyone fill this paper out including my mom and I am going to keep it in a book so that we can look back on what we did in 2012. We continued with a lesson on the importance of goal setting and how to set a goal.
You first write it down...then I think the most important part is that you make a plan on how you are going to accomplish that goal, because if you don't have a plan it is just something written on a piece of paper. The girls thought about what they wanted to accomplish and wrote down their goals. Then today we are making our plans on how each of us are going to accomplish each of our goals. It was a really fun activity and I have great hopes that we are going to be successful on accomplishing our goals as individuals and as a family. 

As a treat I found this too on Pinterest, they are called Resolution Cookies. I made sugar cookies from scratch and the frosting then we frosted on our Resolutions for the year then we ate them. I do have to say I worked half the day on these and they look cute but they did not taste too good!!! I was so sad I now need to find a better recipe for sugar cookies!!! Oh well I guess EVERYTHING can't always turn out amazing!!!