Merry Christmas!!

Here we are at Christmas dinner.

All of my family was at my parents, but we were sick the day before so they did not want us there. Sad huh? I wasn't planning on having dinner at home so the table is full of Christmas card stuff. So we had Shari's in to go containers. We sat with the kids at their table. We were home all day, so the kids didn't even get dressed. This is a Christmas that we will never forget.
What a precious little family.

Hope you had a Merry Christmas as did we!!

Happy Birthday Eric!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SWEETIE!!!

I just wanted to wish my husband a very happy belated birthday. I was VERY sick on his birthday with the stomach flu. His birthday is December 24th. I love him so much and just wanted to make sure that he didn't think I forgot to make a post for his birthday!

Last Day at Disneyland. :-(

DAY 5: California Adventure/Disneyland
Just a few of our favorite things....

We spent the last day at the parks by dong all of our favorite things again!!
We went to both parks and rode the rides we loved again!!

Shane, Eric and Madison waiting to get into the park.

Screaming in California Adventure. Eric loved this ride. Madison wanted to ride it but she was too small!! :-( Shane wanted nothing to do with that ride. :-)

Madison, Eric and Shane on the Orange Stinger in California Adventure.
It was one of Shane's favorite ride!!


Shane loved the "orange ride". He rode it about 5 times on our last day. It makes Eric and I dizzy and Madison was too short to ride by herself so we took pictures of each other while Shane rode the ride.

Eric and Madison having fun!!

Madison and I posing for a picture together.

This wasn't one of our favorite things, but we hadn't done it yet so we did it the last day. It was a Bugs Life in California Adventure.

This was one of Madison's Favorite things.
Talking and getting her picture taken with the princesses.

Madison with Mickey.

Shane and Madison with Jane Porter from Tarzan.

Jungle Cruise!
We rode that 5 times I think.

Mary Poppins with Shane and Madison.

Madison and I on Autotopia. We rode that I swear 100 times. No really but it felt like it. They absolutely loved being able to drive. Shane told me that this ride is where people practice driving to get thier license. Aren't 5 year olds cute. :-)

Shane and Eric on Autotopia!!

This was dinner our last night. We were so tired of fried food and the kids had seen a lot of people walking around with these turkey legs. So I told the kids that they could get one and they also had corn on the cob at this stand and they love that as well. Here they are sharing the corn.

Here is our second pose and I held the nasty turkey leg in the background. I didn't think that it was that good. They sure liked it..

Here we are coming home. They are watching the DVD player in the van. This is what they did for 24 hours.

Here they are on the way home at bed time. Aren't they cute, snoozing away!! :-)

Needless to say we had a great time. It was great fun for our children and we enjoyed watching them every step of the way. If we could afford it we would go every year, but we might realistically go again in 3 years.

Disneyland Continued...

Day 3: California Adventure

We were planning to go to Goofy's kitchen and have breakfast this day. When we got to Goofy's kitchen it was going to be over $150 f0r us to eat breakfast!! They quoted me a different price over the phone and would not honor that price. So unfortunately we didn't eat there. I couldn't see paying $150 for a couple of waffles and eggs. I know that is not like me. I like to spend money, but I just couldn't do it. The kids were bummed, but we went to the "jungle" so they were happy with that. We paid $30 at Rainforest Cafe. What a savings!!!

Shane posing with the Ape at Rainforest Cafe "Jungle as Shane and Madison call it". He didn't want to take a picture with me and Madison. He wanted it all by himself.

Madison and I with the Ape at the "jungle".

As you can see from Madison's shirt she loves Zebra's. When she saw this Zebra on the door at the "jungle" she wanted me to take a picture of her so that I could put it on my blog. Those were her exact words.

Shane and Madison with Mr. & Mrs. Incredible.

Shane and Madison loved the Monsters, Inc. ride so they were very excited to see Sulley. we rode Monsters, Inc about 15 times.

Shane and Madison with Sulley.

Shane with Woody!!

Shane with the Wall-E statue that they had.

Madison and Eric on Tower of Terror. This ride takes you up 10 stories and drops you. It is Madison's favorite ride. Her and Eric rode it 5 times. She is a brave girl. He brother tried to ride it and we had to exit.

Shane and Madison with Handy Manny.

Day 4: Disneyland- RAINING

We got to Disneyland at 10 am and we left at 2 pm. It was POURING!!! That was ok it gave us a chance to go to the motel room and rest and take naps.


Shane riding one of his favorite rides. Buzz Lightyear. You would aim at targets and get points. Shane'shigh score was 15,000.

Madison and Eric on Buzz Lightyear.

Shane, Madison and Eric on Dumbo. They were VERY wet. We went home after this ride.

Since it was raining we went back to the Hotel. We had lunch and then we took a nap. After we got up from our nap we went to Red Robin for dinner. Then we got a crazy idea to go swimming in the pool which is an outdoor pool. So we went in the hot tub and then Shane wanted to go in the swimming pool. So the good mom that I am I went with him. Man that was cold. We stayed for about 10 mins and then we went back in the hot tub for about 5 mins then we went back to the hotel. Then we all sat on the bed and the kids ate Twinkies and watched the Muppet's Christmas. What a night!!

Here we are chilling. Shane still has some Twinkie left in his hand.

Eric doing what he does best. Surfing the web.

The last day to come in the next post.

to be continued........

We are back from Disneyland!!!

I knew that we were going to have fun, but I never imagined how much fun we would have. I thought the worst part would be traveling in the car for 30 hours and that was the worst part, but we had so much fun spending time as a family. The way home was the best because we talked about how much fun we had in Disneyland. More than 2 times the kids just randomly would say "Thanks so much for taking us to Disneyland." I LOVE my kids!!
Enjoy the times that we had.


DAY 1: Disneyland- Happiest Place on Earth!!

Me and the kids right when we got into Disneyland!! We are on Main Street.

Madison and I on Autotopia. They both loved that ride, they were able to drive. I think that we rode it about 10 times and I am not exagerating.

Our cute family posing with Minne Mouse.

Shane and Madison with Pluto. You can tell this is one of the first characters they saw. They were a little shy.

Shane and Madison with Mickey Mouse.

Shane, Madison and Eric on the train.

Day 2: Disneyland- Rainiest Place on Earth! :-)
Princess Day!!

Andrea, Madison and Shane in the bus on the way to Disneyland.

All of us in our rain gear with Pooh and Eeyore. Eeyore is my favorite character. I am glad that we got his autograph and a picture. :):)

Shane and Madison with Tigger. It took them a while to warm up to the characters, by this time they were loving it. You can tell in Shane's face!!


Madison and I on the rocket ride in Tomorrowland.


Madison is such a little princess herself so she really enjoyed seeing all of the princesses. Instead of chasing them all over the park they have an enchantment princess area where they all are. There are 3 of them there at a time. So we waited inline for 3 hours to get all of them. That was fine with Madison though. She loved this part. So here are all the pics with her and the princesses.

Madison with Mulan.

Madison and Cinderella.

Madison with Snow White.


Shane had to wait for Madison while she saw all of the princesses. So in the princess village they had story time. So needless to say Shane went to a lot of story times because Madison was in the line for ever. So they picked him to dance with Cinderella. Let's just say "He loved it".


Madison chatting with Belle.

Madison and Jasmine.

Madison and Ariel looking at all of the princess autographs that she has. They were very friendly.

Madison posing with Ariel.


They also had a time that you could learn to dance like a prince/princess. Since Madison was in the line Shane also learned how to dance like a prince. We got it on video. Let me just say this is priceless!!




Goofy and Shane posing in Goofy's house.

Madison and Goofy.

Schwake Family by It's a Small world! Doesn't it look pretty during Christmas time all lite up. The whole inside was decorated for Christmas as well and they played 3 different songs inside. (Deck the Halls, Jingle Bells and It's a small world after all)

Princess Castle all decorated for Christmas!

There is Day 1 and Day 2. I tried to put day 3, but my blog froze. Maybe that is a hint for me to take off some of the pictures, but I don't take hints. LOL Hope you enjoy the photos!!