~Fred our Elf has Returned~

Fred always comes back Thanksgiving night.  He brings us all a new pair of Christmas pj's.  The kids kept checking the door to see if he was here.  Finally he came.

They all tore into their gifts before I even knew what was going on.

Santa and Fred must have known that Hunter doesn't wear pj's.  They brought him a t shirt and shorts instead.

The girls in their new Christmas pajamas.

Crazy faces!

I love my family and the traditions we have.  Here's to a wonderful holiday season!

~Thanksgiving~

This year was the year to celebrate Thanksgiving with the Ropelato side of the family.  Darinda was sweet and had personalized letters to each one of us for our name tags, very thoughtful!

After dinner, Darinda had a family name game for us to play.  Lexi and Sara were the Vana Whites of the game.

Hunter was the banker.

After stuffing ourselves full, we headed down to the Megaplex to see Big Hero 6.  Such a cute movie!  Garrett was mesmerized the entire movie.

It was fun to have all our cousins join us for our family tradition of a movie after Thanksgiving dinner.  I am so thankful for my family!  They make me sooo happy!

~6th Grade Fieldtrip to Clark Planetarium~

This may have been my last fieldtrip with Hunter, so I absolutely had to make an effort to go with his grade to Salt Lake to visit the Clark Planetarium.  We had fun riding front runner down to Salt Lake, learning about space, then getting lunch in the food court at Gateway.  And what made it even better, was that Hunter actually sat by me for the movies, waited for me while we explored the museum, and walked with me to the Gateway.  I honestly wasn't sure if this was going to happen.  I remember when I went on a fieldtrip with him when he was in 2nd grade, he wanted nothing to do with me.  He wouldn't sit by me, walk with me, or even acknowledge that I was there.  So today was a pleasant surprise.

Hunter with some of his classmates on Frontrunner.

It was fun spending the day with my Hunter!  He is growing up way too fast!!!

~Family Vacation To Disneyland- Day 5~

Going to Disneyland on a Sunday was a BIG mistake!!!  It was crazy busy!  We were so used to not waiting more than 20 minutes for a ride, and found ourselves being grateful for a 35 minute wait (which was so hard to find).  So we spent most of our time shopping, walking through Toontown, and seeing things that we wouldn't normally take the time to see.

Tarzan's Treehouse

It was cool that when they had the little ceremony of lighting Cinderella's castle like a winter wonderland, they had actual snow coming out of sprayers by the lamp posts.

The kids decided to get all matching sweatshirts :)  So cute!

I LOVE Lexi's face in this picture!!! Complete terror, lol.

We were all exhausted by the end of the night.  Hunter and Mckell insisted that we go on one last ride, Tower of Terror.  While they went on the ride, I sat out with two sleeping children, Lexi and Garrett.

We had such a fun trip.  Too short, but I don't know if our bodies could have handled another day (well at least Dave and my bodies, lol)  We were exhausted!!! I love Disneyland and am so glad we got to go and make memories together as a family!