February

This pic is of our dog Duncan, who hasn't had a bath or a much needed hair cut in a while because he has been recovering from surgery. He likes to bark at our neighbor dog Diesel, who is a Rottweiler. When Duncan was barking with his nose in the slats of our fence Diesel grabbed his bottom jaw and yanked. This fractured Duncan's bottom jaw and ripped off his bottom lip and all the skin down to the muscle all down that white patch of his neck. When Brad took him in the vet said this needs to be fixed now, to will cost 300-500 unless the jaw is fractured. Brad was not ready to say good bye to our dog, especially with the boys there with him at the vet. So 698 dollars later we brought Duncan home.   His jaw was wired back together and his skin pulled together and sewn. It cost another 70 to get the stitches and wiring out. I approached our neighbors to see it they would be willing to help with the cost...no they have had a tough year financially. If you have been reading my blog this year you will know our a baby spent a week in the hospital with RSV last February. In November she fell down the stairs and fractured her leg (x rays and SO expensive), Brad had shoulder surgery, Ethan got a retainer (very expensive) and I had X-rays on my foot and a boot to pay for for it. Not to mention we had already paid for everything  for our trip to Disneyland when this happened. I smiled at my neighbor really nice, said ok and paid the bill myself. This has been a really hard things for me to let go of,  I have tried to remind my self that the Lord really has blessed us despite our trials. Mira was only in the hospital one week, she broke her leg not her neck or back, some how we still had enough to take care of Brad's shoulder, Ethan's retainer and my foot and still take a great trip to Disneyland. I am thankful that I am a mother even though kids are expensive, at least I have them. I'm thankful for Brad's good job that pays for all of these things and allows me to stay home with our crazy kids. Duncan will be having a nice hair cut and bath this weekend even though that bushy face makes me laugh. You can see the raw skin on his chin, there wasn't quiet enough to stretch and he is missing a few bottom teeth so when he's panting he really looks kind of scary

 Mira and her necklaces taking a wild ride in Lily's baby cradle

 Mira is a super huggy baby. One day I was holding her and she wanted to give Eddie a hug so I handed her over. It looked so funny I had to take a quick picture even though Eddie was grunting and saying, "hurry mom she is so heavy"

 I carried her to the couch so he could give Eddie a better hug, awwwww

 Mira loves raisins. She gets this big container from the cupboard and carries it to the rug where I find her with both hand full of them

 Ethan's pinewood derby. He didn't win any races but he was a really good sport. We were so proud of him and how hard he worked on his car and for cheering on the other boys.

 Eddie made a car too even though he isn't a scout.  The leaders let the little kids race when all the scouts were done. This year there were no rules about weight so they each have a water bottle taped to the top to make them heavy

 Mira's new favorite is peanut butter on a spoon, she gets the PB and carries it to me and then follows me back to the silverware drawer and waits. You can see it all over her face.

 Eddie and his best friend Arianne and their derby cars

 Ethan got the most original car award

 No I didn't tie up my children, however tempting that might be at times, they made hammocks out of bed sheets tied to each side of the bunk bed

 Mira wanted Brad to hold her while he was biking, this was the next best option

 The kids got chocolate lips from Grandma and grandpa for V-Day

 Grandma and Grandpa stayed and helped Ethan with his Valentines box and Valentines while I got the other three in bed. Brad had City Council that night and I was so grateful for their help

 I bought Mira a marshmallow sucker for V-day

 I bought Lily a box of chocolate for Valentine's Day and she ate the whole thing in about 5 minutes. She gets her love of sugar from me

 Lily shared one of her chocolates with Mira (the icky one) Mira loved it!

 Mira giving a baby in our ward hugs. She loves babies

 Mira also loves noodles

At school it was the 100th day and the kids got to dress up like they are 100 yrs old. These were their costumes. I thought their "old faces were funny

This is Eddie's potato at the potato derby Elders quorum activity

Ethan's

Lily put so many wheels and nails in hers it needed a few adjustments to make it roll, and then it rolled off the track a fourth of the way down

Lily decided to get her self a snack. I was a bit shocked to find her sitting t the table like this, I'm glad she didn't choke on all that

Mira loves her black sparkly church shoes, but the right one won't stay on, so frustrating

Disneyland, Universal Studios & Sea World!

Brad and I set a goal several years ago that when we paid off all our debt but our house we would save our money and take our family to Disneyland. We told our kids the day we made our last payment on our last student loan and that now we were going to save up for Disneyland but it might take a while. We also decided that when the time came we were going to surprise them at the airport. We told them that we would be driving Dad to the airport so he could go on a business trip and that we would be driving back home afterwards. Them not knowing made packing so much easier! We were so excited that morning as we planned to tell them and anticipated surprised faces, maybe screams of excitement or hugs...they were so confused I don't think they believed us. Lily had a good reaction if you watch her face, this is the reaction we got

On the shuttle to the airport

                                                                        On the plane 

My Mom and Step dad, Dick flew from WA to spend the week with us, their hotel was joined to ours. It was so nice to have the extra hands for strollers, bags and for keeping track of the kids. It was fun to be able to share this fun and exciting experience with them too. Below is a picture of Brad and the boys at the Angels stadium it was right next to our hotel so after we got there Brad took them to see it. After the flight we got our rental car and drove to the beach. The boys & Mira played in the water & Lily played in the sand. It was kind of cold and windy so once they were wet they were cold and ready to go. The beach was beautiful and the kids had a great time. I left my camera in the car so Dick took pictures at the beach and we haven't exchanged photos yet

We spent our first day at Disneyland, it was cold and rainy and someone (I think accidentally) stole our stroller. The bad weather made the crowds smaller which was nice, we were able to run around and do a lot of rides with little wait time. I ended up caring Mira and Lily slept in the stroller

Lily's favorite ride at Disneyland was Pinocchio, she loved when it looked like the whale was going to eat her. Mira did not like that part!

 The Silly Mad Hatter

 The girls at the white rabbits door

 Me and the girls in the tea cup

 Lily loved Toads wild ride, I think she thought she was really driving!

 The boys loved the Star Wars guys, they were a little sad they didn't get picked to fight one during the Jedi training though

 Me and Eddie at Star Tours

 Me and the boys with Donald, we even got his autograph!

 This is how our girls finished almost every night, they even slept through the World of color concert at CA Adventure (Eddie did too) and Mira slept right through the fire work show at Disneyland. (We bought a new stroller for the second day, my back was so grateful!)

 Ethan and the Sword in the Stone

 Lily and Jessie

 The boys on the Jungle ride

 Mira loved the jungle ride

 Lily was SO excited to meet Minnie Mouse, she is getting Minnie's autograph at Minnie's house

 Dressed like a princess and ready for the day!

 Walt Disney and Mikey Mouse at CA Adventure

 Eddie loved Space Mountain, we got all the way to the front and they closed the ride for some problem. We decided that we would wait a few minutes to see if they could fix the problem and I'm so glad we waited because just a few minutes later we got to go

Sleepy Lily watching the princesses at the parade

The girls enjoying some cotton candy

The second day was CA adventure, right when we walked in we saw Pluto and he signed the kid's autograph books on his nose

 Mira and I on the Bug's Life ride

 Grandpa and Eddie on Mater's tractor pull

 Ethan loved all the cool hats

 He decided on this one. Taking Mira on the Bug's Life caterpillar ride

 We loved the toy story ride, I rode it twice ( once with Mira sleeping on my lap the entire time), I think the boys rode it 3 time.

 Grandpa and Ethan on the tractor tire ride

 The boys on the Bugs Life ride

 Waiting for Mater's tractor pull

 BUZZ!

 Eddie and the fire truck from Cars

We spent one day at Sea World. This was a first for everyone but Brad. The weather was beautiful that day. I loved Sea World. Below is Grandma, Lily and Ethan petting the Bat rays

 Eddie petting the bat rays, he got so wet.

This beluga spit water at the window right where Lily was standing. I loved watching the belugas

 The girls and dad watching the beluga swim under water

 It was amazing watching that big mammal swim so gracefully

 I also loved watching the whales, they were so BIG!

 The shows we watched where they would do their tricks was a lot of fun, Brad and the boys got really wet

 We rode this circle thing all the way to the top

 Waiting in line to get on the ride

 Lily and the sea turtles

 We loved the dolphin show too, Grandpa, Lily and Ethan got really wet that time

 We spent a day at Universal Studios. On the way there Eddie got sick. We had to stop at Target and buy him some new clothes...but we met up with everyone else a little later. We rode Jurassic Park, Transformers (I think this was the favorite) and the Mummy ride. We also went on the tour of behind the scenes and watched a show about how they do special effects. This big guy snuck up on Brad. Brad said, "Michelle" and I turned around and he was right in my face! I might have squeaked a little. He bent down and played with Mira's pony tail, but she ignored him and he moved on.

 Dracula!

 We love Despicable me and all the minions

 I don't like the Simpson's but we thought this was a funny place for a picture

 We went on the tour of behind the scenes, this is the kids wearing their 3D glasses

 Overall it was a great trip. By the end of the week we were all SO tired, but happy. It was a great adventure.