The Rest of the Best

Here is our Splash Mountain Picture... Notice Kyndi's face! (With Kamron in front, Kyndi took on a lot of water, and because she's so short, she got it all in her face - I covered her eyes for the splash of the big hill and my sleeve was soaked!)

The 'A' in California Adventure

Not sure what ride this was... Maybe Thunder Mountain Railroad...

Tarzan's Treehouse

Captain Kyndi Sparrow

Aladdin and Jasmine...

These last 2 pictures were taken while we waited for the rest of the clan to go on Indiana Jones (she was too short for this ride) The previous two pictures were taken while waiting too... (I forgot to mention before, every stinkin ride we went on, Kyndi had to be measured and re-measured, the rides require 40" in height, she's barely 40. Glad she grew a few months ago...)

And there you have it, the best of the Pics we took.

Pictures as Promised

Here are some pictures for everyone's enjoyment:

Mr Toads Wild Ride:



Sword and the Stone

Toon Town - not quite strong enough...

All in Jail

Minnie Mouse...

Mickey Mouse...

Kam's piano talents

Buzz Lightyear

Pluto

Stitch (Lilo & Stitch)

Teacups (They went on this ride 3 times and begged for more!)

More pictures coming later...

Adventures in CandyLand...

Kyndi kept calling California Adventure, "Candy Land". So apparently we went to Candyland and Disneyland.

We had a blast!! The first day we went through California Adventure and rode just about everything - most of the stuff there are Lagoon-type rides, so we skipped a few. But here is a bit of what we loved:

Soaring Over California - this is a flight simulation-type ride, where you soar over various parts of California, and its awesome and oh so relaxing. Kamron called this "the relaxing ride" We rode this about 5 times over the course of the whole trip. (Kamron's request) Oh, back up - I failed to mention that in this ride you are flying over a golf course, pretty low to the ground and someone on the screen hits a golf ball towards you - Kamron ducked. It was hilarious. Everytime thereafter we checked to see if he ducked.

Muppets 3D - not my favorite 3d show - but they seemed to enjoy it - Kyndi loved it so much this is what we found her doing at the end:

(Sound asleep)

Tower of Terror - This was the very first ride anyone attempted and on the first go, Kamron and Morrissa were the only two brave enough. They loved it. Two days later Kyndi and Tyson decided they wanted a try - so I made Tate go too (and me) - Tate was none too thrilled but he went. He was nervous as heck, in the end they mostly loved it. Tate said "I did not like that ride" and Kyndi was crying because everytime we went downward she flew upwards. Not fun for her at all - and all in the dark too.

Turtle Talk with Crush - This is the coolest show ever!! For those of you who have never been, it is a MUST see!! It's Crush the turtle from Finding Nemo, and it's hilarious, and I still can't figure out how they did it...

California Screamin - This is a huge ol' roller coaster that goes from 0 to 45 mph in no time flat. Kyndi was too small so she and I stayed off - but the rest went, and LOVED it. (Too bad they waited until the last day to try it out...they didn't have a chance to ride it again).

It's Tough Being a Bug - A 3d Bugs Life show. Pretty cute. Watch out for the bugs!!

Oh, we also went and found out what Disney characters we were most like; Kamron - Buzz Lightyear, Me - Cinderella, Tyson - Cogsworth, Morrissa - Lumiere (she apparently didn't understand the 'Are you a Sir or a Madam' question), Tate - Jiminy Cricket, Kyndi - Dot (the little purple bug from bugs life).

At Disneyland there are way too many rides to name them all - but here are my three faves:


Thunder Mountain - A roller coaster in a train - Tate was scared of rides so I told him it was just a train ride - he ended up loving the ride! The first time we rode this ride Tate and Tyson were sitting together and right behind them was a special-needs man who kept yelling "Heyaw" every couple seconds (Like he was commanding a team of horses) It was pretty entertaining. The second time on the ride, Kamron did this same "Heyaw" for our entertainment (and everyone else's on the ride). Hilarious.

Space Mountain - A big ol' rollercoaster in the dark. Too much fun. You think you know which direction you'll go and you're always wrong. I was worried over Kyndi on this ride (and many other rides) that she'd be scared to tears, but not so. She'd squeal with laughter on every stinkin ride (Except Tower of Terror of course)

Splash Mountain - I've gotta see if I can scan our picture from this ride on here - cuz its a great one - Kyndi kept getting splashed in the face down every hill cuz she's so tiny (she didn't like that part).

Honorable Mention - Honey I Shrunk the Audience - a 3d show where you get shrunk and there are explosions and loose mice. I mention this show as honorable mention for two reasons. 1 - At some point there is a 3-d explosion in your face and once again, Kamron ducked - even worse this time than before. So hilarious! And even better, there is a point where thousands of mice get loose and their tails whip your legs...twice. The first time it whipped, Kyndi pulled her legs up onto her seat, the second time she screamed in terror and cried. Total Hilariousness!!

The kids all said their favorite was Soaring Over California - but I'm not so sure about that...they requested to go on the BuzzLightyear shooting ride all day everyday. Thats a pretty cool ride - You ride along a track and its like you're inside a video game trying to defeat the evil Zurg. You have a gun and you shoot targets - it keeps track of your score and everything. One time Tyson scored 248,000!! That's a huge score!!

A few things we learned:

*Our boys are HUGE chickens compared to the girls (Kyndi begged to go on everything and was disappointed by the 3 rides she was unable to ride due to shortness)
*Tate has to use the bathroom way more at Disneyland than anywhere else in world! (seriously, like 25 times a day!)

*March is the perfect time to go - mild weather and no lines (we practically walked right onto most of them!)
*Our kids are way too easy to fool!

...More pictures will be posted later...

Wow - We Must Be Good Liars!

Apparently our kids trust us way more than we ever thought they would!

We left bright and early Monday morning, we loaded up the kids with their pillow and blankets in preparation for "the long journey". We had them all convinced we were going to Montana so Kamron could go to a job interview. They kept asking questions about Montana as we drove - such as: "dad, you'll have to drive back and forth to Montana everyday?"(Tyson) when we pulled into the airport, we were sure one of them would notice and say something... nope. It took until we parked and told them to get out that they said, "what are we doing here?"(Tyson) "Are we going on a plane?"(Tyson) "Why don't we just drive to Montana?"(Tate). We get in, gete our boarding passes and head through security. That was a tricky bit - removing all their shoes and jackets and pulling out their ziplock baggies with their liquids... but it went smoothly.

We arrived right as they were boarding our zone on the plane so we went right on the plane. Not one of the kids noticed that we were boarding a flight to L.A. - And as we walked on board at least 5 people asked if we were going to Disneyland. As we were waiting for take off the captain announced it was a flight to LA and I believe it was Tyson that said, "We have to stop in Los Angeles first?" "yep" (They made it too easy, they filled in what they thought was happening and I'd just agree) We watched as they de-iced the plane - that was pretty cool, and finally we took off. Morrissa, Tate and Kyndi were all holding either mine or Kamron's hand out of nervous-ness.

Once landed they asked if we needed to stay on the plane, I told them to follow Kamron. They were convinced that we were going getting off this plane to go board another one headed to Montana. We walked all the way to the bus pick up zone and Morrissa said, "Oh, we have to get on a bus to gete to the next plane?" "yep" The bus pulls up, clearly marked 'Disneyland Express' and they still don't catch on. Finally I say, "Hey Tate, what did the bus say?" "Disneyland Express" I say: "What do you think that means?" "We're going to Disneyland?" "Yep!" Morrissa says, "No we aren't, are we really?" "yep!" Tyson: "But I thought Disneyland was in California" Me: "It is in California" Morrissa: "But aren't we going to Montana?" Tyson: "We're in California?" Kyndi "Yay! We're going to DIsneyland!!" Finally, someone caught on. Then suddenly ten minutes later Morrissa says, "Wait dad, don't you have a job interview?" Seriously, they trust us a little too much.

I've Got A Secret...

I’ve got a secret… We’re going to Disneyland, on Monday, 3 days away – but the kids don’t know it. In fact they have absolutely no clue!! The two babies are going to stay at my mom’s house, and the rest of us are loading up in the car Monday morning (bright and early, 6 AM) – Their suitcases are already packed and in the back of the Suburban. The story will go something like this: “You’re dad has a job interview far away and we don’t know how long it’ll take. We don’t want to leave you all home alone that long so you’re riding with us” We’ll take off in the car and end up at the airport, they’ll freak out over getting to ride in an airplane! The story at that point will change a bit to: “We never said we were driving there!” When we land we’ll be picked up by the Disneyland Express and dropped at our hotel right across from Disneyland!! I think when the bus pulls up a few might catch on, I guarantee Morrissa will still be confused and believing the “job interview” story.
We’ll be there Monday through Thursday. It will be a blast! Tyson and Morrissa have been there before but not Tate and Kyndi. We’ll have tons of fun. On top of all that, I have a mom who attends Disneyland very frequently and was so excited about us going that she typed up a whole list of ‘must sees’ for me, and its all color coded even! Mom loves Disneyland.
And just a side note… My mom called yesterday to let me know she has set up a bedroom for the two babies, with beds and a giant stuffed Mickey Mouse. And she found the double stroller and getting oit all clean and ready... I think she’s pretty excited to have them for a few days… Hopefully she’ll survive it.

My Greatest Apologies

My greatest apologies to all you readers out there. I have been much delayed in writing lately. With my full time school (including a freakin' 25 page research paper on Migraine Headaches), my job, my kids, and my new excercise extravaganza (more on that later) I've had no time left to even think about blogging. Scratch that, I have thought about it, but that's as far as it has ever gotten...

Anywho, Next week I will be MIA on a top secret mission for about 4 days (Read the post following this one for details) - but I will be certain to make time to post about it upon my return.

I also have many other topics to discuss with you... those will hafta come later as well since my homework is now yelling at me to complete it.

Wow, my Dad's gonna kill me!!

So Kristen tagged me, and here's how it goes...

I had to go to my pictures folder, go to the 6th folder in there, and then to the 6th picture in that folder Mine was a little more drawn out than that, as I have folders inside of folders...but here is the picture I came to:

It would be quite hilarious and/or interesting to just leave this picture without a description, but to save my dad at least a little bit of dignity, I'll explain it.

Apparently it was April Fools day (Last year or the year before, or maybe even the year before that...) and my parents decided this would be hilarious. I wasn't there, but one of my sisters found it a perfect Kodak Moment and then shared the photo with me, and now here it is on my blog! (Sorry dad!)

Vehiculars...

In 1998 I bought myself a Plymouth Neon. In 1999-ish, Kamron decided to purchase a Dodge Stratus. Two years ago we purchased a Chrysler Town and Country. And 2 days ago we purchased a Suburban... (not to worry folks, it runs perfectly well and only cost $1600) We still have all four cars. Why the heck does a family with 2 drivers need 4 vehicles (oh, and a motorcycle) ?!?!?! But it gets better than that... Check out the vast variety of colors!!

I'm Such a Good Wife...

I wrote this on Friday but couldn't get the pictures to work... today they suddenly worked, so here you go...

Kamron wanted a foot rub today. I obliged. Actually, I more than obliged, First, I used the Ped Egg (this thing is wonderful!! It works so well) Then we (we, as in - me and Kyndi) lotioned his feet... made them all nice and soft. He was fully relaxed by this point. Next we rubbed his feet. Me on one, Kyndi on the other. Then we switched and he fell asleep. Then we did this:

(And he has no clue we took pictures!!!)

In the Middle of the Night...

Out of Disney Characters, I used to really like Cinderella when I was little. Then I moved onto Tinkerbell, I think she’s stinkin’ cute – but she’s become WAY too popular as of late (the last few years)- and it’s not that this is prevalent on my mind, or a giant concern of mine, (World Peace is far more important in my mind…) But, I think I decided in my sleep last night that I like Tarzan and Jane the best… Don’t know what else to tell you – I had a dream in which I had to decide which Disney Character(s) I liked the best and after much thought and consideration I decided on Tarzan and Jane. It’s good that after a long chaotic day, I can still continue my thought processes deep into my sleep. Perhaps this is how I will get my 25 page research paper done..

"Paw"

Paw is the Oaklee word for Potty. Oaklee is 21 months old, and she uses the potty. (no bragging intended) (okay, maybe a little)

Last week a friend at work was saying that her 19 month old was potty training and she was so proud (as she should be!) She mentioned that her little girl uses the regular toilet... that got me thinking... we have a little potty at our house that Oaklee sits on all the time - but mostly uses to hide her treasures in (I have found treats, dolls, things she has stolen from my room...) I thought maybe if I put her on the normal toilet, she might catch onto the potty-training thing. It worked. I put her there Friday afternoon - She went potty. I had to go to work that night so I put her in a diaper and left. A few hours later, apparently no one was watching her and they all went in search of her... where was she? On the toilet! She had removed her own diaper and had pooped in the toilet and was just waiting for someone to come along and get her down.... What a good girl!! (why was no one watching her?!?!?)

Fast Forward to today (Tuesday) - she had a bunch of accidents over the weekend, and "tried" quite a few times with no success. I thought maybe she was still too young, and the "new-ness" of it had worn off. I was getting a little bummed out. But today - she has stayed dry all day and gone potty twice!! Woo-hoo!! This may be a road that leads to the end of at least one set of diapers in this house!! ...anyone have tips on potty-training a 7 month old???

Reading, Riting, 'Rithmetic

So we are readers at this house. All my kids love books. I remember hating to read when I was little and I remember this was very upsetting to my grandma. She one day showed up with a new book series and told me "They all say these books will get any girl reading" First of all, who exactly is "they all"? Anyways - my cute grandma was worried enough about my reading to get me the first four books in the Babysitter's Club series. Well, it did the trick. I couldn't get enough. I ended up having something like 44 books in that series.

I am now a major-reader. I compare myself a little to my mom now. My mom has a notebook where she keeps track of every book she's ever read - then she goes to the library and adds to that list like weekly or something. She's always reading. I know there was a vacation to Hawaii or something that she took with my dad and grandparents one year and they still joke that she had her nose in a book the whole time they were there. She is a reader.

I too have a notebook where I keep track of books. My notebook has an aiuthor on each page, and then a list of all the books they've written. When I've read one of the books I check it off. I don't read near as much as my mom though (at least I don't think so) I'd love too - but I RARELY have down time that could be used as reading time. (Kids, a job, homework, the wii...). I read two kinds of books (give or take) They're almost always a factual book (random facts, how to books, how it's made, etc.) (I one time bought a set of encyclopedia's at the D.I. and read them all cover to cover... can we say geek?) or they're silly foofy who-done-it murder mysteries with some goofball female slueth who happens upon a case and then solves it.

My kids love to read, I started buying them books and they got hooked. Morrissa reads The Babysitter Club books (good thing I kept all mine) and other girly-ish books. (Hannah Montana series, etc...)

Tyson is just like me and reads books of fact. He and I can never get enough trivia. He has books about Sharks, baseball greats, and The Guiness Book of World Records. He loves the stuff. He also reads scary books by R.L. Stine (which are the same books I read as a kid, after graduating the Baby Sitters Club) (Good thing I still have all of those books too)

Tate is by far the biggest reader in the house. He is 6 years old and reads 400 pages in 1 or 2 days. He loves "chapter books" and reading seems to keep his attention span far better than anything else. He reads cute books that I wish had been around when I was little they're a series called "Magic Treehouse" and they're fantastic - they are about two kids (Jack and Annie) who go to their treehouse and end up in other places, time periods, etc. He learns about things like the pyramids in Egypt or the Great Depression while reading these fictional books about these two kids. He also reads a series called "Bailey School Kids" that are pretty fun. Now here's one that doesn't make sense to me: Captain Underpants. He LOVES that series!! Must be a boy thing.

I love that my kids love to read (Kyndi and Oaklee love books too) (Kamron won't read a book if his life depends on it...) Anyways, alot of Saturdays when we are bored we venture off to the DI and check out their book selection. We are always able to find books there in each of their interests for like 50 cents a piece. What a bargain! It keeps my kids reading and they love it.

On a bit of a turn in topics (a little) - Let me give everyone a recommendation - My favorite series in the whole wide world - Uncle John's Bathroom Reader(s) - I know, title sounds a little off-ish, but seriously, they're awesome! They are factual books with all kinds of trivia to learn - from random facts at the bottom of every page to short stories about how tennis began, or how to fix a leaky faucet, or is it true elephants are scared of mice... etc. There's even chapters about the dumbest criminals and how they got themselves caught... In this series there are also ones specific for children (these are what Tyson reads the most of) there are music specific ones, sports specific...etc. They cool , just trust me, you NEED to check them out! Just go to your local library and pick one up - then it's free and if you make it through the first page, you'll be hooked for life. (Don't get these confused however with the books titled "Bathroom Book" not the same books, and not even a comparison in overall awesome-ness.

I realize this is quite a boring post, but I had to get that recommendation out there.

Milk Mustache

So this morning I decided to be a bit ambitious and make a smoothie for breakfast. Yum, apple juice, berries (blue, black, straw and rasp) and vanilla bean ice cream. Oh, and peaches. Yum. Mixed it all up in the blender and voila! A yummy treat of a breakfast! I filled up my cup and went to drink it… it wouldn’t come and wouldn’t come, then suddenly it all came at once, and this is a small taste of that result:

Yes folks, it even got in my eye. And Kyndi was polite enough to tell me, “Mom, there’s something wrong with your face!”

Not to worry all, this happened a second time as well. Apparently I didn't learn the first time around...

What a Clever Child

Oaklee comes up with the best ideas to complete tasks… Kyndi has body spray in a bottle with a pump button top (you know, like a hairspray bottle that is non-aresol?) And she’s made many attempts to get it to spray but to no avail – until today that is when I found her smacking the pump-button on her butt and it sprayed every time! Too dang funny! (And she smells extra good now too!!)