January, Disneyland and more Disneyland!

One of our most favorite things about living in California is being so close to Disneyland!!! We have been able to go so much because Greg usually has every Wednesday off and Brinley also has early out that day too.
I LOVE Disneyland. It's so much fun to see this place through my kids' eyes. Its like all their fantasy's and dreams come to life and for the time we are there, we are in a whole new world!
The first time we went was on my birthday! It was the best birthday ever!!!

  In Bugs land

 First Time on Splash Mountain. She was so scared but after we went down the big drop she said it was her favorite ride!!!

 We got to see "Its a small World" before they took down the Christmas lights.

Greg and the girls going down!

 Meeting some very special friends!!

 Toon Town

 PIXAR Parade!

 McKay on one of his favorite rides, the merry go round!

Meeting some crazy chip n dale!

 Meeting princess Aurora!

 Minnie Mouse!

 She loved McKay!

 Everyone has to go on on Dumbo!! Classic!

 ALWAYS the wait time for meeting Elsa and Anna!

 Tarzans tree house!

 I HATE this ride! I can go on roller coasters all day, but this swinging Farris Wheel TERRIFIES ME!!! The only reason I go on it is to see McKay's face when we swing back and forth. He LOVES it and just smiles and laughs so hard. It's so cute to see. ( The sacrifices we make as a mother!!)

CALIFORNIA BABY!

WE FINALLY MADE IT TO SUNNY CALIFORNIA!!!!
After a long trip we made it safe and sound to our beautiful new home in Southern California. It was about twenty degrees when we left Utah and I can't tell you how welcoming it was when we arrived and felt the amazing 70 degree weather!

Moving into our house was quite crazy! After a very long days drive to get to our house I walked in for the first time only to find that there had been a water leak the whole time we were gone to Utah!!!! I walked in and saw a huge bulge in the ceiling right above our brand new TV and there was water leaking everywhere! It was the most awful, stressful feeling ever. We immediately called our landlord and he rushed over to see what the problem was. As it turned out there was a leak in the pipe where the washer hooked up and he thought it was fixed, but as you can tell it was not fixed! It was the straw that broke the camels back for me! I just sat there and stared at the big mess for a long time and wondered what in the world we we going to to!!!
Luckily my mother in law Carole was there to help us unpack and get things settled while our landlord worked on fixing the problem!

Here is a picture of some of the damage.

After a few LONG days of unpacking and settling in, we finally got around to enjoying our surroundings. This is on DECEMBER 31st! A picnic in the backyard, enjoying the 70 degree weather!

I don't know why, but this has been one of my favorite things about our house, this beautiful Lilly flower bush. I've always LOVED Lilly's but have never seen them grow before. This has been so amazing to see each day! 

 Here in the crew celebrating NEW YEARS EVE!! Happy 2014!

On new years day, we were just dying to see the ocean! So we drove out to Santa Monica pier in LA and went and saw the beach! It was incredible! I love the ocean! I've always said that when you look a the ocean it increases your lifespan, because it nourishes your soul with the most amazing feelings! WE had so much fun!

We are loving our California Adventure!!!

CHRISTMAS!

We had a wonderful Christmas in Utah! It was nice to have a couple week break before continuing the move to California.

Making her own rolls with Grandma!

 Yummy Prime Rib Dinner!

 Acting out the Nativity at Grandma Carole's! Ellie was Mary, James was Joseph and McKay was Baby Jesus!

 Brinley got to be an angel

 Julianne was a Lamb!

 Someone wanted to be an Angel!!!

We stayed at a hotel in SLC for a night!

 Our little Elf on the Shelf

 Christmas Eve with Grandpa and Grandma, before they left for uncle Jared's

Spoiled as always!

 Christmas Eve At Maryanne's

  Christmas morning!

 Julianne got a guitar and microphone, and lipstick.

 Brinley got a Dr. set, and a new jump rope

 And both of them got a Barbie house and Barbies!

 McKay got some cute baby toys!

 AND WE SURPRISED THE KIDS WITH DISNEYLAND SEASON PASSES!!!

 Singing and playing!

 Addie, Julianne and Eve

 How all of us felt at the end of  Christmas!

The Drive :(

The only thing worse that packing and loading all your stuff into a moving truck is driving the distance to your new place!!! Unfortunately ours was a three day grueling drive to Southern California! My oh so very wonderful in-laws helped us out by coming along to help drive the big Penske truck and entertain  Brinley and Julianne. It was a life savor having them come! 

I hated nearly everything about this drive and so I don't want to bore myself or anyone else with all the details. Just know it was NOT FUN!!!

Instead I wanted to do my traditional top 10 things I'll miss and not miss about living in St. Louis

We will start with the top 10 things I will NOT miss.

10- The lack of good Mexican food

9- All the construction work on river des pres rd!!

8- The crazy scares of tornadoes, luckily we never had one touch where we lived!

7- Ice storms!

6- Not being able to open my van doors in the morning because of the ice storms

5- Cockroaches and Spiders in my house!!!!

4- The poor excuse for grass (or lack of grass where i lived ;))

3- The constant sound of creepy bugs 24/7 during the summer

2- The million mosquito bites in the summer

1- THE HOTTER THAN YOU KNOW WHAT HUMID SUMMERS!!!!

Top 10 things I will miss

10- My friendly landlords and being able to call them with any problems!

9- our cute little park and sandbox 

8- our complex swimming pool

7- The smell of my neighbor Cynthia making bread every two weeks 

6- Living 1 minute from our church

5- all the people I went to church with

4- Brinley and Julianne's school and their teachers!

3- Trick or treating in St. Charles and Pappy's

2-Monday night "Mentalist"

1c- Game night at "Fenway"

1b- My kids' friends

1a- My wonderful friends!!!!

Living in St. Louis was truly a highlight in my life! I'm so glad we were able to be there and experience all the amazing things we did, both the good and the bad! Looking back at what our family looked like when we first got there, I can't believe how much we grew, both in size and spiritually. 

I was surrounded by some of the most selfless, Christ like people I'v ever met. I hope that I, as well as my family, can take their examples and all the things we learned into our new home and share it with those around us. Good bye St Louis!! You will forever stay in our hearts!!!!!