Vacation Flashback

We're going on vacation tomorrow, and to get in the mood, I decided to do a flashback post today. These pictures are from Thanksgiving weekend 2005. Any guesses where we are going this weekend??

Our first evening there, Bampa took Sareny to Downtown Disney while the rest of us were napping. He thought it was a little cold, so he bought this cute little Minnie Mouse sweatshirt for her. (I did pack her a jacket, but he didn't take it with him on their walk.) I remember being a little shocked by the pricetag!

Here's my little cutie in front of Matterhorn. She has grown so much since then!

This was the last time we were able to go to Disneyland with the whole crew. Sareny was still the only grandchild, although Isaac was on his way.

Since Cassidy was not visible in the last photo, she gets her own spotlight. Well, I guess she has to share it with random guy, okay, and Sareny too, but oh well. I seem to be lacking pictographic evidence that James was on this trip too, but rest assured that he was. (Sorry Bames.)

For our Magic Morning, we took Sareny to Fantasyland with Grammy Jo while the rest of the group hit Space Mountain and Matterhorn. I was glad Grammy spent that fun time with us!

Disneyland was celebrating 50 years, their Golden Anniversary, and we got to ride on the golden Dumbo and golden carousel horse that they had just for the year. We raced for them as soon as we got through the lines!

We have some fun memories from Disneyland over the years. I have loved it since I was a kid and enjoy watching my kids experience the magic and excitement for themselves.

Excerpt from Sareny's Diary

Sareny got a diary for her birthday this year, and she dictated to me what to write for her first entry. Then the page got torn out, soon to be lost, so I am documenting it here.

This book belongs to Sareny. No peeking! I love you. I really, really love you. I have a scooter but I don't want you to ride it. I don't feel good right now. I don't know what to say. My mommy knows how to write but I don't. We like to play on the computer. I really love my mommy and my friends. Finley loves me. Finley likes to eat everything. Rhys eats lots of blankets. We went to Grammy Jo's and Lexi what I love was there. We goed at the fair. I love Bampa. My mom has to clean. I like to play with babies.

Don't forget

I don't want to ever forget the way my boy looks right now. His chubby little cheeks, his captivating blue eyes, the little dimple in his left cheek, his messy hair. He's wild and he's crazy, but he is my treasure.

At Christmas time when we were visiting Grammy Jo's house, he was downstairs with Sareny, supposed to be sleeping. We heard him come to the bottom of the stairs and yell up to us, "I down here...not heeping!" It was just so cute.

I have started calling him "mi buki," which is from Star Wars and means "my boy." He looks at me and says, "I not buki. I brudder."

If you ask him what his name is, he usually tells you "brudder." If you say, "Are you Isaac, or brudder?" He tells you he's brudder.

How could I not love this handsome little man?

A final post about Easter weekend

Sunday after church, my parent's friends and neighbors the Jones' walked over with their little dog Yogi. My kids thought that was the coolest thing ever!

They had so much fun running around and playing with her.

They ran around with her so much that Yogi got tired out and needed to rest. Regretfully, this didn't translate into my children being tired and wanting to go to bed.

I've had people tell me that my kids need a dog, but if we had a dog of our own, it wouldn't be such a novelty when they get to play with one. Plus also, I don't actually have to clean up poop or any of the other pleasantries associated with having a dog. (Yes, I did mean to write plus also, if you've read Junie B. Jones, you would understand.)
Rhys was so funny--Yogi jumped up and licked his toes and he giggled and laughed. When she came back over, he lifted his foot up to her.

Finley didn't have bare toes so she didn't get that thrill, but I made her touch the doggie too.

We love this handsome little man!

We also celebrated Lexi's birthday, and Sareny was so excited to give her a card she made, along with some perfume that she had carefully selected out of her own belongings. I thought this was actually quite a sacrifice, since she loves wearing "frume," and she only had the one bottle. We also gave her a Build-a-Bear gift certificate, and we are all going to go and make bears! Sareny made a bear named "Kelly Clarkson" for her fourth birthday, and Grammy Jo and I kept trying to convince her to choose outfits and accessories that we liked, but Sareny was stubborn and had her own tastes. That's when we decided we needed to go back and make our very own bears.

We took this sissie's picture after Jake and Lizzie had already left to go home, so it has almost all of the girls. Pictured is Lexi, Holli, Cassidy, and Hillari

Easter Sunday Finery

I like to take pictures of the kids every year on Easter Sunday. Since we were running late to church, we had to slip out between Sacrament and classes to snap a few in front of the Overton church. (yikes!)

Grammy Jo, Bampa, Holli Jo, and Rhys came outside after I had taken the older kids to Primary, so only the babies got a grandparent picture.

The Hunt

Sunday morning before church, we had an Easter egg hunt in the front yard. The kids loved it!

Here is Finley's "suspicious" look that Cassidy mentioned in her comment on an earlier post.

Little Fin was not her usual cheerful self and was rather grumpy the whole weekend. We decided she was missing her daddy and a little uncomfortable with so many unfamiliar people. Once we got back to our house, she was our grinny girl again.

Grammy Jo loved having all of her little grandbabies visit.

Here is cousin Joshie. If you ask him what his name is, he always says, "Joshie Keel," in a really cute voice. If you keep asking him his name because you want to hear him say it again, he will tell you, "Two," because that's how old he is.

Sareny was pretty excited that she found the biggest egg.

Here is a handsome little man.

And here is "Brother," which is what he will tell you his name is.

In the middle of our photo shoot, this random dog came over to play. It was pretty weird looking--kind of a cross between Lady and the Tramp and a Dalmation. You can see how excited the kids are to see it.

Hodgepodge of Activities

On Saturday afternoon Holli, Lexi, Sareny, and I headed over to the bustling metropolis of Mesquite to catch a movie...The new Hannah Montana flick! Okay, stop laughing. We actually really enjoyed it and were singing "Hoedown Throwdown" the rest of the weekend.
Since Lexi was turning 20 on the 13th, we connived and finangled to have the other family members watch our kids while we went out on the town to celebrate!

Earlier on Saturday we had a baby shower for Cassidy and her "beach bum baby." (She lives in Hawaii.) Liz made this cute centerpiece, and doesn't that dessert pizza in the background just make you drool?

My mom, Lexi, and me collaborated on this cake, using accessories supplied by Lizzie.

And lastly, here is Sareny feeding her little cousin Rhys (appearing as Troy Bolton.) She loves him so much! You can see how seriously she took her job.

A visit to Grammy's and the County Fair

With my sisters flying in from Georgia and Hawaii for a rare visit to Overton, as well as my Utah siblings coming down, a trip to Grammy Jo and Bampa's was pretty necessary for us this past weekend. Unfortunately, I would be making the pilgrimage alone with my three small children, since Keith was unable to come.

The drive there was mostly fine until we came to Hoover dam. There was a huge backup where we were in stop and go traffic (with mostly stop, and occasionally going one or two miles an hour) for two hours. Yes folks, two hours of that with just me and three kids. After sitting in one spot for five minutes with poor little Finley screaming her head off, I got out and held her. Unfortunately, that is the moment when traffic decided to move, so I pulled a Brittney Spears and jumped into the driver's seat with her on my lap. Since traffic was barely moving, if at all, I ended up nursing her on both sides and changing her diaper while cruising along at 1 mile an hour. I know, I'm a bad mom. I was dearly wishing for Keith at that moment.

On Friday we all went to the Clark County Fair. We didn't do any rides, since we are going to Disneyland in two weeks, and thankfully the kids were okay with that. Although Isaac did point at the Ferris Wheel and say, "I hink I better ride that." Bampa got his arms worn out from carrying around a little girl...not sure why she seemed unable to walk. Hopefully this isn't a foreshadowing of her behavior at Disneyland.

We watched a cute animal show that the kids really seemed to enjoy. Can you tell they really love their Bampa?

Rhys and Finley will be great friends someday, but on this visit Finley got very concerned and scared when Rhys would smilingly scootch across the floor to her. Could be that he is quite a bit bigger than her, despite that she is older. Reminds me of a dorky rhyme my cousin Linds taught me when we were kids:

Fatty and Skinny went to bed. Fatty rolled over and Skinny was dead. Now Fatty is sad 'cuz Skinny is dead.

No offense meant to Rhys, because he is the cutest little chub-chub. More on this trip later!