Dancing Queen

Disneyland

We took the kids to Disneyland for the first time this year.

We had done the "Day of Service" through Disney and got free one day passes. We also got really good prices on 3-day hopper passes so we traded the "free" day in for Fast Passes. The fast passes were awesome and enabled us to go right to the front on all of our favorite rides. I'll spare you the details of the huge hassles we went through just to get the correct passes. It all worked out good in the end :-)

We went with Gina & Jackson's family & my Mom & Dad.

It was so much fun and the kids loved it. Keely has been absolutely obsessed with Mickey Mouse every since. It was however, sooooo hot. We about roasted being out in the sun ALL day long.

Keely, Camden & Thad all required afternoon naps so Thad would take them back to the hotel each afternoon and they'd all take a long rest. Then he would bring them back at night to join us for more fun. Thad isn't much of a ride person so he was very picky as to what he would and wouldn't go on. Jacey is tall enough now that she was able to go on every ride except for the roller coaster at California Adventures. She was such a little trooper. She stayed up all day and night riding ride after ride and loved it. Her favorite ride was the river rafting ride at California Adventures. Her second favorite ride was my favorite, Indian Jones. She was also able to go on the Tower of Terror with us and although it wasn't her favorite she wasn't afraid at all and went on it several times. We drove up Wednesday night, played all day Thursday, Friday & Saturday and drove home Sunday. We stayed at a Hotel directly across from Disneyland which was very nice. It was so easy to walk back and forth to our hotel if needed. I can't wait to take the kids again when Keely is a little older and can enjoy more things.

My mom took this picture for us and unfortunately didn't notice none of us were looking at the camera, lol. This was the only picture we got taken in front of Disneyland. It's only missing us looking, Mickey Mouse's face and the Disneyland sign. Oh well. Better luck next time :-)

This was the girls' first "character" picture and they were a bit scared for some reason.

Belle was next and although better than the first they were still pretty shy.

When Thad took Camden back to the hotel for a nap he fell asleep the second he lay him down on the bed. He's even smiling in his sleep :-)

Keely didn't do much better with Minnie Mouse :-(

She finally warmed up by the time she met Chip & Dale

Oops, the sun was in her eyes :-)

Such a happy baby!!!

Jacey LOVED doing this whatchamacallit....

Other than the fan that cost an arm and a leg, these matching shirts were our only souvenirs.

Don't ask Thad how much they cost, he'll rant and rave about it forever, lol.

Gotta love the 3D glasses.

Halloween

Jacey and Keely were so excited for Halloween so they could wear their

costumes. Jacey got to dress up for pre-school and on Halloween.

I think she was a bit tired of the crown, etc.. by the time Halloween came, lol.

Jacey was Cinderella and Keely was Tinkerbell. I didn't really want to buy Camden a costume that would never be worn again so I just borrowed one from my sister. I think he turned out to be quite the cute little skeleton :-)

This year for Halloween we went with my friend Amy to her family's block party.

The kids had a lot of fun doing all of the different activities. Cake walks, cupcake walks, basketball throw, bounce house, go fish, cotton candy machine, snow cones, etc...etc...

I was surprised at how well Jacey actually did at the basketball throw.

She didn't actually make any baskets but came really, really close.

I think I may have a basketball player on my hands :-)

After the block party I took the kids over to their cousins house to go trick or treating

with all the Mason's. We homemade chili and doughnuts and then the kids go around the neighborhood. They LOVED it. Keely was so excited to go up to all the doors and have candy magically dropped into her bucket.

See Big Bird in the background? That's Thad's sister Rachel.

Only Rachel could pull that off, lol.

Uncle David was a HUGE help with the little girls.

Keely just loves him and he would carry her anytime she started lagging

behind the other kids.

P.S-Did I mention that I did all of Halloween BY MY SELF???? After working

all day Thad wasn't feeling good so he stayed home and went to bed.