Monday, November 29, 2010

thanksgiving weekend

We had a wonderful low-key Thanksgiving weekend - hope yours was too!
Blake made his yummy parmesan artichoke stuffing to take to dinner at my parents' house and I made a delicious sweet potato casserole that NO ONE ate - but me. Next year I think this dish will be taken off the menu because I came home with a full 9x13 pan (minus my small corner serving taken out).


I love our smallish-sized Thanksgiving. There was only 9 of us with plenty of room to lounge and flop after dinner.

I'm thinking of cutting her hair.
Nothing drastic or super short but it's kind of crazy right now. Her real bangs hit her chin so I was thinking of having it all cut to one length to clean it up a bit. Hmmm.

I don't know how she'll feel about it though because yesterday we saw Tangled and well, Rapunzel and her hair were a hit!
All of my family saw it with Lucy yesterday and I think all of us loved it. Rapunzel has the cutest freckles and Lucy's favorite was Maximus the horse. Lucy would not stop talking about the movie all night and was reenacting it in case Blake and I forgot something. I'm worried Rapunzel may take top billing to Cinderella so last night I did some early cyber-Monday shopping and now I think all princesses will have an equal showing Christmas morning.

Speaking of...
Christmas comes early today at our house!
I'm waiting for the RCWilley truck to pull up anytime now (I even shoveled for them...well for them and for Salt Lake City. Because now you can be fined in the city if your walks aren't shoveled 24 hours after a storm. We are probably the youngest on our side of the street and last to shovel...)
So...RCWilley will be here to bring Lucy her big-girl bed!
I may have mentioned it before but against our will we've been co-sleeping since summer. What was an occasional visit from a sweet sleepy-eyed girl stumbling in for a cuddle at three in the morning has turned into an EVERY NIGHT visit complete with kicks, cover stealing and a formation of the human "H" (Lucy being sideways in the middle). Three humans and two dogs is not cool even in a king bed. We tried bribes, presents, threats but she doesn't care about those things in the middle of the night. I've decided she's just outgrown her toddler bed. I mean the size of the mattress is for a crib and she'll be four this spring. So even though she's petite she moves a lot and I think an arm or leg flung off the side of her bed is waking her up. So a bigger twin bed is our next option.
A decent sleep would be the best present I could receive!

Next we have to pick out some sheets Lucy will love because she's already disappointed in the style of bed arriving. Last week we went to pick out the simplest headboard, box spring and mattress because I want to wait a few years for a new bedroom set. Wandering through the bedroom sets we saw the bed pretty much made for Lucy - a carriage bed!
A darling (just from Cinderella) bed with a full carriage around it. I don't know who wanted it more Lucy or me. I knew it wasn't happening though and tried to steer her towards her new pioneer bed. What happened next was frightening. Full on screams and chanting of "carriage bed - carriage bed". And of course usually RCWilley is packed but this night it was a ghost town except for a few saintly 3-5 year olds and their parents waiting for the one salesman to finish helping us. Screams turned to sobs and then I had some sense to take Lucy out to the car. I then had to try and explain why she couldn't have the carriage bed (pretty hard when I wanted it too). She got over it once we got home but guess what was in the RCWilley black friday ad the next morning?

I hope this bed does the trick. Because if we don't get some sleep soon we might be delirious enough to go back for that damn bed.

Sweet dreams!

Saturday, November 20, 2010

Christmas Kick-Off

We're back!
We had an amazing, amazing trip last week and I'm sad it's all over. I have to say that as many times as we've been to Disneyland (this is already Lucy's 4th visit) this time of year is my favorite. We had gorgeous weather, very low crowds and so much Christmas-y touches you couldn't help but get in the spirit. This trip was prompted by a golf tournament Blake wanted to play in St. George. We left Thursday evening and Friday and Saturday while Blake played Lucy and I tried to entertain ourselves. Friday was great because we got to visit some fun friends. My friend Natalie moved to St. George a few years ago and her two darling girls Halle and Taya let us come over and visit. Lucy had the best time with these girls but I probably should have invited ourselves over again on Saturday because, well...we struggled to find something to do. After a Target visit we did a mini photo shoot and then couldn't pick Blake up fast enough to make it on to Anaheim.


Sunday morning we woke up to bright blue skies and headed straight to Balboa Island for breakfast, window shopping and a bay cruise.


We wrapped up that day on the beach and a late lunch at the Crab Cooker and got to bed early for our first day at the parks.



I've never seen Disneyland decked out for the holidays and of course they do it right!
It was fun to be there in November to kick off the Christmas season.


Our new fave Rapunzel - the movie is out this week!

All of It's a Small World is decorated with an added bonus of peppermint in the air.

Minnie's tree

Reindeer Round-Up

Santa and Disneyland?! Too much!





Small World at night

After watching the Christmas fireworks on Main Street they start playing "I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas" and then it snows! On Main Street! In California!



The next morning we decided to do Minnie's breakfast...



Who is this?

After our character breakfast and standing in the Princess line TWICE in hopes of Cinderella we thought we'd have to miss her this year. But Blake knew how much Lucy needed to see her so he made us reservations for the Princess dinner...and she was there!

Learning to bow and curtsy.



Main Street tree


It truly is the most magical time to go. Almost every ride was a walk-on, we had front row parade seats and wore shorts during the day. This is the time to go!

As much as we love Disneyland (Lucy not so much on some rides this time) I think we'll give it at least a year before our next visit. Lucy had a freak out right before Peter Pan and refused to go on Winnie the Pooh (?) so it might be time for a break. She did however go on Matterhorn!


On our way home we broke up the drive with a stay at the Mirage in Las Vegas. Included with our room were tickets to Siegfried & Roy's Dolphin and Tiger exhibit. I thought it might be lame but it was fabulous (should I expect anything less from S&R?)



We had such a fun time!
(and yes I know this is A LOT of pictures)