Holiday Decorating

As always, the girls had super fun decorating for Christmas this year. It was a little later than normal since we were away for Thanksgiving. The tree usually goes up that weekend. We added another tree in the family room this year that has colored lights and was decorated by the girls. We also made many batches of chex mix, puppy chow, peanut butter blossom cookies and decorated sugar cookies for the holidays.

Happy 9th Birthday Taylor!

Left to Right: Alyssa, Paige, Taylor, Ashley, Paige, Addison and Toree

It is totally crazy to think that Taylor turned 9 this year. I always tell her she is not allowed to go into the double digits so no more birthdays for her. She celebrated in early December with 6 of her friends by getting pedicures and manicures. We then came back to the house for games, cake and ice cream. She said it was her best birthday ever but I think she says that every year. We had a small family birthday with grandparents, Aunts, Uncles and cousins on her actual birthday.

Disney World

This year we spent Thanksgiving at Walt Disney World. We suprised the girls early Tuesday morning, before Thanksgiving, with a 8 day stay at Disney. This had been in the works for some time so pulling it off as a secret was a success in itself. Needless to say, they were SUPER excited! We had great weather all week with the exception of rain one day but you can't let that stop you. We ended up buying ponches and kept on going. We spent that day at Hollywood studios trying to watch most of the indoor theater shows. The girls had great fun swimming in the hotel pool while it was raining that night. We enjoyed time at The Animal Kingdom, HollyWood Studios, Epcot and The Majic Kingdom. Some of the major highlights were a princess lunch with Cinderella, Ariel, Snow White, Aurora(Sleeping Beauty), and Belle, Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Parade and Fireworks show, Dinner and Breakfast at Chef Mickey's where you get to see Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Donald Duck and Goofy, The Bibbidy Bobbidy Boutique where Emma and Taylor got made up as princesses complete with hair, makeup, nails and fairy dust. Ella wanted nothing to do with this. One of the most interesting parts of this trip, compared to our visit 3 years ago, was seeing the girl's different personalities. At 3 years old, we threw Emma & Ella in the stroller and rolled away. They obviously were much more aware of their surroundings this time and were very vocal about what they wanted and didn't want to do. Taylor is very easy going and goes along with most things without complaining. She really enjoyed The American Idol Experience and The Toy Story Mania 3D game. Emma enjoyed seeing all the characters and would want and did sometimes wait in line for hours to see them. She was super excited to see Tinker Bell, Silvermist and Rosetta who are all new at Disney. Ella, well... as always, she was Ella. It depended on her mood what she was up for. Some characters she really enjoyed and others not so much. She really enjoyed the castle shows, parades and theater shows like Finding Nemo, Beauty and The Beast and Little Mermaid. It was a super fun family vacation that I hope the girls will always remember!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Champ

My beloved Champ dog passed away suddenly and very unexpectedly early Sunday morning. He was a very dear part of our family and will be incredibly missed. He was my first "baby" when I brought him home at only 5 weeks old. He quickly grew into a 100 pound lap dog. For the past 11 years, he has been the biggest "baby" in the house and we expected to have many more years of enjoyment with him. Champ was and will continue to be very loved!