Long Awaited Flordia Trip

There are a ton of pictures here. We had the best vacation ever. We were there almost 2 weeks and I would have stayed longer. We had such a good time.

Emily and Ally jumping at the Daytona Beach mall

Playing at the Beach in Daytona

Rylee with a much needed nap, sunning herself

at the beach while her sisters play.

Rylee and Ally watching the light parade

Emily and Mommy riding the teacups together!

Taking the Ferry into Disneyland from the parking lot.

The girls stood in line to mee the princess. Ally was probably the most exited, suprisingly. They took the families in by groups and we were the last family in our group so they let us take a picture with all of the princesses. The other families only got to take the pictures with each of the princess one at a time. We did that, then all together. It really was fun for them!

Playing in the hundred acre wood water area.

Ally's very favorite ride...the trolly from the parking lot!

It poured, and I mean POURED everyday from mid afternoon until 7 or so. We weren't expecting it the first day and got soaked to the bone. The other days we tried to avoid it or went home when we saw the clouds rolling in and put them down for naps.

Getting ready to watch Disny's philharmagic. A 3D show.

Watching a show, although I honestly couldn't tell you what.

Riding the train that wraps around the park.

A little sisterly love?

Riding Jasmines magic carpet ride.

Waiting to see the fireworks show and eating sweets!

Killing time being silly!

This really nice lady sitting next to us heard Emily say

She wanted a princess crown so she let her wear her's to

take a picture.

Emily and Mike were riding a roller coaster so we

found a cool place to relax and wait.

Going to see it's a bugs life in 3d.

Mike and Em rode the cars while the girls slept.

The light parade, a huge favorite of the girls.

Tired girls resting on daddy during the fireworks.

Did you notice a binky theme for Ally? From the moment we got there if we didn't give her one we were miserable with her tears asking for one. Before that, she wouldn't even think of taking one except during bed. As soon as we got home, she ditched it again. Even though she was having the time of her life, she obviously was out of place and needed it for security.

Hope you all enjoyed the pictures. I wish you could have all been there to see their excitment. Ally still sings all the songs like It's A Small world and her favorite...Yo Ho Yo Ho A Pirates Life For Me!

Em's First Day of School Pictures

****Update Below*****

Well, we finally made it. Emily was off to her first day of kindergarten. She was actually not as excited as I thought she would be. She told me at breakfast this morning..."Mommy, I hope Mia is going to be in my class." I had told her maybe one or two of her friends from kindergarten would be in her class as she was worried she wouldn't know anyones names. When we got to school this morning...who was walking up the ramp to her class? Mia! Emily was soooo excited. They played together all last year. Aidon is also in her class and he, too, was in preschool with her. We found her place at the tables and put her name tag on, snapped a few pictures and off we went. Mike told me he felt a little like he was leaving her at Daycare, which we've been blessed never to have to do. So it was a little strange. She has a long day ahead of her. She goes to school from 8:15-2:05. But I think she is ready.

I'll add on to this later today when she gets home from school and we hear about her day. I'm sure she'll have a lot of good stories if I know Emily!

Update: So much for school until 2:05...Emily's teachers name is Ms. Maeder...and we now know the school nurse's name..Mrs. Wood. Emily threw up 2x at school. Emily has a tiny stomach bug it seems, although she already seems better. She threw up a teeny tiny bit this morning but I figured it was just a fluke. I guess not! Daddy had to go and pick her up at 10:30, she made it just over 2 hours. Happy first day of school! So, I guess we'll give it a try tomorrow...hopefully!

Rylee's First Birthday Photos

Friday was Rylee's birthday and Leslie and Zach surprised Rylee with a cute balloon and a bug birthday banner for her. It was so sweet as we weren't having her birthday for a few days and I was feeling a little sad for her,(okay, for me too). Thanks Leslie, that really lifted my day! Then, Mike, my mom, myself and the girls went to Red Robin for lunch. We got this server that we always get...sigh...and I don't think she likes us, although I have no idea why. She's just never friendly. Anyway, I had brought in Leslie's balloon with us and tied it to her chair and the girls were telling EVERYONE it was her bday. And the server didn't do a thing. They sang to three tables around us, but Rylee didn't even get told happy birthday. How sad is that?

We had Rylee's huge buggy birthday bash on Sunday. It was so fun to see all the kids playing and the babies all over the floor! Yet again, we feel so blessed to have such awesome friends and family who truly love our girls! So thank you to everyone who made her day special! Rylee absolutely loved her cake, I think she was so excited to get to eat as much as she wanted, (within reason). She's such a piggy I stop her every meal and it breaks her heart. She wasn't super into opening her presents, she just wanted the cards, and to crawl around with all the kids surrounding her. I think I should have just let Tessa and Emily break into them, they would have had a blast!

And just for fun...Rylee's decided to treat herself to some more teeth for her birthday. Her top two finally popped through!

Peek-A-Boo

Rylee loves to play peek-a-boo these days. I got a small video of her doing it, but she wanted the camera so she wouldn't do it very long. Usually she'll do it until I've had enough and stop playing. Please ignore the annoying mommy voice on the video, it couldn't be helped if I was going to show you her cute new game!

My Baby Is One Tomorrow...And lots of other things...Beware, Lots Of Pictures

This is right after we brought Rylee home from the hospital...

A Year later...

Visiting with our cousins...Karissa, Abby, Zachary, and Cadenne.

A day at the park...

We have had the busiest summer this year. We went on trips, waterworks, losts of days with friends, activities, vbs, swimming, camping, movies and the list goes on and on and on.

Just this week, we visited my neices and nephew from L.A., which was a ton of fun. The five year olds, Emily and Abby, never left each others sides. We also got to meet our new littlest cousin, Cadenne, whom we hadn't met yet so that was fun. Then Sunday we went to a swim birthday party for Tricia and completely wore out my girls. Ally fell asleep on the way to get Rylee, slept through that, the car wash, and into bed, where we let her sleep with her clothes on. Then Monday, we met Tricia, Weston, and Wyatt at the park and then went to Target to shop. Yes, we took five children to Target, but it was a lot of fun. Then yesterday, we met Vicki and her grandaughter, Emily, at Waterworks right when they opened at 10. Rylee, Ally and I left at 12 for lunch and naps. But the Emily's wanted to stay so Vicki kept them there until 3:30. Emily also took a big step, she went down the raging river, a fast tube ride, for the first time. She went with me the first time in the 2 person tube Vicki bought and let us borrow. Then she traded that in for a 3 person tube so they could all go. They spent a good portion of the day doing that. Then, by the end of the day, she went down in her own tube all by herself! When they left, vicki treated them to lunch and playtime at her house. We picked her up after dinner, and she was exhausted. Then today we ran errands and met Leslie at Walmart to buy some stuff for the church nursery. So overall, it's been a very fun, busy, tiring week! Only 11 days until school! YIPEE!

And lastly, bitersweetly, my littlest turns one tomorrow. Sad and exciting at the same time. I guess if you can't stop them from growing, you might as well enjoy each stage. So I hope you enjoy some cute pictures of our big one year old!

Ticket To Heaven

Emily spent a couple weeks at VBS recently and I have to say, it seems as though both churches really got the message of salvation across. On this past Thursday we were driving home from meeting Nana half way and Emily was telling me the story of Jesus' death on the cross and what it meant. While we're getting dressed, or driving in the car, cooking or whatever quiet time Em and I have to talk, I'll sometimes ask her questions like, why did Jesus die? What's sin? Do you sin? And so forth, just to get her thinking. So I figured she was just telling me what we had talked about over time. But she went on to say she wanted to ask Jesus in her heart so she could live with him in heaven forever. She started to pray but then said she couldn't remember the words so she asked me to pray and then she wanted to repeat. So we did that in the car and I looked in the review mirror when we were done and she had this awesome smile on her face and she pronounced, "Now I have my ticket to Heaven!" I got a little worried that she thought she was going to get some sort of ticket in the mail so when I told her there wasn't, she said, "I know mommy, I just mean I get to be with Jesus in Heaven now!"
The next day she went up and did the alter call at VBS, which is fine with me. We just talked to her and told her now that Jesus is in her heart, it's forever.
I was a little concerned that she is too young to fully understand, but she seems to get it and, as my friend and I discussed, we have to work to grow her faith from here.
I just thought you all might like to hear her story!

Family Camp

Our church had family camp this weekend up at Lake Siskyou. We planned on coming up for the day but decided last minute to camp. So on the day we were to leave, after a children's ministry meeting and Mike's haircut, Mike and I raided Target and Walmart and got all the supplies we needed. We made it up there at about 3 and got to our campsite. It was nice, however DIRTY. Now I know what you are thinking...that's not saying a lot coming from a neat-freak like me but it's true. That was probably the dustiest campsite I've ever been to. And Emily took great advantage of her ability to get dirty. She even got dirtier than the 2 year olds and her friends Tessa and Becca. And, no joke, in about 2 minutes. She had a cold so she kept rubbing her nose with her dirty hands and it was all I could do to keep her face recognizable! So she was voted dirtiest kid for the weekend!

We took Allyson up with us, (my parents ended up coming with Rylee last minute), and we found she is not our camper. She did NOT like the dirt in the least bit. She also didn't like the cold nights. She woke up the next morning saying it was cold and she wanted to go home to Nana's house. So since my dad had to work the next day, Nana took the two youngest home and just left us with Tessa and Emily.

So Mike and I decided that camping was fun, we hadn't done it in years. And now that we have the stuff we're thinking down the road we would try Patricks Point. Can you believe Mike has never heard of it or been there?

Vacation Bible School

Emily and Tessa are in Sonworld, (that's the theme, no clue what it's about), VBS this week. It's the same church where they went to the Western themed one last year. They absolutely LOVED it, so granted they thought, or maybe wished, it was the same one again. Well it's not and I think they are a little disappointed. It's still good, just not what they dreamed of. So here's the conversation I caught coming down the stairs between Em and Mike.

Mike: So, Em, how was VBS today? (Now, Mike asked the question but then stopped listening, MEN!)

Emily: How would you like it if you had to sit in a chair all day daddy? That wouldn't be very fun, would it?

Me: Emily, I know you didn't sit all day, you played games, sang songs, did crafts and heard a story about Jesus healing the blind man.

Emily: Yeah, but we sat some and do you think it would be fun to sit in a chair all day? That part was boring.

It's just so funny how grown up she's sounding. Yeah, she had the wrong attitude but it was just so funny!

On a side note: For those of you asking for Disney pictures, please go to Mike's blog http://todayinmike.blogspot.com/ and ask him to not only download them but to then bring them home! That way I can share pictures of our trip! I'm not sure why we bring his work computer with us because we download pictures and then have to transfer them. I think he's scared Matt will steal his laptop!

Little Frosters

Mike made cupcakes on his lunch hour and left me to frost them with the girls. They had a lot of fun doing it. Ally frosted hers with one swipe and then proceeded to eat the rest of the frosting I gave her. Emily did really well. She then wanted to put sprinkles on the confetti cake/frosting topped off with a gummy worm. So anyone enjoying one of these will be on a sugar high. Emily then wanted to share our cupcakes so we invited Tessa, bella, jack and jenn over for cupcakes. She also wanted to give one to nana and papa, so I told her papa doesn't like this kind. Then Joel and Leslie but I told her they didn't like cake, so I guess we are stuck with 18 cupcakes! Hopefully the Wilburn's like to eat 2 each! Oh and poor Rylee and Jack are going to get plain cupcakes...just not into cleaning up 6 kids with frosting! I'll save that for their birthdays!

Added Note: The Wilburn's just left after less than an hour here. I guess cupcakes at 3:30 just don't sit well...Bella, Ally, Tessa and Emily all lost their minds after the cupcakes and proceeded to have wild meltdowns!

Rylee's first Eggbeater

Chocolate frosting for brownies mommy made...MMMMMmmmm! Shhhhh! Don't tell Ally, mommy gave them to Emily and I while she was asleep!

Don't Mess With The Princesses

I know I know, I've been home for days and haven't blogged pictures yet. But we took Mike's computer with us and downloaded most of them on there. So as soon as he gets them on a disk for me I'll download them and share about our amazing trip.

In the meantime...I'll share something I learned while there. When walking down Main street, or for that matter ANY store in Disneyland...princess attire, dolls, accessories, books, wands, and on and on and on have replaced Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Donald and so on. I think Disney has figured out the power of the "little princesses" i.e. little girls, power over their daddy's. I know my girls were spoiled by Mike so I'm sure every other little girl was too. You still occasionally see micky or minnie hats on kids heads, but to be honest, I saw WAY more little girls dressed up as princesses. I would say it's sad but they still love Micky and you still see the 10 ft. wall filled with the same Mickey Mouse stuffed animal. You just have to walk through the princess section before you reach it.

Anyway, not really anything important...just found it interesting!

The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

Bad- Giving your 5 year old an entire peice opposed to a half of bubblicious gum in the car and forgetting you gave it to her because it's 5:00 and your going to walmart on a diaper run by yourself with 3 kids.

Bad- Not making sure the gum made it into the trash as your five year old never chews gum for very long, especially that big of a piece.

Bad- Getting into the car at 3:30 the next day to go to your hair appointment and having your daughter "tell you the truth" as to why her hands are blue.

Bad- Finding out that she found said gum in the car cubby hole, grabbed it to re-eat it, found it melted, panicked when it got messy on her hands and proceeds to rub it all over the side of the car to get it off. (our brand new Honda pilote!)

Ugly- The amount of gum that can cover the inside of the car.

Good- A dad who takes pitty on her weary daughter at the end of a long day for himself and cleans up my car since Mike is at a baseball game and I just had my nails done! Thanks dad!

Rylee's 10 month pictures

Finally!! We made it in to get Rylee's pictures taken. It's been since she was four months!! Whoooops! My explanation when she asks me down the road why I didn't get them done more often will be truthful..."Rylee, it's because you decided not to grow between the ages of 4 months and 10 months! So there wasn't anything new to capture!" It was obvious we hadn't had them done a lot though, she is normally a very smiley baby for those of you who know her. But she didn't want to smile to save her life. I

don't think she understood why some black round thing was in her face and why some lady was talking to her in a really high voice all the time. But we got some pictures that were the start of a cry but gave the appearance of a smile.

I got most of the ones I showed, except for the custom pictures that have multiple pictures on there. Those cost too much per sheet in my opinion. And Beverly, I told her to get a headshot for you and she was going to do that at the end but Rylee would have none of it. So we'll get you the closest one we can!

Not for Points

This is for all who are involved in the contest...

DON"T YOU HAVE ANYTHING TO DO???!!!! I can't believe how many of you are involved! You guys keep me laughing that's for sure. My contest is going to be...who can shovel the most dirt in my backyard in a 6 hour period, 8a.m.-2p.m.. 2 points for a full shovel one point for a half shovel. I need my backyard level so Mike can plant grass. You all are so into this I think I may have 15 people show up tomorrow morning.

By the way...This isn't for points. My girls are barely letting me post this!