Thanksgiving 2009

"Happy Thanksgiving!" is what the girls are shouting in this picture. They made these cute hats at our ward's Midweek Thanksgiving activity last Wednesday.

So this year was the first year we didn't go home and spend Thanksgiving with one of our families. We decided to have a travel-free, relaxing, spend time together, save money, and get some stuff done weekend in Ohio. We definitely missed our families and our usual Thanksgiving traditions, but it was a great weekend spent with friends and each other. We spent the morning watching the Macy's Thanskgiving Day Parade, Dan put up the Christmas lights on our house, and I cooked the day away. It was great.

The Youngs invited us and the Christensens over for Thanksgiving dinner. Thanks again guys!! The spread! I made the pretzel jello salad, mashed potatoes, and the sweet potatoes (It was my first time making sweet potatoes. They turned out great. I'm glad I know how to make them now:) Everything was delish!
Leah, me and Angie - the cooks:)

Between our 3 families, we have 8 girls and 1 baby boy.

It's a BOY!!!!!!!!

Well, I had my ultrasound this morning (I'm 20 weeks today), and yes, IT'S A BOY!!!!!! We are so excited. My doctor could see it right away. "What? Are you SURE?" I asked. "Yes, I'm positive. See here? I sure hope this isn't a girl! In fact, I will come to your house and repaint the nursery myself if this isn't a boy." So there you have it. We are thrilled. Not that I wouldn't have been excited if it was a girl (I already had my girl name picked out), but of course we wanted our little boy someday. The girls are really happy as well, especially Annie, who was always saying, "I really hope it's a little brother!"

I guess I have to admit that I kind of had a feeling it was boy, but didn't want to get my hopes up too much. I was much sicker this pregnancy than I was with my girls. Although don't people usually say you're sicker with girls? I was sick with Annie, but I didn't throw up nearly as many times as I did during this pregnancy. And with Leah, I wasn't very sick at all. So, I could tell that this pregnancy was kind of different. Also, at my first ultrasound, which I had at 13 weeks, my doctor kind of guessed it was a boy. She said it was still too early to know for sure, but if she had to say one way or the other, she would guess that it was going to be a boy. And, I had a dream a few nights ago that we were having a boy. But you can never go off dreams. So, I had my suspicions, but today definitely confirmed it.

So, bring on the BLUE! Bring on the boy toys!! This house definitely needs some of that. We are all girl over here. Princesses, and tutus, and ballet movies, and doll houses, and dress up clothes, and crowns, and wands, and pink blankets, and well, we do have a train set. That's one thing.

I probably won't be redecorating the nursery at our house though, since the baby is due April 8th, a week after Dan graduates. It's going to be a crazy time, because that is right when we were planning on moving across the country, to somewhere, we don't know where yet, but hopefully by then we will! At first we thought that it was the worst timing possible, being right after graduation, but now I think it's perfect timing. Dan will be done. At home. With me. All day long. With nothing to do. But take care of us. Isn't it great? haha.

And now if I can somehow get in a nap before tonight. I'm going with 15 of my friends out to dinner and then to the double feature of Twilight (starting at 9:00 pm) and the midnight showing of New Moon. Can't wait!!

Congratulations!!

Congratulations to my beautiful sister Kristen who got engaged a few weeks ago! The wedding is December 26 in the Oakland, California Temple. It's going to be an exciting and busy Christmas! Also, a big congrats to my other sister, Stephanie, and her family for welcoming this handsome little fellow into the family! Grant Zander Rich was born October 30th. We are so excited to meet our new little cousin. Just another reason we can't wait for Christmas!

5 Years Old!

I can't believe this girl is already 5 years old! She is such a sweetheart and it is just a complete joy to have her in our family. She is seeming so grown up these days. She is a great little helper and I know she was meant to be the oldest in our family. We love you Annie! Here are a few things about her right now:

-She loves to draw. She loves to learn how to draw new things, and goes through our computer paper like crazy.

-She is learning how to read and is doing very well.

-Her most common phrase: "Let's do an activity!" She loves doing things as a family, especially having family movie nights.

-She likes to take showers (she feels like a big girl), although still likes to take baths with Leah. They can play for hours in the bath together . . . . it's so nice.

-Likes to be tucked in "tight" in her bed at night. Daddy does it the best.

-Is starting to get a little opinion about things she wears (unlike Leah who has a big opinion). See the pink necklace she's wearing in the top picture? She brought me her jewelry box that day and asked if she could wear some jewelry.

-Likes going to preschool 4 days a week. Is gaining confidence by making new friends there.

-She loves to dance. She's in a ballet/tap combo class once a week.

-She loves to dress up in her ballet leotard and this certain pink skirt and dance to the Nutcracker music at home.

-Her favorite dinners: spaghetti and haystacks.

-Her favorite games right now: Guess Who and CandyLand.

-She still has a special blanket and still sucks on the little tied pieces of yarn.

-She loves to go to the mall . . . . I love this about her!

-She always wants an Auntie Anne's pretzel when we go to the mall.

-Her favorite color is still pink.

-She'll happily clear the kitchen table, but still has a hard time cleaning her room by herself. "I need help!"

-She loves to play computer games.

-Her favorite movies right now are the Barbie movies ("Barbie in the Nutcracker", "Barbie of Swan Lake" . . . . it's the ballet).

-She loves freshly baked chocolate chip cookies because they are soft. She doesn't really like them the next day because they are "too crunchy." She's a cookie snob.

-She loves nachos, especially right after church because that's when we always make them.

-Her favorite princess right now is Aurora.

-She likes to wake up while Daddy is still home. If she's just waking up as he's leaving, she'll peer out her blinds and watch him leave.

-She is such a great big sister to Leah. They play amazingly well together 95% of the time. And the other times, when Leah is doing something to Annie, she NEVER fights back. She's so patient and sweet to her. These two really are the best of friends, and I hope that continues forever.

Happy Birthday Annie!

Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party!

This night was the highlight of the week for me. After spending the day at Animal Kingdom on Tuesday, the Johnsons and us packed back into our cars, grabbed some Chipotle burritos to go, made a quick stop at the hotel, and then drove back over to Magic Kingdom (the girls both took a much needed hour nap in the car during this intermission). We put on their Halloween costumes, and went into the park at around 7 pm to find Magic Kingdom transformed into a Halloween wonderland.

Pirates and princesses.

Fun atmosphere!Making their "scary" faces while waiting for the Halloween parade. The parade was really impressive. Halloween floats, characters in costumes, incredible dancers dressed as the Haunted Mansion ghosts, candy handed out, etc. We loved it. Playing in Minnie's house in Toon Town.

And who did we find outside of her house? Minnie, of course!! All dressed up in a cute witch costume!

We also saw Snow White and all 7 of the dwarfs!
We hit up a few of the trick-or-treat stations they had throughout the park, where they were just dumping handfuls of candy into the bags. We also went to a few of the dance parties they had where you could dance with the characters. The kids loved this. How often do you get to dance with Mickey and Daisy? But the best part was how there were absolutely no lines for any of the rides. The kids were all going strong so we were practically just running from ride to ride from like 11 pm until midnight. So fun. I love nights like that. Pure Disney Magic.

Well, I think that wraps up my Disney posts. Now I can get on to other things (like Halloween and Annie's birthday!) We had such a fun trip. Thank you so much to the Johnsons for organizing everything, and to everyone else for coming and making it another great Walton Family Vacation!!!

Epcot

Friday was Epcot day. I didn't really know what to expect from this park, because before we left I had some people telling me they loved Epcot, and others saying it wasn't that great. But we enjoyed it and found plenty to do there! We waited in line to see Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Pluto, and Goofy. The girls loved running up and hugging each character they know and love from the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.

There were also a lot of characters just scattered through the park. And the lines were really short for most of them, so of course the kids wanted to meet them!

The kids also really enjoyed decorating their masks and adding the little paper "souvenirs" they got at each country we "visited."

There are 11 different countries to visit, and I think we visited most of them. They were fun to check out. Here we are in Morocco:

Annie in Japan:

Grandma and the girls in Italy:

Trying on huge sombreros in Mexico:

It was a fun day!

Hollywood Studios

We went here on Thursday, Dan's birthday. It's a fun park. Tower of Terror is here, as well as the new Toy Story Mania (fun ride!)The girls loved seeing Mickey!Annie and her cousin Megan. They are 5 months apart.

In front of Rock 'n' Roller Coaster (another ride I have never been on before that I would have liked to go on). Oh well, we'll just have to go back someday.

We love Minnie!! And our cute cousin Molly:)The kids loved playing in the "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids" play area.

They have a lot of shows in this park. We saw the Voyage of the Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast - Live on Stage, Fantasmic (that night), and two stunt shows. The first one was the Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular! I was chosen from the audience to be one of the extras. It was fun to be involved. In the first picture I'm on the far right, in the yellow rag. We're supposed to be cheering for Indy.

This show is called the Lights, Motors, Action! Extreme Stunt Show. It was an impressive show.

But sometimes, you're just too exhausted to enjoy it.

And Leah wasn't the only one!