Anna's Baby Blessing

We blessed little Anna London on December 23rd in the La Canada First ward. This was a joyous occasion for a few reasons:

• it was Macy's 3rd birthday as well 
• since it was in California a lot of my family was able to attend
• it was the Christmas program
• and my Grandpa Seymour was in the circle for his first baby blessing. 

I love that Anna was blessed on Macy's birthday. Not only will I remember the date of it but Macy was blessed on Ja's birthday. Hopefully someone can be blessed on my birthday next.

Anna looked precious in her white dress and was very quiet the whole blessing. In the circle with Ja was: Papa DeVore, Papa Seymour, Uncle Jeff, Uncle Nathan, Uncle Randy, Great Grandpa Francis, and Great Grandpa Seymour. We are very blessed to have so many family members love our little Anna. The chapel was also very quiet so I was able to hear the whole blessing. This would not have happened back in Virginia as our ward has lots of little babies. Ja blessed Anna with the gift of faith and that she will know that her earthly family and Heavenly family both love her. My mom held her for the rest of the meeting and got Anna to sleep. She was a perfect angel as always.

After church we headed to the DeVore's for birthday dinner, cake, and presents for Macy. (I'll post more on that later). Anna was passed all around and I don't think I held her the rest of the night. Aunt Stacie even put her pajamas on for me. I love that other family members love her and that she loves them back.

We took some group shots at the house because it was drizzling outside after sacrament meeting. The funny memory I'll have of these pictures is Macy made a funny "aaaaaahhhhh" noise the whole time. She wasn't happy about having to sit still for a picture but at least she wasn't crying. She also helped us all to smile with her funny noise. As soon as she ran out of breath she'd start up again.

The whole group

Now with Greg

Great Grandparents

Our little family

DeVore grandparents

Both set of Grandparents. Macy is actually smiling and Anna looks like she has something to say.

Great Grandma and Grandpa Seymour

A candy cane was keeping Macy somewhat happy. Anna didn't care at all- she liked all the pictures.

We love you Anna and you were wonderful on your special day! I'm so happy to be your mom :)

Macy Turns 3!

I cannot believe my little Macy Cakes is three! Where has the time gone?!

We celebrated earlier with Anna's blessing and went to the DeVore's house after to celebrate Macy's birthday with dinner, presents, and cake. Although it stinks having a birthday so close to Christmas, one perk is that we have been in California for her birthday so it's a huge celebration with a lot of family.

Macy absolutely LOVED opening her presents. I thought she would be a little shy having so many people watching her but she went into funny Macy persona. She sure put on a show of being very excited about every present and wearing the clothes she got and holding up each present above her head with excitement. Towards the end she caught on that she was supposed to look for a card first and started asking me if the presents had cards. She made me so happy watching her happiness and excitement. That made me want to celebrate her more often.

Thanks Aunt Stacie! She likes playing with the castle.

Thanks Aunt Kiki for the skirt and headband. She put them on right after opening them.

Got to read the card first.

Thanks Grandma and Little Papa! Macy LOVES the dream light!

Thanks Francis boys for all the stuffed animals.

Thank you Granny Dot and Papa for the princess dresses! She loves them immensely and wears them everyday.

 Thank you great grandma and grandpa Seymour for the playdough!

Thank you great grandma and grandpa Francis for the Snow White legos! They are fun!

Thank you Danielle and Ashley for the tutu and ballerina book. Now Macy really wants to be a ballerina and take classes.

Thank you Aunt Jill for the princess lunch box! Macy loves putting things inside of it.

I love this picture so much. We were poising for it saying "cheese" when Macy, all on her own, put her arms around me and Ja. How sweet is that? She is such a beautiful little girl with a sweet and fun personality. 

We enjoyed Macy's chocolate cake she picked out from Cakery Bakery. Macy also picked out the pink purse idea. We had a lot of fun that night and great appreciated everyone who came to celebrate our daughters with us!

Dad's Retirement Ceremony

My dad is so old they kicked him off the police force. Ha, not even close! He isn't old at all, in fact he is very young to retire, only 53! He officially retired from being a police officer on December 20, 2012 after working for 28 years. He worked with the Beverly Hills police and the Anaheim PD. He has been looking forward to retirement for a long time and I was so glad we could be in California for the ceremony.

I was hoping to see him in uniform one more time and get a picture of him with Anna and Macy since they won't remember him being a policeman. The retiree's had other plans and wore Hawaiian shirts instead.

It was a quick ceremony. Those guys are ready to be out of there! Each person retiring had some pictures up on the slide show showing us their work throughout the years. Here are my dads:

The Chief would get up and say something nice about the former officer and tell us all about their work. Then the person would say a few words. One guy got up and said, "It's been a good ride but it's time to go." Then sat down. 

My dad got up and told about his kids and how they are in 4 different states right now and two traveled to see him, all the way from Virginia. He was happy we were there :) Then he told a story about my mom. Of course it's normal for the wife of a police officer to be worried about his safety. My dad told her a long time ago that if she was awaken by a phone call in the middle of the night that was probably him calling to say he is safe. She would need to be worried about a knock at the door waking her up in the middle of the night because that is how the force informs the family of a death or injury. At the time my dad was working the graveyard shift and carpooled to work with someone. When he got home very early the next morning he realized he didn't have any keys to get inside the house. He had to knock on the door to get in. He said my mom had a terrified look on her face when she opened the door and probably hasn't forgiven him since. 

It was fun to see my dad with his work buddies and know he is safe and sound at home now.

We hung out in Yorba Linda the rest of the day to celebrate and help decorate Grandma and Papa's Christmas tree with Aunt Jill. Macy loved hanging the ornaments. She especially loved hanging them all in one spot :)

 

 That night we went to visit my grandma and grandpa Seymour so they could meet Anna. We went out to dinner with them and the girls did great. Macy entertained everyone by walking around the table giving everyone "pie" and cutting it for them. We had such a fun day!

a four generation picture

Macy's 1st Disneyland Trip

When we found out how much it would cost for Macy to go to Disneyland once she turned 3 we knew we had to go before when she was still free. December 19th was the day!

We woke up early to leave and be at Disneyland when it opened. Macy was still a little groggy in the car so the drive down was quiet and traffic was light. She was super excited just to ride the tram from the parking garage to the front gates.

We headed to California Adventure first to see the new Cars land. It was pretty cute and I felt like I was walking through Radiator Springs. Ja did the single-rider line for the Cars ride while Macy and I did a few other rides. Then we walked around the Cars area. Then I rode the Cars ride while Ja took Macy on the ferris wheel (and changed her wet diaper that got pee on his jacket and her pants somehow).

This is us on the Luigi's Tires ride. I love the concept of the air hockey style floating tire. We had a great time making our tire run into the side walls. 

I wanted a picture of this little tractor because we had just read a Cars book with the tractors. Macy didn't want to be in the picture so I had her take one of me (from the stroller because she wouldn't get out).

Then she thought it was funny to take a picture so she wanted me to take one of her.

We knew the Disneyland castle and princesses would be Macy's favorite so we headed over to the main park. I asked Macy what she wanted to do first. See the castle and princesses of course! We went straight there.

 Ja had a keen eye and spotted Macy's favorite princess by the wishing well. I think Cinderella is her favorite because it was the first one I introduced her to. She was my favorite when I was a kid.

Macy was so excited to be in line to see Cinderella!

Here they are! Macy could have sat there all day with Cinderella.

 Macy showed Cinderella her jacket that has a picture of Cinderella on it.

The wicked queen from Sleeping Beauty was also at the well. She was great, accent and personality.

My grandma and grandpa Francis were able to meet us at the park. They saw Macy see Cinderella and took pictures too. My grandpa printed out the pictures and gave them to us the next time we saw them a few days later. Macy put them by her bed and looked at them every night while she would go to sleep.

Macy also loved Autopia. I let her do all the driving so we bumped the curbs and middle bumper a lot. She loved driving and wanted to do it again. Unfortunately we had to wait for the fast pass time so she wasn't happy about that. 

We rode a few more rides with my grandparents then ate lunch. They had to leave then to miss all the traffic going home. It was fun to have them there!

As we were walking away from lunch towards It's a Small World, we noticed the Matterhorn ride was a 90 minute wait. Ja said, "Who would wait that long for a ride?" A minute later we passed a little plaza with 4 princesses. Macy saw them and had to go see them. Guess how long the wait was. Yep, 90 minutes. You do whatever your precious children want you to do. When we got in line there was Belle, Tiana, Ariel, and one other I can't remember. There was a cast change and Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, Cinderella, and Jasmine came out. So Macy got to see all the princesses! She was in heaven. It was so precious watching her face light up at meeting real life princesses.

Sleeping Beauty (that was her real hair)

Cinderella. Macy was so excited to see her twice

Snow White

Jasmine. Macy doesn't know who she is- just that she loves her because Jasmine is a princess.

Macy surprised us by liking to see the big characters. We heard Daisy would be coming out of the big red door at 4 o'clock so Macy went to the door and started calling for her. Indeed Daisy did come out!

Macy looks a little scared to see Goofy but she was very excited to see him.

There is a little roller coaster in Toon Town Macy said she wanted to ride. The line wasn't long so we waited in line. I figured we would get to the front and Macy would get scared. She sat down on the ride and Macy said, "We scream mommy?" I told her we could scream. As soon as the downhill part started Macy leaned in to me and started crying, or so I thought. I felt so bad that I had her go on this roller coaster. I held her tight so she would know she was safe. After it was over she looked up and me and said, "Mommy I screamed!" I was so relieved that she was just screaming for fun rather than crying. I was so proud of her for going on her first roller coaster, before she was 3 years old!

We also did the Haunted Mansion because I had never seen it done up for Christmas. It was fun, although Macy thought it was a little scary ("Too dark mommy. Can't see"). We dragged Macy around all night in the cold because we had to wait until close to 9 for our Haunted Mansion fast pass. After that was over she said, "I go to Granny Dot's house and go to sleep." She was conked out in the car within minutes.

This was Macy's souvenir for the trip. It's a light up Tinkerbell light. She loved it so much. She sat in the stroller and watched the lights go round and round all the way from the Winnie the Pooh ride to our car. That's a long way!

I had such a fun and memorable time with Macy at Disneyland. Ja and I thought that Macy may not remember her first time going but we will. I loved watching the amazement and awe in her eyes at all the new places, rides, and princesses. She is so sweet and was great the whole day. I know now why people save for years so they can take their family to Disneyland and spend thousands of dollars doing it. The look of pure joy on their child face is worth every penny. I hope we will be able to take Macy, and Anna too, to Disneyland again one day. Disneyland is a magical place!