What I've been up to.

It seems like I've been way too busy lately to even turn on the computer much less actually take the time to post a new blog. So I thought I would update what's been going on this week while I've been away.

We had company staying with us for a couple of days so that took up a few days of the week.

Next we've been doing all sorts of fun stuff for Haley's last week of Kindergarten. This is a picture of Haley trying to be a cowgirl for Rodeo day. (The hat is the extent of cowgirl stuff that we own around here) I thought she looked pretty cute (apparently so did she :)

We went to run errands after school and both Haley and Dylan decided to throw up in my car! YUCKY! I spent the rest of the day cleaning out the car and everything that was in it! After throwing up once they were fine! Apparently Sonic didn't agree with them.

Saturday we spent all day working on the backyard and doing yard work. We finally got the play set fixed the way we wanted it. It has a border and is filled with the appropriate amount of wood chips so now my kids might not die when they fall on their heads. That's the hope at least. The funny thing is that all of the kids that play on the play set (mine plus about 10 more) asked me and Michael all day why we were doing that. I started to wonder why I was doing it as well. Apparently they don't care if they play in the mud stickers and weeds.... why should I? (I'm just crazy I guess!)

Then we roasted marshmallows and hot dogs at the neighbors house. My poor children as so deprived! They've never been camping... ever! They think walking over to the neighbors house and roasting marshmallows in their fire pit is camping. So sad, I know. I love camping, my husband however does not! I am planning on working up to the camping issue, I think if I put camping and somewhere you can go wake boarding together I may actually get somewhere (wish me luck)

How many men does it take to make hangers into marshmallow sticks? We may never know (the women usually have to take over! Ha just kidding they did great)

At some point during the weekend this happened to my poor little baby! I promise I didn't beat her! She fell off of my bed and hit her eye on the nightstand. She's tough. It hasn't seemed to phase her that much ! I would be crying for the next week if it had been me.

Our last two distractions of the week were these. (The kittens not the kids!) The kids have been distractions for a lot longer than a week. But these kitties were the latest addition to our household. Mom and Dad said we didn't want any cats and so naturally we ended up with two. We are such suckers!!!! We said Haley could pick one of the cats that the stray in the neighborhood had, Dylan was absolutely crushed that his sister got one and he didn't. So like I said we are suckers and we totally caved! So here they are. Haley's little cat is named Maggie but since it has been determined she's a he she is calling her/ him Mag.

Haley and Maggie

This little guy with Dylan is named Tiger (his first name was smoky but has since been changed!) He is a perfect fit for Dylan... he is energetic and playful and totally mischievous!

So it seems I'm pretty busy these days, if I seem to fall of the face of the earth for a while don't worry I'm around. I'll be back sooner or later.

Ideas for the Summer

Okay... I know that summer is not officially here but with the really nice weather this week I have already started wondering what we are going to do this summer to keep ourselves busy aka (no one whining "I'm BORED") Here is a couple of ideas that I have come up with. I am sure all of the rest of you can come up with some more ideas and this way we will have a GREAT list of fun things to do this summer! ( Sorry.... a lot of my ideas are specific to this area so if you don't live around here that could be a problem1)

1. Slip and Slide baseball/ kickball. (We have a great big space and lots of neighbors with slip and slides which makes for a really fun afternoon playing in the water!)

2. Kangaroo Zoo a place to pay inside when it's way too hot or cold and rainy outside.

3. Movies on Mondays. They do these all year round and in the summer they have a little bit different system at the megaplex. Usually you can get an pass or something to watch kids movies (not usually new releases) for like 10 bucks for the whole summer

4. Bike rides

5. The faithful standby...... the Park

6. Thanksgiving Point discovery gardens ( SO Fun!!!!! They have the pop up fountains that all kids love and a little wading pool. Mazes through the hedges and a cave with a bear in it to explore)

7. Saratoga Splash and Pony Express Days..... They usually have a parade and carnivals and fireworks and lots of food. What more could you ask for

8. Lagoon!

9. Seven Peaks (as long as there are no disgusting parasites in the water! In which case we will be avoiding all water areas. We had that last year and it SUCKED!)

10. Ice Skating. Yeah .... how fun will that be on a hot day

11. Bowling. or rollerskating (depending on how brave I am!)

12.Good old fashion picnic in the backyard

13. Boating every chance we get. (It would be so cool if Haley could learn to Wake board this year!) Her mommy and Daddy would be so proud!!!!

14. Fishing with the kids (As long as I don't have to clean, gut, or eat the fish we catch I am totally in! Catch and Release baby....all the way.... just not for the same reasons as most people!)

15. Ultimate Hopscotch- Does anyone else watch as much Curious George as me? I think this game looks pretty fun!

16. Going to the Pool...... A LOT!

17. Lava Hotsprings and float the river (All kids with lifejackets on of course!)

18. Roasting marshmallows in the neighbors fire pit! (Or mine if I ever get my backyard finished the way I REALLY want it. : )

19. The Dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving point (kind of pricey you have to go when they are having some sort of discount!)

20. Farm country to see all the little animals and have a pony ride

See....that's all I got? I am sure that a lot of you have more ideas than that, how about some help! Let's hear it.... and no repeats!

Where does the time go?

The other night I had one of those mom moments when you realize for a second just how quickly time passes! Haley lost her first tooth. We've been waiting for this for a while but finally her tooth was just barley even in her mouth so daddy helped her "wiggle" it out. She was so excited she lovingly put it in "toothy" her pillow she's been sleeping with for months waiting for a tooth to finally be in it! It just so happened that this is the night she also decided she was not going to sleep on the bottom bunk of her bunk bed anymore!!! She even made a sign so I would be sure to see it and remember where she wanted to sleep. (There is no guard rails on the top bunk and this causes mommy a good deal of stress) .

Avery was running around in a pair of pj's that Haley wore when she was a baby and now Haley was loosing her first tooth. Time fliesdoesn't it! As a result of my new found knowledge I've been just playing with the kids. We've spent a lot of time at the park since the weather has been so nice and today was no exception. We sure had a good time!

I'm not sure what's the deal with the tongue! Every picture we took today had her little tongue sticking out!

Cute...Cute boys!

Here's Avery in yet another hat...She loves the hats!

Then we found a butterfly that for some reason wouldn't fly away. The kids loved holding it. It was pretty fun to see them studying it! We left it somewhere in a tree when we headed home hopefully it wasn't too damaged from the kids! These are the days you just LOVE being a mom.

The last few days!

It's almost over I promise. I bet that most of you are sick of seeing pictures of my vacation, but it would be an incomplete story if I didn't finish telling you about my trip. So we had one more day at Disney ( I promise I will not put in all the pictures) Just a few!

I have to show everyone that we dressed the boys and girls alike! They all also had these in their hair (Cute huh! I know I am totally lame but we went all out Disney. Avery however decided that she hated hers and about 3 min into the day she ripped it out of her hair and threw it when I wasn't looking)

This picture would have showed all the kids that were with us. Except Haley isn't in it. She was off riding the "BIG" roller coasters with Daddy. Notice they are all smiling. If the camera was pointing the other way at this point in the day I am not sure the Mommies and Daddies would have the same expression!

You know I didn't really love California Adventure. This probably had something to do with the fact that I was on little kid duty and the little rides are not nearly as fun as over at Disneyland or Lego land for that matter. It was okay I guess, but not my favorite place!

The last day of the vacation we were just plain tired!!!! We decided to do nothing but play at the beach all day. It was one of the best days of the whole trip. All the kids loved it! We boogie boarded and played in the sand, I could live at the beach. One day I will do it. I will ditch Utah during the cold winter yucky months and move somewhere warm with a beach.

This little guy L O V E D the beach. He would have stayed there the whole week if we had let him! He would run into the waves but only enough to get his toes wet, and then run the other way it was the funnies thing to see. ( mental note: more trips to the beach) So there you have it. The next day we packed up and headed home. So sad.... we will be going again soon!

Mothers Day

Well it's mother's day again. This is a day that I dread and love at the very same time. I wish it wasn't so split but there's really no way around it. I LOVE that my husband is so great at mother's day! He will do anything.... buy anything....I want all to make it a happy day. This year I picked out my own present which is usually not the case. (He is seriously the best gift giver ever!!!) That was only because I was so sure I wanted new patio furniture but totally undecided what kind I really wanted. I changed my mind too many times to count and Michael didn't even care when I almost un -assembled the bench that I bought and took it back (Almost) In the end I did decided and I love what I picked.

I love the cute little things that the kids make for me. The looks on their faces when they do give me their little presents is so much better than what ever they do give me! I never was much of a sappy emotional person, but when it comes to my kids I just can't help myself I turn into the blubbering person I usually try really hard not to be.

The problem is also that most of the day on Mother's I'm fighting tears. Some of you know and some of you might not. My mom passed away 11 years ago. You know that saying that says time heals all wounds? Maybe..... I'm not sure if I will ever figure out exactly how much time they mean. I really won't go into too much detail. I don't like to talk about it. I really does hurt too much still. You'd think that it would be a little better at least after all these years but I guess I'm not that lucky. I will say this. DON'T take her for granted. One day you may or may not know the almost unbearable feeling of wanting to see her or talk to her so bad you would give anything in the world to do so. So do it now, give her an extra hug or kiss... watch the look on her face when she see you kids and gives them a hug. These are all things that one day will be more than priceless to you! Make sure she knows how much you love her... and that it has nothing to do with mother's day. Just because she's there!

I hope all of you have a wonderful mother's day.

Disneyland

We had early entry for Disney so we got our extremely tired tushies out of bed early and left at 6:00 a.m. We had to check into the hotel early before we could get into Disney. My kids had never been there before so they were a little bit overwhelmed the first day.

We did all the fun Storybook land rides first of course.

Dumbo of course!

Alice in Wonderland! (Even though they didn't want to pose for pictures afterwards)

Even the Tea cups! (Daddy skipped this one because even the thought of it makes him sick! )

We stayed until late afternoon and then went back to the hotel to try out the fabulous Never land pool! Which by the way way was... way fun (sorry no pictures). We got cleaned up again and then took the monorail which was right outside the hotel over to the park and had some dinner! (I know I know you're supposed to leave the park to eat meals not head back in.... but seriously there was no way I was taking one more step than I had to. I am really glad that we did though. We were rested enough to stay until closing and so we got to see the park all light up! It was pretty awesome! The kids LOVED IT!

Haley REALLY wanted a picture in front of the castle all lit up. Since I just took the "little" camera for convenience reasons this picture is not near as cool as it should be.... but what can you do.

This was taken waiting in line for the last ride of the day (Astro Orbiters) What good kids I have! See how happy they were even waiting in line!

Daddy and our little Daddy's Girl!

Now we were heading home for the night. Our first day at Disneyland was over and we were ready to head home to our hotel. The hotel was as people said "just a hotel room" It was the little things that made it so special and Worth it... in my opinion. The princess that read bedtime stories at night. The pixie dust border that glowed at night because "Tinkerbell had sprinkled our room with pixie dust while we were visiting Mickey in the day!" Mickey called us every morning to wake us up and tell us to "get moving" and come and play! The kids really loved all these things! Mom and Dad however loved the fact that we were either a monorail ride or a 5 min walk away from being back to the hotel when the little ones were ready to drop dead! : )

Disney Day 2

We started the day with a character breakfast at "Goofy Kitchen" It was really fun! The kids were so excited to finally get to use their autograph books (they better LOVE them after what I went through the night I got them! Car chases and 911 for autograph books! Yesh!)

As you can see from the look on her face this was a HIGHLIGHT of the day! She loved meeting the princesses!

Avery loved the princesses as well. If any of the other characters came near her she screamed her head off!

Dylan was not quite as thrilled as the girls to met the princesses! He didn't even stop eating for the picture!

They are really interactive at these things! They came and grabbed the kids and brought them up to dance! Haley loved it!

Notice Dylan's face! He was totally not ready for this! I LOVE IT!

We met Buzz 3 times! He is Dylan's totally favorite! He would literally chase his all through the park until he got another picture with him! We have a million pictures with the characters! I won't bore you with all of them.

Just one more highlight from Day 2. Dylan go to go to the Jedi Training. He was picked to be up on stage. He did only so so when he was being "taught" but kicked some serious booty when he fought Darth Vader! (Look at the determination on this little face!)

Haley got picked too. She did really well until this guy came out! She literally ran screaming off the stage. Through the tears she said "it's okay mommy right? I'm really more of the princess type huh!" Definitely baby girl!

This is the video from Dylan fighting Darth Vader! We watched this clip one million and one times already. Enjoy! More to come tomorrow!

TOO MUCH FUN!

Well we're back. We actually go back Saturday night but things have been crazy so..... no posting yet. I am going to have to do the details in a couple of posts because we had too much fun and it would not do the trip justice to slap some pictures up there and call it good.

I will start with the first day (after the traveling day) we got up at 6:00 a.m. the kids never did reset their little inner clocks and so we were up very early everyday. Even on the days when they should have been too tired to move. Anyway we headed off to Sea World. This was by far my most disappointing day of the trip I really like Sea World but for some reason we went there with no plan... no idea of what we were doing.. how long we were staying etc. We wandered aimlessly kind of looking at exhibits and trying to locate the rest of our gigantic party at the same time.

After a bit of doing this we went to the Shamu show. This was by far the highlight of the whole day. It was SOOOOOO hot and the kids wanted to sit in the splash zone. I was the only aunt or mommy that would agree to this craziness so I took the kids that wanted to get wet down to ROW 3 of the splash zone!!! What was I thinking. It was really fun to see the kids get so excited and to be that close to "Shamu" or whatever the new shamu's name really is.

As you can see we were very close to the action! Dylan loved getting wet. Haley however quickly changed her mind about it when she got the first face full of icy cold salt water in the face! Oh well... you asked for it kiddo! :)

We did more of the same until we decided to take the kids old enough on the Atlantis ride. It was totally fun but the little ones tried to get on but were too short! So they got booted off just as they were getting on the ride! ( Wow.... that's a scene you don't want to be a part of!) Three 4 year olds FREAKING out because siblings and cousins got to ride the totally cool ride but they didn't. The ride attendant felt bad so she gave them some free stuff to do at this place called the extreme zone. (this did little to stop the crying) While we were waiting we hung out and waited in the under sea Atlantis area. Avery loved it!

After the meltdown on the Atlantis ride we headed over to do some damage control at the extreme zone. A few 3 $ ice cream bars and some bouncing later we were finally having fun again!

So the next day the whole big group decided to split up a bit. Some did the beach, some Universal but we headed off to Legoland. It was really fun! I know that a lot of people have mixed feelings about Legoland but for younger kids it was REALLY REALLY fun! The things that are built out of legos in this place were just CRAZY.

These cute little lego people were just outside the entrance. Haley wanted to get a picture with them (actually she wanted to get inside the stroller with the baby... but settled for this)

Avery was such a little trooper about being too small for a lot of the rides. She was pretty easily entertained as you can tell. (I'm pretty lucky to have such a good baby! She was an angel the whole trip)

Most of the park had somewhere you could get totally soaked so we spent a lot of time in the swimsuits. This was good since it was over 90 deg that day (A bit of a change from the snow we left here in Utah)

We had so much fun... I wish we were on vacation still!

These battle boats were Dylan's favorite ride out of both Legoland and Disneyland. You could shoot water at the people in the park or the people on the ride. They all came off the ride totally soaked. Pirate boats, water guns and a ride all put together! A little boys dream come true. Well that takes care of 2 days. I will post more tomorrow. Disneyland is next YIPPEE!