Disney Honorary Voluntear's Cavalcade

Because we volunteered as part of the Give a Day Get a Day program, we got to wear special buttons while we were in Disney Land. While I was taking some of the girls to the bathroom some Disney people spotted Matt wearing his button and they invited us to be in the main street parade. We got to ride in a fire truck. Amelia and Audry got to take turns ringing the bell. We also learned how to wave like a Disney princess. My dad decided not to join us so that he could take our picture. Unfortunately none of the pictures really turned out too well, but I am going to post some anyway just so you can see. It was a really neat experience!

other Disney Land pics

Our celebrity sighting

I was so excited when we were at Disney Land and we saw none other than Mary Poppins and Burt!!! :) Ok so maybe not the most exciting thing in the world, but they don't really have characters walking around anymore, you have to go wait in a huge line to see any of the characters. We didn't ever go wait in line for that because we wanted to spend our time going on rides. So anyway we were walking through Sleeping Beauty's castle and saw them walking by. They said they couldn't stop to take a pic but they would go for a walk with the girls. A photographer that worked at Disney took my camera and took about 30 pictures of the girls going for a walk with them through the park. I was walking along behind them holding Sophia. Shelby didn't make it into any of the pics because her and Matt had gone ahead and didn't get to see them at all. I have decided that Matt and I are dressing up like Mary Poppins and Burt for halloween next year. I totally love her look, don't you? I guess I will have to get started soon if I am going to make those costumes.

HOLLYWOOD

When we told the girls we were going to go to California for our vacation the main thing they wanted to do was to see Hollywood. I don't know if they thought they would see movies being made, or see famous people or what, but I didn't really want to take my children to Hollywood. Well we ended up going anyway but made sure it was early in the day. We were surprised, it actually wasn't too bad. There were a bunch of the kids favorite characters outside the kodak theater. We even saw where the star wars characters had their hand and footprints in the cement. We didn't stay very long but we got to see everything we wanted to.

Malibu and Santa Monica Pier

After a day with family we drove over to the coast and saw Malibu and the Santa Monica Pier.  The girls wanted to go swimming, but it was way too cold to get into the water.  This didn't stop Audry from getting her feet knocked out from underneath her by a wave.  She got completely soaked and had to go change clothes in the van.  We then went up on the pier and had a look around but none of the rides were open yet.  We did see two huge birds though.  They were very cool!

California Trip

We made it to California!  We had to first drive all the way down to Orlando and catch a flight out to LA.  It was a long long two days of travelling, but so worth it.  We got to go to my Aunt and Uncle's house and see family.  It was really fun!  My uncle is from Italy and he made the best yummy Italian food ever!!!  We also got to see one of my other Aunts, my Grandpa and two of my cousins.  My Aunt and Uncle live in West Lake Village, CA.  It is super pretty there!  The girls really liked playing in their back yard, they got to try out Bocci Ball.

There's "snow" way out of here!

We have been planning on taking our family to Disney Land.  We went and did service so we could get the give a day get a day free ticket.  We were scheduled to leave this morning but, surprise surprise we got a massive snow storm yesterday and flights in and out of ATL yesterday and today are cancelled.  Guess we wont be flying to LA.  So now instead we are spending today trying to figure out how to make it work, it is too far to drive, we would never make it in time, so we are looking at closer airports that we could drive to and try to fly out.  Oh the joys of feakish winter weather : )

more drama/excitement

The washing machine didn't come with a drain hose so we had to go buy one from Home Depot and then Sears reimbursed us.  Matt had to put it on, apparently it didn't go on very well because the next day  I looked over towards my laundry room and there was water coming out under the door.  The drain hose had come off the washing machine completely and the washer drained onto my floor!  I got it as cleaned up as I could, and when Matt got home he put it on again.  Fingers crossed : D

Tonight I went and got into my car to go to church and it wouldn't start.  So I went and got into the truck to go to church and it was completely out of gas.  I ended up taking the van to church and Matt went out into the car and pushed the little BMW assist button, this is so awesome, they talked to him through the speaker and sent someone out to fix it!  It was just the battery, apparently because it is so freakin cold they are having a lot of people calling in with dead batteries.  So nothing is really wrong, just a lot of little issues, it seems like there is always something to make you want to pull out your hair.

new kitchen/new appliances

I guess having the dryer break wasn't so bad.   We kind of went all out and replaced all of our appliances except the dishwasher and the microwave.  We will need to get a new microwave and hood over the stove, they are white and look absolutely horrible but oh well!  Our kitchen was a dark red color, we have had it that way for 6 years and I was just sick of it.  Since we were getting all new appliances I decided it would be a good time to repaint.  I painted it the same color as the rest of the house, I think it opens it up and makes it all flow better, we have a tiny kitchen so the dark red color didn't work very well.  I took some pics, they really don't make my appliances look as cool as they are, but I thought I would share anyway.  We switched to front load washer and dryer, we got a flat surface range with two ovens and a digital touch screen, and our new refridgerator is so amazing, I love it!  : D

Everything is breaking

My computer has been acting up for about a week, it is having a hard time logging on and it keeps freezing up.  This is a problem since I do everything online, I have bills waiting to be paid.  Last night I was doing laundry and all of a sudden the dryer stopped working.  It will heat up but not spin.  We just got done fixing the mini van and paying off medical bills finally.  I was so excited to use any extra money we may get to go on some fun trips but it looks like now we will be using it to buy new appliances instead.  I did get my computer working again today after a couple hours messing with it.  Isn't it annoying when things break?  I know it is part of life but it still drives me crazy! 

So anyway now I have wet laundry hanging all over my house trying to get it to dry, it has been hanging up since last night and it is till damp.  It is raining outside today so I think it is just too humid to dry all the way.  I guess we will be heading out to buy a new dryer this evening.