Day Four... ALL DAY DISNEY!

The BIG DAY of our vacation had finally arrived.... our Disneyland day!  This was definitely the one the kids (and us grown ups) were most looking forward to, and true to Disney fashion, didn't disappoint.

Our Last Day in Disney Day #3!

After another late night out at the parks, it was nice to be able to take our time in the morning to get ready, gather our things and pack up the car before the parks opened late at 9AM.  For some reason, on a Friday with no Magic Morning Hour, it opened later... which made for some rough crowds to fight in line!  We were shocked to see this as we arrived at the security gates, as well as everyone else around us.  Even locals were saying they hadn't seen it this busy/bad before, which had us nervous for wait times on our last day.... 

Disneyland Day #2... Christmas Cheer and Tears!

We woke up bright and early on Thursday morning, ready to head back to the parks and even better... have some breakfast with Minnie and friends at the Plaza Inn!  Despite how they look in the picture, the kids were excited and ready to go (Nolan more excited for the characters, Acelyn more excited for the Mickey waffles)!

Holidays in Disneyland... Day #1

We were so, so excited to be able to spend a few days in Disneyland this year for the holiday season!  As much as we’d love to make this a yearly tradition, it’s such a big trip that last year we weren’t able to make it work, so to be able to enjoy the festivities this year made it extra special!  Christmas at Disneyland is unlike anything else, and is our absolute favorite way to celebrate the season.  We love revisiting traditions as well as experiencing new ones, and this year was another amazing visit, full of beautiful lights, festive music and some seriously yummy holiday treats.  

December Happenings

Lots of our happenings this month are linked out to other posts since we've done SO much stuff!  

The month started with a visit from our Elf!  He had planned to bring Nolan a special Christmas book everyday until Christmas.... until Nolan wanted nothing to do with him and was uninterested for the first week.  Mommy decided the Elf will come visit again next year and hope it goes better....

We spent three days in Disneyland and had the most amazing time!  (Day 1, Day 2, Day 3).  On our second day, we found out if we were adding a little baby boy or baby girl to our family....  YAY!

Nolan discovered the joy of bubble wrap.

On a trip to Home Goods, we found this cool elephant that Nolan insisted on hugging and riding.  

Nolan painted the cutest handprint Santa and reindeer, and Mommy had a moment of pregnancy brain when adding the reindeer antlers to the wrong side.... Oops!  

He also crafted these cute gifts for Christmas!  

Nolan has gotten very good at repeating his ABCs and can actually memorize and say his numbers, most of the time.  I tried getting both on video but this was the best attempt for both!  It's hit or miss when he can do it, but I can't believe he can actually count 1-10 when he wants to!

I turned 18 weeks with baby #2!

We spent an afternoon in Boulder City riding the Santa Train and loved it!

Nolan spent some time getting his Christmas reading in, and I couldn't help but die over the comparison between this year and last.  He's so big now!!

With all of our Christmas deliveries, we had lots of boxes to go through and play with this month, and used them accordingly...

Since we were sick for a lot of the month, we spent a lot of time cuddling on the couch with blankets, movies and the iPad.  

Downtown Summerlin had an adorable Christmas parade that we enjoyed after dinner for Uncle Georges birthday, and baked cookies the day before Christmas Eve for Santa! 

We had the BEST Christmas Day with our family!

We celebrated the HALFWAY point at 20 weeks in our pregnancy!  

I got to snuggle this little munchkin and he snuggled with his GF-to-be at our annual Friendsgiving party we held after Christmas. 

I crafted a fun Sesame Street sign for Nolan's 2nd birthday pictures I was planning on taking. 

I decided to take some of my own pictures for Nolan's birthday invitations and his 2-year photos!

Nolan had a ton to say and didn't make much sense, but it still sounded cute!

We celebrated New Year's Eve at the Luks and the kids almost stayed up 'til midnight!  Most of them passed out about an hour before.  

We are super thankful for great friends and family and cannot wait to see what this new year brings us... Especially a new addition to our family!  Here's to the end of 2015 and a great new 2016!!

Disneyland, Day Three!

Our last day of Disneyland was made up of catching all the things we didn't quite get to the previous two days, or revisiting things we loved if we had enough time.  We started up again bright and early, right after the park opened around 8:30AM, and headed straight for Tomorrowland, because Nolan had been dying to go on Astro Orbitor since the first time he saw it.  We knew the wait wouldn't be very long since it was early in the morning, so we headed over.  We had a quick 5 minute wait, where Nolan was super excited to finally be riding!  He kept squealing with excitement and saying "Rocket!"

Once it was our turn, we squeezed all three of us in one ship, and took a selfie before our blastoff.  Nolan loved going up and down and around, but my prego-self had to look straight ahead, because all that spinning was a little much for me!  It was fun, but we were surprised how fast it went!  Nolan loved it and asked to go on again and again, but we told him Dumbo would be way more fun!  So off we went!

We went back to Fantasyland and rode Dumbo since the wait was minimal in the morning, and Nolan definitely loved this ride a ton, too.  The view from the top was perfect and something about Fantasyland just makes you feel giddy!  We rode a few more of our favorites in Fantasyland, and headed over to Pirates of the Caribbean, which Nolan also loved, especially the parts with the doggies and the cannonballs splashing!  Afterwards, we headed towards Winnie the Pooh to ride yet again since this was one of Nolan's favs.  He helped himself to some of Pooh's honey pots while we waited in line for a quick three minutes, and off we went to giggle through Pooh's Adventures!

We made our way back up to Toon Town to visit with some characters we had yet to meet on our trip, and although we had just missed Goofy, we did get to play one on one with Pluto right as he came out to meet everyone!  Nolan loved this and instantly ran up to him, I think asking Pluto to pick him up!  Instead, they played a game of tag and chased each other around, which was the cutest thing ever!  We said "Bye" to Toon Town after playing for a bit, and headed over to Disney California Adventure to finish out our day. 

While in Disney California, we booked it to Paradise Garden Grill to meet Donald (one of Nolan's favorites) but the line was seriously 30+ minutes long, and Nolan was slowly becoming "over it" with the whole theme park and waiting game.  We watched Donald for about five minutes and gave him lots of waves, and then headed over to ride Little Mermaid.  Nolan lost his cool on this ride, being overtired, hungry and ready to leave... so we decided to just grab some quick lunch and head home.  We ended up eating at Boardwalk Pizza, where we ate outside and watched the Viva Navidad Parade, which also starred Donald Duck, so Nolan was excited about that.  He waved to him lots and even got to wave to Mickey and Minnie again.  We made our way out of the park, and said "Bye for now!" to Disney.  As soon as he hit the carseat, he was literally out for the count within minutes!  He slept for 2.5 hours on the ride home, and did great again on another road trip.

We had the BEST time and couldn't have asked for a better trip.  Nolan did extremely well for 3 days in the park, and even though he was a bit tired and cranky towards the end, I know he had a fabulous time and really had a lot of fun.  Even though many people say taking kids so young to Disneyland is a waste because they won't remember anything, I truly believe Nolan had an absolute blast and his mind was blown by meeting all of his favorite characters, riding fun rides and seeing so many amazing new things.  We captured so many great memories for him to look back on, celebrated during the holiday season and enjoyed the amazing decor, and to be able to say we did our gender reveal in Disneyland is something we could have literally only dreamed of, and it actually happened!  I would do it all again in a heartbeat, and wish we could go back more times in one year... but until next time, we have some amazing memories to be thankful for and can't wait to make this a family tradition every few years!

Disneyland Day Two!

We started our second day at Disney bright and early and SO excited, knowing that our gender reveal was only hours away, and also excited to see Nolan's reaction to all things DISNEYLAND since we only spent the day before in Disney California!  We got to the park a little after opening, around 8:30AM, and made our way into Main Street.  As soon as we entered, we were already loving all of the decorations swarmed throughout the park.  The Disneyland Band was singing away and the tree was outstanding, as were the decorations and live flowers for the entertainment stand upon entering!  Nolan and Jason made their way around to wave to the characters while I quickly ran into City Hall to get all the info I needed for our gender reveal, when and where to go.

We made our way into the park towards the Magic Kingdom and Toon Town, and on our way through Main Street, Nolan spotted a fun vintage fire truck that he was amazed by.  We snapped some pictures at the castle before heading over to ride Small World, and got some great ones of the Big Brother and new baby's awesome Mouseketeer outfit... staying simple before we knew if it was a little Mickey or Minnie! :)

We were a little early to enter into Toon Town, so we decided to ride It's A Small World before heading over to meet with Mickey.  The wait was decently short, and we took advantage of this since the rest of our trip, it was at least a 35+ minute wait to ride!  Nolan loved that we got to ride in a boat and loved looking at everything (seriously, so much stuff) inside the ride.  The Christmas decorations are above and beyond for this ride, and was definitely my favorite attraction for the week!  Pictures just don't do it justice and I wish we could have ridden it a million times more!

After our amazement with Small World, it was time to head to Toon Town and have Mickey reveal if we were having a little baby boy or little girl!  Jason waited in line to meet Mickey for about 15 minutes, while I took Nolan to explore Toon Town.  He had a blast driving Mickey's car and seeing Donald's boat and Goofy's Playhouse.  We went back to meet Daddy, and he was already at the front of the line, which meant it was gender reveal time!

Mickey revealed that we are having.... A LITTLE GIRL!

Shortly after our reveal, we snapped some must-needed pictures of the Big Bro and his Little Sister's ears, and I died a little inside on how cute they came out.

We spent some time in Fantasyland, riding a couple rides before we had to make our reservation for breakfast at The Plaza Inn.  We checked out Storybook Land Canal boats, and again, Nolan loved that we got to ride in a boat over water.  Jason and I had never ridden this ride before, and it was cute and there were some pretty features to look at, but Nolan really just enjoyed watching the water below him and the Casey Jr. Train riding around him.  It also put the baby next to us to sleep... so there was that.  :)

We headed over to The Plaza Inn to enjoy our breakfast with Minnie and Friends, and right away, Nolan was set on meeting Tigger and Eeyore since they were the first ones he saw.  Max from a Goofy Movie was the first character to come greet us, and Nolan had zero desire to interact with him since he was set on meeting Eeyore and Tigger, first (plus, he wasn't really familiar with Max... who knew he was still around!?)  He gave him a nice high-five and kiss on the nose to be polite, but really, he was totally focused on the Pooh gang.  

Once it was his turn to meet Eeyore, he gave him a big hug, and again, froze up and just wanted to snuggle!  Poor Eeyore wasn't really sure what to do with him, so they just hugged it out a lot!

Tigger was next, and he got Nolan moving by hopping around with him and being silly with him!  

Chip came around our corner after we had a little break to eat, and Nolan liked petting his soft fur and poking his nose the most.  

We were greeted by one of the mice from Cinderella, next... her name is definitely not one I was familiar with!  Oops!  Nolan had his eyes on his one true love in the distance though... Minnie was on her way over and he knew it!

Finally, Minnie made her way over to our table, and Nolan ran right up to her and gave her the biggest hug.  He absolutely loved Minnie the most out of all of our character meets through the week, so luckily he got to meet her on more than one occasion!

We spent a decent amount of time enjoying breakfast and Mickey waffles, and meeting lots of new friends, but we eventually headed out and made our way to ride some more rides!  We ventured back to Fantasyland, and hopped on King Arthur Carrousel, which Nolan absolutely adored.  He has been on numerous carousels before, but I think he knew this one was special, and loved it more than any other he's ever been on!

After exiting the carousel, Nolan tried his luck at the Sword in the Stone, and gave all his strength and serious faces to get that thing out!

We hit up the Casey Jr. Circus Train and Nolan also loved this one!  He thought it was awesome to be riding the "Choo-choo" and didn't want to get off when we were done.  I loved the view from riding up over Fantasyland, and the weather was perfect!

Since we finished up most of the rides in Fantasyland, minus the ones we knew Nolan wouldn't enjoy (the spinning teacups were out!) we headed over to Big Thunder Ranch to hang with the sheep and goats!  This was one of Nolan's favorite things about Disneyland, and he loved being able to pet and snuggle with the little furries.  We spent a decent amount of time here, knowing that it would be our last chance to enjoy BTR since they would be closing it in January to make room for Star Wars Land.  

After scrubbing down and saying "Bye" to our goat friends, we headed towards Frontierland and watched the Mark Twain Riverboat take off from the dock.  Nolan loved watching the boat, but we knew he would get restless once on it, so we passed on taking the trip over to Tom Sawyer Island.  Instead, we decided to hop onto "Jingle" Cruise in Adventureland since there was only about a 20 minute wait.  Nolan did decently well waiting in line again, and we were constantly moving through the line, up and down the stairs and through the maze-like waiting area, which was a nice distraction for him.  He was again excited to ride on a boat, and loved watching all the animals intently as we passed through.  He got excited for the cobra snakes, monkies and the lions, and loved seeing the waterfall!

Directly after Jingle Cruise, we decided to head up to Critter Country to ride Winnie the Pooh, but Nolan was starting to fall asleep in his stroller, so we ended up at The Haunted Mansion and turned right back around to return to the hotel for naps.  We all took a two hour nap, which was a great refresher, woke back up, got changed and started our evening back in Disney!  

When we returned, the sun was just starting to set and the Christmas lights weren't quite yet on, but still made for some great pictures, especially in front of the giant Christmas Tree on Main Street.  We had the Photopass member take our pictures, which came out perfect for our Christmas card.... except the employee must not have had the correct setting on because the color was SO off!  Boo!  Luckily we also had her take pictures with our camera, and they still came out good, just not as great as the others.  

We had just missed the Christmas parade as we returned to the park, but we hurried over to Critter Country to pick up where we left off, and this time, planned on meeting Santa Claus before it got too crowded.  On our way over, we picked up some fast passes for The Haunted Mansion, and planned on coming back right after.  We were in luck when we got to Critter Country, and there were only two people in front of us in line!  While we waited, Nolan visited with snow Pooh and his friends.  We were sad to discover that Pooh was in hibernation this time of the year, since Santa took over Pooh's Thoughtful Spot to set up his meet and greets, so the snow Pooh would have to do!

It was our turn to meet Santa, and Nolan walked right up to him with no worries or care in the world. He sat right on his lap and they got right to hugging it out and talking about what Nolan would like for Christmas... in which he replied with nothing and just touched his beard, instead.  He took some pictures with Santa, and gave us the most awkward looking face that his hilarious, because he was saying, "Cheese!" but with all seriousness since meeting Santa was apparently, strictly business!  We said our Goodbyes to Santa and Nolan tried to go back twice towards him, and then was coaxed out with a Candy Cane from a Disney Cast Member.  It worked out perfectly and knocked out having to take photos with Santa at the mall, this year!  I love that in the background of their photo, there are lots of Pooh and friends pictures that make this year's Santa photo extra special!

We rode Winnie the Pooh right after, and Nolan absolutely adored this ride, also.  He laughed throughout it and waved to all of his Pooh friends.  When we exited, we had to take a quick stop into Pooh's Corner Bakery and drooled over all the amazing goodies.  We passed this time around, and actually went to grab some dinner at Jolly Holiday, but not before stopping back at Haunted Mansion and riding with our Fast Passes, first.

At dinner, I engulfed my grilled cheese and tomato soup special (an absolute must-have when you visit here), and seriously considered ordering another one, especially since this has been my major pregnancy craving this time around!  Instead, we devoured a signature Mickey cookie, although if I were to go back and do it all again, I'd probably order two grilled cheese specials, the Mickey cookie, and the Raspberry Rose Mickey Macaroon.... why we didn't order this, still baffles me!  Gah. 

After we were done eating, we contemplated grabbing a spot for the Paint the Night parade, but knew Nolan wouldn't last waiting for an hour, so we took our chances at losing an up-close spot and decided to check out Tomorrowland.  We ended up back at Small World, and I really wanted to ride it again at night... but once we saw that it was a 75 minute wait... we decided that was a negative, for sure.  Small World is definitely the prettiest part of Disneyland at Christmastime in my opinion... gorgeous!  And, all those people still make me a little anxious... Yikes!

With all those said "crowds", we discovered the park was at it's max and they were actually ushering people out of the park to be able to have room for the parade.  I was devastated as I really wanted to see the Paint the Night parade, and knew Nolan would love watching all of his favorite characters, so we desperately walked around for about 35 minutes trying to find a decent spot.  We ended up squished in the back of a crowd on Main Street, but were able to see the parade decently, so at least we got to see it!  I wasn't able to snap any pictures because we were literally shoulder to shoulder with people... it was insane!  

The parade was amazing, and we made our way out of the park intending to watch the fireworks from Downtown Disney.  With the first few "BOOMs", Nolan was a little hesitant, and with more and more fireworks going off, he was totally not a fan and started screaming.  We had to dodge into World of Disney again, to avoid the loud bangs, so I got some shopping done while Nolan continued to be "over it" and was ready to go back to the hotel and crash.  I quickly grabbed what we needed while avoiding the fireworks show outside, and as soon as it was over, we headed back to the hotel to get some rest!

Stayed tuned for our last day in Disney!