Florida: Part 3

I thought I'd go ahead and post the pictures from our day at the Magic Kingdom. I'm telling you, there is NOTHING as fun as going to Disney World at Christmas! The lights, decorations, parades, fireworks, even if you're an adult, it'll make you feel like a kid! But if you have kids, PLEASE do everything you can to take your kids before they get too old. Trust me, you'll love it! And no, I don't work for, or hold stock in Disney.

I swear, I could not get those kids to look at the dang camera! Too much other stuff to look at!

The girls with Cinderella

Kylee adoring Sleeping Beauty

If you're wondering what Kylee is saying, let me go ahead and translate.

Kylee: "Ya know what? I have a Book of Mormon and it talks all about Jesus!"

Belle: "Oh ok, that's nice."

Disney photographer looking at me: "Did she just say JESUS?"

Me: "Yeah, I don't know, she's crazy!"

Time to get a last picture and get the heck out of there!

What a smile!

Kylee on the Buzz Lightyear ride, one of the funnest rides ever!

After getting off the Buzz Lightyear ride - she totally came up with this pose!

And what were grandpa and Makayla doing while we were on Buzz Lightyear? Zzzzzzzz...

Trying on Jack Sparrow hats and swords after getting off Pirates of the Caribbean.

My little Jamaican - ya mon!

Kylee and Grandpa on the Aladdin ride.

FINALLY, a smile!

Makayla and Nana waiting to get on the Jungle Cruise

Ok, heaven knows I tried to get a good picture of the castle at night (I was really far away and couldn't get closer due to the crowds). I learned I really need to read about the night function for my camera. This is without the flash.....

This is with the flash. Kinda blurry, but still awesome.

I took this from the far end of Main Street, where we were waiting for the parade to start. Man, i wish I had a professional camera!

Same shot with the flash. Shows the lights on Main Street better, but check out the crowds! It was crazy busy, but OH SO FUN!!

Florida: Part 2

These pictures are what Floridians call "Real Florida." We took a day to go to a place called Blue Springs, which is a natural spring where tons of manatees go every winter to get away from the cold water. The spring is always 72 degrees, and the manatees go there because they can die from being in cold water. When we were there, there were about 150 manatees at the spring that day. We also took a 2 hour river cruise on the St. John's river, which is adjoined to the spring. The scenery was amazing, and we saw all sorts of wildlife such as the many different kinds of birds, and as you'll see in the pictures, 2 alligators!

The scarring on this manatee is caused from boats.

Shot of a big group of manatees hanging out.

I took this picture as we were standing on a pier that had steps that led into the water (because they allow swimming at the springs in the summer). This mom and baby swam right over to the bottom of the steps and just laid there for awhile. We literally could have reached in the water and touched them, but even though they're very friendly animals, they're protected and you're not allowed to touch them. It was so fun watching all the moms and babies!

This is a Great Blue Crane, or was it a Great Blue Heron? I thought this was a great picture.

See the little alligator eyes peeking out of the water? Most of the time this is all you see of the alligators in the wild. This picture reminds me of the crocodile on Peter Pan.

Now THIS is an alligator! I was standing up holding Makayla and trying to take this picture, so it's not as clear as I would have liked.

A cute little white crane.

Scenery from the boat. If you look close you can see a bird drying it's wings on the log sticking out from the water.

Me and my mom and the girls.

Thanksgiving and Florida: Part 1

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Our Thanksgiving this year was a little out of the ordinary this year, but very nice. Me (Becky) and the girls went to my parents house in Orlando the week before Thanksgiving and we flew home on Thanksgiving (yes, Brian had to stay behind, poor thing, but my parents promised him we'd be back for Thanksgiving). So, we were getting back in the afternoon, and I knew it would be at least 4:00 before we got home, so obviously I wasn't going to be cooking a turkey dinner that day. I thought we could just go out to eat that evening and then I would cook a nice turkey dinner that weekend sometime.

Well, Thanksgiving morning I woke up feeling like crap. I knew I was coming down with a real doozy of a cold. The trip home went fine, but by the time we were driving home, the idea of going out to dinner sounded absolutely dreadful. I was thinking maybe we could just go get a frozen pizza or something. Well, to my wonder and surprise, when we got home, I found a turkey cooking in the oven, and all the fixin's, including homemade rolls, already made and ready to be cooked. And who was the wonderful little elf who arranged all this? My very own Brian of course! Isn't he a sly dog? Well, it was just what the doctor ordered. The smell of yummy food cooking in my kitchen lifted me out of my sick gloominess, and we ended up having a great dinner, just the 4 of us. It was GREAT!

So, I thought I should put up a few pics from our trip to Florida. The weather wasn't super warm, just in the 60's during the day most of the time (which resulted in a "winter warning"), so there were no beach trips, but we still had a great time, especially going to the Magic Kingdom. It'll probably take a couple of postings to get all the pictures up that I want. So here goes:

The girls in my parent's backyard in the wagon.

Makayla with a lime we picked off my parent's lime tree behind her. They're about the size of oranges!

All of these pictures were taken at Downtown Disney. Downtown Disney isn't a park so you don't pay to get in, but it's on Disney property. It's basically a really large outdoor shopping area, with ginormous toy stores with play areas you could get lost in for days, a couple of rides and lots of fun things to see. At night you can even take a boat across the lake to Pleasure Island, which is tons of fun, too. It's a really fun place to hang out and let the kids play and do your Disney shopping without paying to go to a park.

Halloween!

Yesterday was Halloween , so of course I have lots of cute pictures of the girls in their costumes. Kylee was Sleeping Beauty this year, and Makayla was a pink fairy (thanks for the costumes, Grandmas!). I didn't know if we would end up going out trick-or-treating because Kylee wasn't feeling well, but she declared herself well enough to go, so out we went. We went to our bishop's neighborhood, and the girls had a FABULOUS time! They literally ran from house to house with Kylee screaming all the way up each driveway "TRICK OR TREEEEEEEEEEAT!!" After getting each treat, Makayla would run back to me as fast as she could, yelling "Mommy, mo' can'y!!" She was so excited with every candy she got, and refused to let us help her carry her bag. At one house, a man asked Kylee what kind of candy she'd like, and she replied, "I want something perfect." What a crack up! We had such a fun Halloween together! Anyway, here's also some pre-Halloween pictures to show us getting in the Halloween mood.

Painting Pumpkins

The girls with the finished pumpkins

At a pumpkin patch

Brian and I went to a Halloween party as Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein. Brian says I look just like his Grandma Olsen in this picture. I'd do anything to hear my mom scream when she sees this picture!

Kylee's Halloween party at school

Halloween

This was a great house!

Makayla checking out her loot

The neighborhood we were in had a small lake, so there were all these ducks running around and following people, trying to get their candy.

THE CANDY.

My saddlebags quiver with delight looking at this picture.

Ok, NOW can I start listening to Christmas music?

The 4th of the 4th

So, this is another tag. You're supposed to go to your 4th photo file, pick the 4th picture, and talk about it, so here goes:

This is a picture I took at the Washington D.C. zoo when me and the girls were there earlier this spring visiting my family. This hippo was going nuts playing with that ball, grabbing it with his teeth and throwing it around and splashing like crazy. We watched him for a long time, because it was so entertaining. I've never seen a zoo animal so animated and fun to watch. If you've never been to the D.C. zoo, you HAVE to go! It's such a great zoo, plus it's free!

TAG! You're all it!!

Crazy 8 Tag

So, I guess Lynn has tagged me, so here goes:

8 Favorite T.V. Shows

1. Amazing Race
2. Extreme Makeover:Home Edition
3. Survivor
4. Grey's Anatomy
5. Biggest Loser
6. Wheel of Fortune
7. Oprah
8. Ellen

8 Favorite Restaurants

1. Cheesecake Factory
2. Olive Garden
3. Macaroni Grill
4. Bombay House
5. California Pizza Kitchen
6. Dewey's Pizza
7. Outback Steakhouse
8. Cafe Rio (sure miss that place)

8 Things I Did Yesterday

1. Laundry
2. Vaccumed
3. Went to grocery store
4. Made celery stick "fingers" for Halloween party
5. Got the oil changed and tires rotated
6. Finished my costume for Halloween party
7. Made dinner
8. Went to Halloween party

8 Things I Love About Fall

1. Drives through the country to look at leaves
2. Fall decorations
3. Crisp fall air
4. Apple cider
5. Warm, snuggly clothes
6. Painting and carving pumpkins
7. The anticipation of the holidays right around the corner
8. Halloween!

8 Things On My Wish List

1. To get through school and get a REAL JOB
2. To rent a larger place so we don't feel so squashed
3. To eventually live closer to family
4. To get a 2nd car
5. To finish having kids before I'm 35
6. To get into shape
7. To have a fun and happy Christmas in Utah
8. For my kids to grow up happy and healthy

8 People I Tag

1. Janae
2. Jenni
3. Kristin
4. Chris
5. Tammy
6. Wendy
7. Karen
8. Whoever!

A conversation for another day...

Ok, I just have to relate a really funny thing that happened at our house today that involves somewhat of a sensitive but funny subject. So, let me start off by saying that since we're a family of 3 girls to 1 boy, we don't generally find any need to discuss the (ahem) male anatomy. However, since there are boy cousins in the family, and since Kylee and her cousin Andrew have taken baths together, the subject has come up a few times, so we've found ourselves having to come up with a name for (ahem) IT. So, the name that has stuck for quite a while now is PEANUT. I think this started with Andrew calling it that, or maybe I heard it from my mother-in-law, but anyways, wherever it came from, that's what it's called around here (for now anyway). Now, some of you may be ashamed of me and my inability or unwillingness to teach my 4 year old the anatomically correct term, but hey, THAT just wouldn't sound right coming out of a little girl's mouth!! Besides, there's plenty of time to learn correct terms. Anyhoo, back to my story. So, today Kylee had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for lunch (the peanut butter happened to be crunchy kind). At one point, Kylee pulled out a small peanut chunk from the sandwich and asked what it was, so I told her it was a peanut because that's what peanut butter is made out of. A look of horror came over her face as she said, "Peanut butter is made out of PEANUTS??!" It was about half a second before I understood what she thought, and then I fell on the floor laughing my guts out!! In my haze of hysterical laughing, I could hear Kylee saying random things like, "But that's for going potty..." Seriously, even now, I can't stop laughing about it! Luckily, by the time I stopped laughing, she was done eating, and had gone off to play, which is a good thing, because I'm not ready for THAT conversation. That's simply a conversation for another day.... or another couple of years, maybe. But heaven knows if she'll ever eat peanut butter again!

Road Trip!

This past weekend, we took another drive over to Brown County, IN (we love that place) to check out the fall leaves and have some fun together. We took a bunch of back roads through the country, which was awesome, and we even stopped at a little country yard sale and bought a fishing pole for me for seven dollars (looks like I'll be earning my Wilderness Girl badge soon!). Ok, I just have to put in a little plug for Brian here. I don't know how he does it, but he takes all these random, out of the way roads all the time, and he doesn't even know where he's going, but we somehow ALWAYS end up exactly where we need to be! He's amazing, he's like a human GPS! So, one of the things we were looking forward to on our little road trip was taking some great pictures with our NEW CAMERA (I know, shocking that we finally traded up from our old 3.1 megapixel winner). Well, the weather was hot and bright, and it was a little hazy outside, so our pictures didn't turn out as great as I was hoping (most of them look like a ghost is standing in front of the camera), but oh well, I'm going to put them up anyway.

Makayla feeding me ice cream. And apparently I'm holding an invisible ice cream cone.