Disneyland: Part 1

For Christmas, my parents took us to Disneyland. We had an absolute blast! Spending the week together on vacation was such a wonderful Christmas present. There are LOTS of pictures, so I'll do my best to narrate. Getting packed. In the end, Allen decided he didn't want to ride to California in a suitcase.
He was much more comfortable in his carseat :) For a 5 month old on a road trip, he did pretty good sitting in his seat for all those hours. We took lots of toys and books with us to keep him occupied. He sure loves his books! The "tail" end. Playing with Grandpa while we stopped for lunch. Ready for his first day at Disneyland! He got the stroller for Christmas and it was perfect for our trip. Allen's first ride! He wasn't sure what to think. Throughout the week we took him on every ride he was allowed to go on. Some he liked...others not so much. I think The Tiki Room and Peter Pan were his favorite and he absolutely hated Pinocchio and the Toy Story ride in Adventureland.

The park was REALLY crowded. They actually reached their capacity several of the days we were there and had to close the gates. (We got there early every day to make sure we'd get in.) It was so fun seeing the park decorated for Christmas!

The Haunted Mansion and It's a Small World were completely decorated inside and out for the holiday. So fun!

At night, the castle is "magically" covered with snow.

There were SO many things for Allen to see and experience.

This kid LOVES wearing glasses. He thinks it's so funny anytime we put them on him. It was nice to be able to distract him with them anytime we got stuck waiting in long lines.

Part 2 soon to follow!

Back To School

I'm SO behind on my posting! Getting caught up is a little harder than a thought. Well...Parker headed back to school this week. He got accepted to the Masters program at the U of U and I'm so proud of him. It's only day 2 of the semester and he's already working so hard and has had to make a lot of sacrifices.

Now, for those of you out there panicking (I won't name any names, ahem), you don't have anything to worry about. We are still true blue cougar fans :) But we're very grateful for the blessing and opportunity that Parker has to continue his education.

Christmas 2010

We had a wonderful Christmas this year. Crazy. A little chaotic. But wonderful. :) Christmas morning we opened presents and went through our stockings as a little family. Christmas seemed even more special now that we have our little Allen. Parker was so excited to celebrate Christmas with him, that he woke A.P. up a little early :) In these next few photos, you can tell by Allen's bewildered expression that he wasn't quite ready to be awake and experience so much excitement. :)





After going through our stockings and opening presents from one another, we rushed out the door for a fun day of visiting!


Allen with Papa

Allen with Gigi

We open presents with the Ainge's and then head to Grandma Ainge's for lunch and socializing.

Then we went to visit the Sneddon's and spend time with Great Grandma.

Allen with Grandpa and Grammy.

The boys all got remote control helicopters in their stockings. (One of which mysteriously got flown into my head and caught in my hair! Boys!)

Reading with Great Grandma.

Krug got stuck behind the Christmas tree and couldn't figure out how to get back out.

Sitting with Aunt Alicia

Thank you to our incredible families that take such good care of us (and spoiled us totally rotten). We had a great Christmas with all of you--being with you was the best part. We love you so much!

My Little Minion

I love kids movies. Absolutely just love them. This last year, one of my favorites was Despicable Me. Each time the previews were played during commercials, the little minions totally had me cracking up. I just thought those little guys were so funny! Well, Allen has little rings he plays with and we have discovered a new game that he thinks is hilarious...playing minions!

He just thinks its so funny when we take turns putting the rings over our faces :)

See the resemblance?

Annual Ainge Christmas Party

Every year Granda Ainge throws a huge Christmas Party. She puts so much work into it, and seems to out-do herself with each new year. And boy, does she spoil everybody rotten! First, we get to enjoy yummy food and chatting with all the family. Then, there is the big white elephant gift exchange. Followed by some caroling and a visit from Santa! It was way past Allen's bedtime and he was a little overwhelmed with all the people but he still had fun being snuggled by Grandma and cousins.
Allen did okay sitting on Santa's lap...until he turned around and saw who was holding him! Then he wasn't sure. Poor little guy :( All the kids got new pajamas and a fun Pillow Pet from Santa Clause. And then Grandma brought out the GIANT stockings for all the grandkids. (These things are HUGE! Seriously, they are so enormous!) I wish I'd gotten a picture of Allen with his, but he was so exhausted that we finally let him go to sleep after sitting on Santa's lap.

We look forward to this party every year and always have such a wonderful time!

New Slippers

Aunt Alicia got Allen some new slippers and they are awesome! They are his size and fit perfectly but these things are HUGE! We couldn't stop laughing at how enormous they are on him--the pictures just don't do them justice. He was a little mesmermized by the camera in these photos.

My Birthday

December was one CRAZY month for us! I'm going to do my best to get caught up on blog postings, but we'll see how it goes. Here are some pictures from my birthday. We'd planned to go to Temple Square to see the lights (one of my absolute favorite things to do) but the weather just wasn't cooperating. So...I opted for pizza and bowling and we had a BLAST! Allen's new favorite thing is plastic bottles of any kind. He likes the noise they make when you crinkle them and loves to suck on the cold plastic.
He also thought the presents looked good enough to eat :)

I love my husband and family so much! And I'm so thankful for all they do for me! Thank you for making my birthday so special. Just being together was the best birthday present.