Our Upcoming Trip

To break up this really long, boring, wet winter, we have decided to take our annual vacation a little early. Plus, I don't want to be driving on a long road trip when I'm 20 months pregnant. So...we figured we will just take it a little early. Another change is that my sister and her family are going with us, as well as our good family friend. This way, the kids will have playmates and there will always be someone to go on rides with. This year, we have decided to visit Disneyland again...yay!! We went last time when Rylee was 2 and she hasn't stopped talking about it since then.

We've decided to leave when I get off work at 4 pm and drive straight through to San Diego where we will stay the night and go to Sea World the next morning. My family has never been to Sea World and I must say that I am very excited to go! Right now, I'm excited to go anywhere that the sun is shining :) From there, we will drive back to Anaheim and stay the week there. We're also planning on visiting California Adventure this time around. We didn't go last time because Rylee was too small to be able to go on hardly any of the rides which in turn would mean I wouldn't be able to go on anything. I don't really mind this fact (since I won't this year either) because I'm not much of a "ride" person. I send myself into a panic attack and freeze on the spot. The most I can do is the Ferris Wheel and a roller coaster as long as it doesn't go upside down or in a loop. There are a few in between, but I have been known to wait in line for an hour and then walk away when it's my turn. My poor family! This is another reason why I am glad there are several of us going. I'm also hoping for splendid sunny weather so we can go on water rides as well. Can you tell I'm excited? Now if I can only wait until the end of February....

My mom's family is from southern California and it was so much fun last time when we found my grandmother's old house and pulled off the side of the road for pictures. So many childhood memories came flooding back of walking down those streets and all of the smells from different shops everywhere. We didn't get to visit too often but when we did, it stuck with me for a long time. Maybe one of these days I'll look up one of my cousins or aunts and stop by for a visit.

I'm hoping that my morning sickness will be gone by then so I can enjoy everything. I'll be 4 months by then so I'm planning on it going on vacation (forever) as well. I had my first real appointment this morning besides the ultrasound I had a couple of weeks ago. It was the fun one where they poke and prod everywhere (sorry if that was TMI). Anyway, I got to hear the peanut's heartbeat and my midwife said that everything looks perfect. She said the word "perfect" about 6 or 7 times so I'm guessing that's a good thing :) Even though this was a huge oops and surprise, I find myself getting past that finally and looking forward to what is to come. I still can't believe I will have 4 children when all of this is said and done. I always saw myself with only 3 so I'm a little nervous. Obviously God had other things in mind. Luckily my two older ones love love love babies and I know they will be a tremendous help.

So, we're really looking forward to our trip and hope that time flies until we get to leave. Until then, is a little sunshine too much to ask for? I need to move to a sunnier state!!

I'm So Outdated

I am obviously really behind the times here, but better late than never, right? I will however, be putting a few more up in a couple of days because my favorites (besides this first one of course) are not accessible to me at the moment. They are certainly worth waiting for though (Linda you know which ones I'm talking about) :)

I highly recommend having a party at home instead of going trick-or-treating. We bought tons of treats and the kids actually got candied out! Everyone had a really great time and we were nice and toasty warm...

Fun At The Capitol Building

A couple of weekends ago, my mother-in-law was kind enough to take all of the kids that are currently residing at my house for two whole nights! That's also 2 1/2 days, mind you...though I'm not counting. Before we dropped the munchkins off, we decided to go and "play" at the Capitol Building and grab a few shots. When we were younger, this was one of Mike's and my favorite places to hang out. I think though that way back then, all of the big fans worked and we could float many things across them and ooh and ahh at how they skimmed the air. Now, however, only one or two actually blow air and it's only during work hours (which as we all know, are few and far between for those darn state workers :-) Luckily, this was one of the very rare occasions that we were all together, off both work and school, during the day on a week day. The girls thought this was awesome! Of course, since we didn't really have anything to float over the top of these ginormous fans, spit was the only option. GROSS!!! I almost got hit a few times and finally had to put my foot down when the name of the game was "Try and catch it back in your mouth." Who are these people???

Though the only pictures I could find of the girls' hair flying in the air were on my phone, we got several other cute ones. Here are a few of our goofy afternoon at the capitol...though I did not include the collection of Rylee's head bouncing off the ground, as Mike watched her jump from a ledge. I thought that might be a little over the top.

After we dropped the girls off, we almost didn't know what to do with ourselves.....almost. Anyway, the rest of the weekend was pretty restful and quiet....until we decided to pretend that we weren't adults but silly, young, underage drinkers. I'll save those pictures for another time...

Back to School All Ready

Yesterday was the first day of school....again. I can't believe how quickly the summer flew by. It seems like just yesterday was the last day of school, thoughts of bbq's and swimming right in our faces. Now, our schedule begins again. Yay!!!

The morning dawned bright and early...4 girls so ready for school! Kenzie was a little nervous about having more than one class to keep track of, as she was starting middle school! Alyssa and Brosia were excited to be in the same 4th grade class, and Bella was secretly ecstatic to be heading back to M.V. Since I had to be at work way before school starts, Kelly graciously did the honors of shuttling excited, nervous, chatty kids. Though I didn't actually drive Kenzie, I had my own little teary session in my car all by myself. Kelly told me later though, she shed a few too.. My baby is no longer in elementary school. I only had to go to one classroom for open house the evening before, and only got to help unpack one bag of school supplies :( Such a milestone... Still tough not to start blubbering so I'll post a few pictures instead! Even though the girls weren't totally ready to go when I had to leave, they humored me and grabbed their backpacks to "pretend" they were headed out the door; all though I hope Alyssa and Brosia's hair was dry by the time they left :)

It seems that every year, I impatiently wait all day long to find out how their day went and when I ask, I am rewarded with "Mmmm...good." That's it...that's all I get! This year however, all faces were plastered with smiles. Kenzie said that it wasn't nearly as bad as she thought it was going to be and the other girls all had fun too. All in all, they had a great day! A very good start to another year. Next year, Rylee will be joining them...I can certainly wait for that!