The Journey of Life

This was our first Halloween in our new house and the first Halloween in years and years and years not in our old neighborhood, Hidden Acres. But, we started new traditions. We made chili, Grandmother and Granddaddy came to our house, and we trick or treated with neighborhood friends. All in all it was a great Halloween! Even if Chloe refused to wear her awesome red, curly, "Brave" wig:)

 At Halloween each year, Chloe's dance studio has a princess dress-up day for the youngest classes. Chloe chose to dress as Belle this year.

My graceful ballerina

 Parents get to watch on princess dress-up day and the dancers do a special princess dance.

Getting sleepy... Sleeping Beauty's spell has been cast.

I love watching my little ballerina!

We had a wonderful soccer season this year. Matthew and I coached Evan's team and we had a wonderful group of boys! It was such a blessing.

Bible lesson at practice. These boys were so fun and Chloe loved practicing with them. She couldn't play this year because the games interfered with ballet, but she practiced with the boys. At the first practice, several of the boys were kind of whispering around and finally one of them said to me, I wish we didn't have a girl on our team.  I assured him she would not be playing in the games.

I didn't take too many pictures this season since I was busy most games, but I did make sure I got a few here and there. Our boys were really good this year and won most games which was a big improvement over last year.








Soccer 2012 was a blast!

While we were in Disney, there was a very special arrival back home. Our newest niece, Avery Dawn, was born! We couldn't wait to see her and she is so very precious.

Chloe is excited to have another girl to play with and she LOVES babies!

Welcome, little Avery, we are so glad you are here!

Even though our Disney trip came at a stressful time for our family, we had a wonderful time! We had had this trip planned and booked for nearly a year and were so excited about it. We got to experience many new things we had not done before and also many favorites. I'm going to post highlights and try to limit myself from my thousands of pictures!

This year we drove straight through and arrived at Port Orleans Riverside (a new resort for us) in the afternoon.The kids liked the fireworks you could turn on over the beds.

We stayed in a Royal Guest Suite, which was full of princesses. Maybe a few too many princesses for Evan.

Our first adventure was to take the water taxi to Downtown Disney.

Crossing the bridge to get to the water taxi.

We had fun shopping and looking around Downtown Disney even though it was raining.

Dinner that night was a T-Rex Cafe!

We had dinner with some friends from home.

The next morning after a hearty breakfast of doughnuts, we headed to Animal Kingdom.

Evan had to be armed for the occasion of course.

We ran into our friends, the Rowlands, at the bus stop.

Chloe was afraid of the Lion King show, but really wanted to be chosen to dance, so she closed her ear and raised her hand at the same time.

Chloe and Piper on the Safari ride.

These two ostriches are about to get into a serious disagreement with some sort of long-horned "cow-like" animal, right beside our jeep. I think our guide was even a bit concerned as he got very quiet and told everyone to keep their hands and feet inside. This was a very active safari ride, we also had to stop and wait on a giraffe to get out of our path.

								We left Animal Kingdom and headed over to Epcot where we ran into Pooh and Tigger...

had some ice cream...

listened to some music...

hung out with the band...

and watched some awesome fireworks!

We also rode a few new rides including Mission Space. Evan, Daddy, and I rode the "easy" one first and then Evan and I went back and rode the "super fast, spinning" one next. They were both really fun!

Day 3 we headed to Magic Kingdom!

Chloe met Tinkerbell's twin sister, Perriwinkle.

She was slightly braver on the jungle cruise this year.

Chloe rode the Haunted Mansion for the first time.

Chloe and Piper teamed up on It's a Small World.

Evan tried hard, but he could not remove the Sword in the Stone this year.

 


After the Magic Kingdom we headed to the Polynesian Resort for dinner at Ohana's.

The kids had fun with coconut races.

Limbo!

Day 4 was Hollywood Studios Day!

After breakfast, came the moment Evan had been waiting for. He finally got to go to Jedi Training Academy. We met up with the Rowlands and Evan and Clay trained together.

Vader!

This was definitely a highlight of the trip for all of us! It was a GREAT show and Evan had an awesome time. Chloe didn't want to do it, she said, "Are you kidding me? That lightsaber could laser me right in half!" But after it was over, she said, "Those lightsabers were plastic!" She wants to do it next time.

Star Tours!

We watched the Stunt Show this year for the first time and it was fun!

Evan and I rode Tower of Terror and the Rockin' Roller Coaster this year for the first time as well. They were GREAT! We also ate dinner at the Sci-fi Cafe which was pretty cool, too.

 

After some swimming at the hotel we headed back to Magic Kingdom the next morning.

We rode all the rides in Tomorrowland, including Space Mountain for the first time and Chloe rode Stitch's Great Escape and a few other "firsts".

Chloe loved the splash pad at the new Circus part.

By lunch we were all exhausted, though, so we shopped a little and then headed back to rest because we had a big night ahead of us!

Tonight we had an invitation to dinner at Cinderella's Royal Table, so we had to get our gown on.

We stopped to watch the Castle show on our way to the Bippity Boppity Boutique. Sir Evan and Princess Chloe had appointments with their Fairy Godmother to get all dolled up for their royal dinner.

Chloe got beautiful princess hair. She was very concerned they would make it look "crazy" as some of the options included various wild colors of spiky hair pieces and feathers. But, her Fairy Godmother was very skilled and created beautiful princess hair just as she requested. I LOVED watching Chloe getting all fixed up. She laid back in the chair and just talked her Fairy Godmother's ear off. It reminded me SO much of my Grandmother at the beauty shop, LOL.

Of course every princess needs a little make up.

And of course some jewels for her face and sparkly nail polish.

A little sprinkling of Pixie Dust and Princess Chloe was ready. I have to admit I got pretty teary eyed during this entire process. It was just precious!

Sir Evan needed a fancy look for the party as well. Although he was opposed to glitter in his hair at first, he eventually relented and allowed Fairy Godmother to work her magic.

Sir Evan and Princess Chloe are ready for the Royal Dinner.

Evan was trying to get Chloe to sword fight with her, but she told him that a princess did not fight.

Chloe's reaction when the first of the princesses entered the banquet hall.

Evan is waving his sword over this wishing star to give it magical powers.

Chloe wishing on her star.

Chloe's BFF, Ariel

Such a lady.

Descending the Royal Staircase, with just a little orange frosting on her mouth.

The Bippity Boppity Boutique and Cinderella's Royal Table were truly magical. My little girl believed she was a princess! She was beautiful and it was a memory I will always cherish. After dinner, we were kicked out of exited the castle just in time to enter the millions of people who were mobbed around watch the beautiful fireworks. We really had no choice as we were forced to exit on the side of the castle opposite where our stroller was parked and there was no moving through that crowd. So, we got a seat and watched the show.

Why do I look so tired, LOL?

Sleeping Beauty

We went to Epcot on the last day of 2012 Disney Vacation. It was time to save the world with Agent P, better known as Perry the Platypus. While saving the world, the adults enjoyed a delicious lunch at Le Cellier steakhouse and exploring some of the countries of the world.