December...

Trying to get caught up with my blog! Here is all of December (minus Christmas)!

I find myself putting us all in stripes a fair amount!

This boy is constantly falling asleep while we eat lunch. I find him nodding off all the time in his high chair...poor kid. This particular day I saw him starting to nod off and so I got him out and tried to keep him awake but he was not having it. So I set him on the chair and he was out.

My sad attempt at a picture in front of the tree.

Jack was so excited for this dusting of snow we got one day and came home to inform me that he was sad it was gone by the first recess. We live in the NorthWest!

Always fun to come home to this at your front door!

Cohen decided to pull out all of Clays shoes one day while I was getting ready and he made a big pile! I guess it wore him out!

He is such a climber! I am just waiting for something to break. He is constantly getting into trouble and definitely keeps me on his toes.

Just hanging out with the other counselor in the bishopric, Larry Larson, on Sunday! Love this picture!

Jack came home with a journal he wrote in every week at school. It was so fun to read through and remember things we had done, but this last entry was my favorite!

Addie handed this note to me when I was at her house and asked me to give it to Jack! I of course had to look at it first! Oh these two!

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It actually snowed enough to go out and play the last day of school and there was a 2 hour delay (amazingly school was not closed...we are in the NW!)! Clay was excited to go out with the boys and play! They built a cute little snowman and did a little sledding down the driveway! It was lots of fun!

Cohen brought the helmet over to me so I put it on for him and he actually kept it on! Guess you can never be too safe!

Yes it was still dark outside, pretty sure they were out there before 7am!

My last attempt at a picture by the tree...fail. I guess there is always next year!

Disney World...

Clay and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary this year! We had talked about taking a trip (without children) to some place like Hawaii. However, after our trip down to Florida this summer, Kelly 'convinced' us to look into a trip to Disney World. She assured us she could get us some major discounts with hotel and tickets into the park...plus, Kelly and PJ would join us for the fun!!! So of course we took her up on it! We got some funny looks/comments about the fact that we werent taking our boys, but we were both excited!

Clays brother, Cameron, and his wife, Virginia, so graciously agreed to watch our boys for us! They were both able to come out the week before Thanksgiving and stay in our home while we were gone! The boys were so excited to have Cramon and Ginia back to play with and we are so grateful they were willing to do this!

I wondered if we would miss having the boys with us when we were there, but I have to say that for the most part that was not the case. We knew they had been before and would go again! And we were able to go where we wanted and do what we wanted. We didnt have to push a stroller around or pack a huge bag. We didnt have to deal with tired/grumpy kids. It was really nice!

It did become a running joke though that one or all of us had to go to the bathroom just about after every ride it seemed! I really think we went way more than we would have if we had our kids with us!

The park really wasnt that crowded. It started to fill up on Friday/Saturday/Sunday, but since we had gotten there a couple of days earlier, we were able to go on every ride without having to wait! The few rides we did wait for we were able to keep busy with a fun question game on PJ's phone!

It did rain on us several times. Pretty sure we take the rain with us wherever we go! The first day it started raining in the afternoon and just came down harder and harder throughout the night. Kelly and I tried to convince the boys to let us buy ponchos but they didnt think it would be worth the $8. I think we gave them a hard time the rest of the trip because it either rained or we went on rides that we could have used them!

Kelly and PJ were able to show us around the new addition to Fantasyland (that they had been working on when we were out there a couple of years ago)! It was really cute! Clay and PJ even got to participate in Enchanted Tales with Belle and get their picture taken with Belle!

We ate at some great places that we probably wouldnt have gone to with the kids! My favorite was an Italian restaurant in Epcot! The pizza was so amazing! It also became another running joke that someone would ask when it was time to eat next! We tried some tasty snacks that we probably wouldnt have done with kids! Kelly got to try the ice cream cookie sandwich finally, we had mickey pretzels and churros, hot chocolate, and we got dole whips (I think I am the only one who likes them)!

We were able to introduce Kelly to Hollywood Tower of Terror...still not sure why she hadnt been on it before! Also not sure she was a huge fan! We also happened upon a fun light show in Hollywood Studios...it even snowed at the end! We thought we had great seats to see Fantasmic and were in the front row! It was great until they started projecting the show onto the water and it sprayed us most of the time. Man we were wet and cold!

Probably some of my favorite parts of the trip were seeing all of the Christmas decorations up around the park and the fireworks show at the castle! Right before the fireworks, they projected a fantastic show directly onto the castle! It was so incredible and they even included a song from the new Disney movie, Frozen! The castle was beautiful with all of the lights they had on it and it didnt hurt that we had a good view!!

The last day we were there we didnt have tickets to the park so we decided to check out the outlet mall and get pedicures/massages. The girls got pedicures and the boys got massages. It was a great way to end the trip! We really had such a great time celebrating a decade of magic and were lucky to have Kelly and PJ join in on the fun! It was nice to get back home to our boys, but we will always remember this trip and the magic of Disney!

We had to pose for the boys! Clay didnt think it was a great idea so it looks a little awkward!

Both wearing capes!

Clay did not want to pose like this but was pressured into it!

Gaston had to point out that we took off our Happily Ever After pins (attached to our bags) before posing with him! Ha!

We learned that Clay LOVES the Dapper Dans!!

Only did Star Tours for the boys...totally made me sick.

That would be Clay in the front with the backpack over his head! We should have just gotten ponchos!

It started to really cool off towards the end of the trip and so we had to find some hot chocolate to warm us up!

Since it was so close to Christmas we decided not to bring the boys home any toys and decided instead upon sweatshirts! Cohen makes one cute Mickey!