Disneyland 2011

This year Dustin and I made the decision to just go to California Adventure Park at Disneyland. We had a great time, but we definitely learned a few things. Neither of us had ever been to California Adventure and we figured we would change things up by going there instead of Disneyland Park itself, just to do something new with the girls. Some tips for the future: only go to C.A. with a park hopper pass. When you only have one day to do Disneyland, don't spend your money and your day at C.A. There is not as much to do at this part of the park, but there are some fantastic rides and shows.

When we first arrived the girls did some marching with army soldiers:

Then we saw Mr. Incredible!

And then the girls saw this building and they thought it was a haunted house. Both Adelynne and Amy went on the ride, but the biggest surprise of all.... Grandma went on it too! Both girls were UNpleasantly surprised at discovering that this was a terrifying ride. But we all survived, I never want to do it again, actually none of us do. But we survived The Hollywood Tower of Terror! And I wish we had bought the shirts to prove it.

Kitty!

Notice that Amy is not in any pictures of the characters. She was too scared to go see them.

But she wasn't scared of Goofy! Aurora was not impressed or interested in the characters.

Bugs Life "teacups"

And I just couldn't leave any of these pictures with Pluto out.

High Five!

After this shot, Pluto noticed that Aurora wasn't in the pictures, so he grabbed the stroller and wheeled her over for a picture, (see next photo).

Aurora was not so sure about being this close.

What's going on?

Oooh. She was excited about the whiskers, but she panicked when he reached his paw over to her.

Love this.

Carousel Ride! Amy was excited to ride the seahorse, and Adelynne loved riding the dolphin.

Disneyland is always so fun. I love seeing the joy on my girls' faces. I hope we have the chance to go again in a few years.

We LOVE them

Dustin was raised by the most incredible parents. I know, mostly because I am married to the most incredible man, and I have to give his parents at least half of the credit. I truly love my in-laws and I love the time I have to be with them. I love seeing my daughters get to know them and wanting to be with them. David and Mable are patient and loving and I know that they love their son, they love me, and they love their granddaughters. I am grateful to be a part of their family.

Great Aunt Donna with Aurora:

Cold Creek Summer 2011

One of our favorite places to be at is Cold Creek, Nevada. There is nothing like Grandpa and Grandma Belt's House. Adelynne and Amy have endless fun playing together on the mountain.

Out for a walk on the mountain:

One of our favorite spots, Cold Creek.

The view:

Throwing bread to the fishes:

Aurora and Bubba

A long time ago..... back in May we went to Las Vegas and visited with Dustin's family. I did a terrible job of taking pictures of all our cousins that we spent so much time with, but we had a great time. The girls love playing with their cousins, I just wish they could spend time with them more frequently. I did snap a few pictures of Aurora hanging with her cousin Charles, (aka Bubba).

The binkie thief: (And WHAT is going through Charles' mind)?!

Lemon Fresh

Sometimes I like to edit my photos in my iPhoto program, and this one turned out pretty good, don't you think? I really have no idea what I'm doing when I am editing, I just do what I think looks good.

This one I put in because Aurora is looking at the camera, but I like the other one better.

So these pictures are the only ones I took from our visit with my sister, Amy, her husband, Joe, and their darling son, Brek. They live in Utah, and their place is usually our first visiting stop on our way to visit with grandparents. We were only there for two days, but we tried to squeeze in what we could. The weather was rainy and cold, but we enjoyed visiting. We visited Dustin's brother, Cary and his family that live north of Salt Lake. We also visited with my cousin Brittany and her sweet little baby girl, my cousin Emily, as well as my friend Crissy and her adorable kids. Crissy and I go way back to our days cleaning bathrooms at the Wilk at BYU. There is nothing like building a friendship over toilets! I would have liked to have spent more time with them all, and more friends too, but hopefully another time.

Star Wars Princesses

Back in May, (YES! I have made it to May!), our friend and neighbor, Dylan, had a Star Wars birthday party. Since Adelynne has such long hair, I thought it would be fun to put little Leia buns in her hair and then dress her to look like Princess Leia. She was all for it. We showed her pictures (the modest ones) of Princess Leia from Star Wars since Adelynne had no idea who Princess Leia was. My girls just don't really know Star Wars. Well we took one of Dustin's white shirts and flipped the collar inside out and tied a sash around Adelynne's waist and wa-lah! She looked like Leia. As we dressed Adelynne up, Amy started to cry and say that what Adelynne was wearing was not a princess dress. We told her that she didn't have to wear what Adelynne was wearing. So Amy ran to her room and put on her pink princess dress-up and came out and told us that she was a "Pink Princess Leia," very matter-of-factly. And that is how she went to the party.

Right before we headed to the party, Adelynne wanted to take a sword with her (because at the very least, she does know what a light saber is). So I asked Dustin about her taking one, and he says to me, "Princess Leia doesn't have a light saber! She has a gun! Don't you know that?!" So Adelynne, (and Amy), got to take toy dart guns as their weapons. When we arrived at the party Dylan was excited to see Adelynne dressed like Leia. Adelynne asked if she could have one of the light sabers that the other kids had and Dylan proclaims, "Princess Leia doesn't have a light saber, she has a gun!" Love that kid! It was the cutest Star Wars party! The girls had a great time.

Dance Recital

Adelynne and Amy took dance classes from January to April, and they had a great time. These are the videos that Dustin took on his iPad at the dress rehearsal. Amy's video is first, she is the 4th girl from the left (right next to the blond instructor). Adelynne's video comes after Amy's. She is in the back row, third girl from the left. Adelynne's hair is curly because we put sponge curlers in the night before. The girls were such a joy to watch at the recital, I really loved watching them. I look forward to them participating in dance classes again.

Make a video - it's fun, easy and free!
www.onetruemedia.com

When Adelynne finished dance classes she always had a flushed face and a great big smile. She would come out of class and tell me that she wished she could dance more. It was wonderful to see her have so much excitement for dancing. Her class was a hip hop/jazz class. With Amy, it was a fight to get her to class, but once she was there she had a great time. She loved seeing herself in the mirror, and when I looked at her in her classroom, she was always enraptured with her reflection in the mirror. She just couldn't peel her eyes off of herself! She was always smiling when class was over too. Even now, both girls love to do their dances. Amy can almost do Adelynne's dance routine now!

Amy also got a bike for her birthday

The day before Amy's birthday we gave her a new bike. She has been riding a little 12 inch bike, and she has just gotten much too tall for it, she looks so funny riding around on it when her knees move up to her chest as she peddles. Adelynne got her "big girl bike" when she turned 5, but Amy just needed one a little sooner. She rides very well on her bigger bike.

This was her face when we brought in her bike:

The facts are registering now:

Yay! Big girl on her big bike!!

Amy had a birthday

Here are the promised pictures from Amy's 4th birthday! I have to thank my wonderful friend Sarah for taking them for me and allowing me to enjoy the party instead of fussing with the camera. Sarah took over a hundred amazing pictures, and it was so hard to narrow down to just loading ten on to blogger. I have all the pictures loaded onto Facebook if you want to see them all.
I threw Amy my first ever themed party. It was stressful planning, but Amy LOVED her party, and in the end I am glad I did it for her. You should have seen her face when she walked into the party room. Her eyes and mouth were wide open and she just stood and stared at the room in disbelief. The theme for the party was Barbie Fashion Show. (I got the idea from the Children's Museum of Indianapolis, and the movie Barbie A Fashion Fairy Tale).

Cake Time!! Amy's cake was compliments of Walmart. And obviously I forgot the candles, so we used matches. Amy barely got to blow them out because they burned faster than we could sing to her. But I love her face, you can tell she is so happy.

We played a game of put the sunglasses on Barbie's face.

Time for presents!

Can you tell she was excited to get this Rapunzel baby doll?

One of our favorite guests, Grandma Biggs was able to come for Amy's birthday. It was wonderful to have her there with us. You can see her in the background talking with our wonderful friends (and former neighbors), the Walker Family. Also in attendance the Aagard Family, Iddings Family, Dustin Family and some of the Bench Family. At the party we served Amy's all time favorite meal, soft pretzels from Sam's Club. Amy just loves going to Sam's for a pretzel with butter and salt. We also offered sugar and cinnamon as an alternative. Fresh fruit and vegetable trays were also served. It was a yummy dinner!

Party Guests: Aubree, Adelynne, Minnie, Dylan

Madeline, Moira, Sabrina, Amy

These balloons will forever hold a memory in my mind (and heart). They were a beautiful accessory to Amy's party (thanks Gramma!), and Amy was in love with the Barbie balloon. At the end of the party we were cleaning up and loading our things into the car. As we headed out of the building for a loading trip, Amy wanted to come outside with her balloon. I immediately told her no and that she needed to stay inside. She whined to come out, I insisted she stay inside because she would let go of the balloon and it would fly away and she would be so sad. But Amy countered that she wouldn't let go of it. I begged her to stay inside, I pleaded with her to stay inside, and I would have shut the door on her to keep her in, but someone exiting the building came up behind us and so kindly helped Amy get the balloon out the door. So Amy came out to the car with us as we loaded our items into the car. When I turned back to Amy I saw as the balloon string drifting from her hand and she reached out for it and then she crumpled to the ground sobbing. It was the most pitiful scene ever. I was torn between being sorry for her and angry at her. Unfortunately for her I was more angry at the moment as I lectured her. But my anger subsided and I was able to comfort her. I told her that now the angels would get to play with her Barbie balloon and she was so nice to share it with them, and she sobbed, "But they won't give it back!" It was a really terrible and sad thing to happen at the end of such a wonderful birthday party, but oh, what a memory.

Family Picture!

One of the highlights of the party was the fashion show. We brought our collection of dress-ups and the kids dressed up and walked down our cat-walk. Most of them were pretty shy about posing at the end, but Amy was proud to strut her stuff!

I LOVE this picture. I love my Amy girl, she brings so much joy and spunk to my life.

Way back when.....

IT WAS EASTER! Wow, who would have thought I could get so far behind? Easter happened to fall on the same weekend as Amy's birthday (pictures coming soon)! So it was a weekend full of sweets, gifts, and fancy dresses. Also, I am counting this picture with me and the girls as my mother's day picture for 2011, since I forgot to have Dustin take one of me and the girls on that day.
My Mom came to visit to celebrate Amy's birthday with us, which was absolutely wonderful. She was here not only for Amy's birthday, but for Easter, and the girls' dance recital (pictures coming soon)! and some other fun things too. I love Aurora's face in this picture, she just cracks me up, silly baby! And isn't my mother just beautiful? I never see her more radiant than when she is being a grandma.


Another funny stare from Aurora. I think she was tired of being choked.
Look at my beautiful girls! My Mom always makes the girls' dresses for Easter, and she also made these dresses, only she made them over 20 years ago. That's right, she made them for me and my sister. Adelynne is wearing my dress, and Amy is wearing my sister (Amy's) dress. I should have snapped a picture of the back of these dresses, because the back is cascading layers of lace. And don't overlook those "puffed sleeves."