Callie's a big kid now!

Callie's big girl bed
Colton's room - fit for a train/truck/car lover!
Nate made the mats and pict. frames for these 3 pictures.
Dining Room
Living Room

We did it! We decided that since we aren't going to be having any babies around our house anytime soon (that's another story!), that we would try to officially put up all the baby stuff around our house. This included Callie's crib/toddler bed. This past weekend we put up her "big girl bed" and she absolutely loves it! She has not had any trouble sleeping and hasn't even fallen off the bed. I really didn't want to put the bed rail on, unless we really needed to, and so far so good. When I was decorating Callie's room when she was a baby, I wanted to do a room that could grow with her. I searched and searched, and managed to find a twin bedspread that matched well with her wall border from her crib set, so I didn't even have to do any redecorating. I think her room turned out very cute and girly! Colton was jealous of me taking pict. of Callie's room and not his, so I snuck in a few of his room also. His room should be able to grow with him for quite a few more years too.

This past fall, we finally finished painting and decorating our living room and dining room. It only took us 4 years! When we moved into the house, they were both completely empty for quite a while. I'm no interior decorator, but I thought I'd post the final results. Any decorator's out there, feel free to give me advice.

In December, I had some medical things happen with me which has made us postpone our next child for a while. My doctor called me at home one day and said, "I'm not telling you that you should probably wait a while to get pregnant, I'm telling you, you NEED to wait." He says I need to wait six months before we try for another child, while other things I read say to wait at least one year. I have always wanted my children about 3 years apart, but obviously Heavenly Father had a different plan. Callie will be at least 4+ years old by the time our 3rd child could come along. Part of me is sad that things didn't go as WE planned, but that's okay. I am looking forward to the positive aspects of it such as: getting Callie potty trained so we can be diaper free, no more toting around a diaper bag like I have for the last 5+ years, and a little free time to myself when Callie will go to preschool in the fall and Colton will be in all day kindergarten. I appear to be perfectly healthy at this time and have faith that this will continue. My dear sweet husband was so wonderful through everything. He finished up all the christmas shopping, made and passed out salsa to all the neighbors, sent out the christmas cards, took great care of the kids, and did anything else I asked him to do. I love you Nate! I was hoping to send out a little letter with our christmas cards, but that didn't happen with everything else we had go on. Maybe this coming year we will be more on top of things!

Irvine Regional Park 2

Irvine Regional Park

Saturday of our CA trip we visited Irvine Regional Park. We had been there once before and the kids loved it, so we decided to go again this trip. We were glad to see that the park was open - it just reopened that week from serving as a base camp for the firefighters fighting the Santiago Canyon fire. The park features a mini railroad (the longest mini RR we have ever ridden, and we have ridden quite a few due to Colton's obsession with trains), a lake with paddle boats, tandem bikes to rent, horseback riding, playgrounds, and home to the Orange County Zoo. It is a very nice park with tons of trees and picnicking spots. We visited the had a picnic, visited the zoo, rode the train, and played at the playground. We spent a good majority of the day there. Our kids love being outdoors!

On our way home on Sunday, we flew back through Salt Lake and had a small layover. We did a quick tour of Temple Square. I would love to go back there and spend more time. My sister Chelsea was visiting a friend at BYU that weekend and flew back home with us. We loved being able to have some time together as a family.

More Disneyland Pictures!

We love Winnie the Pooh!

Posing by Small World

Buzz Lightyear - one of Callie's favorite characters

Riding the Rockets

Nate and Colton on the rockets (taking their own pict)!

Honey, anyone?

Disneyland!!

Snow on Main Street

Small World

Cinderella's Castle

Family in Toon Town

Meeting Minnie Mouse

The weekend before Thanksgiving we did a short family vacation to California. Our main destination was Disneyland. I really wanted to take Callie before she turned 3 and we would have to pay for her, and I wanted to see Disneyland all decorated for Christmas. It was opening weekend for the Christmas festivities and it turned out to be not crowded at all. The longest we ever stood in line was 15-20 minutes (not including the hour wait for Nemo)! It was a great time of year to visit! I even convinced Nate to fly to CA. We flew into Long Beach - I would highly recommend that airport to anyone. It is a small airport so it is not crowded at all. You can walk right through security without a wait and walk right up to the rental car counter and have your car in 5 minutes. We have flown into Long Beach before and had the same experience. FYI: If you book early, Delta will have flights from PHX - LGB for $49 one way. We waited too long to book and had to fly to SLC and then to LGB but it was still fairly cheap.

Friday we spent all day at Disneyland. Our family is known to be perpetually late, but we were actually on the shuttle from our hotel to Disneyland at 7:30 am. I know, miracles do happen! We first headed over to NEMO. I thought it was a cute ride. Colton really enjoyed it. At the beginning of the ride, Callie said "Look, there's Nemo!" and then was silent the rest of the ride. When the ride stopped, she started crying and said "I don't like it!" I didn't blame her. I can imagine Nemo can be scary to a 2 year old with it being all dark and a lot of loud noises.

Colton was insistent that he wanted to ride the train roller coaster (AKA: Big Thunder Mountain). I convinced him to go on Matterhorn first since it is a smaller coaster and warned him about the Abominable Snowman (me telling Colton: Just like the one in Monsters Inc.). He wasn't too scared of the monster, but the coaster itself kind of scared him - too bumpy and fast. Needless to say, he didn't end up riding "the train roller coaster". Colton enjoyed all the rest of the rides except Pirates of the Carribean and the Haunted House. Of course, Callie didn't like those two either.

Callie took a while to warm up to the rest of the rides after the Nemo scare. She was even a little nervous in Small World and didn't crack a smile until the ride was almost over, but I think she enjoyed it. She really liked Autopia, Buzz, the Rockets, Winnie the Pooh, and Peter Pan. She absolutely loved the evening parade with all the characters. She kept saying, "Mom, look! There's Cinderella, or Goofy, or Buzz Lightyear, etc." I thought she would be afraid of meeting the characters, but she wasn't. Colton and her were able to hug Winnie the Pooh, Eeyore, Tigger, and Minnie Mouse. They must have more guts than me. I have a picture from when I was 4 or 5 years old, and I was scared of Chip and Dale!

The kids both took a short nap in the evening, so we were able to take turns riding Indiana Jones and I got to ride Big Thunder Mtn. while Nate headed over to get a seat for the parade. At the end of the night we saw the musical fireworks show and had it "snow" on us on Main street. It was fun to see Disneyland all decked out with Christmas decorations throughout the park. (Small World and the Haunted Mansion actually are totally different rides at Christmas time. They both are full of Christmas decor inside the rides!) We loved our day at Disneyland and hope to be able to do it again sometime!