Picture Update to close out October

This girls lips - to die for!

That is one full tub!

Olivia loves when Ruby gets close.  Usually it only takes a second or two before Ruby takes off, but this particular night they snuggled for a while.

The other two have quite an affinity for Ruby too.

Grandma Justice made these adorable trick-or-treat bags for the kids.  Brad basically harassed her for them since he had this as a child and really wanted them for our kids.  We are so grateful for all her hard work.  The kids LOVE them.  Thank you grandma!

Brad brought this random desk home and Eden likes to sit here and do her "homework" or other projects.  

Cutest horse ever!

Olivia was sitting on the floor playing with toys and Brad threw a big pile of warm laundry on top of her.  He said she froze for a second and then slowly fell back and happily snuggled into the warm clothes.  Little cutie.

At some point she then discovered the sequins on one of Eden's shirts and that became very interesting.

We were able to go celebrate Lincoln's 5th birthday with him.

Bentley and Lincoln

Halloween 2014!

Halloween was such a fun day!  Brad was able to get off work a little early, so we spent some time that afternoon carving our pumpkins.  

Olivia was very hesitant after feeling the pumpkin at first, but after a few minutes she was ok to start a huge messy adventure.

She even gave it a few licks just for good measure.

Eden requested that Brad carve Elsa into her pumpkin, but fortunately for him he was able to get her to agree to a snowflake instead.  

Bentley wanted Spiderman, but again, Brad's persuasion skills were successful again and Bentley  agreed to a simple spider instead.  Also, for the record, Bentley would NOT stick his hand into that pumpkin.  He had no interest at all in touching any "guts".

Getting five people to look at the camera at the same time is very tricky. Unfortunately, we were never successful.

But we suggested doing something crazy and that got everyone looking at least.  ha ha

Eden was a beautiful Queen Elsa.

Bentley was a very stealthy Ninja.

And Olivia was an adorable princess.

The kids were very excited to sort through their candy upon returning from treat-or-treating.

Olivia tried very hard to get the candy out of it's wrapper.  Fortunately for me she was never successful.

Holidays with kids are so much fun!  Eden and Bentley had a blast together, and we love sharing in that magic with them.  Bentley is already talking about Halloween coming again soon.  :)


And, just because they are too adorable to leave off - here are a few more of princess Olivia.  :)

Thank you Kally for the amazing hat you made!  You are so talented!

Disneyland and California Adventure Extravaganza!

When Eden was in the hospital recovering from her reconstructive surgery, we were talking about how amazing it was that her trach was out and that she had to do a lot of hard things over the years to get to that point.  We said we would have a big celebration for her and her idea of the perfect celebration was Disneyland so we got out of the hospital and planned our trip.  It was a great reason to celebrate, and we had an amazing time doing it!

We left very early in the morning, but they were excited!  They were surprised to see their Halloween gargoyle on the seat wearing Mickey Mouse ears (he didn't get to go though).  

Waiting in the airport.  Everyone was smiling!

Yes.... we are "this kind" of parents - but only when we travel, which is why is works so dang good.

No technology bribery needed for this girl though (yet!)

Eden was excited to show off our hotel, the Grand Californian.  It was SO NICE to have a  room so close to the parks.  It definitely made this trip with very small children much easier.

There is a "Frozen" boutique that Eden was very excited about.  We walked around that store many times.

The first day we arrived we spent a lot of time in Downtown Disney checking out all the shops.

Bentley and Eden thought the Lego store was very exciting.

We spent a lot of time there while they played with all the Legos.

We also played some video games, and did some bowling in the ESPN store.

The first night we went to a character dinner at Goofy's Kitchen.  Before being seated we had the opportunity to hang out with Goofy. This was our first time meeting, or even seeing any characters this trip so Bentley was not really a fan.  He refused to enter into the room with Goofy, so I took the girls in while Brad stayed out with Bentley.

Eden and I were next in line to meet Goofy and this picture is from where we were standing and Goofy was just to the right of this shot. I thought it was cute to see nervous little Bentley watching on from a VERY safe distance.

As we were eating, more characters were walking throughout the restaurant and would each come up to our table.  As they came through, Bentley got better about getting near them, but he was still very nervous.  Eden was very excited and had no issues at all snuggling up to each of them.

The next day we woke up bright and early for our adventures to begin.  We had three day park hopper passes so we wanted to make the best of our time there doing Disneyland (which we were at last year) and California Adventure (which we hadn't yet been to as a family).  The first morning we had "magic hour" at California Adventure from 7am - 8am before the park opened so we took advantage of that time to do many rides while there were no lines.  It was early, but SO WORTH IT!

Just in case someone got separated, we wrote our phone number with Sharpie on their bellies.  They thought it was pretty weird, but funny (despite the fact that Bentley looks kind of ticked off in this picture.)

Our large caravan, waiting to go in!

We took a big bag of quarters and pennies and let the kids get the souvenir squished penny each time they saw one of these machines.  They thought that was pretty cool.

They loved this Disney junior show with their favorite characters from the shows  they like to watch on TV.  While we were watching though Eden leaned over and whispered, "Mom, these aren't real.  They are obviously puppets."  ha ha my cute girl.

The Toy Story interactive ride was way fun.  Everyone loved this one.

Cars Land is amazing.  It is so awesome the way they have done it so it feels like you really are visiting Radiator Springs.  It was so fun.  

Bentley was in car heaven.  He was completely enamored by everything there was to see.  He couldn't get enough.  And check out Olivia in the background - just a happy camper back there with no idea as to what's going on but it obviously didn't matter.

This ride was one of Eden's favorites.  Bentley went on it once and said it was fun, but then he wouldn't get back on it again.  It spun around kind of fast so I don't think he was into that too much.

Cutest boy ever, even though it's nearly impossible to get him to look at the camera and smile at the same time.

Eden went on the Radiator Springs Racers ride.  She loved the fast race part, but didn't like the indoor part with what she said was a scary tractor guy.  Brad and I on the other hand thought this ride was amazing and so much fun.

Olivia was the keeper of the map - she was happy about that.

On day two we started the day with "Magic hour" in Disneyland.  Again, we were able to do tons in that first hour without any waiting and this time it was from 9 - 10 which was a much easier time.  

This was on the jungle cruise.  Bentley was really nervous about it and kept messing with his ears the whole time.

The kids enjoyed their first churro ever while waiting for the parade. This time I couldn't even get either one of them to look.

Eden was very excited when she saw the Frozen float coming. Little did she know at this point that she was going to actually meet Elsa and Anna soon.

I'm not sure what got the boys all excited, but they were very into it as well.  :)

We watched pretty much every show there was to see in both parks.

One of the nights we went back to California Adventure to watch the World of Color  Show.  Olivia just couldn't quite make it.

This show was absolutely amazing and so beautiful!  I've never seen anything like it. The kids thought it was very cool too, but it was very hard to see so Brad was working up a sweat trying to hold both Eden and Bentley up where they could see.  

This pretty much summed up every day there.  :)

One morning we did a character breakfast at the hotel. This one was really random as far as the characters went, but the kids still found it very fun.

During the magic hour we were able to get the tickets to meet Elsa and Anna so we only had to wait about 20 minutes instead of up to 4 hours like it can be during regular hours.  Absolutely crazy!  Eden was so excited, and we were happy we didn't have to wait!

Bentley and Eden were both a little star struck and hardly would say anything, so they resorted to playing a little hide and seek with Olivia.  :)

How appropriate that Eden also happened to be wearing one of her Elsa dresses that day.

We got very good seats for the Star Wars show which was very exciting, especially for Bentley.  He has been way into Darth Vader and light sabers since.

 Each day Brad or I would take Bentley and Olivia back to the hotel to take a nap, so the other would stay out in the parks with Eden.  It was so fun to get that one-on-one adventure time with her.

Last year we couldn't get Eden to go into the Tiki Room.  This year she agreed though and her and Bentley both loved it.  They now love to listen to the music from the Tiki Room from our phones, especially "the drum drum song" as Bentley calls it.

I convinced them both to go to the Haunted Mansion with me.  I love this picture - it captures each of their personalities so perfectly.

Olivia did so good taking cat naps in the stroller.

Bentley got some good one-on-one time too but he didn't really care about the rides as much.  He liked walking around Cars Land and the Bugs Life land and finding all the cool things to see.

We went on the huge ferris wheel at California Adventure and sat in one of the swinging cars.  It was really crazy, and Eden was terrified at first and wanted off.

Surprisingly, Bentley thought the swinging cart was absolutely awesome and so funny.  Once Eden saw how much he liked it, and that Brad and I were laughing at him, she decided it was fun too.  We ended up doing it twice, back to back, and then Brad had to call it quits.

I love this guy.  He takes us on so many adventures and makes life so fun.

One of the day's we went to Ariel's Grotto in California Adventure for a Princess character lunch.  Bentley was a good sport and didn't seem to mind being surrounded by princesses.  These two kids of mine are so funny.  When it came to the characters, if it was the animals or costume characters, Eden wasn't shy and loved them, but Bentley was way nervous and would kind of keep his distance.  When it came to the princesses who are real people, Eden became very shy and nervous and Bentley was much more comfortable.  Funny kids.

Snuggle on in there buddy - that looks cozy.  :)

Cute picture of everyone waiting for the parade to start at California Adventure.  I think it's hilarious that Eden and Bentley are both playing with their lip in the exact same way.  So cute.

Bentley LOVED the green army men.  He was very excited about those.

And, of course, his favorite Cars characters.

Brad, Olivia and I enjoyed our dinner while Eden and Bentley entertained us with their fight using light sabers (glow sticks).  They had several people quite entertained actually.  It was very cute watching them have an absolute blast.

On our final night there, we watched the World of Color show from the balcony of the hotel.  It was beautiful up there.

So after a travel/half day in Downtown Disney, and then three full days in the parks, our departure day finally arrived.  We didn't have to leave until mid day so we of course had to end the adventure with one last character breakfast. This one was tons of fun.  The kids had warmed up and were no longer shy with the characters, they had fun music playing and everyone had a good time saying goodbye to everything Disney.

At one point Bentley fell off his chair and was crying.  Brad was trying to comfort him and then all of a sudden, Minnie Mouse was there too.  That got him to stop crying very quickly.  Thanks Minnie!

On our way out, we had to make one final stop in Downtown Disney.  Eden had gone through each day trying to think of what her special prize from Disneyland would be and out of everything she found, she decided she wanted to go to Build a Bear which is quite ironic because we have one here in our mall.  Anyway, she was very excited about it and chose a very beautiful unicorn which now sings "Let it Go" from "Frozen.

And without too many issues, we finally made it back to Albuquerque.  Before even leaving the airport all three kids were fast asleep.  The perfect ending to a very fun, but very exhausting trip.

I'm so grateful for my family and the amazing adventures we get to go on, and all the fun memories we are creating along the way.