The LaRoe Family: January 2009

If you are wondering why I am so late with our Christmas pictures....it's because they were deleted!!! =( Mike has been trying to figure out a way to retrieve deleted pictures off of our camera. He found a program, but the pictures are half blacked out. Sooo sad....hopefully Mike can figure it out, but until then I have a few that we took at our house and a few from my Dad at their house, but none from the LaRoe side!! So Chuck and Hildie, if you have any pics from Aunty's house can you email them to us?? Picture crisis aside, our Christmas was so much fun! It's hard not to have fun on such a joyous holiday celebrating Christ's birth, surrounded by family and watching little eyes light up with excitement at the sight of presents under the tree. I love Christmas and am always a little sad when all the celebration ends. Preston is already looking forward to next Christmas and asked how many "naps" until Christmas comes again (he measures time in how many nighttimes away things are.. ha!) We had so much fun visiting with family. My Grandma (Gee-gee to the kids) and Aunt Susan were both here from Pennsylvania. The kids adore them and can't wait to see them again (maybe in a few months???? Hint, hint Aunt Susan??? =)). Our cousins were also here from Canada and the kids LOVE playing with their cousins!! We wish they lived closer!! Here are a few fun pics of our Christmas....

Christmas morning

Ella's first present..they were sooooo excited to start

Preston helped Aaden open his first

Aaden mostly liked the wrapping paper better than the presents! He actually liked this present though! =)

After all the mayhem at my parents house...what a mess!

My dog Moose!! Every Christmas Moose gets so excited and actually opens his presents by himself.....you can't really tell, but he was opening one of his gifts! Ha!=)

My Aunt Susan and my cute little Grandma....the kids were so excited to see them!!

My parents were unbelievably generous to us and surprised us with a really special gift! Knowing how much Mike and I LOVE Disneyland, they bought us all annual passes!!! We were blown away...thanks Mom and Dad! So a few days after Christmas, we made our first of many trips to one of our favorite places. We took Preston for the first time last year to see how he would handle it (food allergy wise) and he did pretty well. No major reactions, only a few minor ones toward the end of the day. So this time was still a test to see how well he would do and......he was fine!!! We packed food and snacks and treats for the kids and wiped everything down they touched as well as we could (constant hand wiping as well) and he was great! He had a blast and can't wait for our next trip! Ella, on the other hand, wasn't as thrilled. I should have known considering she screamed non-stop when I took her on the carousel at the mall. She's not so into rides......yet. Her highlight was meeting Cinderella and Snow White. It was so cute because she was actually star struck! She also loved Cinderella's castle and It's a Small World. Aaden obviously had no clue what was going on, but he was so good. He went on pretty much all the rides with us including Pirates! He was just happy the whole time....such a good baby! We made this first trip with Rod and Ren which was a lot of fun. I think maybe next weekend we will go check out California Adventure....we've never been!

We waited in line for about an hour and a half to meet the princesses, but it was so worth it to see Ella get so excited! When she was with them she was a little nervous, but was so excited after. =)