Animal Kingdom

On New Year's Eve, all of us, including my parents, went to Animal Kingdom. There were hardly any people at the park (probably because Animal Kingdom doesn't have fireworks at night like the other parks do, and fireworks are a really big deal on New Year's Eve in Florida), so we had a wonderful, fun day. The kids got to meet a lot of characters, which they haven't been able to do before, because the lines are usually so long. Here's a bunch of pics from that day.

Brian and Makayla heading into the park The whole group in front of The Tree of Life Me and Makayla in front of the huge tree outside the entrance

Our whole family meeting Minnie! Ella didn't care, she was snoozing.

The girls with Minnie When we were in the part of the park called Camp Minnie and Mickey, we came upon this outdoor area, where there were several Disney characters dancing and playing games with the kids. The girls of course jumped in and had a great time for quite awhile. We later found out that this sort of experience is pretty rare, since the characters only do this during the holidays. Plus the fact that there were hardly any kids there made for an extra fun time. The girls meeting Turk - at least I think that's what her name is from Tarzan. Chip and Dale helping Makayla with the egg-on-a-spoon game. The girls with Goofy

The girls meeting Daisy

All of us wearing our goofy bug glasses, getting ready to go into the Bug's Life show. Since it was my birthday, Brian forced me to wear the birthday pin they give out.

All my cute girls, in their cute Disney hats.

Meeting Baloo and King Louie

All of us getting ready to go on the safari. Unless Makayla was meeting a character, she refused to smile or even look at the camera. My cute baby! Kylee, super stoked for the safari My cute hubby and baby on the safari I think this is when the driver of the safari jeep told us all to put our hands up when we were driving over the bridge. Either that or she was calling for the waiter. We came up on this rhino and her baby (which was behind her) on the safari. She just stopped in the road and looked at us for a minute before finally moving on. My mom said that's the first time she's ever heard the driver sound nervous on the safari. The mom and baby rhino moving on (watch out for the ostrich eggs!)

We saw this baby giraffe eating right next to the jeep.

After the safari, we went on the jungle trails and stopped to watch this baby gorilla play for awhile. She's about the size of Ella.

Kylee in the jungle. Me and Kylee on Mt. Everest, which is the BEST ROLLER COASTER EVER! Me and Brian went on it later that night and got stuck at the top for a few minutes. Totally awesome.

Leaving at the end of the night. We were even still smiling!

Epcot!

Ok, I'm getting a little out of order here as far as our trip goes, but it turns out that we're missing a whole disc of pictures that includes such important days as Christmas, so until we get those pics, I'm going to have to skip ahead. About half way through our trip, Brian and I grabbed-hold-of-and-ran-with the golden opportunity to go to a park by ourselves. We chose Epcot, since I remember loving it the one time I was there as a teenager. I'm sure I don't need to say that we had a fabulous time, but seriously, we had a FABULOUS time. Sorry, didn't mean to brag there, but I had been looking forward to this for a long time. Anyway, turns out the batteries in our camera were almost dead when we got there, so we could only take a few pictures, so here's most of them for your viewing pleasure:

Getting in line for Mission:Space. You see that sign I'm standing next to? We chose to go on the "More Intense" version of the ride. Would somebody please talk me out of that next time and point me in the direction of the line with all the grannies and kids in it? I'm pretty sure nobody over 30 should be on the More Intense version. It basically simulates the G-forces of a rocket ship launching into space. Oh, and you're stuffed into a little capsule. I'm just going to say that I was proud of myself for not having an accident.

Obviously, the person who took our picture didn't quite understand that the whole reason we chose that place for a picture was because of the LARGE WHITE BALL in the background that we wanted to be photographed with. But hey, at least we got an extra 10 feet of pavement in the picture.

Getting ready to head back to the World Showcase. Mickey and Minnie are made out of shrubs, in case you can't tell. Sorry, I'm blocking Minnie. We got to ride Segways! Which was actually pretty hard I have to say. But very cool.

Look, it's the ball again! That proves we were there.

Brian with France and Canada, I think, in the background. Just some snooty British guy in a snooty British phone booth.

Me with the lake in the background.

I took this picture from the cafe table we were sitting at in France, looking at the French bakery where we got pastry and a bread and cheese plate. Total yum.

Brian in Morocco. I loved all the little shops and eating places in each country. I kept thinking how hard it would be to enjoy with the kids there.

Me with part of Japan behind me. They had a super pretty garden.

Brian in Japan.

Both of us in front of the lake. I really wish we could have taken some pictures of the fireworks display over the lake that night. It was seriously the most amazing thing I've ever seen!

Christmas....finally

Yeah, yeah, I've been a slacker. But from the look of other people's blogs, I'm not the only one! (you all know who you are) Before we get to the Disney/Florida pics, here's a peek into our lives leading up to Christmas. I'm pretty sure my sister is the only one who reads our blog, so Jenicca, this is for you!

Our Christmas tree, which just about fell over due to an overload of ornaments. That's the tree skirt my mom made for us this year. She also made us all some stockings. Love them!

Kylee and Kristen Richards at our ward Christmas party, dancing like it's 1999.

Kylee and Makayla singing at the ward Christmas party. I was pretty surprised Makayla actually got up there!

K and M in their angel costumes for the Nativity production at the ward party.

Brian's birthday dinner. I think we had shrimp.

Ella discovering she REALLY likes ice cream

Kylee's school Christmas program. Can you find her?

Kylee reading to Ella.

Makayla with her little buddy, Ella

We went to a sports store around here one night, where they had Santa and a bunch of stuff for kids to do. Here's the kids ready to ride our new 4-wheelers out of there. Yea right!

Put your hands up for making us wear these ridiculous hats!

Kylee found the perfect frying pan for me. And yes, this really was for sale.

This is THE PRECIOUS. AKA: the Barbie house that me and Brian slaved and sweated over for the girls for many weeks.

This may look like the girls discovering their new Barbie house on Christmas day, but it's actually Christmas Eve. You see, we were going to leave for Florida on Christmas afternoon after opening presents, but due to a big storm rolling in, we decided to do presents on Christmas Eve, and then leave later that day. The girls were just happy that Christmas was a day early.

And last but not least, Merry Christmas to me and Brian!! This little beauty was waiting for us in my parents driveway in Florida (no, they didn't just give it to us, in case you were wondering). Oh, it's about time we got a van, you say? Yes, we know.

Makayla's Birthday

Our little Makayla turned 4 on Oct. 6th! Hard to believe this little girl is getting so big! For her birthday, we just stayed home and had a rainbow themed party with our family, along with presents of course. A week and a half later, she had a princess themed birthday party with some friends from church, where good times were had by all.

Rainbow fruit salad to go with dinner.

More Barbie stuff!

This is the train table that Dad built. Now they have somewhere to play with all their Thomas the Train stuff. I'm sure going to miss yelling at them to pick that junk up. Oh wait, no I'm not.

An outdoor playhouse from Nana, which Kylee screamed over louder than Makayla.

A ballerina dress-up from Grandma Olsen, which I don't think she's removed since her birthday. Rainbow birthday cake! Don't look at the sides too carefully, I only had time to care about the top.

My 3 little princesses

Getting ready for her Princess party The cupcakes

Decorating their crowns

The princesses having a ball!

Makayla blowing out the candles on her cupcake. I thought it was funny that she picked what I considered to be the ugliest cupcake I decorated. It was the last one, and I just didn't care anymore. I guess I didn't have to do anything special after all!