Emma and the Princesses

Emma is love! She loves all things princess these day, and we got lots of opportunities to meet some of her favorites. First, we went to the Princess faire where we met

Princess Jasmine

Cinderella (Emma is not excited at all :)


and Ariel

who even took the time to dance with her
We also had lunch with even more of the princesses including

Snow White

Belle

and Sleeping Beauty
Emma was in awe of these beautiful princesses and their pretty dresses!

It's the happiest place on Earth!

After Emma's performance, we headed down to Southern California to spend a few days at the"Happiest Place on Earth" (or so they say, we saw quite a few unhappy people there, too:) Disneyland at Christmas is festive, magical, colorful..... and crowded! We survived our adventure with lots of fun and minimal meltdowns! We arrived at the park early each morning before it got really crowded and got to ride most rides with not a lot of waiting. We also worked the fast pass system and Dan and I got to go on the "Big Kid" rides, too!

Upon entering the park, we ran into this Guy! Emma was a little shy of the characters at first, but she quickly warmed up

Sleeping Beauty's castle

Ian on his first ride...Dumbo!

Emma loves Carousels!

Love this picture of Emma and Ian on the teacups!

Headed into It's a Small World (On the way out, Ian was asleep!)

Emma playing in Toon Town

Emma and Daddy on the roller coaster

She also got to ride on the Matterhorn

Ian loves to Eat!

Ian and Emma at the princess lunch (more on the princesses later)

Dessert!
The Christmas parade was a lot of fun, too





We also went to breakfast with the character Including...

Minnie Mouse (excuse Ian's expression....there is food on the table and he is wondering why it is not getting into his mouth!)

Eeyore sympathizes with Ian over the lack of food

But Tigger made him laugh (with egg all over his face!)

Emma loved hangin out on these "Hunny" pots of Pooh!
We were amazed at how well Emma and Ian did! They loved it and even though it was crowed, we had a wonderful time.

Emma's First Performance

Last Friday, Emma's preschool had it's special Christmas Chapel for all the parents. This was Emma's first time on stage and we were prepared for anything :). Overall, she did a great job staying in her place and singing her songs. The cutest thing was that she saw us in the audience and kept waving.

Ian is ready for the show

Emma and some of her classmates (all the pictures came out blurry for some reason, but these were the best of the bunch)

The a good part of the school

After the performance, we headed over to the birthday party for Jesus where Ian perfected his new talent

Eating Ritz crackers

Emma was really excited about giving gifts to her teachers
It was a really fun morning!

Our Elf Family

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

An escape from the Christmas Craziness

After a week of trying to get all things Christmas ready with events almost every day or night, we decided to have a calmer day on Sunday. With no scheduled plans, we headed into San Francisco to check out a train exhibit with had heard about. The exhibit was not quite as big as we thought it would be, but Emma had a great time watching the trains go by.

The Cable Car going up. All the buildings were made out of recycled items

The train with San Francisco in the background

The "family" shot Emma was not that into posing today

Emma watches the trains

Another "Family" Shot
Later, was were in another museum when we saw a little bit of things to come....

Ian started "picking" on Emma in the stroller.... and he was smiling about it

Emma was not too amused
On Monday, it was back to Christmas preparations Emma and I declared it cookie day. This involved staying in our pajamas all day and making big messes in the kitchen while creating"masterpiece cookies"

Emma working on the sugar cookies

Ian with his dough.... thinking , what the heck am I supposed to do with this????
Overall, it was a fun day and we got the last to do marked off our list... Now on to enjoying the Holiday

Santa Babies

When you have a girl and a boy, there are not a whole lot of clothes that they can share. Santa hats can be worn by everyone!

Ian sporting his fashionable hat

And Emma 3 Christmases ago

Oh Christmas Tree!

On Sunday we went to the local tree lot and got our beautiful Christmas tree. We also took the opportunity to take some family pictures in front of the tree. Emma and Ian did a great job posing in front of the tree together



But when it was time for a family shot, they were a little less cooperative...


85 pictures later and we got an okay shot

and one more of Ian getting ready for his first Christmas