Disney On Ice & Halloween

WE took the kids to see Disney On Ice Toy Story last month. We got a pretty good deal on tickets so we decided to go. The kids loved it! We went out to eat at Juicy Burger before for dinner then headed over. The funniest part was afterwards when we were walking to our car and there were some guys trying to sell light up products which included light up Minnie Mouse bow headbands of different colors and the guy was asking the kids "what's your favorite color?" Of course, Emma said "my favorite color is pink!" and walked over to the guy. When we told her we weren't buying her one (especially after spending way too much money inside!) she started to cry! Poor deprived little girl! ;o)

This year for Halloween the kids dressed up as Captain America, Rapunzel & Mickey Mouse (not pictured!) Usually when the Costco costumes come out (2 months before Halloween!) we buy one. For some reason Michael wanted to be Captain America. It was the ONLY one left when we went to pick one out. He originally picked spiderman, but as we were looking at all the others, he pointed to this one (which we didn't see) and said he wanted it! We told him that they didn't have a Captain America, and after a brief back and forth argument, we saw it buried amongst the others! Weird! Emma choose Ariel, but when we got the costume home, we found a tear in it. When we took it back, she changed her mind to Rapunzel. I bought Brock's costume back in July when we went to the Disney Store in Valencia. I was afraid as it got closer that it wouldn't fit because he was so small, but it worked out okay and he looked so cute! I took pictures on my phone and I haven't downloaded them yet. Halloween day was pretty crazy for me! Ron went in to work early that morning, I got Michael up and to school, got Emma ready for preschool and took her, then went to Brocks Doctor's appointment where I found out he needed to see a GI specialist and that he had a hernia (sp?) and would need surgery! (More details on a later post!), After the appointment, I took our new van that we had just bought the Friday before back to the dealership because the A/C in the rear was only blowing out hot air! Of course, they needed to keep the car, but gave me a rental car to drive in the meantime. After getting that mess all sorted out, I picked up the kids from Amanda (who was awesome and picked up/took care of my kids for me while I ran around), went back to my house and got the kids dressed in their costumes, went to my moms work where they did some trick or treating, then it was off to Grandma & Grandpa Shmeesh's to show off the costumes. After that it was back to my parents house to help out with my dad's spooky house and go trick or treating! It was a busy day, but we survived!

THIRTY!!!

This year was my BIG 3-0!! I had been telling Ron for the last 2 years that I wanted to go on a trip for my 30th. However, I had a baby that I'm nursing so it was either take him, pump, or don't go. I kept thinking of all the things we could do and thought maybe I could take a short trip and then a bigger one later. I was racking my brain, even though I didn't want to plan anything (I couldn't help myself!). I then started thinking that it might be fun to go to Disneyland for a couple days, just the 2 of us and get a hotel and go on the rides that the kids can't. He wouldn't tell me ANYTHING as my birthday got closer, so I figured he wasn't planning anything! About 4:00 am on my birthday, my cell phone rang and it was my parents house. I thought "Why would they be calling me this early to tell me happy birthday?!" I answered the phone and I hear these Mickey Mouse songs. Then, my mom got on the phone and said "Get up, we're going to Disneyland! I'll be there at 5!" Emma had come in our room and was sleeping on the bed, Ron was still sleeping, and so were the other kids. I immediately started thinking, "who do I need to wake up to go?" So, I asked her who was going and she said it was just us. I asked if Ron was going, and she said to ask him. At that point, Ron's alarm went off, so I asked him and he said that he was coming, too. I had to decided whether to leave the baby or not. Ron said I would probably have more fun without him, so I decided to keep him here. And just like that, we were ready and the 3 of us headed down! It was so fun, but so weird to be there without kids. I had been there several times before without kids, but it seemed like we ran out of things to do. Maybe because it didn't take forever to go from ride to ride! There weren't a whole lot of people there and we only had to wait about 20 minutes for most of the rides. I went in to this neat baby center room to pump about every 3 hours. Thanks for the fun trip!!

Kindergarten Visit and a Trip to the Fair

Michaels actual birthday fell on a Monday, so I arranged to bring in some cookies to his class. It was fun to go see him in his classroom. The kids were nice and said thank you when I handed them their cookie.

Emma's preschool class took a trip to the fair for preschool days. They had a lot of fun looking at all the animals. We found this fire truck and put all the kids on there. We then found the firefighters that went with the truck and asked them to be in the picture. But.....
.....half the kids got scared and wanted to get off the truck (including my daughter!)

Michael Turns 5!

Michael turned 5 at the end of last month! He was pretty excited for his birthday party! He chose a "Super Kong" theme this year. Super Kong is the "super guide" for the Donkey Kong Country Returns Wii game. He's not an actual character you can play. Michael was VERY specific that he did NOT want a Donkey Kong party, he wanted Super Kong!! I'm pretty sure the ONLY reason he wanted Super Kong was because Super Kong wears a blue tie, as opposed to the red tie Donkey Kong wears, and blue is his favorite color right now.

Here's the food setup, complete with bananas!

Had to put this picture of Grandpa giving the thumbs up!
Michael with his cake that Aunt Amanda made!

SEVERAL months ago, Michael had asked for the Donkey Kong Country Wii game. The game is $49.99 and rarely on sale. I had been putting off buying it and kept telling him he could "put it on the list of things he wanted for his birthday." Everytime I went to Target, however, I would check to see if, by chance, it was on sale. One day, while the kids were in school, I had to go to Target. So, I went by the games and decided to check. I saw a sign on the game saying that they were substituting this game because another game they had for sale was out of stock and it was only $19.99!!! I couldn't belive it!!! I wanted to buy a whole bunch of them, but only needed one! :o) I took it to my parents house and wrapped it and it had been in my closet for quite some time! Last minute, I put the wrapped game inside another box, wrapped it, then put it in a bigger box and wrapped it. It was pretty funny to watch him open it.

Here he is with the original box.

He sees that it's an air mattress box! Disappointed!

Hey, another wrapped box!!

Alright! Capri Suns!! NOT!!

ANOTHER WRAPPED PRESENT?!?!

DONKEY KONG COUNTRY!!!

He was SOOOOO excited!! He started beating his chest like a gorilla!

We played "Pin the Tie on Super Kong", and I made blue ties for all the kids as favors! He had JUST learned how to ride a bike without training wheels (finally!) so my parents bought him a bigger bike! Thanks to all who came and made his day so special!

Emma Starts Dance!

I have been wanting to put Emma in dance class for awhile now. I was going to start her last year, but, for financial reasons, wasn't able to. So this year we did it! I put her in the dance studio that I danced for as a little girl all the way up until I was 6 months pregnant with Michael! It was neat being back in the studio and seeing her have so much fun! She goes for 1 hour one day a week. It's a tap/ballet combo class and they have their first performance in the beginning of December! I thought she would like tap better, but she seems to like ballet more (I think it's because they pretend to be princesses and "go to the ball"!)

Road Block!!

For those of you who actually read my blog, I thought I'd give a quick update! There are so many things I need to post about, like Emma starting dance, our anniversary, Michael's birthday, my birthday and all the other things that are happening around here. However, I just got a new laptop over the weekend and all my photos are on my old laptop which has died and I can't charge it because the cat chewed up the power cord! So, until I can get a new cord & get my pictures transferred, the blog remains the same! I am loving the new computer, though! :o)

Kindergarten!!!

My little boy started kindergarten this year! It seems weird now, because we've gone the last 5 years doing what we want when we want, but now it will all change! Now we have to worry about school being in and all that comes with it! It's not as overwhelming as I thought it might be, but it is an adjustment to get up early and get him to school every morning! I did pretty good, too. Not too many tears. I teared up a little at the orientation they had the Friday before school started, and got a little choked up the first day of school, but no tears! The night before Ron gave him a father's blessing, and then he had to leave. He wanted to play in a mid-amatuer golf tournment and the only one he could sign up for was the first day of school! Ron was pretty bummed he missed it, but we all made it through okay! The morning of (and the whole week!), Michael requested eggs, waffles & strawberry milk!

All ready to go. I drove him and picked him up the first day of school, but from then on, he's been riding the bus.

His desk.

This was him when we picked him up.

He loves to ride the bus with cousins!

I had my aunt take pictures for back to school! :o)

Floating Down the Snake River

I took my camera on the river, just in case we got wet I didn't want my phone to get ruined. Ron's grandpa has family that have a boat so we took it out on the Snake River. Ron's grandpa has fished up and down this river for YEARS! He stopped a couple of times to cast, but didn't catch anything. After he took us out (minus Brock) for about an hour, Emma and I went back to Aunt Onda's house to get ready for the bbq and the boys stayed out to do some fishing. I didn't really pay much attention to how we got to the river from Onda's house, because I didn't realize I was driving back by myself! Luckily, I was able to find out how to get back without getting lost! Go Me! :o)

Michael was NOT happy about wearing the pink life vest! He almost decided not to go because of it!

Emma driving the boat with Grandpa!

Michael's turn!

Idaho/Wyoming Trip August 2011

We went on our 2nd annual cabin trip again this year, only this time Ron was able to go! Since we had Brock, he was able to take some boding time and we were able to go on a 2 week excursion! We decided to head to Idaho Falls first for a few days where his grandparents have a condo and stay during the summer. Ron used to spend the summers with them as a kid, so it was fun to go spend some time there with his grandparents and other family members that live there. I had never been to Idaho before, so it was nice to go somewhere different. I took a bunch more pictures, but I didn't want to post them all! Also, they were taken on my phone. I took my camera, but failed to bring the charger, so I had to pick and choose when I wanted to use the camera.

This is Emma a couple days before we left. She said she was all ready to go to the cabin!

Michael didn't want to be left out.
We left at 9:00 pm Sunday night, drove through the night and got in to Idaho Falls at around 2:30 pm Monday. Ron's grandpa put us up in a hotel for the time we were there that had a pool and free breakfast every morning!

One day we went to the local zoo. It's pretty small, but they have several interesting animals! It has this lion drinking fountain. It was cute!

Grandpa's condo is right accross the street from the golf course (of course!) so he took the boys golfing for 9 holes. Brock, Emma & I tagged along in the golf cart. I posted this picture on facebook and Ron made the comment that not very many people can say they golfed with their grandson and great grandson, the pleasure was all his. I thought that was really sweet! He loves his grandpa!

Love this boy! This was taken at grandpas brother's (who passed away last year) house. His wife is still alive and was kind enough to have everyone over for a nice bbq! It was a nice change since we ate out pretty much every day! The bbq was SO good! And the company was even better!!

The reason they call it "Idaho Falls".

Idaho Falls Temple

We left on Saturday the 6th to drive to the cabin in Wyoming and drove through Yellowstone. I'd never been there either, so that was REALLY neat! We didn't want to spend all day so that we wouldn't have to go up the mountain in the dark, so we picked about 3 things we wanted to see. First stop, Old Faithful! We got there at the perfect time. We were able to take a potty break, and get in a good spot just before the geyser went off! After that we stopped at fishing bridge and then the "grand canyon" of Yellowstone. We made a few other stops along the way to see the hot springs (which smelled pretty bad)!

It took quite awhile, but we finally saw some buffalo! After we saw one, we saw a whole bunch!

Just before we left for a hike to Medicine Wheel. Ron's mom bought everyone bandanas. Emma didn't want to wear hers, so I just got a picture of my boys! Aren't they cute?!

A beautiful sunset on the Big Horn Mountain.

We did a TON of fishing!! It rained and hailed quite a bit while we were there, so I didn't want to chance too many scary hikes with the baby. The kids REALLY enjoyed fishing. At Bear Lodge, they have a kiddie lake full of fish! The kids caught a fish at basically EVERY cast! The kids also did a ton of swimming in the indoor pool at the lodge!

While some of the group were fishing, the kids found the horseshoes and grandma taught them to play. Of course, there were a few finger smashing incidences, but nothing too major!

We also did some shooting, but the kids kinda freaked out, so I took them back to the car. Michael decided to blow hot air on the window and draw faces!

My little princess! :o)

We had a GREAT time! It was a long trip, and Brock was NOT having his carseat by the end of the trip, but we were glad we went! We hope to go back next year, but his brother is possibly planning a wedding for that time of year, so we'll see what happens!