Disneyland 2009

A couple of months ago we decided to go to Disneyland for five days and had a blast! We went with the Thomas's, Rowland's, and Steven's. There were six kids between the ages of 3 and 7 and they all did great and had a ton of fun. Annie and I both left our little ones home we missed them but it was much easier and relaxing without them. We stayed a couple of blocks from Disneyland at the Hampton Inn and Suites. It was great we had a free yummy hot breakfast every morning and a cute little lady would come along and let us know what was going on in the parks for the day and let us know which things were must sees along with the times. The highlight of the trip for the girls was the princess meet and greet lunch and for Colt and Connor was the Jedi training. This was Lauren's third time to Disneyland/Disneyworld and she still says her favorite ride is the 10 hour wait in line ride DUMBO! We had so much fun and can't wait for the next trip!

My sis Melissa and her husband Dave live in San Diego and were sweet enough to make the drive up to see us and have dinner. She is like 25 weeks prego in these pics and looks amazing! I am so glad we got to see them even if it was only for a couple hours!

The first day we got there was really the only free time we had so of course the kids had to swim!

We had a shuttle that picked us up and dropped us off in front of our hotel. It came every half hour or so and I swear every morning we would always just miss it. This is us just patiently waiting and where we would lather the kids in sunscreen. Also I thought I had pics of the L for California....NOPE it is now CAO.

Some of our fav rides and standing in line at the most magical place on earth!:)

We got to meet quite a few characters. On the first day within the first hour we ran into Buzz. This pic makes me laugh because Lauren normally LOVES any and all characters. For whatever reason she would no even look at Buzz. After that she was all about the characters she loved Sully from Monsters Inc.! This was also the first time to meet Tinker Bell and all her friends at Pixie Hollow which I thought was adorable!

More pics and rides!

This was the million dollar meet and greet princess lunch! Just kidding it was well worth it the girls got to talk, hug, and get pictures with all the princesses. Also, the food was delicious! Lauren is fickle with her favorite princess this day it happened to be Mulan who of couse was not there...maybe next time.

One of my favorite things was the parade at Disney on Main Street. This year's theme was celebrate so it was just a big party. When the parade stopped in front of us the girls got picked to go out and dance and do the conga with some of the workers and charcters...it was cute!

More pics of the group!

April in a nutshell

Here are some updates:

Shelly, my mother-in-law, gave us quite a scare early easter morning. She was not feeling well so she had Mike take her to the ER in the middle of the night. They were there for about ten minutes when she had a heart attack. They did compressions and shocked her and immediatly started doing tests. They found that she had a blocked artery in her heart. Luckily they were able to place a stent in the artery and she was able to come home a few days later! We are so thankful that she is OK and still here with us today. She is a wonderful Grandma and Mom and would do anything for anyone! We love you Granny!!!!

Granny Shelly and Londyn

The kids were spoiled rotten this year they had FOUR easter egg hunts!! We had one in our neighborhood, one on each side of the family and then JR and I hid some eggs for the girls to find Easter morning. Since Shelly was in the hospital on Easter we postponed everything until the following weekend. We had dinner and then had a massive easter egg hunt for the kids. I am not exaggerating when I say each kid ended up with about one hundred eggs!!! They were full of candy, stickers, and money. Shelly also decided to hide two eggs with twenty dollars in each egg. It was a mad dash to find them but lucky Jamie found both of them!

Jamie with her two "golden eggs"



Notice how full Lauren's easter bucket is

Lauren got a new bike for Easter and has really enjoyed riding it in this warm weather. Her heart still belongs to her scooter though. She is always asking if she can ride it down to the park by our house. On this day she suckered Nana and Papa to come over and take her to the park with her scooter and to help her fly her new kite. The girls are the ONLY grandkids on both side, and are therefore S-P-O-I-L-E-D!
Lauren has them all wrapped around her little fingers, especially her grandpas. They are both so cute with her and would do anything for her and we love watching them with our kids. Anyway this day at the park Lauren got my dad to push her all the way around the park on her scooter. It was so funny because you could tell he was tired and it was hurting his back but he just couldn't tell Lauren no because she was laughing and having so much fun!

Nana, Lauren, and Papa flying a kite at the park

Lauren LOVES riding horses with Grandpa. My in-laws have horses in their backyard so she is fortunate enough to ride whenever she wants. Grandpa takes her out all the time and they have so much fun. Funny thing is she always has to wear one of Grandpa's hats so she can be a COWGIRL!!

Lauren and her T-Ball fan club

Lauren has started playing T-Ball this year and it has been a lot of fun to watch her. JR is helping coach and that has really tested his patience but now he is loving it. The kids are so dang funny to watch. They are all so easily distracted. Luckily our team has three girls so they they stick together.. GIRL POWER!!

Swing....???

Lauren has quite the imagination. She has always been very good about entertaining herself. I love listening to her conversations she has with her babies, polly pockets, barbies, or whatever it is she is playing with. So I was making dinner the other night and was listening to her telling her stuffed bear that she was going to take her to the park and take her on the swing. I walked into the front room and this is what I found.... she had tied two jump ropes together and then wrapped each end around the door handles!! Funny thing is it actually worked and supported her weight! She was so proud we even had to keep it up for a few days!

Lauren swinging on her homemade swing!

Two months

Londyn is getting so big so fast! She had her two month appointment the other day and is our chunky monkey. She weighs 12 lbs. and is 23 inches long. She is in the 80th percentile for both, hey at least she is proportional. She is starting to develop her little personality. She is so curious about the world around her she is always looking around to see what is going on and loves being held facing out. She smiles and talks quite a bit and Lauren is working on getting her to giggle. She only cries when she is hungry...unfortunately she is losing that cute newborn cry:) Happy two months!

6th pic in 6th folder....

So this picture is of JR parasailing off the beach in Cabo San Lucas. In May 2007 the whole fam went to San Diego for my sister Melissa's wedding. We then drove up to LA and left on a seven day cruise to the Mexican Riviera. Good times! I tag... Jamie and Lara.

Swimming Lessons

Lauren has been taking swimming lessons, and loves them!! She is such a little fish. She is learning to float on her back and to float on her front with her head under water. She can actually hold her breath for a few seconds and she thinks she is the coolest "big girl" ever. As much as she loves her swimming lessons, I think the real reason she goes is to go down the alligator slide!

Spring Fever

The boys were in "desperate" need of a golf trip down to ST. George so we decided to make it a mini vacation and go down to Vegas for a couple of days and then go to ST. George and stay in the condo with the Stevens. We had a great time and it was so nice to have some sunshine. Funny how sixty degrees in Feb. makes me want to wear a tank top and flip flops! I forgot how big all the hotels are on the strip..it literally took us 7 hours to eat breakfast and walk through three hotels. We went to the shark reef at Mandalay Bay, saw the tiger exhibit at MGM, went to M&M world, and went to Excalibur and played games and won a lot of stuffed animals. Londyn did great she just slept and ate every two hours!



The kids with a diver who was cleaning the shark tank out.

JR & Lauren touching the "creatures"
Lauren and the alligator
In St. George the boys golfed 27 holes! JR claims it was the best work day ever(they golfed from 8:00-5:00). Sharon and I relaxed in the warm sun and took the kids swimming. Now if it would just warm up here...

Random

We were watching the Jazz game the other night and Deron Williams was shooting free throws and Lauren asked, "Dad, is that Bruce Willis?"

Valentines

On Friday the 13th I made an appointment for JR and me to get a couples massage. This was the first time JR had ever had a massage and he LOVED it! Our appointment was at 9:00 pm which was a first for me, I normally schedule the appointment for the morning and now I know why. I pretty much slept the entire time! JR claims I was snoring but I swear I was just "resting my eyes." :) Hey, I was tired I have a sick newborn at home!

On Saturday the 14th we decided we were going to take Lauren to build-a-bear. Apparently everyone else thought that was a good idea too. We were there for two hours! It was worth it though, she had so much fun. Of course everything she picked was pink, being that is her favorite color. She also got to name her bear and she named it Sally. I am sure she got this from Gracie since that is the name of Gracie's cat.

Later that night we got take out from a yummy Chinese food restaurant and had a movie night. We always let Lauren chose the movie for movie night and we always end up watching Kung Fu Panda or Madagascar. We literally have seen both these movies over 100 times, but Madagscar it was. About ten minutes into it Lauren changed her mind and decided she wanted to watch Madagascar 2...Allelujiah! We have only seen this one once. It didn't matter anyway because JR and I both fell asleep (remember we have a sick newborn.)

Let It Snow!!!

Lauren loves the snow. So of course when it snowed the other day she was so excited! We put on her snow clothes and she went and played for about an hour while I shoveled the driveway. (Yes, there is a first time for everything, maybe this summer I will even mow the lawn, lol.) Lauren loves to make snow angels, build snow castles, sled, and eat the snow. I have told her how disgusting this is but she assures me she is "just looking and holding it." I am glad someone appreciates the snow because I am ready for some sun and warm weather!

1 Month Old

Londyn spent her one month birthday being sick, poor girl! She has the congested cough, runny nose, and watery eyes. We've been going through lots of slaine drops and she has been sleeping in her car seat and had the humidifier running for the past three nights. It is hard to believe my baby girl is a month old already! Londyn is starting to smile and coo and beginning to show her personality. She is such a calm baby and is my little cuddle bug. I got her newborn pictures taken a couple of weeks ago, we were there for three hours but got some great shots.

FINALLY!!

So I have FINALLY entered the blogging world!!! Annie convinced me that this was a great way to document memories with friends and family. Thanks Annie for your help today even though Garrett fell down the stairs and Lauren ate a half bag of cheetos for lunch:) (Is that what blogging leads to parent neglect?)