Happy Birthday, Joshua!

Happy Birthday Joshua! I met Josh for lunch at "PF Changs" on his birthday last Thursday and then we had a family party at night. We made BBQ chicken pizzas with his favorite side salad. He requested Spice Cake with cream cheese frosting for his cake.

How old are you now??? Thirty-something? Maybe you can read his candles below.... Can you read backwards?

Spontaneous Trip to Disneyworld

Yes, I've been known to surprise members of my family by just showing up on their doorstep unannounced, but usually it takes me weeks of planning. I get a kick out of suprising people but I'm not very spontanous about it. Until two weeks ago today that is, after a few days of sulking around the school and my house knowing that my parents and sister were at Disneyworld without me (ME! -- A self-proclamed Disneyworld fanatic), I decided to buy an airline ticket to go meet them. I bought the ticket at 3:30 pm, and was at the airport by 6:00 pm to board my 7:30 flight to Orlando that night. Instead of surprising them at their hotel room, which I actually considered, I called my Dad shortly after ordering my airplane ticket to see if they could come get me at the airport and if I could crash with them in their hotel room. They were really surprised and happy to have me. And I was happy to be in Orlando and be somewhere much warmer than 20 degrees!

My parents went to my younger sister Kristen's house in Fort Lauderdale, Florida for the holidays, and just like me, they LOVE Disneyworld. So almost every time my parents come to Florida, they make time for Disney. The weekend after New Year's Day, they drove up to Orlando with my sister Kristen and her kids (her husband Aaron had to work) to spend some time at Disneyworld. By the time I got there on Tuesday night, they had already been to 3 of the Disney parks with their 6-day pass. My sister was going home with her kids on Thursday, so I only overlapped one day with her family. It was so fun to see them! Her kids, especially Parker, liked riding the rides with me. They would've preferred riding with their cousins (my kiddos), but I was an okay exception I think. After Kristen left, I went to 2 more parks with my parents. It was SOO fun, and warm, and so very Disney!

This was the first day -- EPCOT

The morning before we went to the park. This was outside my parent's hotel room. Kristen's room was down the hall.

"Finding Nemo" ride


We are vikings in one of the "Norway" stores


We ate in a restaurant in "Italy". I had a really delicious ravioli dish.

Parker and I in a phone booth in "England"

My second day was -- HOLLYWOOD STUDIOS

Mom and I getting ready to watch a really cool stunt car show called "Lights, Motors, Action!"

Dad and I in front of the stunt car set

In front of "Muppet-Vision 3-D" show. I LOVE the muppets!

My favorite ride... "The Tower of Terror". We rode it twice!!

This may be the last time we see Mickey's sorcerer's hat at Hollywood Studios....
We found out that they'll be taking it down soon....

My third and last day was -- MAGIC KINGDOM

Dad and I in Fantasyland

I'm on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad

Going into Adventureland

Dad and I are stuck!!

Mom and I in Liberty Square

Mom and I rode the carousel

Racing cars on the Indy Speedway

In front of the castle at night

Nothing is like the fireworks at Disneyworld!

Okay, I know what you're thinking.... Julie takes another trip at Disneyworld without her kids?? Yes, I did! And I'm not ashamed of it! My kids are actually getting use to it. But I've promised them a trip next year. Our family is also very big fans of Universal Studios Florida, and next year is the grand opening of the "Harry Potter Island" at Islands of Adventure in Universal Studios! We are really excited to see that too!

New Year's Eve Party

We had a fun party at our house this year on NewYear's Eve. We invited our friends, the Selthofer's over to play games, eat and chat all night. We partied and played until 1:30 am. The kids were SOOO tired the next day, but we had a fun New Year's Eve.

Although I am often an avid photographer or "crazy picture woman", as some call me, I let my friend Megan take pictures that night. She and I have that in common! So I stole these from her blog Thanks, Megan!!

Our snack spread. We had SOOO much food!!

The kids enjoying their food

The boys liked playing the Wii

Joshua and Adam really got into it!

After watching the ball drop, we toasted in the New Year with eggnogg

More Christmas Pics

I am taking advantage of our half day of school today to update my blog. I am REALLY late in getting these up, but here are our Christmas 2008 pictures ...

Getting ready to go downstairs on Christmas morning after climbing, screaming, and pulling Mom and Dad out of bed at the crack of dawn.

SANTA CAME!

Watching Alex open a present from Santa

Alex and Logan got this gift from Santa. They LOVE to play with it, practically everyday.

Surprise.... We got a Wii!!

Jessica got a Tini Puppini dog

Opening a present from Grandma Dyal

It's a COOL Jungle playset! We play with this all the time too!

Spencer opening a present

Spencer scored this year on LEGO sets

Jessica opening a present

This is a present from Grandpa Williams

Each kid got their very own Wii video game from Grandma and Grandpa Williams. Alex got Lego Indiana Jones.

... and Spencer got Star Wars Force Unleashed

A cool Spy set and cute webkinz from the Brown cousins

Jessica got a Bratz doll from the Buhler cousins

Alex got a red-eye tree frog webkinz (one he's wanted for a LONG time) from his cousin, Maddie Empey.

Mom opening a present

Dad got a pair of jeans

ALL OF SPENCER'S PRESENTS
(My kids have gotten so use to my routine of taking a picture of them and their presents after birthdays and Christmas, that they set up their own presents and asked for a picture on their own without any prompting from me this year. Mostly because I don't let them them play with anything until after I take the picture. They wanted to play! But I just thought it was funny that they did it on their own!)

JESSICA AND HER PRESENTS

ALEX AND LOGAN WITH THEIR PRESENTS
(They got so many combined gifts this year that we took a picture with both of them)

Eating Christmas breakfast
Every single one of us looks forward to our traditional Christmas breakfast each year. We ate an egg, bacon and cheese souffle, grapefruit, cinnamon rolls, hot chocolate and OJ. YUMMY!