Friday Night Outing

This evening we were suppose to go to dinner with our old neighbor who is in town on business. Work got in the way and he was unable to make it, so not having anything in mind for dinner, we still went out! Following dinner, we went downtown and looked at all the pretty Christmas lights. Because it had been raining practically nonstop all day long, there were hardly any people out admiring the lights, much to our benefit!

Oh The Marvels of Technology...

Things are so different now than when our grandparents were little, or even our parents for that matter.

This evening Hannah, as well as myself, enjoyed video chatting with our dearly missed friends who moved away in July.

Here is a picture of all of us trying to get into the screen shot to be able to be seen and to see each other. LOL.

It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas!

Steven put the Christmas tree up and fluffed it all yesterday while we shopped. When we arrived home late yesterday afternoon, Hannah wanted to start decorating it right away. But before that, I had to take down and put away all my Fall decor. So this morning, after I put the ribbon and gold trim about the tree, I opened up the box of ornaments, set them on the coffee table, and let the girls have at decorating the tree. And despite having to move some ornaments around and put special ones a little higher, and rearrange some highly populated areas, the finished product looks great! Now to finish the rest of the decorating!!

Black Friday Shopping

Hannah joined Gramma and Mommy once again this year for the adventures that Black Friday holds. Her morning started out with Gramma giving her $5 for her to spend anywhere and on anything she wanted. Still a little confused on how just one bill equals so much, she was excited and tucked it into her pocket.

Our first major stop was to the mall. And after several finds, and a stroller packed with packages, we were stopped by a reporter for the local newspaper. He interviewed us and snapped a picture and told us to be on the lookout in tomorrow's newspaper. For more details of the encounter with the reporter, you can check out Mommy's blog. Hannah was a good sport and kept going. She got a little grumpy in the middle of the day when she wanted something she didn't have enough money for (she was short $15 plus tax). But other than that, she did good, and we had fun. And despite me telling her the rules of Black Friday shopping as soon as we got into the car this morning, she managed to already spoil one of the gifts we'd bought. LOL.

Some Pictures from Thanksgiving

Hannah was a huge help with Thanksgiving this year. On Wednesday, as I prepped a lot of the kitchen work that can be done ahead of time, she was a good helper to dry the dishes (the big stuff) several times over and over again once they'd been washed. She was also a big help and set the Thanksgiving table. Beside each plate, she placed a Thanksgiving/Fall picture that she and Rachel had colored. Our Thanksgiving was small this year...it was us, my parents, and my uncle. The girls LOVED all the attention that Uncle Bart had to give. And Hannah loved claiming her seat next to him at the dinner table. Following dinner, we continued to look through the Black Friday ads and by the end of the day, Hannah had committed herself to joining Gramma and I shopping on Black Friday.

Day 2 with Friends

Hannah played hookie from school today so that she could join us in spending another day with our friends from out of state.

Throughout the day, Karen's husband and oldest son would join us and then go off and do their own exploring.
We did things in Disneyland and then mid-afternoon, we went back to their hotel where Hannah borrowed some shorts and a t-shirt and the kids went swimming. Paradise Pier has a really cool slide into their pool, I was so proud that Hannah gave it a try and actually liked it! So much so, that she did it over and over. After some time of hanging at the pool and relaxing, we cleaned up and headed into California Adventure for the remainder of our time together.

After much more fun, we soon had to say our goodbyes and we needed to head for home. It was a great two days of spending time with our friends, and we look forward to the time that we can all be together again...especially if it's at the Happiest Place on Earth! :)

A Day with Friends

Over eight years ago, having just found out I was pregnant with Hannah, I joined a message board on AOL for women who were expecting in April 2000. It was on the message boards that I met a group of women who started an email loop outside of the message board. Most of our email loop has continued to email over the years and a few of us have even met several times. One of those women is Karen. If you can believe it, she's just as much as a Disney Freak as I am and the very first time we met was in August 2001, when her and her 17 month old daughter flew from Maryland to California to spend an extended weekend at Disneyland.

Hannah and Catherine, our 'expecting in April babies'. We have become very good friends and have seen each other several times over the years. Each time Karen has come to California she has brought a different child with her. This weekend Karen and her husband and their three children are visiting Southern California and staying at the Disneyland Resort. Today, for the first time, our entire two families spent the day together at Disneyland.We met mid-morning, just as they were coming off the Finding Nemo ride. From the Finding Nemo ride, we went to Autopia since it was right there. Only six people could use Joe's "magical pass", and since we're at Disneyland all the time, we opted to sit out with Rachel and Hannah went. When they came off the ride, the Dream Squad greeted them with special Mickey Ears! Hannah was pretty jazzed because the last time we were greeted by the Squad, Hannah was not with us. She now has her very own set of special ears.We had lunch, got soaked on Splash Mountain, and then headed over to the Pirates Lair on Tom's Sawyer Island, where the kids played, and played, and played. They were having so much fun! The park was pretty busy so we spent the rest of the day taking advantage of Joe's Magical Pass and getting on some good rides. We did dinner and enjoyed the pretty Christmas lights and the beautiful new way the castle was decorated this year. We made it a point to go to Toontown and visit Minnie's house, where we took pictures the very first time we'd met and snapped a picture of the girls
Loop babies, August 2001, 17 months old Two of the Loop babies, November 2007, 7 1/2 years old.We had such a great day together. The kids all got along very well together, Rachel did just with the big kids and acted like the age difference was no big deal. We parted our ways around 9:15 and we headed home and they headed to their hotel room. Rachel and I are heading back to Disneyland to spend one more day with our friends on Monday, and I'm seriously thinking about taking Hannah out of school for the day as well. It's not everyday we have friends come from the other side of the country that we can visit with and spend time with at The Happiest Place on Earth.

No School = Disneyland

There was no school today, due to Veteran's Day, so me and the girls took advantage of no school and headed to Disneyland!

It was a beautiful day for going, beautiful blue skies, just the right temps. We arrived to the park just after 9, and managed to beat a lot of the holiday crowds. We checked out the line for Finding Nemo...already a 90 minute wait so we skipped that one. Disneyland is mostly decorated for Christmas already so Small World was up and running in its holiday decor and song. We walked onto that ride and the three of us had the entire boat to ourselves! The girls thought that was pretty cool. We headed back into Toontown and did some exploring there. There are all sorts of fun props to pull and push that make noise and the girls had fun doing that. They were more than happy to pose for a picture in 'kid jail' as I called it. We strolled through Disneyland, stopping for a few favorite rides. Enjoying the Christmas decorations. And stopping in front of the castle for the morning show of Mickey and Friends with the Disneyland Band.After the band performance, we headed down Main Street, strolling through some shops and then made our way over California Adventure. As we were getting ready to enter the gates we ran into neighbors who lived right next door and moved about a year and a half ago. It was so nice to run into them and see how each other's kids had grown. We ended up spending the rest of the afternoon with them. Hannah and Karisa had so much fun riding rides together and hanging out. They used to play together a lot before her family moved. We talked about meeting up again at Disneyland and perhaps even arranging a play date for the girls.

We went our separate ways and we headed for home. We're looking forward to our next trip to Disneyland this weekend where we will spend the day with Mommy's good friend Karen, and her entire family, coming all the way from Pennsylvania.

Watch for Falling Trees!

Surprisingly, the girls were excited to see us this morning when we arrived at Gramie's. It's probably because they knew they weren't coming home with us. LOL.

Gramie had some pine trees in her yard that she wanted cut down and that's what Steven's job was for the day. Just as he was starting to scope out and plan his attack, his Dad arrived to give him a helping hand...which helped tremendously! And here, the girls moved the bench to the edge of the doorway to watch the 'show' as Hannah put it. And after it was all said and done, and two trees lay completely on the ground, Hannah took all the credit. LOL. Just kidding. The girls will come home sometime tomorrow afternoon. Sounds like they have some fun things planned for tomorrow...a trip to the zoo, a trip to a new park, and a movie!

Heading to Gramie's

The girls are heading to Gramie's for the weekend. Papa Steve was kind enough to save Gramie the trip down the hill and is taking the girls to Gramie's work. They won't miss us too much, we are heading up there tomorrow for Steven to cut trees down. :)

Sleep Over with Emma

Last night, Hannah's friend Emma spent the night. They had a fun time watching movies, playing outside, and even going to the park, thanks to Daddy. They did really well with including Rachel for the most part. This morning it was particularly cute when they were doing each other's hair for church.

Differing Ideas of "Good" Candy

Hannah's idea of "good" candy....
Mommy's idea of 'good' candy...