pal, buddy, amigo

Friends through thick and thin...

Mike and Sully

Buzz and Woody

Lightning McQueen and Mater

David and John!  

How lucky to have your best friend be your brother too.

 

I love this one...don't they look like they have a secret together?

Thanks to Terra Cooper (Magnifique Photography) for taking these awesome pictures of my boys.  Do yourself a favor and check out her amazing work at magnifiquephotograpy.com .

Happy Birthday to David & John

We celebrated David and John's birthday last week.  I hope it was a memorable day for them!  It's hard to believe that they are already three.  They have grown up so much...and way too fast.

{John and David on the day they were born.  So sweet!  It's hard to believe that they were ever this small.  We had no idea what we were getting into, but we wouldn't change a thing.}

Eric and I got David and John the coolest 2-wheel bikes. We were super excited for them to wake up on the morning of their birthday, and they did not disappoint.  They could not believe their eyes.  They rode their bikes around the kitchen all day.  I was a little nervous, but we made it through the day without any major dents.

 

 After opening presents and a special birthday breakfast of Mickey Mouse pancakes (which they did not eat...) and strawberries, the boys headed outside to blow bubbles. What is it about kids and bubbles? They LOVE them! Of course, they had used them up (slash) spilled them in a matter of minutes, but it was worth it.



Poor John...always the first to spill his bubbles.

 For lunch, Eric met us at Chuck E. Cheese.  The boys and Ellie had a great time.  David must've ridden this ice cream truck ride 10 times.  He loved it.  John also loved the puppy ride, but was more interested in the popcorn game.  They ran from game to game having so much fun.

Ellie had fun too!  She was crazy for tickets.

For some reason I could not get a decent picture of the boys on this day.  They were determined not to smile or look at the camera when I wanted them to.  SO, this is the best we could do!

 Later that evening our families came over for cake and ice cream.  We are so lucky to have such a caring and generous family to celebrate with.  The boys got lots of fun gifts, and loved blowing out the candles.

 



Our cute and tasty Buzz and Woody cake.



Grandma Jean & Grandpa John gave the boys some cute Lightning McQueen helmets and bike bells.  Grandma Teresa & Grandpa Dave gave them a couple of awesome scooters.  Needless to say, we will be spending a lot of time outside as soon as the weather cooperates.  

{Happy Birthday David and John!  We love you so much!  I can't imagine our family without you.  We are so proud of everything you have learned.  We love to watch you laugh and grow.  The world is yours guys!  Love, Mom}

 







Disneyland 2011

We can't get enough of Disneyland.  It is our favorite place for a vacation.  This year we convinced Mike to bring his family and come to the Happiest Place on Earth with us.  It sounded too good to miss, so my mom and Alaina came for a couple of days too.  Eric and I loaded our kids in the car and drove to California while the rest of the family flew.  Here are a couple of pictures of our kids at our hotel in Henderson, NV.

We made the drive in two days (to keep our sanity), but it was all worth it once we arrived in Disneyland.  Let the fun begin!  We had four-day park hoppers and we definitely got our moneys worth.  I don't think Mike or his kids knew what they were getting into going on vacation with us Disney addicts.  We played hard.

Here's our whole group posing for the traditional Disneyland picture: Alaina, Mom, Maryn, Eric, Jeremy, Olivia, Mike, David, John, Ellie, Josh and Owen. 

Character Sightings

One of our favorite things to do in Disneyland is get autographs and pictures with as many characters as we can see.  It is so magical for the kids.  This year we saw quite a few familiar faces.

We saw so many princesses!  My niece Olivia had a goal to get her picture with all the princesses.  We didn't miss very many.  It was so fun for Ellie.  John was SO excited to see Lightning McQueen.  He is a little obsessed.  David's favorite was Pluto.  My favorite was Cruella Deville.  She was hilarious.  She had the part down!  We waited to see Rapunzel and Flynn Ryder for over an hour.  It was crazy!  I was glad we did just to see how happy it made Ellie. 

One of the highlights of the trip for Ellie was having her face painted at the Princess Faire.  She looked so beautiful!

The Rides 
We rode so many rides.  Ellie is not afraid of anything.  If you ask her she will tell you that her favorite rides are Space Mountain and Tower of Terror.  Last year she wasn't tall enough to ride California Screamin', the awesome roller coaster at California Adventure.  Her goal this year was to be tall enough to ride...and she was!  She loved it!  The boys love Buzz's Astro Blasters and The Matterhorn.  Next time we go, David wants to be able to ride Big Thunder Mountain Railroad.  The only thing that could've made this trip better for me was if Splash Mountain and Winnie the Pooh had been open.
 

It's a Small World

The Teacups.  You couldn't pay me to go on this ride..

Riding the Disneyland Railroad

King Arthur's Carousel, another favorite of David and John

Alice in Wonderland.  I don't understand why the line for this ride is always so darn long.

David and John also like Mr. Toad's Wild Ride.  David really thought he was driving the car.  He was all business.

Toy Story Mania.  By far the longest line we waited in.  We waited for over an hour.  At one point John looked up at me and said, "We are in a bear trap!"  It was so cute.

Tower of Terror.  I didn't get the memo that we were all raising our arms.

Poncho Up!  We love Grizzly River Rapids.

Mike's kids must've ridden Grizzly River Rapids 10 times.  They loved it and didn't mind being wet after.

This is really the boys all time favorite ride... The Monsters Inc. ride. We rode it a bunch of time and they always wanted more.  We have also watched the movie a lot lately.  They love it!

Here is Ellie and the cousins on California Screamin'.  If you look close you can see her tiny excited face.

The kids posing in the Toy Story toy box.

The Shows and Food

I had a goal this trip to eat at better restaurants.  The food is the worst thing about Disneyland to me.  I hate paying so much money for crappy food.  We decided that Downtown Disney is the only place to eat.  There are tons of good places.  We went to the Rain Forest Cafe and the ESPN Zone.  Yum.  Our kids are so young that we have never made it to any of the nighttime shows at Disneyland.  This year our goal was to tough it out and stay late for the fireworks, Fantasmic, and World of Color.  It was a struggle, but we did it!  Eric and I were so impressed with World of Color.  It was amazing.  We saw Aladdin the play at CA Adventure and watched It's Tough to Be a Bug and The Muppets in 3D. (4D?)

The Rain Forest Cafe was fun.  We sat right by an aquarium and they had occasional thunder storms.  Fun for the kids.

Here we are waiting for It's Tough to be a Bug.  We love it.

At times the weather was a little chilly, but we had a great vacation. We can't wait to go again. Hopefully the Allreds will have recovered enough to come with us!