Hollywood!

After the beach, we drove Mullholland drive, took pictures of the Hollywood sign, and went to the Chinese theater to see the hand and footprints of the stars. Each one of us picked the square for our picture. Aleeya, our little Shirley Temple, has her hands on Shirley Temple's handprints. Sareya also picked Shirley Temple. (I think they liked the little handprints!)



Treygan picked Harry Potter, Kyra, picked Hermoine, and Melissa picked Harry Potter.

California Beach

On our trip to Disneyland, we did take a day to rest from the busy park. It was Melissa's first time seeing the ocean in person. The kids love the beach no matter what the temperature is.

.Treygan would not look at me for a picture. He was too busy building this "sand castle."

Happy New Year!

I cannot believe that an entire year went by and I only made one post! Last year was a crazy busy year for us. I hope this next year will be less busy so we can focus on the more important things in life, like blogging!! :-) One thing that will help is we now have church at 9am rather than 1pm. I am always amazed at how much more I can do in a day when I get up early. Sundays seem like a great time to get caught up on my family chronicle. So I thought I would start today!

What did we get for Christmas?

A TRIP TO DISNEYLAND!! We decided this year to scale back on Christmas and instead create memories with our children by going to Disneyland at what we hoped was a slow season for the park. Two days before the planned trip we let the children open one present early. It was a homemade coupon for a trip to Disneyland. The two youngest girls screamed with delight. Treygan and Kyra were excited but contained their enthusiasm better than the two little ones. We took my niece Melissa with us. Evan's sisters, Tricia and her family and Jessica and her little one, Gigi also joined us on this trip!
It turned out to be a great time to go to Disneyland. Saturday was still pretty busy so we spent it mostly at California Adventure. Monday it rained and drove away anyone who couldn't handle a little rain. Tricia had previously purchased $1 ponchos so we didn't get suckered into buying the $10 Disney Ponchos! By the afternoon the rain had cleared and we had the park to ourselves. We watched the beautiful show "World of Color" and had front row spots without standing in line or getting Fast Passes.Tuesday was busier at the park but still nothing like we have experienced in our other trips. The park was so beautifully decorated for Christmas. At the end of the night they made it snow. It was really fun. I love Disneyland and reallly enjoyed going at this time of year.






We exhausted the kids, of course. I love this picture of Treygan and his little cousin Preston. Treygan took good care of Preston throughout the vacation. He likes to think of him as the little brother he never had!