Disneyland!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

All the exclamation points in the world wouldn't emphasize enough how much fun we had on our trip. Izebelle still talks about it. She re-enacts certain rides and loves watching videos we took while we were there. I just love how much she enjoyed it. I can't wait until we can go back.

WARNING: This post is very lengthy

Before I talk about Disneyland, I want to talk about Las Vegas. To break up our almost 20 hour car trip, we spent the night in Las Vegas on the way there and the way back. On our first trip through we got to see my sister and her family. We met up at the Bellagio and went to the buffet. The food was good and we got to see Mike Tyson (Marty wants me to note that he spotted Mike first). Then we had just enough time to watch the water show before we needed to leave.

Darr with Mike Tyson

Kaelie and Bechran kissing goodbye

On our way back through Las Vegas I convinced Marty that we should go to Mandalay Bay and check out the aquarium. Ize liked seeing the alligator, sharks, and fish, but her favorite part was touching the sting rays.

We only spent about 36 hours in Vegas, but we had a lot of fun.

Now onto the main attraction.........

We got into our hotel room in California just in time to see the fireworks. Ize was so excited. She kept jumping up and down. The next day she just kept saying, "Mouse House" (which is what she called Disneyland). We were all excited.

Marty and Ize in front of the Disneyland sign

Sleeping Beauty's Castle

I will split the following pictures into two categories.

First: RIDES

On the Dumbo ride

Ize loved the Teacups.

I have a great video of Marty and Ize on the teacups. I just need to figure out how to upload it

She re-enacts this ride all the time with her tea set and tiny stuffed animals.

On one of the Bug's Life rides. She makes a very adorable princess

This Little Mermaid ride always had a short line and Ize loved it, so we rode it a couple dozen times

It's A Small World

On the Mark Twain riverboat ride

Carousel

The ferris wheel of doom.

We all hated this ride with every fiber of our beings. The ride was miss represented to us, which is the only reason we endured it's hell. The ride has compartments that swing and when you walk up they ask if you want swinging or stationary. I looked up and at that moment the swinging ones weren't swinging that much and I asked the guy if it would be appropriate for the baby and he said yes and that she might even like the swinging. So we took this guys horrible advice and got in line for the swinging side. While in line we didn't pay much attention to how much the compartments were swinging. We got a very rude awakening when the ride took off and we experienced our first swing. The compartment swings down and you feel like you're falling down towards the water then you fling up and head down and so on. Ize and Marty were the first ones to head towards the water and they had the most terrified looks on their faces. We all screamed and Kaelie's body went rigid. We swung four times and it's one of the most scared I have ever been on a ride. Thank goodness I was wearing sleeves or I might have nail mark scares in my arms from where Kae was holding me so tight. Lucky for the worker that he wasn't there when we got off or I might have tackled him

Second: CHARACTERS/PRINCESSES

Minnie at her house. Ize loves Minnie.

Minnie's kitchen

Minnie's fridge

Mickey at his house. He was so funny with Ize because she was wearing a Minnie Mouse dress and had the doll. It was so cute (too bad we didn't get it on video).

Magician Mickey

Mickey and Minnie in California Adventure

Pluto too

Tigger

Pooh Bear

Mater and Lightning McQueen

Phineas and Ferb dancing

Tinkerbell

Rapunzel

Sleeping Beauty

Snow White

Belle

Tiana

Ariel

Ariel was Marty's favorite princess, until she said she's a USC fan. She lost major points that day.

Excited to meet Santa (can you tell?)

Mrs. Clause

Reindeer Pluto

Trying to pull the sword out of the stone

Ize posing in front of the only restaurant we ate at while in the park

Sitting together in the room

We got to watch the character Christmas parade. It's one of Ize's favorite videos to watch

In front of the Christmas tree

I hope you enjoyed this (long) post about our Disneyland adventure.

Soon I'll post about Christmas and the projects we've completed around the house.

Have a great weekend.

First Birthday!!!

Sorry it's been so long since the last post. Life has been busy. I will try to catch everyone up in the next few posts.

Our first big event since the last post was Kaelie's 1st Birthday!

She turned 1 on 11/11/11. It was a great day and a small celebration. Just perfect for someone her age. We went to Cheddar's for lunch, with us and my mom. Then we had a few friends over for cake and asked them to bring presents that would be donated to a children's organization instead of presents for Kae. Her and Ize have an overabundance of toys and clothes so we thought that would be a good alternative. Especially since she is too young to care about presents.

It was a lot of fun to watch her dig into her cake and watch Ize's reaction to Kae getting "dirty".

At the restaurant

At the party, in her dress

Ize at the party

Personal cake

She looks so scared of the fire.

Ize helped her blow out the candle

Ize checking out how dirty Kae was

So tired and falling asleep in our friend Brian's arms by the end of the night

We of course also celebrated Thanksgiving. We stayed home and it was quiet and nice. The girls actually both napped while Marty and I ate. It was a nice meal.

Images of Izebelle from the past three Thanksgivings:

I wish I had images like this of Kae. Oh well. I'll do better next year.

Be sure to check back for the other posts.

Have a great day!

Halloween 2011

We had a great Halloween. We carved pumpkins and decorated on Saturday and Sunday (a little late, I know). I also finished Kaelie's costume on Sunday. We left a little late to go trick-or-treating, but we still got plenty of candy. One lady liked their costumes so much she gave them both full sized candy bars (hurray!!!). We also got to see some close friends which is always fun. It was truly a great holiday. Besides Marty being sick, poor guy.

I bought this decorative pumpkin and put the button 'Boo' on it with a hot glue gun

Marty and I cut out all 24 of these Mickey Mouse faced bats and Marty hung them up.

I also cut out some monsters (4 total)

A friend of mine told me her mom decorates fake trees for fall, so I decided to decorate our fake tree for Halloween. Why not? They already sell all the stuff you need. Orange lights, glow-in-the-dark garland with bats on it, spider webbing, and a huge fake spider for the top.

Our Pumpkins:

I carved the two on the left and Marty did the one on the right. The one on the far left is Jack Skellington from 'The Nightmare before Christmas.' Then a cat and Marty's scary face pumpkin. I did the cat for Ize. We were going to do Minnie Mouse but after I did the Jack pumpkin, I decided something easy would be better.

The girls were Snow White and Dopey:

I thought they looked awesome. I just loved how cute they looked together.

I hope everyone else had a great holiday too.