Disneyland!! Part 1

The last week of April was Disneyland week for our family!! Alex and I had been looking forward to it for months, but we held off telling the kids until the week before. I'm really glad we waited to tell them, because they were able to have a massive amount of excitement for the entire time. We watched youtube clips of kids meeting miscellaneous characters and different rides, hoping to prepare them for the experience so they wouldn't be overwhelmed into terror. Then, we flew to Oregon a few days early to see family. As it happened, my side of the family was all elsewhere, so we had lots of C time. Here are the kids getting a horsey ride from Auntie Ashley...have I mentioned that my kids have the best aunts and uncles? They do. Always willing to go with whatever plan Olivia comes up with, and the kids adore them. 

The other fun part about our short trip to Oregon is that we got to spread the news about baby #3! We bought personalized M&Ms to share the news, and Olivia gave them to everyone individually as we saw them. It was harder than I thought to share the news this way, because everyone wanted to tell everyone else, and talk about it, but I wanted to get use out of the M&Ms :). Here is Aunt Kathy's reaction, which was actually the most surprised that we got. Most everyone else just said it was about time ... which really surprised me, as it will give me 3 kids in 4 years! This feels like a lot to me, but apparently Alex's family knows me better than I know myself.

 We lucked out that the Oregon Ag Fest was the weekend that we were in town. The Ag fest is like the agricultural section of the State fair times 4. There are lots of opportunities to play in dried corn kernels, plant different kinds of seeds, meet animals, and learn all about the things that we grow and eat. Olivia's favorite part was riding a pony, but as you can tell, Carter was more on the fence about it. Actually he would have preferred to stay on the fence and skip riding the horse. But he did it, and didn't cry at all :).

The next day was DISNEYLAND DAY!! Can you tell I was excited? I'm a huge fan of Disney in general, and was super excited to share this wonderful place with my kids. I didn't get Gary in the pictures of us on the plane, because he was relegated to the row in front of us.

I don't know who looks more excited the kids in the picture above, or the ones in the picture below. We were all pretty thrilled to finally be on our way. I already can't wait for the next vacation with this family, we just have all sorts of fun. 

Due to some great planning (thanks Gary!!) we arrived in Anaheim in the early afternoon, After settling into our hotel, and a totally unsuccessful naptime - can you blame them? - we were ready to head into Disneyland. Here's Olivia's 'about to board the Monorail' face...I wish now that I had captured everyone elses faces as well.

Most of these are just fun Disneyland pictures, but this next one is extra special to me. Three generations of accidentally matching men...such a special thing.

Pirates was the only ride through the whole trip that frightened O. She was very brave about it, and immediately afterward was talking about how she liked it, but slowly she mentioned (over and over and over) that the bone people were scary and she didn't like them. I didn't write down any specifics of things that she said, but every time we passed the ride on future days (it was actually closed for repair the rest of the week), she made sure to tell us that she didn't want to do that again.

 After our evening of bonus time in DL, we hit the hay and prepared for official Day 1 at California Adventure the next day.

Easter Weekend!

Easter weekend was a busy one for us this year! We wanted to get the kids out for a community egg hunt, because they always have fun running around with the other kids. I didn't really anticipate the sheer number of kids and eggs and craziness, but the kids had a blast. This particular egg hunt was put on by the Ten Mile Church, and was very well done. They had different areas and times for different age groups, which meant Carter got to go first. This was a good lesson for Olivia, who got to cheer on her brother while she patiently waited for the preschooler group. Carter didn't really get it. At all. He kept calling the eggs balls (no surprise there...everything round is ball to this kid), and picking one up before throwing it back down. He refused to put any eggs in his basket, and got quite mad when we tried to help him. Luckily the other 0-2 year olds aren't super fast at gathering eggs either, and we were able to convince Carter to put his 'balls' in Olivia's basket so he could take them home. Problem averted :)

Olivia, on the other hand, was super excited to gather eggs, and very serious about it. I had a hard time getting her to smile before she had a basketful of eggs. She kept the position below throughout her entire hunt. Low to the ground, high reachability...she had a great strategy!

 After we hunted for eggs and grabbed a healthy snack of candy from said eggs, we headed over to Maely's soccer game! I love going out on Saturdays to watch the G kids in their various sports, and soccer was no exception. Maely was so fun to watch, and showed amazing skill, especially because this was her first year, and most of the kids on her team had 3-7 years experience. At half time the organization  put on a huge dance party for a few minutes - Upward Sports always has fun activities, and a totally positive atmosphere. We will definitely use Upward when the kids get into organized sports. - which ad Olivia showing her best moves.

During the second half, baby #3 and I enjoyed our first snow cone of the season! Snow cones are one of my weaknesses, so I love that summer pregnancies give me infinite excuses to partake of them often. We did find out that snow cones turn Carter into a bird! He just got as close as he could with his little bird mouth saying 'Aaaahhhh' until he got a bite. We should have discouraged the behavior, but it was just SO cute that we didn't. And we regretted it later :).

The game made for a fun, and full morning, but we had to hurry home for lunch and naps afterward. During naptime, Alex and I remembered that we hadn't dyed Easter eggs yet! Every year we dye them, and then the Easter Bunny comes and hides fake plastic eggs instead (he is smart about the high broken egg potential in our house), but it's still an important tradition that I would feel horrible skipping. So we busted out the hard boiled eggs and dye, and had it all ready before dinner. I'm not an artistic person - at all - and as many eggs as we gave to Carter ended up on the ground, but we still ended up with a couple dozen successfully colored eggs...you're welcome Dad!

Easter morning was a blast. The kids are at this perfect stage of excitedness and lack of understanding or remembering about what tomorrow brings, so every holiday is something completely new for them. It didn't take long for them to discover that the eggs contained more candy, and Carter could open any of them by throwing them as hard as he could.Thus the chocolaty smile in all of these pictures. I couldn't keep him out of it!

 We had a relaxed morning before we headed to Amber's for Easter dinner. The kids really enjoyed the things that the Easter Bunny brought, an Anna dress for O to use on our upcoming Disney trip, and a bouncy basketball for Carter. He isn't quite big enough to use it per the instructions, but he figured out his own way!

Lastly, a picture of O. I love this face. The picture has funny colors, but her eyes are so beautiful. Happy Easter!

Pre-Summer Craziness

At the end of March, I really started to feel like the craziness of summer was going to be quite overwhelming. We had many trips, outings, and family activities planned, and I was at the sick point of pregnancy with baby #3! My way of coping with this, and most problems in my life, was to organize.  The first thing I did was make lists, calendars, and spreadsheets with all the events going on. I figured out that we did not have a two week span that would work for swimming lessons, so we were going to skip that this year. I noted some things that I needed to buy for the kids (most notably, smaller summer clothes for Carter, who is just a little guy. After I had exhausted the computer organization, I moved on to our house. I started with the legos. Yes, this is a pointless and ridiculous project, but it's quite relaxing for my neurotic brain. Here is the end result, which brings me pride even now as I look at the picture :).

One of my favorite activities since moving to Meridian has been teaching piano. I have 2 students, who happen to be my niece and nephew, but I really love teaching and have missed it since I had children. The arrangement Amber and I have includes an afternoon of babysitting every week as an exchange to teaching her kids. This is a deal that couldn't have worked out better for me. I have 3 hours of kid-free time every week before picking up her kids to teach them. It also solves the problem that I have always had with teaching; the kids are just too loud to have effective lessons. Anyway, As soon as the Frozen sheet music was released, I spent quite a few hours arranging music for the kids to play at their spring recital. I love arranging music, and was quite happy to use a few evenings playing and arranging these songs.

This is just a picture of my garden plan. I went with Square Foot Gardening, which meant Alex had quite a project in front of him getting my garden beds put together.Here is my plan for the boxes and what plants would go into them. This paper version is the first draft, which later was transcribed into Excel of course :) my happy place.

The kids got to try some painting with household objects while daddy made the garden boxes one day. The favorite thing to paint with by far was the Qtip, and the toothbrush was the most interesting. Carter is just not old enough to understand that he is supposed to paint with, and not brush his teeth with, the toothbrush...At least it's non-toxic! Next time I will use edible paint for this project :)

Some fun ballet hair one morning. I love that a cartoon or the iPad allows me unlimited time to mess around with Olivia's hair. I am not ashamed to admit that I use screen time as a bribe and a reward, whatever works in the situation :)

As I mentioned, baby #3 is on his/her way! my announcement to family was hurried by the fact that the second week in April we had some company, and I was quite sick. So we took the kids outside and took this picture. I wasn't planning on telling the kids yet, 7 months is a long time for a 3 year old to wait, and a long time for the parents to dodge questions about when the baby will get here :). Luckily for me, Olivia can't read, so I figured we could just take the picture and go on with our lives. Not so. As soon as I put the baby sandals on the chair, she asked: 'Mom, what are those shoes for? What does this sign say? Are we having a baby?' Unprepared for such direct questions, I just answered honestly. Yes we are. As soon as those words were out of my mouth, it was no longer a secret. She told everyone we saw, including the neighbors and whoever happened to run by the house while she was outside. The grocery store clerk, her dance teacher, etc. Surprises are a little beyond this girl!

The next day we had some visitors! Kylie and Justin came (along with my mom) for a few days while their mom was recovering from surgery. It's hard to tell from this picture, but my kids didn't know they were coming, so they are totally thrilled and surprised. Four kids under four is an adventure, but we always have lots of fun...and noise :).

I'm a little embarrassed to remember this, but apparently the night that the kids got here, I left them all with Alex and my mom and went out with Amber and Chrissy! These two ladies are very special to me, and every once in a while we try to get out by ourselves for a ladies night. We should do it more often. This particular evening we went to The Village, a new outdoor mall just a couple blocks from my house. We had dinner at a permanent food truck place (super yummy Sicilian food), then walked around the mall, stopping to take this picture in the most dangerous place there - sitting on the fire pit. It was a little chilly, so the fire pit was the perfect place to sit and talk, but the fire was unpredictable, and had a tendency to grow at inopportune moments. We all made it out with our hair, and I would risk it anytime for another evening out!

We wanted to do some sort of get-out-of-the-house activity while Kylie and Justin were in town, so one evening Amber's family met us at the park. It's so fun to let all eight grandkids play together, but the park was a little crazy with this crowd. 5 kids under 4, and three others who were great cousins and played with the youngers, but also love to do their own thing. I think Amber and I spend the whole time just counting kids, trying to keep track of everyone. We did have some super jumping fun, and when we started to leave we let the kids roll down a fairly steep grass hill, which led to such fun that we stayed another half hour :). Needless to say, the rolling antics of Olivia and Teagen had us all laughing, and I was glad to have the new baby as an excuse not to try at least once. If I remember correctly, Olivia may have gotten her rolling skills from her mom ...

On the 17th we had a fun surprise for the kids. We let them open a gift to tell them a clue about where our next trip would be. In one week - yes we waited a LONG time to tell them - we were headed to Disneyland! Olivia was so excited, we spent the next week watching video after video of little girls meeting characters, various rides, and other Disney fun. We wanted to be prepared!

Nikki & Teck Wedding!!

The last weekend in March was a wonderful trip to Utah for Nikki's wedding! We started out the weekend with our first cramming-into-the-car experience in our van :). Dan was working part of the way to Utah, so the entire rest of Amber's clan squeezed into our back seat for the 2 hour drive to Twin Falls to meet him. I'm always game for an adventure, but I felt pretty bad having all of them squish into the back. Eventually we will have less car seats and that combination of people could fit more comfortably, I hope! The drive went totally fine though, we love our car DVD player!

We spent the first night at Ali and Jon's beautiful house before joining up with the rest of the family. The kids enjoyed some dress up before settling in for the night (you can see that Carter is ready to hit the sack at this point...tired eyes!) and the grownups just sat around and talked. In all honesty, Ali had a list a mile long of wedding things to decide and prep for (including the day of Emergency Kit), which I loved to help with and the men mocked us for the entire night. Yes, super glue, safety pins, deodorant, and duct tape are all necessary items to have for the wedding day!

The next morning we had donuts for breakfast! Olivia kept calling hers a bagel, which made me laugh because she honestly doesn't know the difference, which tells me that I don't share my treats enough. You would think that we just eat very healthy as a family, but I assure you that's not true. I am too lazy to drive for donuts in the morning, but my kids eat PLENTY of treats!

We met up with Amber's family for some shopping before we went to the house that my mom had rented for all 20 of us for the weekend. Amber and I took Teagan with us to DownEast and IKEA, and the boys took the older kids to a fun sportsman-type store before meeting us at IKEA for lunch. After that we met up with Mom, Dad, Emily, and Jenaye for grocery shopping before we checked out the HUGE 6000+ sf house. Every family had a room, there was lots of playing and chatting space, and so many fun corners for playing sardines!

We had an hour or so to get settled before we left for the start of wedding fun! The traditional This Is Your Life was accompanied by some wonderful grilled cheese and other fun food! I don't have any pictures of the barn or reception prep, but it was a beautiful reception location, full of little personalized touches from both Nikki and Teck. 

After a long night of wedding prep and catching up with all my aunts and cousins, we caught a few hours of sleep before starting the wedding day! I love the craziness of family weekends, whether they are in celebration of a holiday, a wedding, or other special occasion. We just go and go with as little sleep as possible until we have to go home. I was so glad to be able to rely on Alex for a lot of the kid duties so I could spend more time with my family. Here are some pictures from family waiting at the Temple

Maggie is so great about posing at every available opportunity, she is such a beautiful girl!

The happy couple!

I can't say how much I love this family. They are all like sisters (and brothers, and parents ;)) to me. I was thrilled to be able to share in their joy!

This was a sweet moment with Nikki helping Maggie feel comfortable and involved on this day. She is a wonderful sister to take time apart to help whoever is needing some attention.

Our family really pulls together at any event...here is a few of the many family members who helped with the food prep and serving throughout the evening.

My little stud. He was so into these flowers, and I love how this outfit made him look like a little man. Olivia was much harder to photograph, as she didn't stand still for a single minute the entire evening. There was a fun area for kids to play, plenty of family members to play with, and she was in heaven.

Nikki with all of her girl cousins.

And when there are six 3-6 year olds all anxious to carry your train, it ends up being a parachute game...thank goodness for full length slips!

Yup. These are our attempts at a family picture. Maybe someday we will figure this art out, but until then we will just keep trying. Every family event gets a few failures...and someday we will have a successful, beautiful family picture. Maybe.

I realized as I was typing this last part that I know where my family's inability to take a picture came from. This is the entire clan before leaving our amazing house the next day. At least we come by our goofy pictures honestly!

It was a great weekend, one I am anxious to repeat at the next available opportunity. I love my family so much, and love every opportunity we have to play together. I'm also so glad that my kids will have the same experience that I had, growing up with my cousins as siblings, always having someone to play with and/or talk to. That cousin for me was Nikki, so I'm also thrilled that she had such a great wedding weekend, a total success!