Christmas!!!

Merry Christmas!!

Christmas Eve we stayed at my parents' house. Brody made Captain Crunch chicken, potatoes, salad and other yummy stuff. It was so good!!

We woke up Christmas morning, and Santa had come! : )

After we opened gifts we went over the the Moneys for our traditional Christmas brunch. Jill does an amazing job!! The food is always perfect and the table is always like something from a magazine---and we love spending time with the Moneys!!

It is always something we all look forward to! : )

One of our favorite gifts was our Canon Digital Rebel SLR. It is perfect for us, since we just play around and have fun---we aren't trying to go pro. We are in love with it--it will even shoot HD Video! Here are some photos we took Christmas day. : )

Christmas night the Moneys came over to my parents house for a big yummy feast! : )

It was a great Christmas!!

We hope everyone had a wonderful a safe Christmas with family and friends!

We love you!! : )

Party & Grinchmas

December is a busy time of year, and Saturday the 18th was no exception.

We started our day with our niece Marley's 1st birthday party.

It was such a darling party! Nikki really knows how to throw a great bash! : )

Everything from the decorations, food, Marley's cute outfit and the DVD of Marley's first year in photos, was fabulous! We had a great time visiting with family! : )

After the party we headed up to Universal Studios for 'Grinchmas', since it was only running a couple days in Dec. It was a rainy day, but that made it all the more fun!!

Mistletoe kisses!!

Since it was raining, why not play in the fountain too?? ; )

The City Walk was so pretty at night in the rain!

Whoo Hoo!! Lets go in!!

On the backlot tour. In the 4D King Kong part of the tour. It was amazing!!!

The Bates Motel part of the tour. That night they had someone coming out of the hotel room carrying a body, putting it in the trunk and then when he saw us, he pulled a knife out and rushed toward the tram! It was awesome!! I hope they keep that part in from now on.

It was even better at night in the rain!! : )

Whoville!!

Had to save Brody from the man eating shark again! : )

Last time my Mom and I went to Universal, we chickened out on the Simpson's ride. It has SO many warnings, and we had no idea what to expect. So this time, we had to go on it, and see that it was nothing to worry about. haha

yup, now there's NO turning back for us!!

It ended up being a ride like Disney's Star Tours, but MUCH more turbulent.

We all had a blast on it! : )

2 thumbs up!

Whoville Christmas tree!

I always wanted to go on the Mummy ride. Well, I braved it, and it terrified me!! I won't be going on it again, but at least I did it once! : )

Thumbs down!

yes, it is dry inside, but freaky!!

It was SUCH a fun day!!! : )

Candlelight Processional

The first weekend in December we got to experience for the first time, the Candlelight ceremony at Disneyland!

They read the Christmas story from the Bible, and pause every now and then for the choir (made up of schools and cast members from Disneyland) to sing Christmas songs.

It was so lovely!

above is a fuzzy photo of the choir walking from down Main Street to the stage holding candles.

It was such a beautiful production, we loved that it was so religious and focused on the true meaning of Christmas. It was a wonderful way to kick off the Christmas season!

We LOVED it!!: )

Merry Christmas!

I've been pretty sick, and haven't been able to get our 2nd round of cards out yet.

So until I do, here they are! : )

$ this time of year!

Our home is filled with all the wonderful sights and smells of Christmas! : )

We are in love with our little tree. We went to the lot to get our normal 6 foot tree, and for some reason, we couldn't stop looking at the cute small ones. So we picked one up! It has become our favorite tree! : )

Sunny Santa Monica

Last week I was able to get some park hopper tickets for Camille and Jeff. It was so much fun to spend time with them at Disneyland and be a part of little Gabby's first visit. :)

Earlier this week, Brody and I spent a fun day in Santa Monica. We explored the pier and did some shopping! We even found a British shop, and stocked up on candy for our stay at DL. : )

It was a beautiful and relaxing start to our holiday weekend! : )

Christmas!

From this post you will see that the photo lady (me) has been sick, and has spent more time with her humidifier than her camera. :)

Last week we headed out to AZ to see Brody's family for some Pre-Christmas fun! We got to see the lights at the Mesa Temple....

....nativity's from around the world...like this one from Brody's mission, Argentina : )

It was SO beautiful!

We also got to spend time with some of the Foy's extended family, the Bales. We loved our time with them. They are such an amazing family & we had so much fun (& lots of laughs) with them! I was able to get this shot of Brody and Ryan playing some ball, before my camera died. That's Brody, dunking! (swoosh...nothing but net baby) : )

We went to the Smooth Jazz Christmas concert in Mesa. Our favorite part was when they played some of the music from the Charlie Brown Christmas Special.

We made it back from AZ just in time for Christmas! When we got home, my cold had really hit me....and I slacked on the photos big time. It was such a great Christmas!!

Christmas Eve we all got into the car at around 8pm and drove out to the Whitter area to take generous Target gift cards (from The Newport Coast Singles Ward, where my Dad is the Bishop) to families in need. It was such a memorable experience. Everyone was so grateful warm and lovely (and everyone was making tamales & invited us in...smelled soooo good!). Since they all spoke Spanish, Brody was our man! He called each of them a head of time to let them know we were on our way & spoke with them at the door---It was amazing to hear him speak so well in Spanish, I love getting little glimpses of his mission. : )

There is nothing like the feeling you get when you serve those who truly deserve it!

Christmas day was a blast! We stayed the night, opened presents, brunched with the Money's and had a huge feast with a bunch of family friends at my parents house that ended up staying till a little past 11pm! It was SO fun!

Here's Brody playing with some cool new gadgets for his bike that Santa brought. : )

It was such a fun Christmas season! We now look forward to having lunch with Brad and Andrea before they head back to UT---SO wish they lived closer. : ) It is so fun this time of year to spend time with good friends and family, and we are so very grateful for ours!

We are also mindful of the true meaning of this holiday season, remembering our Savior, his life and all that he has done for us, and the wonderful blessings he has in store for us as we continue to live the gospel. : )

We hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas & all our love and best wishes for a happy and healthy 2010!!

"These are the last two"

Today we went to Disneyland to hit two attractions, one newly returned (Great Moments with Mr.Lincoln) and one that is on it's way out (the Aladdin stage performance in CA)---both amazing, but our favorite was Great Moments with Mr.Lincoln (gives you chills).

After, we ran into a sweet surprise! About a week ago we saw a Food Network special with Guy Fieri at Disneyland making these amazing looking candy canes (with the guy to the far right of the photo below). They only make 45 of these canes 3 times a day, only on specific days (and with 50,000+ people visiting the park a day during the holiday season, the odds are small of getting one of these holiday treats). In years past the lines have been so long that this year they handed out vouchers at the candy shop at 8am on the day they make them! The voucher would tell you what time to come back and get your cane---there is also a "stand by" line for those who were not at the park at 8am to get the ticket. If there are any left over beyond the early reserved canes, then the lucky people in the "stand by" line would get one!

It is amazing to see them make these

We stopped in at around 12pm to see what was happening with the Candy Canes, and found out that that time slot was already long sold out. The Cast Member told us to come back at about 2:15 and we might have a shot at getting one. We came back at about 2pm (and waited for almost an hour), and we were the first to get in the "stand by" line. The voucher holders line was long, and we were told that once that line was gone, whatever is left goes to our line. Time went by and the voucher holders were gone, the Cast Member came over to Brody and I and told us to come with him. We walked acrross the room--and as we did the others in line started clapping and cheering (because they were happy that our "stand by" line was moving---once we got to the cashier and talked with her for a bit, she told us that we got the only two that were left over after the voucher holders had gotten theirs! We were pretty surprised and felt really lucky! We keep hearing about how hard these are to get.

After hearing that news, we left the store promptly because we figured that those who were in our line cheering (and that we were talking to earlier), were probably not too happy right now (some of those people were SO in to this).

Here's Brody guarding our lucky canes!! : )

I am not a peppermint candy cane fan---but after trying these beauties, I am hooked!! They are amazing! The flavor is light, and it has a nice (not too hard) crunch to it---and they are BIG too! We now understand why people are so crazy about these canes!! YUM!!! We felt so lucky that we sort of stumbled onto it, and ended up with two--after seeing it on TV! It was such a fun treat for us! What a fun Christmas tradition.

This is a great (short) video I found on YouTube showing how they make the candy canes! Totally worth watching!! Some of these guys have been doing this at Disneyland for 19, 20+ years! : )


The last day they will be making candy canes this season is on the 23rd (we were told today). If you feel like getting there before 8am, in line to get your voucher, or try your luck in the "stand by" line then ring the Candy Palace for more details: (714) 781-0112. Good luck! It really is something to watch them make it, and then get to eat it. And when you first get it, its still all warm. Gotta love a fresh Candy Cane! : )