Disneyland with Grandpa and Grandma

Yesterday we went to Disneyland with my parents. A while back Kya was having difficulties achieving a certain goal, so my mom told her that if she could achieve this goal for one month that she would treat her to something special. Never in my mom's wildest dreams did she think Kya would say DISNEYLAND! Well it took a while for this goal to be achieved and by the time it was, Seth had achieved the same goal and kept saying he was going to Disneyland too. So, alas, we all went! I felt bad, because I knew it was going to cost my parents a few hundred dollars to take us all, but Wayne was able to ask a friends daughter who works there to sign 3 of us in, my dad is an annual pass holder and then he had some complimentary tickets leftover from when he worked there for my mom and Kya. So in the end, it only cost my parents dinner for 7 of us. Pretty good deal!

The first thing Kya wanted to do was ride the train from Main Street to Fantasyland to see the Princesses. The line to see the 3 princesses was one hour! But thankfully, every line after that was 5 minutes or less thanks to the freezing weather and my mom's wheelchair that allowed us to use the exit for many rides.


Snow White, who was super sweet and took the time to hug each child, ask their names and have a small conversation.

The kids really wanted to see Aurora (Sleeping Beauty) and Cinderella. Never did see Cindy, but since Aurora was the main princess they wanted to see, I decided to have all of us take a picture with her. She was also very sweet and good with the kids.

Jasmine on the other hand acted like she had no desire to be there and was quite stand offish. Shame on her! Luckily, even though the kids noticed, they didn't let it bother them and we were off to Toontown.

Where Elsie rode her very 1st roller coaster! She LOVED it as I knew she would.

Seth and Elsie came back all smiles! Kya didn't want to ride, so she stayed back with me and watched everyone else.

It's A Small World was a huge hit with all the kids. Oh, the girl in the blue sweatshirt is Vicki and she is the one who signed us in for free. She didn't have to be at work until 1:30, so she hung out with us for the morning.

Elsie wanted to ride with Grandpa

and she just about jumped out of the boat with all of her excitement! She was pointing at everything and kept squealing out all that she saw. Watching her have so much fun was pure joy for the rest of us. This is really the first time that she has understood the whole Disney thing and recognized most of the characters.

DUMBO! My dad and I don't do rides that go around in circles, so we just stayed back and watched all the fun.

Seth enjoyed making his elephant go Up and DOWN over and over again.

I really didn't think we would see Woody this visit, so imagine my surprise when we saw both Woody and Jessie! Seth was in heaven!!!

A cute picture with Grandma and Grandpa and Pooh's hunny pots. I am hoping that someday we can all come back with my brother's family. How fun would that be!!! (hint, hint ;-)

Time to actually meet Winnie the Pooh!

and Tigger too! Elsie stood in line with us and kept calling out Tigger's name. He came over to her quite a few times, only to have her cling to us and basically tell him "No, go away" Such a tease that girl is! But Kya and Seth were all over him and loved getting a big 'ol hug.

Seth reached two big milestones yesterday too! He must have had a huge growth spurt recently (I have noticed some pants getting to be too short), because he was just barely tall enough to ride both Splash Mountain and Big Thunder. He could ride Space Mountain too, but I was afraid the dark would freak him out, so we will wait until he is older. He LOVED, LOVED, LOVED these rides. Oh, I wish you could see the smile on his face while on the rides. Priceless! In fact, he rode them both twice and kept asking to go on Splash Mountain again, despite the fact that it was freezing cold and he got wet on the ride. And yes, I did take a picture of the picture!

I had to post this picture to prove that my kids DO love each other. Because not even 10 minutes later they got into a fight. Oy!

Tea Cups! I love the expression on Kya's face here. Just enjoying the moment and thrill of the ride. For those who don't Kya well, she is our more serious child and she is also a bit of a scaredy cat, so that is why I love this picture so much.

Seth is too cute here. Looking at the map to decide where he wanted to go next. Unfortunately, it was starting to rain some, we were cold and the kids were exhausted. So we took one last train ride and headed on home. Of course, the kids did not want to leave and were already asking to come back in the morning!

Easter 2010

We had a wonderful day remembering and thanking God for the sacrifice He made for us. I am still in awe that He would send His only Son to earth to suffer and die for me, my family and the people of this earth. Praise the Lord, He is Risen!!!



We started out our morning by digging into our Easter baskets.
Excuse Elsie's nakedness, she has this habit of stripping off her pj's every morning before doing anything else.


Seth showing off his fire truck filled with fun & yummy stuff.

Then we got ready for church and had a wonderful time praising and worshiping our Father, before heading on down to my parents house.

We actually got a really good family picture! I love how Elsie had to hold onto my finger.

We made all the kids (all 11) stay inside the house, while all the parents (or the paparazzi) went outside with our camera's. Here is Elsie anxiously waiting to come out and hunt the eggs.

And they are off!

See all the adults with the camera's? I love it! There were sooooo many eggs, that every child had a FULL basket when they were done.

Cousins, Seth and Grace

More cousins, Caleb and Noah. My nephew, Caleb, would only pick up the orange eggs!

I found one mom! While all the kids ran out to the grass area to hunt eggs, Elsie stayed in the patio and had her own egg hunt without having to battle anyone else. Smart kid!

Kya looking beautiful has she finds her eggs.

I love how I was able to catch Wayne and all 3 of my kids hunting in one area. Mainly because for most of the time they were scattered all over the place.

My basket is all full!

My mom and brother. I don't know when the last these two took a picture together. Glad this one turned out nice.

The youngest cousin, Miss Karli, celebrating her 1st Easter. Isn't she adorable. Too bad I didn't catch her with her eyes open.

After the egg hunt and lunch, the kids (and a few adults) had a fun time playing together outside. Meredith received this hula hoop for for Easter and Elsie had a fun time watching her use it. Meredith is only 6 years old and she can rock the hula!

There was frisbee tossing while the kids ran around & watched, as well has the riding of a stick horse.

Seth and Noah also had a fun time riding trikes together on the grass and around the tables in the patio area.

While the teenagers and various adults mingled in the living room/dining room. Overall, it was a fun day for everyone and we were all thankful the rain didn't come until early this morning, even though we had to endure a long rolling earthquake. My mom said that if it had been the big one for us, that at least we were all together and had lots of food!

April Fools!!!

For April fools day, I decided to fool the family with fun food. The kids were sooo excited to see that they were getting cupcakes for dinner! But then they took a closer look and weren't so sure what mom was up to. (They were actually meatloaf with mashed potato's on top). Kya, who has the biggest sweet tooth of anyone I know and usually dives into any sweet treat without asking questions, kept looking at my quizzically and saying "what kind of cupcakes are these?" Seth just said with a funny tone to his voice and a furrow in his brow "is that mashed potato's on there?" This is when Wayne and I just laughed and said April Fools! Which we then had to explain. ha ha
I was originally going to add food coloring to the potato's, but I was afraid that would freak the kids out to much and they wouldn't end up eating their food. Maybe in a few years.

Then for desert, I served Grilled Cheese Sandwiches! Kya and Elsie both started to

resist, saying that grilled cheese is not a desert, but for lunch. That is when they learned this was really pound cake with frosting!!!! Huge hit.
This was a fun April Fool's for us all and I can't wait for next year's dinner!

Elsie's 1st Hair Cut

Last week I took Elsie to get her hair cut for the first time. It was getting stringy and uncontrollable, so I felt it was time to finally cut off all her baby hair so that we can let the growing process start.


Here is her before picture.
In her little taxi cab watching Barnie. Here you can see how long her hair was in the back.

Doing super well while the hair dresser cut her hair. She actually enjoyed the whole process!

And after her makeover. She looks really cute with a bow in hair, which you will see in my Easter update later.

And the back, to see how much we cut off. The hair dresser said that her new hair is actually very thick and she expects it to grow in really nice. I was glad to hear this, because before we cut it I was convinced that she would always have super fine hair.