Here are some pictures of our Christmas Eve festivities:

On the eve of Christmas Eve, Hailey decorated some cookies for Santa.

On Christmas Eve we went out to dinner and then went to my Aunt Winnie’s house to celebrate Christmas. I was pretty sure that Hailey would fall asleep in the car on the way home from Aunt Winnie’s house, so before we headed out we had to take care of a few things at home.

Hailey put out some cookies for Santa.

And opened her Christmas Eve presents- a pair of pajamas and a book.

Then we were off to Aunt Winnie’s house.

Opening presents- Andy, Lyndsey, Aunt Winnie, Hailey, me, Kim.

Uncle Jim, Aunt Barb, Rich

Time for some yummy food- Ellie, Matt, Lyndsey, Andy

Hailey playing with her new Princess Tiana.

Time for the annual wrapping paper fight:

Family Picture

I realize that this post is about a week late but I just can’t seem to find the time to keep my blog updated anymore.  So- here are some pictures from Thanksgiving weekend.

We had a great Thanksgiving at my Mom and Dad’s house.  One of my brothers, Mike was there as well as my Aunt Winnie.  My Mom told me a few weeks before Thanksgiving that it was my turn to have Thanksgiving at our house, so I was very thankful when she said she would have it at her house!

Rich working on the gravy (he makes the best gravy and is always in charge of making the gravy) and my dad working on carving the yummy turkey.

My mom always makes delicious warm cider that we drink from cute little cups.  Hailey enjoys her little cup (with milk instead of cider).

After a fantastic dinner everyone did some relaxing.  Hailey and Aunt Winnie watched a Veggie Tales movie together.

We spent Friday and Saturday doing lots of shopping and I got a good amount of my shopping done.  It was a successful shopping weekend!

Hailey had been begging for weeks to wear her dress from Christmas 2008.  So I finally let her wear it to church on Sunday.

After church we decorated our Christmas tree.

Hailey and Brooke decorating.

Brooke and Hailey setting up the nativity.

I took a bunch of pictures of Hailey next to the finished Christmas tree, but she wasn’t being very cooperative and this is the best of the bunch!

On our last day at Disney World we got up bright and early to start celebrating Rich’s birthday!  We had an early breakfast reservation at the Tusker House in Animal Kingdom.  Rich still didn’t feel good from the day before- and on our last day he was running a fever.  I told him we should just cancel our breakfast reservation so he could sleep in.  He wouldn’t hear anything about that- took a bunch of Motrin and was ready to go.  We got to Animal Kingdom before it even opened and had to give our names for our breakfast reservation to get in.  It was the perfect way to do it!

Posing for our picture at the Tusker House.

Hailey dancing and celebrating all of the birthdays with Mickey Mouse.

Rich with his birthday card and birthday cup cake.  Happy 35th birthday Rich!

Hailey being silly with Donald Duck.

Getting Mickey’s autograph.

Hailey getting Daisey’s autograph.

Posing for a picture with Goofy.

After breakfast Hailey had to go and meet up with a friend she had met before we ate.  While we were waiting to get called to our table for breakfast Hailey made an impression on one of the Disney workers.  So she told us to come and find her after we ate our breakfast because she would have a treat for us.

Hailey and her new friend.  Hailey’s friend took us to the Kilimanjaro Safari ride (which had a 40 minute wait) and took us to the front of the fast pass line.  We were so excited to get to ride without having to wait at all!

After the Kilimanjaro Safari ride we went to see if we could find a few more characters.

Hailey was sooooo excited to meet Chip and Dale.  She thought that they were so funny!

Then she got to meet Koda.

Hailey wanted to stop for one more visit with Goofy.

And one more visit with Minnie.

After we did everything we wanted to do again at Animal Kingdom we went back to our hotel to take a nap.  We all had a great nap!  Then we were off to Downtown Disney to do some shopping.  Disney gives you a gift on your birthday- and since it was Rich’s birthday he got to pick what he wanted.  Normally you get a free day at one of the theme parks, but since we bought park tickets as park of our vacation package Rich got to pick something else.  He decided to have spending money equal to the amount of a park ticket ($80 I think??).  So, we had a bit of extra spending money

When we arrived at Downtown Disney Hailey had to play in the water for a while.

So much fun!!

After some fun in the water we did some shopping and then we spent some time at the Lego store.

Hailey posing with the Lego family.

Rich and Hailey work on building a car for a Lego car race.

Watching to see if their car would win.  (It didn’t.)

After we finished up at Downtown Disney we headed over to Epcot to spend our last evening there.  We did all of our favorite things again.

Hailey loved the Nemo Ride and I think we went on it like 3 times.  She’s waiting here for the seagulls to say “Mine! Mine! Mine!” and to get sprayed by the splashing water.

Rich, Me and Hailey on the Nemo ride.

Hailey and Rich posed for a picture inside Bruce’s mouth.

Epcot

When asked what her favorite park was- Hailey said it was Hollywood Studios.  When asked what her favorite ride was- Hailey said it was the Nemo ride (Seas With Nemo and Friends).  Her favorite character is Cinderella.  Rich’s favorite park is still Epcot and my favorite park is Magic Kingdom.

We had soooo much fun in Disney World- it’s definitely our favorite vacation destination!  We can’t wait to go back!!

On day 6 Rich woke up not feeling well- his throat had been scratchy the night before but in the morning he was just not feeling good.  Our breakfast reservations weren’t until 10:50am so we all slept in.  I offered to cancel our reservation and just spend the day at the hotel but Rich didn’t want to do that.

We stopped for a picture before we ate at Chef Mickey’s.

We had not seen Donald Duck yet all week, so Hailey was so excited when he stopped by our table!

Mickey was the next on to stop by to visit us.

Goofy stopped to take a picture next.

At this point Hailey was being really bad.  I was thinking that maybe all of the character meals had gotten to be a bit much for her.  Doing it every day for a week is a lot for anyone.  She would not stay in her chair and was being really loud and just not listening.  So I had to take her out of the restaurant so we could have a little talk.  When we got back she was ready to start making good choices.  She sat right down in her chair and ate while she waited for the next character to come around.

Minnie Mouse was the next to stop by.

Goofy came around again and sat next to us to read the newspaper.

Then it was time for some dancing and a little parade.  Goofy was being really silly with Hailey and even chased her around the buffet.

The last character to come around was Pluto.  Hailey asked him to give her a kiss, so here he is licking her hand.

After breakfast we went over to Magic Kingdom for a little while.

We got there just in time to see the Move It! Shake It! Celebrate It! Street Party.

After the celebration we posed for a picture in front of the castle.

We knew this would be our last day in Magic Kingdom so we had Hailey pick the things she wanted to do again.  Her first choice was to go on Buzz Light Year again.

Hailey posed for a picture with Zurg after the ride.

Hailey also wanted to meet the characters from Peter Pan, so we went off to find them.

Hailey posing with Captain Hook and Mr. Smee.  She was sooooo excited that she got to meet Captain Hook and talked about him all day.  She thought it was great that he was so nice to her and even let her touch his hook.  She even changed her name from Lilo (from Lilo and Stitch) to Captain Hook.

Hailey posing with Peter Pan and Wendy.

We did a few things in Magic Kingdom but it was so hot out and I knew Rich didn’t feel very good, so we decided to go back to the hotel to spend the day at the pool.  We all went back to our room and took a nap- even Hailey!  Then we did some swimming.

The pool at our hotel

Hailey loved the kiddy pool area.

Hailey with a friend she made.

Hailey and another friend- she played with this little boy until we had to leave to go eat dinner.

I have no idea what they were doing, but they had a blast together!

After dinner we walked around the hotel.

Hailey posed in the race car from Toy Story.

Buzz

Woody

Hailey and Rich driving a race car in the arcade.

We got back to our room in time to watch The Office!  Then we went to bed so we could get an early start on our last day.