Christmas Break

So now that I've sufficiently overwhelmed you with Disney World pictures, I'll move on to Christmas!

I drove home with my parents to spend two weeks with them between Disney World and Christmas while my hubby went back to Idaho to work.

C had just started laughing a little, so I did all I could to get it as much as possible. 

I love this video. Makes me laugh.

Cutest little swaddled bug!

I got to buy a christmas tree with my family! Dad got sick the first week I was there, so Mom, C and I went to get a tree with my brother and his family and my sister and hers. Here's the truck with three trees on top. :)

I got my hair cut!

I played barbies. C didn't enjoy it, but I liked going through my old barbies and playing with my nieces.

2 adorable Cinderellas!

Ev and I put up Christmas lights outside

A family in my home ward threw a Christmas party and I got an Air Guitar from the white elephant exchange. Woot!

C LOVED LOVED LOVED LOVED the Christmas tree.

If he was fussy, I could just put him under the tree and he'd be satisfied again.

The first sunday after getting back to Arkansas, I got sick. Pretty sure it was strep and a cold at the same time. yay.

My sweet dad got me daisies and apologized that they weren't the right kind. How sweet is that??

He got me a sandwich, flowers, and antibiotics. It was very nice.

Of course, my poor boy wasn't immune from my sickness, so he caught something, too.

So sad.

The sweet boy even smiled a lot through his sickness. It hurt my heart to hear him cough and be so sad.

I was sick sick sick for a couple days, but then I got a lot better by the next weekend.

My mom got sick too, but hers lasted a lot longer than mine did.

She's the Stake Relief Society President (president of the women's group) and she was in charge of a lunch for all of the missionaries in the area.

Since she was sick, my sister and I took her place and helped with the lunch.

Here's a video of the missionaries thanking us. :)

My dad sent us a text and said to think of my little brother, who is on a mission to Nevada, while we served these missionaries. And to love them the way their mothers want them to be loved while they are serving the Lord.

LATE that night, J came!!

Yay! I went to the airport to pick him up at about 1am. When we got home, C needed to eat, so I was feeding him and he looked up, saw his dad, smiled, and went back to eating. Then, he paused again as if he just figured something out, looked at his dad, and smiled like "hey! I know you!"

Here's us after church the sunday before Christmas

Riding on Daddy's shoulders.

The cutest elf there ever was!

Christmas Eve, my oldest brother and my sister and their families come. My other brother has a smaller family dinner with steak.

We dine on king crab, artichokes, and shrimp...oh the heavenly dinner!!

My nephew got sick, so my sister in law had to stay home. But we sent a big helping for her with her boys after the evening was over.

But we also make cookies for Santa on Christmas Eve.

Here's Roundy (11) with a cookie for E

These are C's cookies for Santa. J is super proud of his. The tree, the star, and the gingerbread man with the arrow to the knee. I was just proud that I got my cookies decorated and they look decent.

Here's C in a Santa outfit. I like how he's holding onto his belt. 

Our family Christmas morning 2012

Our stockings and toys. C got lotsa Disney stuff. A train from Disney World and little squeaker toys of the Mickey Mouse Club.

The whole family came for Christmas breakfast, then we opened more presents, lounged around, played games, built puzzles, and then the snow came.

Arkansas doesn't get crazy snow. This year, it did.

This was the first white Christmas in Arkansas in about 80 years. And it kept coming and coming! My brother tried to leave, but couldn't get up the street to get out. So everyone stayed the night. That's right, folks... 21 people at my parents' place! It was exciting! Thankfully, I got to keep my bed and room. But my sister was in the sewing room with an air mattress, my brother was in the den on couches, my sister in law was downstairs on a couch and her kids were on the floor in the office. 

The next day, my brother thankfully was able to get here from his duty as a police officer.

We then played some more with our new presents, found out that their houses didn't have power, and planned for more nights together!

It was pretty crazy.

Here's JP wearing his daddy's stuff.

Once the snow and ice got a little bit more under control by friday or so, we were all itching to get out.

We went shopping.

Here's E wearing a cute hat..but she looks like Dark Helmet. heehee

EARLY Saturday morning, we flew back to Idaho.

J and I were separated (don't go with Travelocity!!!)

so I had C all to myself. It was challenging, but he was a trooper.

Especially since we got stuck in Denver for 3 extra hours. I RAN to the plane, got on,  handed off C so I could use a bathroom, sat down, then they came on the intercom and said that the plane had a mechanical problem. So we got off the plane and were told to move gates about 3 times, got 3 different departure times, and eventually, I arrived in Boise about 7 hours later than planned initially. Ugh.

Christmas was great! I loved it. Even though we alllll got sick and we got snowed in, it was an adventure and I'm happy I got to be home with my family for the whole month!!

Disney World Day 7 and traveling home

Saturday, we went back to Magic Kingdom again since it was probably going to be a shorter day anyway.

We went through Cinderella's castle this time. So beautiful. I want a castle. ;)

Look at those eyes! mmm!

J left after snarfing down a lunch at Tortuga across from the Pirates ride. The plan was that he would come back to Idaho and I'd drive with my family back to Arkansas. Then he'd come to Arkansas for the week of Christmas.

Needless to say, I cried. A lot. It was my first time alone with C. And he is my best friend. 

Earlier in the day, my niece started crying and my sister told her that the only one allowed to cry at Disney World that day was Grace because she had to say goodbye to her husband.

*sniff

Anyway...

I bought a Minnie Mouse shirt. Excuse the whole mirror picture...

After J left, I stuck myself to my parents' hips. We went on the Pirates ride and I got this AWESOME picture of my dad. He was embarrassed that I then put it on Instagram and facebook...and now my blog. heh. Sorry, Dad! 

But seriously. How cool is that??

We were pretty much done at about 3. So we left to get to the beach. We would stay there for the night and then drive back to Arkansas the next day (Sunday).

This beach is absolutely stunning. 

The sand was so soooo soft! I'm used to Hawaii sand. This is so fine and nice! I think it's the first time I actually could've stayed on the beach for hours. The beach in Hawaii is mostly just great because it's a beach and it's Hawaii. This sand was soft! I can't get over how wonderful the sand was.

Isn't my niece adorable?! I love this picture. 

C and my feet and the water.

Me and my boy. Such a cutie!!

First time in the ocean!!

From what I can tell, he liked the sand, but was unsure about the cold, foamy water. 

When I put his feet on the sand, he curled his toes and dug them in to figure out what it was.

It was difficult to keep him in the water without getting his pants wet!!

Lulu really enjoyed the beach. Her dress was wet probably up to her waist. 

We went searching for good shells. She would bring her mom broken ones-ones that we wouldn't choose-but she would point out how this one had stripes or this one was pink or this one had polka dots. Seeing the world through a child's eyes is really...eye opening (for lack of a better word)

Footprints!

My niece M picking up shells

 My dad just sat down and buried his feet.

We spent the night in Panama City and then drove back to Arkansas the next day.

 This is C VERY done with the car early on... :-/

Mommy watched a movie on the car's system, so C listened for a little bit, too.

 And he slept sometimes, too.

I LOVED Disney World! I can't wait to go back with my family as my little family gets bigger!
Thanks, Mom and Dad!

Disney World Day 6!!

This has been fun to go through the days and remember how fun it was! I'm so excited to take C back when he's older and bring his siblings-whoever they might be- one day!

Friday, we went to Animal Kingdom!

C started out the day tired on the bus

We got there right as the park was opening, so we saw this place where you could take a picture and had to use it before the people with expensive pictures came and took your picture with their camera instead of yours...

I LOVE this picture of my dad. Heehee

Me and Lulu

In Animal Kingdom, there is an Africa side and an Asia side along with a Dinoland. I don't remember a sign like this one for Asia. But this was a cool doorway to Africa.

 We're in Africa looking at Asia here. See Mt. Everest?

By the way, Mt Everest is the COOLEST ride I have EVER been on! Smooth like butter for one thing, then it's also just plain nice. Animal Kingdom is humid, so it's a nice relief to feel the breeze. Plus, you see the Yeti, go backwards, and it's totally awesome.

While we were waiting for our safari ride, we walked around in a zoo-like section of the park. The best part -based on the amount of pictures- was the monkeys. There was a "room" where tons of birds were just there. It was really cool. But I must admit I was nervous about a bird pooping on my head the whole time...

In this one, the little girl (right) is playing with her mom by taking the straw from her hands and dancing around. It was so funny!

A gorilla at the bachelor pad

Then we went on a safari ride. Pretty cool. Really really fast paced. More than half of our pictures are too blurry to make out what's being photographed... oh well. we got some!

Hippos

Birds

More birds

Lotsa hippos

Cool tree

Fake termite mound

Did you know that flamingos are pink because of all the shrimp they eat? No joke!

Baby elephant!!

 Lazy Lion (...licks a lollipop)

This ostrich was really close to the jeep

While we were walking to somewhere else, we saw this lady come out of the trees. It was pretty cool.

My boys

We went to watch the Lion King show. It was a really cool live musical with gymnasts, actors, characters...very fun.

My niece, M got to help with one song by walking around the stage with a maraca.

C watched avidly for the whole show, but when they sang "Can You Feel the Love" he zonked. 

Typical boy. haha

There was a nature walk in the middle of the park where you could see the animals and read about them.

These parrots didn't even have a cage. Apparently they're well-fed

This tree is AMAZING. I realize it must be mostly fake, but it's still gorgeous and fantastic. There are a bunch of animals engraved in the side of this tree. It was like I Spy!

There's a corner of the park where they have character meetings. While the rest of my family went to another show, we went and saw my favorites! When I was a kid, Pocahontas came out. I was OBSESSED. My back yard was from the movie, I didn't like parting my hair, because Pocahontas didn't, and I hid in the tiny little wilderness we had (maybe a 5x20 "grove")

Pocahontas rivals Beauty and the Beast for favorite.

Here's me with Grandmother Willow (on a stage)

I got a picture with Pocahontas! It was funny because looking at the line, it went little girl, little girl, grown woman, little girl, little girl little girl... ohhh yeahhhh...

And she's a princess, right? So she had to kiss C!

We saw King Louis and Balou!

And...Safari Donald?

 We told him that C was kissed by princesses, since he had the lips marks still, and so Donald kissed him, too.

We ate at the Polynesian Resort in their Ohana restaurant. Yummy luau food!

J, C and I sat with my brother and his family and it was really funny. We exchanged awesome jokes such as these gems:

Why did the mermaid wear seashells?

Because B-shells didn't fit! (heehee)

What did the snowman say to the other?

"Do you smell carrots?"

I took a picture with J at the grand canyon in March 2012 of our feet on the edge of the canyon. So here are our pajama'd feet after a day of walking at Animal Kingdom.

And C laughed that night, too!! It was so cute! I picked him up over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over....

Thankfully we got a video, because when I went next door to show my sister, he didn't perform. 

Silly guy!