Disneyland, my Happy Place

Ok, I might have exaggerated when I said that the Dolphin Safari was my favorite part of our Thanksgiving holiday. As anyone who knows me knows, Disneyland is my HAPPY PLACE. I love Disneyland. I just start smiling as I walk in the doors and I don't stop. I made sure my family knew that Disneyland was on my agenda with Helen, Mary and Griffin and if they wanted to come with us we would be there from opening at 8 am to closing at midnight. That's right 16 hours of Disney Magic for me and my kids!!! My family thought I was nuts for leaving so early and told me they'd meet me there at 10ish. Well, low and behold they were all ready to go and we left by 7:30 am for our fun day. (Brad and Lewis stayed behind with Pap, Michael, & Malcolm to swim and cruise the PCH)

We split up into 2 groups once we got there with bigger kids and younger kids. Sheri and I took the younger kids, Anika and Griffin. Grammy, John & Amie took the bigger kids, Helen, Mary, Aleksia, Willow, Cedric and Brax. They were off to Space Mountain and Thunder Mountain while we rode Buzz Lightyear and the Astro Orbitor. As we were getting off of Buzz's Astro Blasters we were greeted by the "year of a million dreams" team handing out Dream Fastpasses. These Fastpasses can be used at any time of the day. We were so excited!! We wished all of our group was with us and not just the 4 of us got the passes! It was a score!!! The fast passes were good for Disneyland and California Adventure so we found a group of 4 going over to Cal. Adv. and gave them that part of our passes since they were only good for that day.

After our big score we met up with the big kids getting off of the Matterhorn and headed to the newly refurbished and reopened It's a Small World. Wow! It was beautiful. Everything was shiny and even the boats got a makeover. Brax loves Small world and he was smiling the whole ride! Of course my picture of him is fuzzy but you get the idea!

Then we split up again, this time adding Helen, Mary and Cedric to our group and we were off ToonTown. On our way to meet the others at Splash Mountain we did see Jackson--Hannah Montana's brother aka Jason Earles, cruising around the park. The girls were excited but too embarrassed to speak to him.

Splash Mountain was lots of fun. I don't think I have ever been so wet on that ride before! I honestly had to go buy pants for me and Mary because we were so wet and frozen, but it was lots of fun!!! :>

At 3:30 we saw the afternoon Christmas Parade with everyone decked out in their Christmas finest and Santa at the end. After the parade, Sheri, Grammy, Anika, Cedric and Griffin all exited stage Newport swimming pool. Griffin and Ani were so excited to go swimming.

The rest of us continued to play play play. We did hit every ride in the park at least once and a few more than once. We did the Indianna Jones ride twice and the girls rode Space Mountain 3 times, Thunder Mountain 2 times, Autopia 2 times etc... We did enjoy our night time Jungle Cruise. Our guide was hilarious!!! He kept us entertained and ended with this..."And now I will finish with a joke for all the psychics in the group." I laughed long and hard. Mary had to have it explained 3 times.

After watching the fireworks we called it a night. No, I didn't stay till midnight, only 10:15 so Brad wouldn't have to come and pick us up later, we just went home with John and Amie. So only 14 hours in the park but we will live to go another day I guess! We--Helen, Mary and I--wanted to watch Fantasmic which was at 10:30 but we were dealing with only 2 cars at Disneyland and sacrifices had to be made! :>

Haunted Mansion all decked out for ChristmasGrif waving at Buzz

It's a Small WorldDream Fastpasses!!!! SWEEEET!!!

Captain Dave's Dolphin Safari

Well, we had a fabulous Thanksgiving. We spent it in Newport Beach with my family. Since I took 168 pictures I will be breaking it up in to 3 or 4 posts for your viewing pleasure!

My favorite was the Dolphin Safari. We went the day after Thanksgiving with part of our group. We took my kids and Cedric, Anika & Grammy. Lewis and Brad stayed home to swim. Our safari was 3 hours long and we saw common dolphins and a fin whale. It was so much fun. The common dolphins were in a pod or herd of a couple hundred. Captain Dave said for every dolphin we could see there were 6 or 7 under water we could not see. It was amazing to see all those animals. They love to surf on the bow of the boat which was cool to look at them right under our feet. We had so much fun and were blessed to see so many animals.

Sea Lions

Fin Whale

Common Dolphins

WWZ Fieldtrip

I'd just like to say that I never go on fieldtrips because most of the time I can't bring my sweet handsome prince with me, but zoo fieldtrips are perfect for younger siblings.

Helen and Mary went on 2 different days back to back so Lewy and I had lots of fun 2 days in a row. We were at the Wildlife World Zoo and although it isn't huge, I saw totally different things on the different days. There is lots to see at that zoo and tons of babies. The zoo started out as a breeding facility for rare animals and it still has lots of breeding going on! (Cara and I can testify to that!!) The weather has been so perfect that we all needed sunscreen both days! I got to hang out with friends too since Becky came with Helen's group and Cara came with Mary's group. So a great time was had by all!!

5 day old llama

"i like to move it move it" name that movie and animal!

The biggest hit was feeding the Lories--parrots. The sweet things fly right up to you and you feed them apples. That was fun.

Lew and the brrdee, "yook mama, booo brrdee"

Nathan Update

Nathan is up to 4 lb 2 oz and is doing well. No word yet on a go home date but he is growing and is completely off oxygen. He has been able to latch on to Julie and suck from a bottle but still gets most of his milk from his ng tube. I got to hold him for about 30 min the other day and he is so cute it was hard to put him back in his bed.

Double Digits

So the pretty princesses finally hit double digits! Can you believe it? They had a "dinner and a movie" PJ party.

We started off with 4 xl pizza's, 48 wings and 5 gallons of home made rootbeer for the 14 girls and they finished everything off but about 4 slices. Hungry bunch!

Then it was on to the presents. They got everything their hearts could desire from their friends, gift certificates, pet shop toys, lotions and potions, books, cash money, paint, and even a movie pass (can you say..night out for mommy and daddy?!)

From us they hit the mother load...they have been begging for the Ninento DS for their birthday or Christmas for 2 years. We finally broke down and bought them. (We have been hiding them for 2 months!) They were thrilled and couldn't have been any happier and that picture is the only fuzzy one of the evening!

We then moved on to our movie "Kung Fu Panda" and it was a hit! The party favor was a pillow for each girl to take home and they used them for their viewing pleasure. They were too full for popcorn but after the movie they were just hungry enough to polish off some cake and ice cream. Yummy! So they had a fantastic party and everyone went away happy. The parents kept trying to get their girls to leave the pillows and when they realized they were the party favor they were very happy, I don't know if the girls will get them for long! :>

We were so happy Grammy and Leksi could come down to join us. Grammy frosted the cake 30 min before the guests arrived. Sweet! It looked amazing and we loved it!

Helen, Grammy, Mary and the huge, yummy cake!

Cake and gifts

So all is well with our partied out family. We just want to relax for a while! Thanks to everyone who made this party a hit!

3 Treasures from the past

As I was looking at my kids pictures and class pictures the other day I was reminded that I had recently found 3 treasures! 3 of my class pictures from way back in the day. It is so fun to see how cute we all looked. I wish I had all of my class pictures. Hopefully (I make no promises) I will remember to keep all of my kids pictures someplace safe. I thought I'd share my treasures. Feel free to leave a comment trying to figure out which child I am in the photos. That ought to be funny! Remember you can double click on the picture to make it larger!

Pretty sure I cut my own hair for this kodak moment!

Not sure why I put the no sign on Jason, maybe I had a crush on him and he was mean to me that day! :> Also some seriously awesome smiles captured here!!!

4th grade! Wow, that's the grade my princesses are in now. How the styles change, for the girls anyway, boys its still jeans and a striped shirt!

2008-2009 School Pictures--Fall

Thankfully they came back rather nice! I think they looked great and I am very happy with the results! How lucky am I to have such fantastic and wonderful children? I just wish I could have snuck Lewy in to get a picture too!

Helen was smiling a fantastic smile and looked beautiful!

Mary was thrilled that her little curl on the side of her face was still there for the picture. She even wore her "only needed for school glasses" for the photo.

Griffin, he looks soooo cute but, what was I thinking with that dark colored shirt? It shows every speck of dirt he smeared on himself that day. :> But with such handsome looks you don't even notice!

Chicky Bawk Bawk

Doesn't a freezer full of food just make you smile?!? We always stock up on chicken (and milk) when it is on sale and it is so worth it! We eat mainly chicken so we have it on hand at all times. I always watch for sales and when we are running low, we restock, usually about 40 lbs or so. This time it was $1.69 a lb and we got lots and lots. Brad has a system of trimming and preparing it so it is quick and easy to use when thawed. Ahh, bliss. It is a small measure of food storage and it makes me happy to see it in the freezer!

All done.

A whole row of chicken in the deep freeze!!

Yippee!

Halloween Happiness

We had a fantastic Halloween. We had a school carnival the Friday before where we got lots of treats at all the booths. Then I bid on stuff for the silent auction and won some tickets to the Wildlife World Zoo and a month of Little Gym fun for Lewis, so it was a score.

On Wednesday, we had our ward Trunk-or-Treat which Brad and I were in charge of. We served hotdogs and homemade rootbeer for everyone. It was a huge success. We served 20 gallons of rootbeer along with 15 gallons of water--since it was still in the 80's outside we had some heavy drinkers. We bought 380 hotdogs which everyone thought would be wayyyyy tooooo many and only had 12 leftover. The missionaires threw themselves on their sword and took the leftovers off our hands! The kids went around to all the cars multiple times---we just have them go till the candy run's out--and we had so much candy we didn't need any more for Halloween but....

We headed Flag to Grammy and Pap's for Halloween. They give out full size/king size candy bars. Their house is well known because you don't just knock and go, you do something. Mostly it was singing, the ABC's, Twinkle Twinkle, etc. There were a few magic tricks and even some dancing. You gotta work for those candy bars! Since Halloween was on Friday we had people from 4 to 9:30 ringing the doorbell. I have no idea how much candy my parents went through but it was alot! Aleksia and Brax came to Grammy and Paps to trick or treat with my kids and they hit so many houses they had to come dump their bags to go out longer. It was also unseasonably warm so they didn't even have to cover their cute costumes with coats or anything!

The best costume award went to Brax. He was a leprechaun. Amie did an awesome job. He was 'sitting' on a pot of gold. The pot kept his legs warm underneath and the fake legs fooled my dad and many others, my dad said "I didn't realize how little his legs were!" It was a good fake out!

Check out their blog

http://freerville.blogspot.com/2008/10/brax-as-leperchaun.html

for the before and after pictures.

Baby Nathan

I am a cousin again! (Or second cousin 10 times removed or whatever, who can keep track?!)

Yep, after ripening for only 31 1/2 weeks Nathan decided to make his debut (8 1/2 weeks early.) He was born on Halloween and weighed 3 lbs 7 oz and was 16.5 inches long. He will have to hang out in the NICU for a few weeks but he is doing really well and is breathing on his own and everything!! The girls and I went to the hospital yesterday to visit him and he was so happy to see us he cried the whole time! :> Tears of joy I'm sure!

My cousin Julie is doing very well after her semi-emergency c-section and only has one more day in the hospital before she is checked out and has to start juggling the kids at home and Nathan at the hospital, and since she can't drive for a few weeks that's going to be fun!

Nathan