Happy Anniversary!!!

Josh and I celebrated our 7th anniversary on the 27th. The kids were invited to Crew's birthday party for the same night. They were really excited to go, so we decided we would take them to the party first then go to dinner. Josh had a crazy day at work so he got home a lot later than planned. I did a yarn maze for Josh with memories he would find along the way when he rolled up the yarn. Since he got home late, he didn't have time to do it until we got home. The pics don't do the maze justice. It was pretty cool looking.

The birthday party was a lot of fun. It was a pirate party and the kids loved it. They even went on a treasure hunt.

After the party we ran back home to put the kids to bed so we could go to dinner. As soon as we got home we realized Josh needed to do the yarn maze since we couldn't walk anywhere...we had to crawl. It was ok, but my sister who lives in the basement is 7 months pregnant and couldn't crawl very easily.

Sean and Rachelle finished putting the kids to back so we could get to dinner. We went to the Texas Roadhouse and it was SO good. Josh had never been there before and he really enjoyed it. We were too late for any of the movies we wanted to go to, so we just headed home. I'm so lucky to be married to my best friend. I've loved the past 7 yrs and can't wait for many more years to come. I love you!

Andrew's Birthday

For Josh's brother's birthday we had a bbq at the Ericson's house. We had a quick little photo shoot with all the grandkids:

Brayden has to help blow out the candles for everyone's birthday. Brooklyn, on the other hand, will go as far away from the candles as possible.

Boxes

We are still trying to unpack all of our boxes from when we moved in. My kids LOVE the days I open boxes. Sometimes I think I should get rid of all the toys they don't play with and just keep boxes around the house. This was Brynlee's first box experience, and she LOVED it!

Preschool Graduation

I still can't believe my little boy is done with his first year of preschool. He has absolutely loved it and has learned SO much. The 2nd to last day the parents were invited to their little program. Here's Brayden SO excited that we were there.

Saying the Pledge of Allegiance:

Brayden was in charge of showinghow to do the days of the month. They only counted to 18, since it was the 18th. Brayden, however, can count all the way to 100. Guess how he learned that??? Watching basketball games with Josh. Yep, that's right. He would watch the games and ask what the scores were and he caught on really quick.

Not sure what they're doing right here, but I love when Brayden puts his hands in his pockets...he looks SO big!

At one point Miss Robyn talked about each kid individually. Here she is talking about Brayden:

Tossing the bean bag around. He caught it on his head:

Such concentration.

Cute little Brynlee:

Gotta love when your kids give each other hugs.

I love my Brayden. 

Here's a good picture of Brayden and Brooklyn on his first day of preschool:

And here they are on the last day of preschool. I can't believe how fast they both are growing up!

The Big 3-0!

Haing a birthday 2 days after a big vacation is stressful...not so much for me, but for Josh. I truly didn't expect anything since the weekend was so crazy and I knew he was busy at work catching up. Boy did he surprise me! He first brought me Egg Mcmuffins - my favorite, then he left for work. My aunt came and watched the kids while Josh took me to a Chinese restaurant for lunch. The kids napped all afternoon then we got ready for dinner. I didn't want a big party or anything like that, so we decided to just meet family and friends at the new Planet Play in Draper. It was fun to have everyone together and let the kids enjoy playing all the games. The biggest surprise was that Josh got me an Ipad!!! I couldn't believe it! I've mentioned it a few times over the past few months, but more as a wish than something I thought would be possible. Josh scored a ton of points today. Turning 30 is never fun, but it came and it went and life goes on. Thank you Josh for making my 30th birthday such a good one!!!

Planet Play is one of Brayden's favorite places. We could've stayed there all night. He even cried when we had to go because they closed.

7 Months

I'm a month behind on Brynlee's update, but wanted to make sure I didn't miss it. Brynlee hit her 7 month mark while we were in Disneyland. She is such a happy baby and rarely cries. She loves to sit and play with toys, but especially loves playing with her brother and sister. She still won't eat baby food, rice cereal, or anything else but she loves nursing. We're working on it. Brynlee is such a joy to have in our home and we love, love, love her!!!

Vacation - The Return

Saturday morning we woke up, got ready, and headed to the dining room for our yummy hot breakfast. We loaded up the van and headed to the car rental place to return the van. By the time we got everything situated and got on the shuttle, we only had 45 minutes before our plane took off. I started freaking out thinking that there was NO way we would make our flight, especially since we didn't have Rachael so we had a lot for the 2 of us to carry. We got to the airport, and waited in line to check our 1 bag. Too bad it was over the weight limit by 14 pounds. Oops. So there we were in the middle of the airport opening all our bags rearranging stuff while Brayden and Brooklyn were running around wild. We finally got it down to 4 pounds over and the nice lady let it pass. Going through security was NOT easy, but we made it through. We rushed and rushed to our gate and got there just in time to walk onto it before they shut the door. Relief. We made it. Of course we sat on the runway for 30 minutes before take off. Go figure. The flight went well...Brynlee slept for half of it while the other kids watched shows and played games. What a week!!! The trip was SO stressful that it took me 2 days to release the stress and remember how much fun it was because all I could remember was the stress. The kids loved it and still talk about it to everyone. Hopefully we can go back soon!!

Vacation Day 7 - Disneyland

We woke up Friday morning and checked out of our condo. We hopped in the van and headed back to Disneyland. While we were putting on sunblock, Pluto walked by so we quickly hopped in line to see him. This was fantastic since Pluto is Brayden's favorite and he had picked out a Pluto stuffed animal the night before. 

Pluto was being funny and turned around for the picture. Brayden thought he was pretty funny.

There were only a few things left that we wanted to make sure we did, one of which was the It's A Small World ride. This was one of the kids' favorites. All 3 kids LOVED this ride.

We then headed to Mickey's Toon Town. The kids loved running around and playing. Don't mind the creepy guy watching Brooklyn go down the slide.

It is SO nice going to Disneyland in the off season. Today was more crowded than Tues and Wed, but the lines were still minimal.  I would hate to have waited in the line for Mickey Mouse. We walked through his house at our leisure which gave the kids plenty of time to play.

Meeting Mickey was fun. I wish I had my nice camera on this trip, but these pictures will have to do.

We decided to do the Matterhorn next. Brooklyn was tall enough to ride this ride, so we took advantage. Brayden, of course, was terrified and wanted to get off the ride the entire time. Brooklyn, however, absolutely loved it. It is the ride that she tells everyone about. She also has to tell everyone about the "scary monsters" that were insinde the "cave." The only part of the ride she didn't like were the abominable snowmen inside the mountain. But besides that, we were very surprised that she like it so much.

One of the things on our "have to" list was to see Tinkerbell. Brooklyn is not at all interested in the Princesses, which was fine with us since that line was @ 2 hrs long. For some reason, however, Brooklyn absolutely LOVES Tink. The wait for Tinkerbell was only 20 minutes so we hopped in line. Of course she took a break when we got near the front of the line, so the "20" minutes ended up being 40. But it was well worth it. Here are the kids eating a snack while we waited.

Brooklyn wouldn't go near the boy fairy, but Brayden wanted to get a picture.

Then it was the moment we had waited all week for. We went around the corner in Pixie Hollow and there she was. Brooklyn was in such awe she just stood there looking at her.

We wanted a quick picture with all the girls. We couldn't get Brooklyn to look at the camera. She just kept staring at Tink. It was such a memorable moment.

We hopped on the Jungle Cruise and ended up at the front of the boat. Of course that was right next to the tour guide that scared Brayden at the beginning, so he wasn't a fan of the rest of the ride. Go figure.

Brynlee was really good all week taking naps along the way. We had to carry her a lot throughout the day so that we had her carseat with us, but it was well worth it. The other kids, however, were a little trickier. Brayden finally fell asleep in the stroller after I laid it back on the bench. We took turns going on Thunder Mountain while someone stayed with the kids. I had to get a picture.

After Thunder Mountain, we had time to do 1 more ride before we had to leave to get Rachael to the airport. We decided it would be worth it to rush over to California Adventure to do the Toy Story ride again. It was a good decision because Brooklyn fell asleep on the walk over there. I hopped in line with Brynlee while Josh and Rachael sat with the kids while they slept. After about 30 minutes in line Josh woke up the kids and hopped in line with me. Once again, we all loved this ride.

We rushed back to Disney's Mainstreet to get our pressed pennies and a few quick souvenirs. We snapped our last picture on our way out as we said goodbye to Disneyland.

Here's Brynlee on the bus back to the car.

We quickly drove to the airport so Rachael could catch her flight. She had tickets to see Wicked the next day so she had to leave early. After dropping her off we headed to our hotel next to the airport and crashed! We ordered dinner from the room service menu, ate, put the kids to bed, and then Josh and I relaxed until we crashed. Another successful and fun day!!!