Disneyland

It's only taken me a month to get the Disneyland pictures up. That is why you might be confused with the cute pumpkin Minnie and Donald that greeted us at the front gate. It really did make sense to have these up...in mid October. Anyways, we entered thru these magical gates..and waited for about half an hour for our family to arrive. During this time, two things became abundantly clear. First we waited by the little Snow White fountain on the side of Sleeping Beauty castle and it was obvious that Alianna never wanted to leave. Also there were A LOT of BYU t-shirts entering the magic kingdom that day. We later discovered that Utah Teacher's Union or something gave all their teachers 2 days free and then had 2 days later that week off of school. Since those dang Mormons don't know how to have just 2 kids but have like 5 or 6, it was a wee bit crowded. But we pressed on.
The first ride we got on was Mr Toad's Wild Ride, which was not the best idea because that ride is SCARY! Poor Alianna was a bit scared of all the dark rides after that, except Winnie the Pooh which was a big hit. I think the only Fantasyland ride she really loved was Dumbo. the whole ride she said "WEEEEE!YAY!" and did not want to get off.(Excuse my double chin, I was scrunching down to fit in and almost didn't put this picture up but Alianna is soo cute in it.) Minnie was of course a HUGE hit. I'm pretty sure Alianna could have just spent the whole two days in Minnie's house playing with the kitchen dishwasher and stove.
Ms. "ba-ba-bell" was also a big hit. She even gave Tink a flower and Tinkerbell thought it was the cutest thing that she called her ba-ba-bell.
Poor ArJay got banished to the line to met the princesses by himself because Alianna didn't really get the concept of standing in line for half an hour. He says he kept letting everyone around him know he really wasn't a creeper. But I'm pretty sure it was worth it since she was in awe of meeting "rorie".
Remember how she did NOT want to leave the snow white fountain. All the rest of that morning all we heard was cries of "sNo white! sNo White!" It got to the point that we couldn't say the name because she would just cry so my father-in-law dubbed her "the Cold Caucasian". Needless to say, when we went thru the Princess Faire line and Snow White was one of the 3 she met, I'm pretty sure it was the highlight of her life.
Day two was spent in California Adventure for most of the day and was much more relaxed because it was not nearly as crowded in that park. The first thing we did was the Playhouse Disney show, which she loved because it was "Ickey clubhouse" and "tigga and pooh" and had bubbles rain from the ceiling. But I think the all time favorite was the carousel. She seriously went on it 8 times in a row. The guy in charge told Popa, who was taking her, after about the 4th round that he could just stay sitting. The only problem was she still had to change animals every time. She only rode the seals and sea otters, but I'm pretty sure her goal was to ride every different one on the carousel.
So all in all, it didn't go exactly how we thought it would( but then when does life with kids ever go how you plan) but we still had a blast meeting all her favorite idols, watching parades, and riding rides.

Halloween

I didn't get any pictures from the church trunk or treats on Saturday night because I was on my own and she was having so much fun I had a hard time keeping up with her! But Mom Gamble had a fun little family thing on actual Halloween night. She had masks for the kids to paint. Alianna's was a cat and she was very intent on it if you can't tell. They also had pumpkins to carve and caramel apples to eat. I may or may not have inhaled my caramel apple and half the one I was supposed to bring home to ArJay since he was working. Shhh...don't tell him.

We had the hardest time getting the kiddos to sit still for pictures in their costumes. Especially when the Jedi knights got out their light sabers and Alianna got jealous. Luckily cousin Tyson was very sweet and let her hold his.
I'm pretty sure this is the only shot where Alianna was actually looking at the camera and she was only doing a "HIYA!" karate move mimicking her uncle. We had a blast! Thanks grandma!

Birthday festivities continue...

Since today Is Alianna's actual birthday and it is also a day ArJay actually has off, we decided to have a little outing and invited Aunt Candice( who had to work during the party) and Aunt-in-law(?) Tania and little Sadie to the zoo with us. All morning long she kept telling me "enmoles". I thought she was saying Elmo but as soon as we got to the zoo and she started screaming it I realized she was excited about the animals.


Right here we were staring right at the polar bear. I think it must have been a little too exciting for her because right after this shot she peed all over herself( although she had already peed all over when we first got there.) Apparently it was a little too much excitement because she also peed all over herself when we got to McDonalds play place for lunch. And the potty training was really starting to make improvements....sigh....note to self, no exciting outings with very few bathrooms when potty training.

After naps, we decided to go on the maiden voyage of the bike. She had ridden it around the living room but not out on the street. I don't think I can convey how adorable she looked in her huge helmet and knee pads as she said "WEEEEE! RIDE!WEEE!" Up and down the neighborhood streets. All and all an awesome day....except for all the pee.

Alianna turns two!

Yesterday we had Alianna's birthday party. It was a lot of fun despite some obstacles we faced that we worying me a little including: not very successful dive into potty training that week, Alianna was sick, and of course we showed up at the park(which you can't reserve) to find a lady sitting at our pavilion were we already had stuff up and the grass soaking wet because they are re-seeding. Luckily it all worked out. She went potty before we left( although it was in her pants, at least it wasn't at the park!), she only had a man voice from losing her voice and was not sick, the lady said she was just waiting for her tent and her party wasn't until later, and we just didn't do the field games and played on the playground again.We had all her favorite people there minus a few sickies, even grandma and popa weir and uncle Mitch were able to drive over to join us.

We had yummy lots of yummy food. I went a little crazy with the cute minnie red polka dots and even cut sandwiches into mickey heads.

This is my first attempt at Marshmallow Fondant. Please do not laugh. I saw this a while back on So you think you're crafty and got ambitious thinking I could re-create it. The head is a half of the soccer bowl Wilton cake pan and the ears are sugar cookies in case any of you were scratching your heads.
She is one spoiled/lucky little girl with all the amazing presents she got. Apparently everyone has her pegged because everything was princesses, Minnie, or coloring and she couldn't be more thrilled! We got Alianna a trike with the handle in back so when she gets bored pedaling, or doesn't even start, we can still go for a "bike ride"/walk.She was pretty excited about it because everytime we go to the store she spots the bikes across the store and tries to take them home. The bottom is a shot of most of the kids chowing down, Thanks for coming guys we had a blast! Or and thanks a lot for the belly shot of the two preggo girls Dad, it's really flattering. ( FOr those of you wanting to laugh at me, I'm the belly in red.)