A Real House!!!

A one bedroom apartment in ghetto Glendale, living with Chris' parents, living with Chris' sister, a two bedroom apartment in ghetto Salt Lake, a really nice two bedroom apartment in North Salt Lake, a two bedroom townhome in Seattle, a three bedroom townhome in Seattle.....and now..........a 2700 sq ft, 4 bedroom house in Snoqualmie Ridge!!!

That's right, we signed the lease on a house in the area we have been dreaming about for 3 years!! No, we didn't buy, but it's a step closer to getting our dream home someday. This one actually has a yard with grass! And a garage! and two, yes I said two walk-in master closets!!! And it will actually look quite empty after we move in since the house is more than double the size we are in.....no more squishing things into closets or just having to sell or throw it away!

It is in the best location....a block away from the school Brooklyn will be attending and a half block from Chris' bus stop. It's going to be a longer commute but we LOVE the neighborhood, it's out in the mountains (I've always wanted to live in the mountains!) It's so cute and so new! We move in April 1st, the only downside is all the packing I will have to do and saying good-bye to some of the best friends in the world :(

Here are a few pictures...

the front of the house

looking from the front porch at Brooklyn's school

the family room

the living room

a bad photo of the kitchen

through the screen photo of the backyard

bad photo of the upstairs living room

one of four very spacious bedrooms

master bedroom

back of the house/garage

Goodbye Newport Beach, Hello San Diego!

The last night of Disneyland, we came home early to go for a night swim. We were all crazy and jumped in the cold pool and then would get in the hot tub. The kids did it too! We swam forever and then on our way back up to the condo we found a frog and brought it back with us to swim in the bath tub before letting it go, the kids all got a kick out of the cute little frog.

The next morning while packing, the kids had me paint their faces and they wore their matching shirts. They were having so much fun and had a hard time saying good-bye when it was time to leave. They are so stinkin' cute!

Dave, Kiersten and their kids left for their drive back to Utah and we spent the rest of the morning playing around the grounds of the resort. It was a gorgeous day. Ryan and Staci came to get us and we took the scenic coast hwy down to San Diego and had a great visit.

We hung out at their downtown apartment and I realized how much I miss San Diego. The perfect weather, a friendly downtown, lots to do, and it's where Chris and I had some of our first dates and we fell in love! We would both live there in a heartbeat! We took Samson, their dog, on a walk, had a yummy dinner and exchanged some Christmas gifts. The kids were so excited that Aunt Staci and Uncle Ryan got them cute clothes. Brooklyn got the cutest sweeter and pants and Beckham got Buzz Lightyear pajamas. Both of the kids had to put them on right away, it was so cute. They also loved playing with Samson and feeding him treats. It was a fun day.

The next day Ryan took us to the San Diego Zoo. It was so fun! We saw so many animals and walk a long long way, we were tired and the kids fell asleep by the end. The kid's favorite animals were the panda bears, zebras, giraffes, lions and koala bears. We had so much fun! That night we had some good Mexican food and hung out and watched the Sing Off.

The next day we went to the mall I used to work at just a couple of blocks away from where Ryan and Staci lived. We checked out some fun toy stores and then headed to Seaport Village to ride the carosel, window shop and walk along the bay. We had a great day! That night, we met up with my cousin Jenny and her new husband and went to Phil's BBQ, the best BBQ place in the world!!! It was so good and we had a fun time catching up. From there we went to the San Diego temple to see the Christmas lights. The kids loved it and Brooklyn thought we were at a castle. It was so pretty and we had a great time!

The next day we went to visit my Grandma and Uncle Mark and had yummy crepes for brunch. The kids played with Great Grandma and we had a great visit before Mark took us back to LAX to catch our plane home. We got to the airport and we were all sad, we didn't want to end our vacation. But Brooklyn was so excited to be at LAX because she loves the song, "Party in the USA" by Miley Cyrus. In the song Miley talks about LAX and the Hollywood sign and Brooklyn was at LAX and saw the Hollywood sign and said she was just like Miley Cyrus, too cute! We got on our plane and had a good flight back and got home to find everything just fine.

We loved every minute of our vacation, but most of all just being together!

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Last Day of Disneyland

So to continue our December vacation....our last day of Disneyland was so fun! We had already seen many of the things we wanted to so we went back to all of our favorite rides, saw the Christmas parade again, Aladdin, Playhouse Disney, High School Musical street performance (of which Brooklyn and I got picked to dance in) and just hanging out with our friends.

We got to see a lot of the characters again, did a lot of window shopping at shops you don't normally get to see when trying to fit everything in. We took pictures of the fun decorations, I loved how they decorated for Christmas. The Club 33 door is an exclusive club that Walt Disney set up above New Orleans Square. There are a limited amount of members who can go and the membership is crazy expensive.....but our friends know someone and have gone there...they are going to take us someday, we can't wait!

Brooklyn and Beckham got to pick their souvenier, Beckham picked a Toy Story playset and Brooklyn picked Jack Skellington, after a long time of trying to talk her out of it, we gave in. She just loved him and was facinated by him. Brooklyn has always been my little individual, not your typical girly girl. So we thought instead of telling her having a "Jack" doll is weird for a little girl, we just let her be her. Of course, everyone who saw her with it, was a little creeped out that a little girl would want a skeleton for a toy, but whatever! I figure if it helps her confidence in the long run by liking something and being proud of it, then why not. The funny thing was that Avery, our friend's daughter, loved him too! They both had to hold him all night and on the last ride we took of the Haunted Mansion.

Chris and I bought soveniers for each other and we got the disney potato head set for the kids, it's so cute! We ended the night by taking turns watching the kids while Kiersten and I and then Dave and Chris went on Space Mountain, my favorite!!! it was so fun! We took some pictures in front of the castle and said Good-bye to the happiest place on earth! So much fun and so many fun memories!! We can't wait to go back!

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Happy Valentine's Day!!

Happy Valentine's Day to everyone!! This was one of my favorite photo shoots of my kids because they were so happy and being so funny. They were excited to have the kitty to be in the picture too! Stinkin' cute!

Relaxing at the Newport Coast Villas

We have THE best friends anyone could ask for. We just LOVE them. Chris and Dave became friends while working at DMBA in SLC 6 or so years ago. Dave is a comedian and he and Chris had a lot of working together with their weird senses of humor. They were really good friends and then we moved away to go to school but they stayed in touch. Finally last year we connected with the whole family and hit it off. Kiersten and I are like sisters, I just love her, she is amazing. Their kids Avery and Emma are about the same ages as Brooklyn and Beckham and they have so much fun together. It's hard to find friends where everyone likes each other but with Dave and Kiersten, it's a match made in heaven for us. They're our couple! We could hang out with them everyday! We are so sad they live in Utah....so we make the best of our time when we do get to see each other. We visited Utah a few times this year and had fun date nights and other fun playdates with the kids.

Then because they love us equally, they asked us to go on vacation with them. We were so excited and couldn't wait. They have a time share in Newport Beach and asked us to go with them and stay at the resort and go to Disneyland with them! So the whole time I have been blogging about Disneyland, we were staying at this amazing resort with our friends.

We arrived at the resort on a Sunday, then we went to Disneyland Mon-Wed and we had so much fun and we were so tired that we took Thursday off to just relax at the resort. We started the day taking the kids out to the playground area on the grounds, where they also got to play on the putting green and in a big sand box. They also got to do a fun gingerbread man hunt that the resort put on. We also played around the main entrance where they had fun fountains and a coi pond. We went inside the lobby and checked out the game room, the pools, ping pong and giant chess and checkers boards. It was a gorgeous day!

After playing around the resort, we went to the beach. Kiersten and I relaxed in the sand enjoying the sun while the guys took the kids to the water to find seashells. We had a lot of fun. We came back to the resort to just let the kids play while we got ready for our Christmas party. In between the beach and the Christmas party, the resort was having an activity where the kids got to go and make gingerbread men. The kids had fun making them and we got to listen to some Christmas carolers too. Back at the condo the kids had an early dinner and then the adults had a nice dinner while the kids watched a movie. After dinner the kids made Christmas crafts together and then decorated a Christmas tree with popcorn, seashells and candy canes. They were having a blast together. Then it was time for the gift exchange. Beckham got a Woody doll from Emma, Emma got a game from Beckham, Brooklyn got an Ariel doll from Avery and Avery got a mini tea set from Brooklyn. They were all so excited to watch each other open their presents they got for each other. It was such a fun night.

After we got the kids to bed, it was time for the gag gift exchange with Dave and Kiersten. We have the best time together, all we do is tease and each other and crack up about different things, it is so fun! Chris and I were so excited for them to open their gifts. We got Kiersten a leg lamp from the movie, A Christmas Story. She laughed so hard and loved it! We got Dave corn dog flavored mints and Hobo fake cigarettes. They were so nasty. They smelt like a homeless person, it was so gross, we all got a good laugh. Kiersten and Dave got me a leopard snuggie...I was so excited, they are so funny but I actually love it! They got Chris "Nerd no more" pills and straw glasses. We were cracking up. We played some Wii and watched a movie and had a great night! We could hang out with them all the time!

We love you Dave and Kiersten!!! Thank you for the best vacation ever!! We miss you!

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Day 3 of Disneyland....and California Adventure

Day 3 of our Disney adventure was another great one. We headed to the park early to hit the bakery for carmel apple cider, hot cocoa and Mickey cookies. From there the kids wanted to go on The Haunted Mansion first thing and they loved every minute of it. Then we headed to Toon Town to play in the fun village. We had a great time. Then we decided to head over to California Adventure. We went on Monsters Inc., Soaring Over California, explored the bug's life land, and then met up with our friends.

We went on Toy Story and it was really fun, we also went on King Triton's carosel and then on the ferris wheel with swaying cars....it was kinda scary but fun. then we headed over to the jumping jellyfish before finding a spot to sit and watch the Pixar Parade. The Pixar Parade was a blast. It was so interactive, the characters all waved and smiled at you and some even came up and gave 5's to the kids, they loved it! We called it a day after the parade and headed back to the condo to relax. It was another great day!

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Our second day of Disneyland

Continuing our trip to California in December, our second day of Disneyland was better than the first.....what made it that way was the sunshine! No more rain!

We woke up early and headed to Disneyland and got a tip from one of our friends who has an annual pass that you can ride the monorail straight into Disneyland and can avoid lines with your pass. So we tried it out and it was great, it dropped us off in Tomorrow land where we went on "Finding Nemo" for our first ride of the day and we were almost first in line by doing it that way. The kids loved the ride and we were all in great moods due to the warm sunshine.

Next Beckham and I stood in line for Pixie Hollow to meet the fairies while Chris and Brooklyn went on the Matterhorn. I was surprised Brooklyn went on it, it's amazing what Daddy's can get their kids to do. She really like it, especially seeing the snow monster. They got off that ride and came back in line with Beckham and I just in time to meet Rosetta in Pixie Hollow. Brooklyn was so excited to meet the fairy who had hair the same as her. We also got to meet Tinkerbell, it was really fun. I was hoping there was a little more to it than meeting two fairies but it was still fun and we didn't stand in line for too long.

The next thing we did was explore Fantasyland. We went on Alice in Wonderland, the Teacups, Mr. Toad's wild ride, Snow White, and Pinnochio.

We then went to Frontierland and on our way saw Woody and Jessie, the kids were so excited!! They both love Toy Story. We went to Santa's Reindeer Roundup after that where the kids got to see real reindeer, meet Mrs. Claus and then go into a cute little cabin they had for Santa. Brooklyn was excited to sit on Santa's lap and tell him that she wanted Littlest Pet Shop toys, Beckham did not even want to be next to him. Oh well, we got a cute picture of Brooklyn with Santa and enjoyed the fun decorations and seeing Pluto dressed up like a reindeer, the kids got a kick out of that.

Then our friends met up with us and we went back to Fantasyland and because they had a handicapped pass we got on Peter Pan really quick, which was nice because that line is always long. Brooklyn and Beckham loved Peter Pan! Then we used the pass to get on Dumbo instead of standing in that insane line. The kids loved that too! Avery, Emma, Brooklyn and Beckham had a blast running around Disneyland together. They held hands and took pictures of each other and shared the same love that our kids had of the Haunted Mansion. All the kids loved Jack Skellington from the Nightmare Before Christmas. The Haunted Mansion was the favorite ride between all of them. So we went on that a few times before watching the Christmas parade. The kids all loved the Christmas parade, it was so fun. All the characters, plus dancing snowmen, snowflakes, reindeer and Santa! Beckham almost ran out there a couple of times because he was so excited to see Tigger and Pooh and then Woody and Buzz. It was a lot of fun.

We decided after the parade to go on It's a Small World. The day before there was so much water in the boats that it was not very fun as our feet were soaked and then sat in an inch or tow of water. It was much more pleasant this time and we got off the ride right in time to hear the countdown to the nightly Christmas lighting of It's a Small World. It was so beautiful and fun to see!

We then went to get some dinner and while eating we watched the fireworks over the castle. They were so beautiful with the Christmas/Disney music set to them. Very magical. The kids both fell asleep and we headed back to the condo to rest and to get ready for another funfilled Disney day the next day.

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