Disneyland 2010

To continue on with our fun little trip, after the beach Saturday, we had a nice relaxing Sunday with mom (a-hem "gram") and grandpa Bruce. It's fun to see everyone in the home ward and the kids even happily went off to classes! After church, we went to the Fullerton Arboretum but they were closing for a wedding so we went to a very large nearby park. The kids had so much fun exploring the big hills and walkways with grandma. I had a great time doing nothing but lying on the grass and looking up at the enormous trees. Oh and trying to stock up on the nice cool breezes to last me an Arizona summer.

Back at "home" they also got to play in grandma's jacoozi and see Barbara Joe's (mom's neighbor) new baby turtles. I wish I would've gotten some photos of that day. Sometimes you don't think of taking pictures of the little things as much as the big things. But I just love being at my mom's house. It's peaceful and it smells like home. Best of all I loved the time I got to talk to and spend with my amazing mother.

Monday morning was the big day. The kids feasted on sugary cereals to get their energy levels up. (A favorite grandma perk for the kids)And by 9:30 we'd arrived. A guy saw me taking a picture of Dana and the kids and offered to let me get in. I said "sure :)" and started telling him what to do, but he cut me off and said "Cannon- know it, got it." And then used my camara with much more ease than I do. So he took like 5 and got a decent one. Lucky! Thanks mister photographer.
My plan was to take Sadie (and Holly if she wanted to) straight to the Meet the Princess line and get it done. Holly made a good decision and stuck with everyone else. They went on 3 rides I think while we were in line for almost an hour and a half. This is Sadie when she was still happy. It was actually pretty funny to watch all the parents trying to keep their little girls happy with cell phones, snacks, candy, etc. Sadie started losing it at the end, but luckily perked back up when we finally got to "go in" as she'd been requesting repeatedly.
STOP! Before you just pass this collage over, this took me no less than 5 years to "create" in elements and I still cut her face off the last one. Yeah- I need help. So...just enjoy.

Sadie was hilarious. She never stopped giggling the whole time. Of course they kept trying to talk to her and ask her magical questions, like her age and what her favorite color was, but she would just laugh. They maintained their Princessy composure- I'm sure they see it all and giggling's better than screaming right? She's LOVED it and I'm glad we did it...once.
All the lines were really pretty short. The morning was drizzly and I think that helped us out.
I got to take the "big kids" on Indiana Jones.
Sadie was FINALLY tall enough for something- hooray!
During the ride I was thinking hmmm- this is a little faster than I recall and thought she might be scared, but she loved it! First roller coaster :)
This has turned into our traditional spot to take a picture of the kids.
The castle at night.
Main Street as we're walking out on "night shot". We stayed just before closing at 9pm.
Our friends told us they are going to be ripping out all this section and changing it around again so I made sure we got a picture.
It was a wonderful, fun time. The kids thanked us many times throughout the day and really seemed to appreciate going. Last year with the free birthday admission, and this year with "Give a Day, Get a Day", we're hoping for a "Disneyland 2011" post next year :)

For the Love of Summer

The excitement in the air at our house is electric. 4 days of school left- and mainly just party days at that. Summer is here.
To beat the crowds, we took a quick California trip last weekend to redeem our "Give a Day" Disneyland vouchers. We left early Saturday and went to the beach the second half of the day. We didn't tell the kids until it was time to start packing. They were in seven heaven. We went to "Corona Del Mar" and showed the kids where Dana and I met. Being there always feels special to me.

This is Sadie running from the waves. I couldn't even get her to touch them. So we played up on the sand.

While others much prefer the water.
Emma made friends with a boy about her age named Sage, which is funny because one of her best friends at school is Sage. I am in awe of this girl frequently. I love that she isn't weird about boys yet and the ability she's always had to make friends where ever we are.
She's running around looking for sandcrabs to put in the big hole.
Holly was her helper/sidekick.
As usual.
We did a lot of burying.





We stayed as long as we could, walked back up the big hill to save the $15 parking fee and headed home to grandma's. If this doesn't look like a successful day at the beach, I don't know what does.
Next stop- Disneyland :)

Because I Have Been Given Much...

A friend and I have started up walking a few nights a week. This is a friend that conversation flows at anytime. But especially for a straight hour and a half with no distractions (other than having to skitter over the cockroaches and other bugs that love to venture onto the nighttime sidewalks).

The other night, we started talking about things in our lives we would like to improve. A few for me- eating better and feeding my family only natural foods, taking more time with the scriptures each day, and of course my shopping goal...which is becoming painful. I have a hard time believing it's been just over a month with 2 months to go. (Yikes)

We discussed that to be better at anything in life takes restraint and self-discipline. People tend towards laziness, gluttony, and the myriads of other over-indulgences. And all those things have negative consequences. We live in a world where things come easy and it can make it even harder to not give in to all the luxuries we're surrounded by.

I love that the Gospel makes it so clear that God did not intend for us to live the "easy life." We actually have to work if we want to make it back to Him someday. Someone else paid most of our way, suffering more than we can imagine. And when you think of it that way, and remember Him, a little self-disciple doesn't sound so hard anymore.

I've always loved the hymn "Because I Have Been Given Much". I've always thought of it in regard to serving others (a beautiful thing). But I think it could also mean- I too must give...of myself, be willing to give-up things, do hard things, become the best person I can be, and bring a few cents to the table when The Savior has already paid thousands.

Preschool Survey

#11! It's sad but true. I need to work on that. At least I got some good points in there too. Some of them like #8 she's totally got me pegged. It's fun to see me through her eyes.

I hope you all had a lovely Mother's Day. I got to relax and the kids kept reminding each other to "be good- it's Mother's Day!" And I got lots of cute cards. And lots of yummy treats at church. I thought alot about my wonderful mother and all the great women in my life. Thank you all for your amazing examples to me!

Little Girls

Meet "Seed".
And this is "Pearl".
Recently, I granted their deepest wish and let them explore the treasures of the Halloween box.
Today they are flower fairies. Tomorrow they might be mermaids, or puppies, or even dragons.
They ask for stories, or movies, or to play in the bath. I love to watch their relationship grow.

Yesterday I made them mini-fruit salads for part of their lunch and let them eat the pieces with toothpicks. They giggled with delight and made me feel like mother of the universe. I took a bow and told them they are even sweeter than their watermelon.

I'm so thankful for my "girly" mornings.

Catch-Up

Even though I'm no blogging slacker, somehow a few things have gotten past me that I wanted to get on here.

Back in March we went with some good friends and cousins on a hike. With all the rain, we were excited to see the green desert. It was really pretty.

Some of the cute kids.
Superstition Mountain.

Daniel, Sadie, Jane
Holly and Julia
Thanks to Rhonda for always coming up with fun stuff to do! (I'll send you more).
The kids got their marble jar filled up and so we made good and took them to "Makutu's Island". They LOVED it. They ran like crazy and explored that place the whole time. Except my little buddy here Sadie, who was a little nervous to leave my side.
This place really was amazing. Kid heaven for sure.

Holly's asked me several times when we're going back.
We had a cousin trip to the Drive-In and saw "How to Train Your Dragon" and I got this awesome shot of Tatum and her friend. It's pretty nice the way they hold still at this age.
It was really fun and much more affordable than taking the whole family to the theaters. I don't know the last time I went.
We had a junk food fest.
We'll definitely be back :)
Easter-y Kids. Nothing beats having Easter Sunday on the same day as General Conference. We took these the next week before church.
Yes this is also Eli's Christmas outfit but what can you do. Luckily, he doesn't mind. Dana's mom sent us matching headbands which was fun. The girls loved them!
Annual Easter cousin picture. Have I mentioned how much I LOVE living a few streets away from my sister.