South Carolina

 

It is a good thing that I LOVE to travel because I counted it up and in the last two months me and Dane have drug these kids to/through 18 different states!

It feels good to finally be back in Virginia and see our friends again but the last couple months have been a total blast getting to go to so many different and new places!

 

Three days after getting back from California we headed down for a quick trip to South Carolina.

Beck screams with excitement every time we tell him that we are going to stay in a hotel and this time was no different.  It's a good thing he likes them so much because for this trip staying in the hotel and swimming at the pool was as exciting as it got! 

 Dane had a dinner to go to the first night we got there so we took the kids to the pool and then he went to the dinner and me and the kids hung out in the room, we watched Cinderella, made microwave dinners, and ate what was left of the snacks we brought (we left the house that morning with 2 grociery bags full of snacks so all I can say about how much sugar we must have had that day is yikes). 

 Dane left early the next morning so me and the kids got up and took our time eating breakfast and getting ready and then went on a walk through a super cute little neighborhood that was by our hotel.  It may not sound all that exciting but I thought it was fun. 

As soon as Dane was done he picked us up and we went on a quick drive around town and then headed back home.  On the way home we stopped in North Carolina to see our friends Justin and Rachel, they used to live next door to us and we miss them SO MUCH I never play a game of Ticket to Ride without thinking of them.  It was really fun to see them and their cute girls it just stinks seeing old friends cause it reminds me how much I miss them!  



Disneyland!!

 The fun didn't stop after Christmas, Dane had an interview in California so me and the kids stayed in Utah while he traveled to a couple other interviews and then drove to California with Myrna and Doug to meet up with him when he got there. 

 

My kids are becoming good little travlers so I wasn't worried about the drive down but the fuel pump went out in Doug's truck when we were in Beaver so that tacked on almost 5 extra hours to the trip while we waited to get the truck towed and fixed...thank goodness for Mcdonalds playplace!

 And as if Disneyland isn't exciting enough to make things even better Shelby, Trevor, and Reid were able to drive down and join us!!  We didn't get to see them at Christmas because they went to Australia so I was soooo excited we got to see them!!

 

Myrna loves every part of Disneyland except for Small World...which just so happens to be one of my kids favorite rides, she was a good sport and came on it with us haha

 Quinn LOVED the characters...as long as they didn't get within ten feet of her.  I wouldn't be surprised if Minnie Mouse has permanent hear loss after the way Quinn screamed at her when she got too close.

 

 

 Ok cars world is AWESOME it looks exactly like Radiator Springs...we have been dying to take Beck to cars world since we first heard they were building it.  The only bummer was he was barely too short to go on the cars rollercoaster and it was so so so fun he would have loved it.  I'm afraid the poor little guy is going to be too short to go on some of the rides until he's like 16, he wasn't even close to being tall enough for rides Indiana Jones

 I know it's been 4 years but it still blows my mind that me and Shelby are moms haha

Myrna is an awesome grandma she made sure the kids had full Disney attire from head to toe and her and Doug treated Beck and Quinn like roalty and carried them all day long both days since they would both much rather be carried than pushed in a stroller, so spoiled.

 

The kids were sound asleep by the time we were done with our first wonderful day at Disney. It was cute watching Dane pull both the strollers back to the hotel at the end of the day.

 Quinn was hilarious on the train she didn't want to get off so she grabbed onto bars for dear life when we tried to get her off so we all acted like we were going to leave her on the ride but she didn't care one little bit that we left her there alone she just gave us all a dirty look and held on until we pried her hands off.

 Disneyland never disappoints it was THE BEST!!!  I hate to be greedy but two days just left us wanting more!

 

 

 Myrna and Doug had to leave the morning after Disneyland and we got to spend one last day in California with Shelby and Trevor.  We met up at a really sweet mall (by sweet I mean Miley Cyrus owns an apartment above this mall...yeah, sweet) and then we took the kids to a way cute play place.  The kids would have been happy to spend the whole day there were so many toys to play with.  Then we went back to Shelby and Trevor's house and got to spend the rest of the day just hanging out and chatting. I wish so much we lived closer to eachother it would be a blast but even though we only see eachother a couple times a year it's always a ton of fun and we make lots of good memories. 

 

We flew back to Virginia early the next day and of course right as I was getting Quinn out of the car at the airport she threw up all over me...someone in our family has gotten sick the day of our flight the last 4 times we have flown back home from Utah/California.  Dane had already checked all our bags so luckily I had an extra shirt to change into but not an extra pair of pants...gross huh!  But hey what do you do.

Christmas 2012

I am SOOO glad we ended up being able to come to Utah to spend Christmas with family!

Our parents always do so many things to make Christmas special and memorable for all of us...I'm scared to think that one of these years it's going to be my job to make it special for our little family!

 

Christmas Eve we all went out to breakfast and then to a movie.  That night my mom made a feast for dinner and we ate and watched A Christmas Story, then we read Christmas stories, took turns sharing our testimonies of the Savior, read "The Night Before Christmas", and went on a drive to look at all of the Christmas lights. 

 

 

 

 

 

Beck and Papa tracking where Santa was on the computer.

 

 

Milk and Cookies for Santa

Christmas morning gets better every year the kids get older.  I had just as much trouble falling asleep as Beck. 

Christmas morning we let the kids open Santa gifts and then got to Skype with uncle Dayne!!

 

My mom bought hats for all of us to wear while we skyped but Beck used the elf hats as shoes instead

between Santa and Grandparents these kids are SO SPOILED!!

 

Santa brought Beck some sweet mini-golf clubs - the mom elf thought it would be cool if Beck got a real club for Christmas but sent the dad elf into the sporting goods store to choose one and the dad elf went a little crazy in there haha.  It was justified by only buying Quinn presents from the dollar store (Dane said he knows in the long run Quinn is going to cost him A LOT more money than Beck so we didn't need to feel bad for her)  and she was just as excited for her presents as Beck was.

 

 

And if all that wasn't enough Ammy and Papa bought themselves a hotwheels for Christmas and got it out Christmas night.  Yeah...spoiled!!

 

After we did presents, skyping with Dayne, and breakfast we headed over to Grandma Myrna and Grandpa Doug's house to spend Christmas day with them.  They made an awesome lunch and we opened more presents and watched Christmas movies and played with all the kids new toys the rest of the day. I stink though I got no pictures!!

 

It was a wonderful day to be able to be together with family and celebrate Christ's birth.

Snow!!

 

 

 

 

 

We got to come to Utah for Christmas and I cannot be happier that we had a white Christmas!!

Despite her smile Quinn was not a fan of playing the snow. 

 Beck loved playing in the snow and didn't want to come in until I bribed him with hot chocolate, but no surprise the one who spent the most time outside making forts and snowmen was DANE!! 

I'm so glad we got our annual Christmas snowman and once again it didn't disappoint it was even taller than last year!

 

Sidenote: we invited our friends Rhett and Jessie to come over and hang out with us at my parents house and they told us that they couldn't remember which house was my parents so even though we hadn't mentioned Dane had built a snowman this year Jessie knows Dane enough to know that they just needed to look for the house with the biggest snowman in the front yard and it would be the right house, so thats what they did and sure enough they came to the right house haha.