Sweetness! One of the things I love the most about Jason is the way he *does* holidays. Not a single holiday goes by without all the traditional activities. Things that I love to do, but hate to plan. Like hiding easter eggs, making cranberry sauce, and buying fireworks. In fact, one of my favorite memories is of our first Easter together. We were renting this cool little house in Morro Bay with a HUGE backyard. The yard had been neglected from years of renters, and I'd vowed to make it shine again. I was hand-pulling large amounts of weeds and ivy every single day. In fact, I'd become a bit obsessive about it. So, late on the night before Easter, I'd decided to take a flash light and go back out into the yard to pull more ivy. Jason sees me and says "You are not going out there and pulling more ivy." I figured he just thought I was weird and said "I'm tired of watching TV tonight, so I'm just going out to weed." At which point, he got a very strange tone and said "If you go out there, I'm going to tackle you and bring you back in." And since I'm such a feisty pig-head, I sassed back "Then catch me..." and I ran out the door. I got about 10 steps out the door, and he indeed tackled me to the ground and carried me back in the house. It turns out that he'd hidden easter eggs all through the backyard as a surprise. And, here I was going to weed in the middle of the night and ruin the surprise. LOL! Jason did an amazing job on Christmas again this year. The lights have been twinkling on our roof since Thanksgiving. He and the girls baked cookies for Santa yesterday. He bought all the food for an awesome dinner tonight (ham, my favorite). And, so by the time Christmas morning rolled around, I think he was more excited than the girls. Anna bolted out of bed this morning (as opposed to her usual slow walk-of-death in the mornings) and ran to the top of the stairs, let out a huge gasp, and shouted "HE was here! He was HERE! Come see all the presents, mom!" My favorite quotes from the day were from Anna and Jason. Anna "wow, the elves make the best toys." Jason (holding a tinkerbell doll after seeing box after box of princess, Barbie, and My Little Pony) "Well, I guess this is the closest thing to an action figure that I'll ever see in this house."

I am a little behind on blogging, but thought I would share some pics from our latest trip to Disneyland. The place was all decked out for the holidays. The girls got to meet Santa, numerous princesses, a christmas parade, and watch the fireworks. It was my first time at Disneyland during the holiday season, so it seemed like a whole new place. Even It's a Small World was completely different (as in...they play "Jingle Bells" instead of the other theme song, plus whole new decorations). The girls' highlights seemed to be the new parade, because it starts off with Giselle (the new Disney princess) in a carriage. Check out Holly's face when seeing her for the first time... And I could have jumped up and kissed Snow White during the parade, just look at this big smile and wave she did right to my girls. They were swooning! And, while the crowds were actually fairly manageable for the visit...Main Street was completely packed during the fireworks and snow show. That's right, Dinseyland pumps enough teeny tiny bubbles into the air from the top of Main Street that it looks like it is actually snowing. Of course, Anna is my little dare-devil. She loved the roller coasters best of all. We have a great shot of her on Space Mountain with her hands up from a previous visit, but this one below is from the Toon Town roller coaster. Holly likes to pretend she's a dare-devil on only one part of one ride; the last little tiny drop in Pirates of the Carribean. She puts her hands up and tells everyone around to do the same thing... But, in reality, she's a big chicken. For some odd reason, she agreed to go on Splash Mountain with me. I didn't know what to expect since it was my first time, too. I knew we'd made a mistake about halfway through the ride. Holly just started bawling. And then the last BIG drop came and her face looked like this...I've probably ruined her for life on this ride. Jason can't do the spinning rides, so the girls and I always do the tea cups together. They love to go fast, but I think my days are numbered on that ride. It gets harder and harder to keep lunch down. I think every kid who grew up in California has a photo of themselves sitting in this car out in front of Mr. Toad's Wild Ride (or as Holly calls it "Mr. Potato Head") And some random last photos...

Had an odd day with two cancelled sessions, leaving me with unexpected free time. So, I took the girls to the movie "Enchanted" and we had a blast (in fact, we're still singing the songs). Payton, the girls' neighbor friend, came along for the fun times. We went to the park and the girls played tag with a lot of "neener neener neener, you can't get me!". Must be the new thing on the playground at kindergarten. I just love watching the kids run around and laughing! just what devious thing was she thinking about here????

Someone asked me for some recent photos of my girls and I had to admit that I hadn't really tried to get any photos of them in months (except for the Halloween humor). That phrase "The shoemaker's kids don't have shoes" was uttered. I'm proud to say that today...they are wearing shoes. I have some fresh photos of my own kids to share. Bribery: Donuts for breakfast, new outfits, new shoes, and a toy afterwards if they were good. Money well spent for the first "real" photos in a long long time. I had such a blast with them...my kids are pretty darned fun. To start with, check out Anna's posing abilities. YEAH baby! For those of you that know my husband...isn't this totally him?! Haven't you seen him in the same pose in his powder blue tuxedo?! =) And, here's Holly's best face of the day. She told me she was being Snow White. Love the little foot pointing forward all princess-like.

We had a blast for Halloween! We forgot to buy pumpkins this year...but that seems ok. Jason was going for the spooky house theme anyways. We had eerie music playing, smoke machine, and strobe lights going...plus Jason dressed up in an absolutely terrifying mask. He sat perfectly still and was behind the bowl of candy. When the kids would walk up (very slowly and staring at Jason), they'd put their hand in to take a candy, and then he'd say "NO! Not *THAT* candy!" The kids jumped two feet in the air each time. We didn't need any new costumes...the girls have several princesses to choose from. Anna went for the Little Mermaid (can you believe it was warm enough to go out without a jacket in a Little Mermaid outfit?!) And, I tried to get Holly's photo...but she saw Jason first...looking like this... So, this is the photo that I got of Holly (aka Alice in Wonderland)...