Tis' the Season!

Our Christmas Season always gets started with the ConocoPhillips Christmas party.  I love how they always go all out for the family and really make this a fun family event!

It begins with games and crafts for the kids, pictures with Santa and cookies for all!

 After all the fun, we get to go into the Auditorium and have a private concert just for the employees and their families.  We were entertained this year by an a capella group named Rockapella.  They actually used to be on the PBS channel with a show called Where in the World is Carmen San Diego?

    

 This year was extra special for us.  Our concert included an appearance by a special little 5 year old!  Ashton was asked if she would go onto stage and sing with the guys.  At first they asked for Addie because they were looking for someone a little older, but Addie said no way!  Ashton agreed to go but when they called her name out on stage, she hit the floor so fast to hide behind her chair.  However, when the guy came to get her she went up with him willingly.  They sat her on a stool and asked her a few questions and then began singing Santa Claus is Coming to Town.  When they would get to the "to town" part they would put the microphone in front of Ashton.  At first you couldn't hear her very well, but she warmed up to the idea and by the end you could hear her.  But you didn't hear "to town"... she was saying "tonight".  Everyone thought it was so adorable.  She was a star!  We were very proud of her! 

We also have a special guest that comes to town to help us get into the spirit of Christmas.  Georgey the Elf was back!  He is Santa's big helper who watches over the kids and makes sure they are acting good and stay on Santa's good list.  But he gets pretty silly at times.  Here are a couple of the things we found him in the middle of when we would wake up the next morning.  Rolling down the stairs, 

 taking a bubble bath,

 tea party with the American Girls,

building some snowmen, 

 and participating in a snowball fight!

 Each year I sign up to help with class parties, but I only sign up to help with one kid per party.  Ashton got the Christmas Party.  They decorated cookies and competed against each other by decorating their teachers instead of decorating a Christmas tree.

 I also took Avery to watch Mika and Sora in the Nutcracker this year.

The girls and I went to watch Avery perform a Christmas Concert with her school choir.

And we even got a little snow before Christmas this year!  Yup, I think we are all getting in the Christmas spirit!!

Thanksgiving Family Pictures 2013

We stayed home for Thanksgiving this year.  Jolene said she was coming into town which they don't do very often so that turned in to Ricky coming to town and then Robert and all of a sudden we all decided to stay home so we could see each other.

The original John family!  From left to right: Robert, Ricky, Ryan, Randy, Ed, Shirley, Julie, Jolene and Renee.  We also did individual family pictures.  Renee was missing her son Chance so she and Ashleigh didn't do a picture.

Ricky and Anne John with their children Tyler, Rachel and Drew.

Karl and Jolene Fails with their children Trevor, Amanda, Kurtis, Jacob and Zachary.

Randy and I (Shallan) John with our children Addison, Avery, Austin and Ashton.

Ryan and Jessica John with their children Emma, Jenny, Hannah and Logan.

 Derek and Julie Bradford with their children Tanner and Taylor.

 And Robert and Jennifer John with their son Hudson.

And one more picture with all the grandchildren!  With seven kids, there are a lot of cousins to play with!  Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving.  We are always grateful for our family!!

The Magic of Magic Kingdom!

Awww... The magic of Magic Kingdom!!  We saved this park for last for a couple of reasons.  There really is nothing like walking up to the Cinderella Castle.  This park is so big and so crowded all the time so it isn't our favorite for that reason but it really is the most memorable park at Disney World.

My favorite part about this park are all the shows that go on in front of the castle.  They have all the Disney characters but they also have so many of the prince and princesses along with Peter Pan and his crew.  We made sure to be at all the shows throughout the day.

Another thing they have a lot of are parades.  It's always worth getting there early to find a great spot!

You can't help but dance to the music!

They have another Toy Story ride in Magic Kingdom but this one is mainly about Buzz Lightyear.

 Instead of 3D paintball targets, it's glow in the dark laser beams.

 Of course the competition was back on!  I can't remember who won though, I just know it wasn't me!

 They have built on a new part to the park but it wasn't quite finished yet.  Here is Gaston from Beauty and the Beast and right next to this is going to be a 7 Dwarfs ride.  We'll have to check it out next time we go! 

We love the Sorcerer's Hat show where Donald takes over Mickey's hat.

 We were so happy to have Joe and Lindsay here with us!  They have lived in Florida for around 3 years and they've never gone to Disney.  I was glad we got to take them there before they moved to Utah.

 Joe and Avery rockin' the carousel!

 I had so much fun watching Addie wave to all the floats with the Disney characters as they came by!  Ashton had fallen asleep so she missed a lot of this but I could tell Addie was in her own little magical world and loving every minute of this.

Even though it was the wicked step-mother and ugly step-sisters who came up to talk to her, she was so excited!

This was another one of my favorite moments I captured.  Randy pushing Addie in the stroller while carrying both the heavy backpack and Ashton on his back.  This man truly is such a wonderful father and husband.  I'm so proud of him and the role he has played in all of our lives.  It was his idea to come back to Disney World for the kids and I love him for always thinking of them and doing so many wonderful things with them.

 Ashton really is the reason we chose Disney World over another vacation.  We were so happy to be able to take her back and chose Magic Kingdom as the last place we would visit just for her!  This park is really about the little kids and we wanted it to be fresh on her memory when we left the next day.  She had told us she didn't remember going to Disney the first time.  Hopefully she will remember this one for a while!

 We had an amazing vacation and created so many wonderful memories!  Even though we had to pull the kids from school so that we were there at a less busy time with great weather, it was well worth it!

 Of course we stayed for the castle lighting up and Tinker Bell flying out of the castle to start the firework show!  It's one of the many magical moments you don't want to miss!

 Until next time, Disney!!  

Back to Hollywood Studios!

As I mentioned, Hollywood Studios is our favorite park!  And since we bought five days of tickets, we wanted to go back to Hollywood!

 The best part about getting to the park right at opening is that you can spot some of the characters and the long lines to see them haven't started yet!  This is Austin's favorite character, Stitch!  Last time we came he was able to get a picture with Stitch and he also bought the stuffed animal.  This year, we were on the search for Stitch hands!  We saw lots of Mickey and Minnie hands but it took us forever to finally find Stitch hands!

 Right after getting off of Toy Story Mania, we ran into a fun little act getting ready to start!  Addie and Ashton both were called in to be assistant deputies, and were given sheriff stars to take with them.

 I was determined this time to get Addie on the Rockin' Roller Coaster.  It took much convincing, and all through the line I had to distract her by focusing on other things.  Once it was our turn to get on to the ride, she really didn't want to go!  Somehow I got her into the car and buckled.  Oh man, I will never do that again!  I thought she'd love it once it got started, but the whole time she kept telling me she was going to throw up!  That thought never crossed my mind!  I had my head turned to her and had to talk to her through the whole ride and calm her down.  My neck was killing at the end because I was straining to see her the whole time and I didn't enjoy the ride at all thinking I was going to be covered in throw-up for the rest of the day.  But she made it!  And I took her picture in front of the ride since she conquered the ride.  But lesson learned for me!  If she says she doesn't want to ride something I will not make her!

 This time instead of the car show we went over to the Indiana Jones show.  

 It was just as exciting with all the action and live stunts!  You could feel the heat from all the fire.

 I LOVE this picture of the little girls with Randy!  It shows their personalities exactly!  Addie's timid and not sure about all the fighting, and Ashton is not even phased by it!

 We decided to do the Star Wars ride again, but this time Addie was all smiles!  She likes these kind of rides where you feel like you're moving but you're not really going anywhere!

 Lots of fun and dancing!  We were happy to be able to go around one more time and hit all the fun rides!  We didn't stay around as long this time around.  We had some familiar faces to go meet up with!

 After work and school, Joe and Lindsay came to meet up with us and spend the night with us!  

 We were so excited to be able to spend some time with them again!  They live so far away that anytime we can see them we take advantage!  What I can't believe is that we ended up at Chili's for dinner!  The one restaurant we have in Bartlesville and we go all the way to Florida and hit up a Chili's!

 But they don't have balloon people at the Chili's in Bartlesville!  A lady came by and made Disney balloon characters for the kids.  Addie got Belle, Ashton got Ariel and Austin got Pluto!

And Avery got a Tinker Bell!  Super cute!  We surprised Joe and Lindsay by getting them tickets to Disney with us tomorrow!!!  So excited to have them join us on our last day!!