Downtown Disney

Wow, what a day it's been! All day packing and preparing all while feeling so crappy. I managed to take tons of vitamins, drink lots of water and rest a lot through it all thank god. When we finally got on the road it was about 2:30 in the afternoon. We got to the hotel about 5:30 and it was full throttle. We checked into the hotel, threw everything in there and got ready to hop on the shuttle for downtown Disney.

WOW!!! I'm so in love!!! It's completely magical and so incredibly amazing. Especially now during Christmas time. Everything is decked out to the max. The Christmas effect is in full force.

The kids are so excited and loving every minute of it. Downtown Disney is like an event in itself.

Tomorrow we head to Disneyland!!!

Sorry not the best picture quality...

Not sure why they try to do this with their mouths in like every pic now 😆

I just love these guys sooooo much 💓

Disneyland

Our little ones are so excited because in just a couple of days we all head down with the rest of the family to Disneyland. We are all OH SO EXCITED!!! It's been many years since I visited Disneyland. I think I was in my 20's still 🙈. Our kids have never been to Disneyland before so they are definitely in for a surprise. They are so excited they can barely stand it.

Sofia is determined to meet Ariel, Rapunzel and Elena of Avalor. Lilja wants to meet Mickey Mouse and I'm of course dying to meet Donald Duck, my big idol! He has been my favorite from the very beginning. There is no one better. 

The last time I went to Disneyland we couldn't find him. Eric was looking all over the place cause he wanted to make my dream come true. He even went into City Hall to ask for Donald. Apparently he had been in one of his moods that day so they weren't sure if he was coming out at all. We never did end up seeing him. So this time around I really want to make sure I meet him. 

Have you ever been to Disneyland? If so what is your favorite attraction? 

Click here for a Fiesta blog post that I just posted.

Prep for Thanksgiving

Tomorrow we celebrate Thanksgiving here in the US. It's one of my favorite holidays. I especially enjoy the very heavy, sleep induced foods that you eat on that day. And of course giving thanks to all our blessings in our lives 😊.

I can never exactly remember the story of the first Thanksgiving, but my daughter who is five gave me a rundown of why we celebrate Thanksgiving the other day. Thank god for the little ones 😜. 

This year we are celebrating Thanksgiving together with good friends in LA. I'm so looking forward to it. So today I'm gonna run to the store and get all the ingredients for the dishes that I'm responsible for. Of course I got a cold going on right now, that came like a letter in the mail (as we say in Sweden 😄). Isn't it always like that? As soon as you relax for a little bit (Lilja doesn't have school this week so we haven't had to run out the door every morning) the sickness get a chance to come out. So annoying! But what can you do. Just power thorough. 

How are you going to celebrate Thanksgiving this year?

Aside from last year's celebration with the family we made our own Thanksgiving feast. I had never made a turkey in my life before but it came out pretty good. But gosh there is a lot of dishes to make for the Thanksgiving table. Here is a pic from last year.

Hope you all will enjoy the holiday tomorrow  😘

Diane's 70th Birhtday

Eric's mom, my mother-in-law turned 70 years old on November 19th. It's hard to believe that I have now known Diane from the time she was in her early 50s. Time goes by fast huh?!

It turned out to be such a nice, relaxing, fun birthday with friends and family. Laurie (my sis-in-law) and I took care of all the food, cleaning etc. So Diane could just relax and enjoy her birthday visiting with friends and family.

Here are some pics and videos from this lovely day 💛.

James and Mary

Lawrence - Eric's dad

Cousins 💜

Monkeys🙊🙉

Halloween

We had a great Halloween this year. Last year Lilja ended up getting sick on actual Halloween and the costume we had planned for last year was for her to be a cat.  She's been talking about her cat costume for over a year now haha so she was really happy when the time finally came for her to wear it. Since she was sick last year we already had her costume, as well as Sofia's. I had some cat ears and a tail that I threw on and all I had to do was find something for Eric. The plan was to be cats and dogs.

The dog costume selection around Santa Barbara and even online was pretty scarce. The only think I could find was a big dog onesie costume. It looks so comfortable though, and I will most likely end up wearing it like pretty much every single day around the house. Maybe even outside of the house 😝.

Here are some pics from our Halloween fun...

Of course we carved pumpkins like we do every year. It's getting to be more fun for every year that goes by as the kids are getting more involved.

Lilja had a Halloween parade during the day of Halloween that Eric was able to come to which was fun.  All the kids were so cute.

My little cat 🐱💖

Someone else got to partake in the Halloween parade festivities and of course the candy 😆

Look at all these cuties 💞

It was a busy day with Halloween trick or treating that night. But oh so fun! We're so lucky to live in the same town as Eric's sister with kids, and we normally trick or treat together. Our kids and their kids are like siblings and they love to hang out. We're blessed that they can spend this time together and share these amazing memories.

I just can't with these two 💕

I mean....

How cute is little V as Dorothy 💓

Hope you had a great Halloween!

The Coziness Continues

Yesterday was really mellow. We ended up hanging out at the beach for a while and then when everyone transitioned to the campsite we decided to go home, Eric stayed behind.

I was so stoked to be back home to be able to enjoy the fall weather inside. The girls and I decided to do a movie night with popcorn, ice cream and treats. 

Then when the girls went to bed I proceeded to watch my show that I'm currently addicted to "American Horror Story." Eric is really disturbed by the fact that i enjoy those types of television programs and never wants to watch it with me so I always end up watching it by myself. That's fine though, I rather watch it by myself than hear someone complain about what their watching every 5 minutes. 

The fall weather continues today and will continue throughout the week and I couldn't be happier. 

This morning me and the girls went to church. Eric was too tired from the previous night 😝. We ended up meeting a couple of friends there which was fun. Then we ran some errands and are now back home for some coziness. I have a pot roast cooking in the crockpot and I'm gonna make some raw balls in a minute. 

You know that extremely healthy treat that everyone talks about? Gluten free, sugar free etc etc. My friend had made some the other day and I got to try some and it was absolutely delicious. And then you don't have to feel bad about eating it!! It's a no brainer.  I'll have to put the recipe up on the blog for you all to try too if you haven't already. 

I just posted another blog post from the past (hehe) trying to catch up (but it no particular order). It's about our trip to the Zoo for some Halloween fun. You can read about it here. 

Washington Wildcats

August 21st, the day Lilja started Kindergarten was a big day, for everyone. I can't believe my little girl has grown up to the point of her starting Kindergarten. She is no longer going to be home with me (aside from going to Preschool two days a week), but she will be gone everyday. What a transition after 5 years.

We feel thankful that we live in a district where we are able to go to Washington School. This was something I had no idea about until maybe a year ago. I've heard of people moving, pretending to live somewhere else to be able to have their kids go to a certain school. And another plus is that the school is literally down the hill. I could walk to it but the walk back home would be dreadful. Maybe a good workout though?!

She's also got the most wonderful teacher, Ms. Summerset who has been working at Washington School 30+ years. She is now 70 and is teaching her last year of Kindergarten before retirement. We feel so blessed to have her. I've heard nothing but amazing things.

Lilja did great her first day of school, not like her mommy who was somewhat of a wreck. She is now a "Washington Wildcat" and we can't wait to see what this first year of school has in store for her.

Fiesta Fun

For years now we have gone to the Mission to partake in the festivities of the opening night of Fiesta. Everyone puts out a picnic blanket, bring some food and drinks and sit down to enjoy the show. It's always fun to kick off Fiesta that way, ease into the remainder of the celebratory days.

Fiesta can be quite exhausting. It's almost a whole week of celebrating. A big party that goes on in multiple locations of Santa Barbara. You pick and chose what you want to do and there is definitely no shortage of activities to chose from. You can be busy 24/7 if you want to.

We didn't go too crazy this year. First off we have kids and I wasn't really feeling the whole thing this year. But again, it was fun to be a part of the opening night. It has become a mandatory tradition of ours.

My 💜

Our little rascal 😄