Disneyland {The Finale}

Day 2 was full of wonder and excitement and sore feet! Even with trusty B.O.B., we were all worn out by 7:00pm. I forgot to mention the whole reason why I loved this Disneyland trip so much. One word: RideMax. I have issues with obsessively cleaning, over organizing, and planning; this tends to lead to meltdowns when things don't go my way. RideMax. You plug in the rides you want to visit (Disneyland and California Adventure) and they magically pump out a detailed schedule of when you'll have the shortest waits at each ride, when to send a runner to get fast passes, etc. I can't say enough good about RideMax.
Emory's dreams came true on this day. Our first ride was Peter Pan, and she was in heaven. This picture says pure joy!


Dumbo. This is what happens when Mom tries to ride with Emory.


This ones for Josh. I'm looking for the picutre of my younger brother and I in this same spot. I vow I'll find it.


Sword in the Stone, a favorite movie of ours.



Splash Mountain. I took Emory on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, and she almost lost it. I loved that one growing up, but she thought she was going to die. So, after that ride we were scheduled to use Fast Passes on Splash Mountain. As we walked up to it, she said, "I will NEVER ride that ride." We pleaded and convinced and threatened to no avail. Finally, Cory said, "We're not going on Splash Mountain, we're going on the Log Flume on the other side. It's for little kids." She was all for it. Luckily, the Fast Pass entrance for Splash Mountain is on the other side. I waited (as Tessa was napping) at the exit and she came out happy as a clam. She loved it and even wanted to take me on the "log flume". Emory and I then rode it, and after we came out Cory sat her down and explained that we'd tricked her and that she'd just gone on Splash Mountain. She wouldn't believe it. So, here's the picture of her on the Log Flume.


Now in front of Splash Mountain.


Aladdin and Jasmine. Big fans, we talk about this meeting often.


Giant Pickles. Pickles are a treat around this house, we eat them for dessert.

Hooray for Disneyland!

Dead before we could even turn off the lights.

To finish off the trip, we cruised on over to AZ. Cory dropped the girls and I off in Surprise for the day, while he interviewed in Tucson at the U of A. We had a grand ole time with Dieter, the Andersons, and the Campbell girls. Dieter thinks he owns me because his legs are as long as mine. Jerk. I learned how much I really miss Arizona. I also learned how to NOT put sweet potato peels down my disposal. Good times!



Emory was showing Tessa some of her favorite slides around town. Tessa was too yound to remember.

Thanks to all those who put us up and also put up with us. It was a trip the girls will never forget!

Silent Night

Yes. Yes it will be.

Disneyland {Part 1}

What a trip!!! We had the time of our lives and I KNOW it's something the girls will never forget, especially because they remind me about their favorite parts everyday.
We had a rough start getting to CA, muy macho traffico. We gave up about 40 times during the 3 and 1/2 hours it took to get from Vegas to Barstow, but eventually arrived in La Habra Heights, CA. The wonderful (and I cannot stress how WONDERFUL) Daltons, put up with us for 3 days/4 nights. Karen saved us hundreds of dollars on this trip, with passes (of all sorts!), tips, and a place to crash each night. Thank you Daltons!!!
Our first day we spent at Redondo Beach. It was such a treat after all our driving the day before, to see the looks on the girls' faces as we pulled up to the ocean.
First Picture of the trip:


Oops . . . Tessa wasn't happy on that stump. 2nd photo of the trip:


Success! We had a grand time strolling along the horseshoe shaped pier, checking out the barnacles, yummy seafood and crazy fisherman.


My children are very superstitious. "Don't step on a crack . . ."


The fisherman were CRAZY! I don't know what country (or planet for that matter) that they were from, but they were hilarious to watch. I sat there with my camera ready to take a picture of one of these guys' hauls. I couldn't believe how many hooks/fish they had on one line! I noticed this man taking awhile to reel these babies in, and I snapped a shot as soon as he had them on the pier. He saw my flash and started yelling at me! I thought, "Oh no - I broke an unknown fisherman law!" Nope, he wanted me to pretend I caught it for a picture! What an awesome guy, although we could not understand 1 word that he said. (That's him in the back ground in the white T-shirt.)


Relaxin' in the sun. It was a Gorgeous day.


And last, but not least, the water. They loved it! Emory has only been to the beach once, and that was when she was 6 months old in Hawaii. Tess had never been. Both girls could get used to living in California quickly! Emory skipped around like a little water sprite, while Tessa made sand angels and threw sand at all of us. Everyone had a great time till Emory fell in, and she turned into a grump immediately.



Day2 was Disneyland! Our girls were almost overwhelmed by it all , so we started off with the least sensory over loaded, nice and quiet ride there is . . . Small World. Yeah, right! They loved it though and quickly spotted many of their favorite characters inside.


2nd ride = Teacups. My face says it all.


Toontown and Mickey.


Then we headed over to California Adventure. As we walked in, Cory went for Fast Passes and we chilled. There was an enormous line to see Mickey (but wait . . . we'd just seen him in Toontown? Fast mover I guess.) right in front of the fountain. We were just relaxing when Emory yells, "Hey mom! Stitch is so sad!" She points Stitch out, who's on the other side of the fountain, crying because nobody want to take pictures with him. She runs over and this takes place . . .


It was precious beyond words! We sat and teased Stitch for about 10 minutes, all by ourselves! Apparently everyone else would rather stand in line for 15 minutes to get a single picture with Mickey; whatever floats your boat. Tess was a little nervous about Stitch so she did some glamour shots for me.


Lunch at Ariel's Grotto was fantastic. The girls begged for the chance to do this. It was expensive but worth it! Each princess comes out and walks around to every table in the restaurant and it was just plain magical. They would announce the princess, she would come out and wave and walk right up to our table!
Cinderella (As you can see Tessa was overwhelmed!)


Aurora (my favorite!)


Snow White (Bad picture of Emory, but Tessa is priceless!)


And Ariel herself.


Our AMAZING Ciopinno! Yes, those are whole scallops, shrimp, fish, sausage, and a lobster claw.


We finished off the day doing the Ferris wheel (scared the crap out of Tessa), carouseling, and riding everything in Bug's World. While standing in line for the Wheel of Doom, this girl walks up behind us. She looked about 20, had long black hair, wearing regular street clothes and was Greek or Arab or something. Tessa saw her, gasped, then whispered, "Pocahontas?!?" She walked up and the girl (soooo nice!) bent over and gave her a hug! I should have taken a picture, but I was a little embarrassed that my child was attacking a fellow park goer. It was so sweet, since we'd asked if Pocahontas was around and they said she was on the reservation.
The last ride of the night was this.


It's crazy how tiny she looks, compared to everyone else. We heavily debated if Cory should take Emory on the Tower of Terror, but eventually left it up to her. She decided she'd try it. Little did she know that this is, I think, the scariest ride EVER!! She was none too happy when exiting the ride, so we followed it up with easy going Monsters Inc. Top it off with a parade and we were pooped!

Best Thanksgiving EVER!

Because my brother Adam left for the MTC just a week before Thanksgiving, we had it a few weeks early. So, when Thanksgiving Day rolled around, we knew exactly what we wanted to do. We went to the Salvation Army and delivered meals to shut-ins in our area. These were older people who might not have family or friends to have Thanksgiving with, or they're too sick or immobile to go out to shop for themselves. It was AMAZING!!! My girls wanted to sing a Christmas song at each door, and it took super human strength to not bawl through each song, as we watched they're faces light up. I will NEVER AGAIN stress about making food on Thanksgiving again! As long as we get to deliver meals each Thanksgiving, no delicious meal that we slaved over for hours will ever compare to the life lesson of service that we're teaching our girls.
After we finished delivering we went to . . . Panda Express! Yes, yes we did. It was so fun! The restaurant was empty and we sang a little "Fa-rah-rah-rah-rah, rah-rah-rah-rah." Then to top it all off we went to a certain vampire/werewolf movie for the 2nd time. I don't think I've ever giggled so much in my life! You had me at Que Quowle.
That night we headed up to Logan for some Black Friday sales. Cory was vigilant and got me a Dyson vacuum, a knife block, and a TomTom Navigation System for himself. We should have put all the wares on a table, held hands around it and said, "Merry Christmas to us!"

Elder Animal

It was a happy/sad day yesterday, yes it was. Elder Christiansen will be staying at the MTC till February, learning how to teach the gospel and all about a really difficult language.
His farewell was so sweet! He even bore his testimony in Finnish, thanks to some great people who've been teaching him each week since he received his call.
He is such a great Uncle and my girls will miss him, but we are so excited for missionary blessings!

Elder Adam John Christiansen
MTC Mailbox # 124
FIN-HEL 0213
2005 N 900 E
Provo, UT 84604-1793

Guess Who?

When this picture was shown to a few of my siblings, the comments went like this:
Holy Serial Killer!
Is that Borat?
Why is that mexican robbing our house?
Seriously, that is my AWESOME DAD! Scary what you find when you start digging through the photo box.

It's Christmas already?!?

I feel like the month of November is flying by us, without my permission! Every weekend we've had a million things to do, which is unusual for us. This last weekend Cory was home. Cory was so sweet and took each girl on a special date. They each loved their special time with Dad. He made the dates a special teaching time to, as they each did a service for me. I was out of this world impressed by their sensitivity and love!

It was also the Primary Program. I was asked to substitute as the pianist, which I was thrilled by. I miss the Primary so much, and it was so fun to spend time in there practicing! Emory was asked to give a two minute talk and she was so AMAZING! Her words were so sweet and sincere. She is such a performer, because she read it just like she said it to me. Lot's of family came to hear her, so we decided to do Thanksgiving early. It was so delicious, and I'm relieved that we don't have to do it in two weeks! Here is her talk:

I will strengthen my family:

Through Family Home Evening, Family Prayer, and Missionary Work.

#1 - Family Home Evening

Monday night is my favorite night of the week. My family comes together to learn about many gospel principles like tithing, temples, prayer, prophets and lots of other things too. I am always in charge of the music. I like to choose songs that Sis. Messervy teaches us in primary. My favorite song is How Firm a Foundation. I sing it so often that my little sister even knows the words! By singing this song, we strengthen our family by inviting the Spirit to our Family Home Evening.

#2 – Family Prayer

Every night, before we go to bed, we kneel together and say family prayer. My dad has been all over the country, doing rotations, for the past 3 months! I miss him a lot, but sometimes he gets to say family prayer with us too! He calls on the web cam or phone and we say our family prayer together. This strengthens our family because even though we’re far apart, we know that Heavenly Father is watching over us.

#3 – Missionary Work

Did you know that we are all a part of an enormous family? Heavenly Father is our Father; Jesus is our Older Brother, and all of us are brothers and sisters! We have brothers and sisters all over the world who don’t know about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. My best friend Adam is going on a mission to Finland. I am so excited for him to teach my brothers and sisters all the way across the world about the Restoration of the Gospel, the Plan of Salvation, and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I think this is one of the most important ways we can strengthen our family, so that we can ALL go back home to be with Father again!

I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

She is such a special little girl, and I'm in love with her! The other day we were reading the scriptures and talking about where the Book of Mormon came from. We got to the part where Joseph Smith was praying in his room, 3 years after the First Vision, and an angel appereared. She looked up at me with eager eyes and said "Oh, I just HOPE it's Moroni!" What a testimony this little girl already has!

Tessa is such a great sister. At the end of the Primary Program she yelled, "They did it!" She puts up with almost all of Emory's antics including this crazy idea.





First things first, yes, her arms and legs are tied down. What I don't understand is where they got the crib bumper from!

I agree it's a little disturbing, but it was explained as Tessa being prepared as food to eat, which doesn't make it any less disturbing!

Halloween

I loved Halloween on Saturday. We made pumpkin pancakes for everyone in the morning. Both of my girls still take a 2 hour nap and for some reason they were "too excited to sleep" the one night of the year they go to bed after 9pm! It turned out fine in the end, because we decorated sugar cookies right before we left, so they were running on a can and a half of frosting by then. I love how they came up with their own costumes this year and my amazing mom made them perfectly, again! Peter Pan and Pocahontas, although a few people thought that Em was Robin Hood and that totally annoyed her. Pocahontas played her part perfectly, even doing a Native American chant she learned from the Disney movie. We tagged along with our good friends Woody, Buz, Jessie, and their random cowboy friend! Good times!
I also did a Monster Mash Musicale for my piano students to show off their Halloween piano skills. I LOVE my students and couldn't ask for better! This is only 4 of my 7.

Pumpkin Patch and Halloween Parade

This year Emory got to do a pumpkin patch field trip with her preschool class. A lot of the other parents brought their other kids with them, but I'm so glad I left Tessa home. Emory and I spent some quality time together looking for the coolest pumpkin, stumbling through the corn maze (which they assured me was not haunted; tell that to the rooster who attacked me halfway through!) climbing in the hay, and posing on tractors.She also had a Halloween Parade in front of her teachers house.They walked around and sang a cute song, short and sweet, just how I like it.Peter Pan and her best friend Adam.