Leah wanted me to measure her today for some reason. She is four years, three and half months old. She is the same size that Anna was when she was 5 1/2 years old. At the rate they are growing (Anna petite, Leah not), Leah might close the gap by quite a bit on her older sister.
We're closer than we used to be to the snow... we can even see it from our porch. There is a big mountain range that spans our entire northern view; this isn't the best picture of it, but you get the point. After a cold, rainy day we woke up to a beautiful, sunny, snow covered view. And the palms in the foreground remind us that it is still California.
We're now only about an hour away from some true sledding and snowman making, which we hope to get a chance to do this winter with the kids. Being able to see it gets them more excited to go-- and me, too. Nothing like the holidays for a little (snowy) nostalgia.
Last night I had to coax Addie out of the bed she was sleeping in with the girls to put her in with Kathy. I took a picture but must have accidentally deleted it... Leah was sleeping horizontally across the top pillow, Anna was on the other end sleeping vertically and Addie was curled up in the middle next to Anna's legs all in a twin bed. It looked cozy... sort of!
And Kathy and Addie came, too, of course! Luke is sitting on my lap as I type this saying 'ee-fan, me hold, ee-fan' as he looks at these pictures. He was a great little houseguest and slept like a trooper. Come again soon!
Luke is such a sweet little kisser. He usually grabs my whole face and turns it towards him so he can give me a kiss. His kiss consists of puckered lips, sometimes a little slobbery, and a fake little 'blah' sound that is supposed to be the kiss sound that we make when we kiss him.
Luke was trying to sweeten up a deal for me so he could come along to the Nutcracker. I'm usually the one holding the camera so it was fun for me to have the sweet memory of my little kisser on 'film'.
Derek has some travelling to do next we so we squeezed in a trip to Disneyland with him before he leaves and before the blackout dates hit our annual passes for the busy part of Christmas and New Years.
I neglected to check the Disneyland calendar before we were planning and we ended up heading there in the afternoon of a day the park closed early for the Cast Member Christmas Party. It all worked out well, though, since we got a glance of the parade, made it on Small World before it closed for Fireworks, got to see the Fireworks and the 'snow' at the end of the show.
We all left as the park closed early and headed over to California Adventure for the rest of the night. We got fastpasses for Soarin' over California and went to the Wilderness Trail for some slides, climbing and swinging. The three older kids all love Soarin'-- I hadn't been on in years and it was so fun to go again! Anna was a little uncertain, but ended up enjoying the ride.
It was a little nostalgic being there on the night of the Christmas Party. 9 years ago I was a Disney employee and I brought Derek with me to the party at the Park. Little did I know that the next day he was heading out to buy my engagement ring and a little over a week later we would be engaged. Four months later we were married. Soarin' over California ends with a fly over Main Street Disneyland. We were there on Main Street that night that they filmed for Soarin' which was set to open in the new California Adventure. As the helicopter went overhead we were standing outside the Blue Ribbon Bakery. I try to look for us in Soarin', but it is too blurry to make out-- plus they might have used a different clip. But it is still a fun memory for us!
The city had a horse and light-filled parade on Saturday night. It was chilly but not nearly as cold as this first picture makes it seem. Probably in the 50's! After the parade there was a festival that we went to for a short while. It was worth the walk just for the sledding... yes, sledding. They had made/brought in snow and all of us (except Grandma) took a chance on the slope.
Anna and I wet together, Leah and Jack wanted to go by themselves and Derek took Luke. Jack had a Southern California moment afterwards. He asked me if that was really snow. I told him that it basically was (it was pretty wet and icy). He didn't get it. He thought you could roll up snow like a blanket... how else do you get it to make snowmen and snowballs?? This stuff wasn't rolling up the way he had expected.
Laura, I'll show him the real stuff in your pictures!
Looking cold on the parade route.
Wow, this is snow?!
Jack coming down... a little blury because of my camera setting. He wasn't going that fast!
Leah hit a bump a little ways down the hill and ended up going the rest of the way with her legs up in the air and mostly on her back. She didn't seem to mind!
