Here we are, 2/3 of the way through January already!  The holiday months always feel like a complete whirlwind to me- we have the holidays, along with 3 kiddo birthday and both my Mom and Chris's mom's birthdays!  Woo!  I feel like we are just starting to breathe again.  

Please make sure you visit the incredible Natalie on her blog after you finish here, then continue on until you land back here!

November consisted of me working a lot, and not taking many family photos, but December, oh December was special. At the beginning of the month our precious Teagan turned 7! (I can't believe she's 7.  I still see her as 3 most of the time!) We celebrated her day by skipping school, going to the movies, and going to Build-a-Bear where she built a reindeer named Emily.  

We saw the Nutcracker ballet (my very first time going!), built gingerbread houses, visited Santa, and decorated the house for Christmas. Chris found out he had the week between Christmas and New Years off  and we made the very impulsive decision to surprise the kids with a trip to Disneyland! We kept it completely under wraps and used a visit to Papa and Mae's as our excuse to pack clothing. Christmas morning went down like we always do, a super early morning with stockings, breakfast, and gifts.  We then trekked to my parent's house for lunch and a little time together.  The kids all got some spending money as a gift (which greatly confused them!), and suddenly we "decided to head home" instead of staying the night.  They were all confused but tired and ended up falling asleep in the car as we drove well past home into the mountains.  When they woke it was dark and they were again, very confused why it was taking so long to get home. We asked them to trust us, and God bless them, they did. 

Questions started to arise as we drove on the next day, and we were having a blast confusing them with what state we were in, what direction we were driving, how much longer we had, what our end goal was... When we stopped for lunch in Las Vegas, poor Hailey was so upset because we stopped way off strip, in the desert, and we told her this was our end goal.  Haha- we are so mean. Unfortunately, but also fortunately, we hit an excessive amount of traffic heading into California, and ended up arriving after dark.  It took a lot longer to get to our destination than we had planned, but because it was dark, the kids were still none the wiser where we were.  The next morning, we had them get up early, and get ready for whatever we were going to do (We stayed in an off site hotel, so there were no indicators where we were still).  Then just before we left, we told them.

It was SO busy (We won't go around Christmas again)- but it was wonderful. We rode most of the classic rides, met a few characters (We have to learn the new way to meet them so we maximize our time when we go when Harper is older), and got to drink in the magic for 2 days. The scariest ride there was the Ferris Wheel in California Adventure (The swinging carts.. ACK!)- but we had a grand old time. I will try to make a post of all the things we learned from our impulsive Disney trip soon! 

On our final day in California we went to Laguna beach and found a quiet cove where the kids could experience the ocean.  A Sea Lion swam really close to the shore and watched the kids for a couple minutes, there were dolphins out a ways playing- it was generally perfect. Next to the mountains, the ocean is where my heart is happiest.  I wish we could have both! The kids played in the water and we brought home a lot of sand and other awesomeness I found when I washed their clothes from the trip. haha! We only took our point and shoot on the trip, so while the photos aren't magical, we have some, and we made many more memories than anything else. 

‘Impressions‘ is a creative project by an eclectic group of female photographers from around the globe. We aim to share the inspiration behind what we do through our bi-monthly posts.

Every other month, we will be sharing 8 images that tell the story of what inspired us in the previous weeks: our families, nature, weather, or maybe even work itself! We are free to explore the meaning of ‘impressions’, and it is likely to change month to month.