Favorites from Christmas 2014

We had such a nice Christmas!  Here are some of my favorite pictures...

Making cookies :)

Singing at church-

School parties!

Our UNC Charlie Brown tree...

...and more to come!

Christmas Eve!!!

These cuties are super excited!

They've got their Christmas pajamas on and can't wait!

A Real Big Boy Bed

We went to visit Gastonia for Thanksgiving this weekend, and brought home a real big boy bed for Ben! It belonged to my Grandma Nell's family, so it is really special. You wouldn't believe how excited he was about this!  Here he is going to bed his first night in it.

His reenactment of his baby photo on the wall...ha ha!!

School Lunch

School lunch wasn't too bad today! Ben's class had a Thanksgiving lunch celebration. We had honor of bringing the turkey! It was a lot of fun for all…

Just the Usual...

Cinderella, taking a bow...

PJ Day for Ben at school a few days ago (before it got so cold!!!!!). He's wearing his favorite hand-me-downs from cousin Hank:  Angry Bird pajamas!

Sad Super Girl :(

My sweet boy....he's had a cold, the croup, and an ear infection in the past week :(. The silver lining is that we've had lots of down time to play fun games together, and snuggles - which I love, even if it means being wide awake in the middle of the night with a hurt ear or bad cough...

No Cavities!

Anna had her first dentist appointment with Dr. Bowers, and everything looked great!  I was very proud of my big girl....and very glad big brother Ben was such a good example for her :)

We don't normally go to the dentist in our pajamas, but it was pj Day at school a few weeks ago :)

Halloween 2014

These kiddos had a fun, two-day Halloween celebration this year!  First, there was the Candy Parade at school...Anna was Elsa from the movie Frozen, and Ben was the Transformer named Optimus Prime.

Here she is with her best friend Colton.

Ben and his buddy Jaxon decided to dress the same!

Thursday night we went to the Ridges to have dinner with friends, and enjoy pumpkin decorating and a hay ride.  Presenting Cinderella and Prince Charming:

Then Friday, time for the real deal....trick or treating and "partying" with all their preschool buddies.

"Jake and Izzy" the pirates from the Disney show Jake and the Neverland Pirates....one of their favorite things to watch on tv.  The weather was cold and rainy, so we headed out at 5:00 to beat the weather as much as possible!

A little rain never stopped these kids from getting candy!

Go, Cheetahs!

Saturday was our last soccer game this fall season.  Ben really got into it this year, and even scored his very first goal in the last game - very exciting!

Here's Anna, waiting for coach to call her back in the game :)

Ben and his soccer buddies Maya and Vishnu.

Ben getting his trophy from Coach Ash

Proud trophy holders!

Cooling Off...

Yesterday was the first day we've worn jeans or long sleeves to school.  Here comes Fall!!

Disney: Day Five!

For our last day, we went back to the Magic Kingdom.  We lucked up and were able to get a "Fastpass" to eat lunch at a really neat restaurant for lunch, called "Be Our Guest".  It is themed after the movie Beauty and the Beast, and has very good French food.  We bypassed (thanks to our Fastpass) a two hour line and sat in the ballroom of the "castle".  It actually looked like there was real snow falling outside the window!  We walked in and picked whatever table we wanted, and minutes later, a waitress brought our food (that we had ordered online weeks before) directly to our table.  We have no idea how she knew who we were, out of the hundreds of folks there, or where to deliver the food....magic, I guess!

After lunch, we rode a few more rides and watched a parade.  Goofy himself grabbed Anna and twirled her a few times, which just made her day!

Then it was back to the room for a nap.  We took a few photos of our room because it was so cute....here is the car-themed couch and cozy cone lamp, carpet and curtains....ha ha!

This was our breakfast table, and at night, it unfolded to make the bed where Ben and Anna slept.

We grabbed some dinner at the hotel, and rode the bus back to the park to meet Anna and Elsa from the movie "Frozen".  This was another thing we had lucked up and gotten a Fastpass for (you can get up to three per day, and it lets you skip the long lines).  Ben and Anna where THRILLED to meet such popular princesses; Mom and Dad were THRILLED not to wait in the 1.5 hour line to meet them!!

The merry-go-round never gets old :)

Our first trip to Disney wouldn't be complete without seeing the Main Street Electrical Parade and then watching the Wishes Fireworks show over Cinderella's castle.  We didn't get back to the room until 11:30, but it was worth it!  What a wonderful trip!

Disney: Day Four!

On our fourth day, we went to Hollywood Studios park.  First, we had breakfast with some of their favorite Disney Jr. Characters....here's Doc McStuffins!

Ben was dressed up as Jake the Neverland Pirate, so he was really excited for the real Jake to visit us!  Jake was excited to see his "twin", and motioned for Ben to go around and sign autographs while he sat down and ate breakfast with us....Ben was so tickled!

Our favorite ride of all:  Toy Story Mania.  You wear 3-D glasses and shoot at targets to get points!

For lunch, we went to Downtown Disney and ate at T-Rex.  We even got to sit in the ice cave!  

  

After lunch, back to the hotel for some swimming in the Cozy Cone pool and checking out a life-sized Tow Mater :)

Thankfully, the kids took a loooong nap and we went back to the park for a neat waterworks/fireworks show called Fantasmic.  In bed by 11:30, and get ready for our last day tomorrow!