Surprise! It's not just St. George... It's Disneyland!

Last Saturday (the 17th) we told the kids we were going to take a little trip to St. George. Some of them were happy...one wasn't too thrilled. He(Zach) remembered our time there in August and how fried and hot we all were, and he wasn't wanting to return any time soon! So I told the kids we probably wouldn't be going to St. George because some of us didn't really want to. They weren't very happy. Megan and Gavin started to cry. Then I said, "Why don't we go somewhere, where you can use these?" And I pulled out Disney ears. We videotaped their reaction:


Highlights from the trip:

Zach hugging me and thanking me several times for taking him.

Zach finally getting to try his quarter in the Esmeralda machine and get his fortune told. That's ALL he asked for on the whole trip. A well spent quarter!


Gavin riding several rides for the first time such as Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Space Mountain, Splash Mountain and Tower of Terror. After he rode each time, he would say, "That was AWE-some!" The child has no fear.


Gavin closing his eyes and grinning as the Teacups went round and round.



Me running to Peter Pan from the Teacups(with the four kids) while Brandon is trying to yell to me he is going to take a sleeping Leah back to the hotel. Keep in mind it was 11:45 pm...I was trying to make it onto the ride before closing time! And, it was our last day. Whoops! What? You mean I have a baby to take care of? I guess I got carried away. You gotta do what ya gotta do to get on Peter Pan! It's always crazy busy.

Staying out until midnight one night with Tanner, Megan and Gavin riding on Matterhorn, Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, Teacups and Dumbo Elephants. It's the best time to get on some of these rides!


Tanner giving up his seat on Triton's Carousel to Leah when there wasn't another one for her, and then a lady giving her spot to Tanner after she saw him. :)



Leah's reaction to the Woody and Jessie characters. She was calling out "Woody" and "Jessie". We had no idea she was such a fan until she saw them. It was so cute.


Zach wore his ears every day, every minute around the parks! He was so faithful and so excited to be there.


Roz talking to us at the end of the Monsters Inc. ride...One of the things she said was to Zach, "Young man in the third row: Nice ears!"

Using the Fast pass and Ride Switch(for parents) passes. We would get 6 fast-passes, and then also use a ride switch so some kids got to go on rides twice in a row. Once with dad and once with mom. Sometimes it worked out and sometimes there was a little squabble...not naming names but it may have been an issue with these two:





Zach was chosen to be the rebel spy on Star Tours. They took his picture and he was the rebel spy for the ride they went on. He called out, "I'm not a spy!" and everyone laughed!

Eating Dole Whips in the California sun in December. Megan thought it was a little bit of heaven.



Me going on Tower of Terror twice and wondering why I do it each time because I am a bit afraid of heights. I have to admit, even I end up liking it. :) Gavin is less afraid than me. He said on his last ride, "Mom, I am not going to say goodbye to the real world." Because they say that on the ride right before you "disappear". He ended up saying goodbye and waving anyway! LOL In the second picture below, I am on the middle row on the far right. Yep, that's what I look like when the doors open to reveal how high we are. Yes, I do admit I am a spaz!




On our second night, the kids and I went on Splash Mountain over and over again after 9 pm! No line whatsoever. It was a blast. We did it again the next night.

We loved the Haunted Mansion Holiday. I liked it better than the regular Haunted Mansion. We love The Nightmare Before Christmas.


We loved Small World decked out for the holiday. Leah was thrilled since it was her first visit. I couldn't believe how wonderful it all was.




The hotel had Santa Claus visiting in the lobby. Gotta love Disneyland during Christmas time!


Tanner, Megan and I went and saw "Great Moments With Mr. Lincoln". It is great, and I was sorry Brandon didn't see it this trip. Next time for sure.

Tanner held my hand at times throughout the parks. I cherished this, because he is getting so big and acting all teenager-ish lately.

Zach didn't want to leave and stopped in the gate on the last night and said, "I can't do it! I just can't leave." The kid is a HUGE fan, that's for sure. Thankfully, I convinced him to go, so we only attracted a little bit of attention. Phew!

Stopping by the beach(Corona Del Mar). There is never enough time when we go to the beach. It's too bad we can't plan more time on these trips. It was Leah's first time at the ocean. I hadn't even put the kids in suits because I thought it would be too cold. So they ended up getting their clothes wet! It was actually pretty nice considering it was December.


Zach said a prayer just before we started to drive home. He covered all the bases: Thankful for the great trip, thankful for keeping us safe, please keep us safe on the way home etc.

He said it well.

The guys wanted to stop by here:



Which was not a problem, but then here too:




Yes, Pasadena is a bit out of the way, but we managed to get there throughout all the CA traffic so that Tanner could see the Rose Bowl. We got into St. George at about 2:30 am. Ouch. It was still a great trip. Great Christmas surprise for the kids.

What a great week

This past Sunday, the day before Halloween, our four kids sang, "Families Can Be Together Forever" for our primary program. I am telling you, it's moments like these that make being a mom worth it. I held it together without a tear, until Megan's primary teacher came up and was paying us compliments. Then she said, "Doesn't this make all those tough days as a mom worth it?" I could hardly answer...I was choked up. Yes, it truly does. It makes it all somehow worth it. They were fabulous and several people said it brought tears to their eyes and told us how much they felt the spirit. We were proud of them, because it was the best job they had done...even in all of our practicing. They were awesome!

Tanner also just tried out and made a Bantam basketball team. He is such a great little basketball player and we wanted him to take it above just the city rec level. Yay Tanner!

I also made all my kids enter the Reflections contest at school. Megan drew a picture, Zach wrote a story and Tanner entered a photograph. We just found out that Tanner and Zach (and maybe Megan) are moving on to the next level! Pretty cool. It's truly a happy mom week and I am so proud of my kids. What joy it brings me to see them succeed and become such great little people. I love them so much.

Don't cry because it is over...

Smile because it happened.

My dear Aunt was very sick these past few months. She was diagnosed with pancreatic/liver cancer this past summer and was not expected to live more than six months. She had a stroke on October 7th and passed away on October 13th. I was able to go and say goodbye to her the day before she died. Having the chance to say goodbye, is something I hadn't experienced before. I was very grateful to have the chance and have those few tender moments with her. I will never forget that.

In June, I took her some gifts and she gave me some things she had wanted me to have before she died. She also asked me and two other nieces to speak at her Memorial Service. It was such a nice visit and we had a great time talking about my dad(her brother) and other things.

I will miss her presence in my life. The thoughtful birthday cards and Christmas cards...and just the fact that she was around. She never married or had children, so all her nieces and nephews were her children.

I was proud to say a few words in her honor. It was a beautiful fall day and as per her request there was a nice luncheon afterward with boxed lunches. It was great food and great to see some cousins that I hadn't seen for many years. That was what Aunt J wanted, for all the family, particularly cousins to visit with one another.

Misc. Ramblings

Happy 4th birthday to my blog! It's been a little over four years since I started this. It was after Gavin was born and we had just been to a dance performance for my four-year-old Megan, and I wanted to document the day with some pictures and video. Now I just can't seem to keep up and I am about a year behind. Oh well.

Life is good. I am enjoying this time. Tanner is still a little kid(so to speak) and still enjoys sitting on a lap or two and isn't embarrassed to be with me...yet. The twins will be baptized this week. Yes, I mean "The babies", which we called them until they were about five. Gavin is a joyful and happy four-year-old. He is just too dang cute. And baby Leah(we call her Lilo) is fast becoming a little girl with each passing day. Sniff sniff...

There is an adorable mother quail sitting on her eggs in our backyard. Tanner is very watchful of her and checks on her all the time. He is our serious animal lover. The kids are thinking up names for all of them. Seriously, there are probably about 9 or 10 eggs out there. I can't imagine keeping track of that many babies born all at once. Amazing! Tanner has been busy and happy doing all kinds of jobs to earn a little extra money when we bounceback to Lagoon this week. He wants to play a basketball game and win a jersey. He says he is confident. I love that kid.

Every time I look at the mess around me I try to remember how great life is, and these sweet kiddos are growing way too fast. Summer has passed quickly. Although I am already ready for the schedule the Fall brings. It is starting to become harder and harder to find things to do each day.

Happy August!

Baby Bird

Yesterday, Gavin came running to me and said there was a bird on the ground. It was in my mom's neighbor's driveway. Sure enough, when I went over to look there was a baby bird laying in the driveway. It had fallen from the nest. It seemed to be okay and after we went to get Brandon and Tanner, we decided to try to put it back in the nest. Without touching it, we scooped it onto a paper plate and after Tanner climbed the tree, dad handed it to him and Tanner carefully put it back into the nest without touching it. Hopefully, its mom will take care of it and it wasn't hurt. It looked okay. Gavin and Tanner were so concerned about it and we checked on it several times after, to make sure it was still up there. Tanner said it was such a cool thing to see those adorable baby birds up in that nest with their little beaks open.
I just don't think there was much room and that's why he fell out. It seems like somebody else besides us could use a bigger house! LOL
Thanks Tanner for being our hero!

A Little Bit of Sunshine...

I have LOTS and LOTS of blog posts to catch up on. For months we didn't have a computer except for Brandon's laptop, and now we have a new computer, so I need to get right on that...sigh...but I am so busy and overwhelmed and
everything else in between!

So here is my little bit of sunshine: My sweet baby daughter took her first ride on a carousel today. It made my heart sing. I felt so good watching her absolutely love every second. She said "weeeee" the entire time. Even rode again. Thank goodness for those little roses among the thorns of our lives! It has made my week worth living...all of my children have. We had a great day. Hope you all did too...maybe even finding a little bit of sunshine in your day.

Love,
Jen

Thankful For the Ride

I really like to read the Eyre's column in the Deseret News. They have fabulous parenting advice and it is always so common sense and uplifting. This last one was about their youngest daughter and her experience watching her brother's children while they went to India. Needless to say, the job was tough and left her wondering at the end of a tough day, How in the world do parents do this? Here is what she said(in the bold print):

I spent the past week baby-sitting my brother's three small children. I am a seeker of all kinds of adventures, and this was one like no other. A glimpse into the trump-all adventure of parenthood.(I've experienced such glimpses before, but for some reason or another, this one was particularly poignant.)

Among other things, I kissed owies better, tried to soothe choruses of screams when I really felt like screaming myself, changed the most world's most epic stinky diaper (you are probably thinking, I have seen worse, but I honestly doubt it), drove to the elementary school in my nightgown, made a memory game and a chalkboard canvas out of the driveway, wiped up literally countless piles of spit-up, barely won the wrestling match in the pew during sacrament meeting, safely (but perhaps just barely) frequented the swimming pool and the school playground, sang lullabies, made pigtails, shook formula into bottles and desperately promised fruit snacks for good behavior.

Every night when the kids went to sleep at 7:30, I was exhausted. Knackered. It was fun, but there were flashes when the thought "I really can't do this!" ran through my head. It was crazy and it was so hard. These kids are so adorable and so good — and it was only a week! How do parents do it?

In the same week that the incredulousness of this query showed up for me repeatedly, I found the answer — in a tiny flake of split-second bliss where I felt what I'm sure is just a small taste of a certain brand of golden, liquid joy preserved for moms and dads. This is an emotion that would absolutely, absolutely propel a parent to keep doing what I did (the past seven days) week in and week out, no matter how crazy things got. It was miraculously and magnificently energizing and empowering and motivating and so, so, so beautiful.

I was sitting on the beach at San Juan Capistrano. The sun was saying good night with simple yellows and that lightest of blues. McKay, 5, was digging, silhouetted in front of the shimmering waves. Baby Cubby was sitting nuzzled to my left side, and 2-year-old Lyla stood in the sand holding my thumbs. I pumped my arms as her feet willowed into the beach and she giggled in the amber light. Her hair was wispy. Cubby's body was warm. McKay radiated the plain happiness of childhood. The hairs on my arms stood on end. The world stopped spinning. Just for a moment, just for that wildly beautiful moment, as if unable to contain such euphoria and such love.

I thank heaven that God has put into us this extraordinary but so human ability to love.

It was a fantastic, stretching, exciting, tiring, happy week.


I have some tough days...sometimes really tough. It has been that way for going on 8 years now, when we went from 1 to 3 kiddos in the blink of an eye. Sometimes I can hardly stand it and then there are some tears...sort of goes with the territory when you've hit the 5-kid milestone, but it's those beautiful, spiritual moments that keep me going. It's the way my baby, Leah smiles at me...or my son, Zach says, "I love you" with a hug just because...It's Gavin blowing me kisses while I sit in his Primary class...It's Tanner thinking I'm still cool enough to hang out with and sit on my lap...Or going with Megan on a girls night out...and countless more moments.

So I guess there was a reason President Hinckley used this quote:

"Anyone who imagines that bliss is normal is going to waste a lot of time running around shouting that he's been robbed. The fact is that most putts don't drop. Most beef if tough. Most children grow up to be just ordinary people. Most successful marriages require a high degree of mutual toleration. Most jobs are more often dull than otherwise...Life is like an old time rail journey...delays, sidetracks, smoke, dust, cinders, and jolts, interspersed only occasionally by beautiful vistas, and thrilling bursts of speed. The trick is to thank the Lord for letting you have the ride."

I for one, am truly thankful for my ride!

Science Fair

Tanner wanted to do the science fair this year. It wasn't required and he is only in 4th grade so he can't go onto the district science fair, but he thought it would be fun. He wanted to do something about hurricanes and was particularly interested in Hurricane Katrina. The project was titled, "Why do hurricanes cause so much damage?"

We did this little experiment where you make a hurricane in a bottle to show the power of the vortex of a hurricane. He had an absolute blast and loved to show all the kids in the school and explain how it worked. He also gave out candy and the best part of all? He received a five out of five stars for the project. His was far better than several others so it is a shame he couldn't move on...but it was a good experience for him. Frankly for me too, as it was my first foray into the science fair world. Brandon and I worked together on it to help him, so we learned a lot also.
He came home so happy and had the best day. He just loved it all. I am just so proud of him!
Tanner in action!

Double Digits

Yes siree, my Tanner J. is 10 years old! Where oh where have you gone decade? It certainly can't have already been 10 years. It all seems so fresh in my memory...my water broke at work and then around 29 hours later, yes 29, my life changed forever. Here came our little miracle. I was in love. What a little angel. I understand more and more what it means to have time go so fast. It really doesn't seem that long ago that we brought him home from the hospital and had an absolute blast doting over him. I still love him just as much but he is a big boy now. He likes to hang with his friends and play sports all the day long. He has grown so much this past year. I am cherishing some of the few things he still does that tell me he is a little boy. But he'll always be my little boy...my little red-headed, sports loving, kindhearted boy. I'll love him forever. I'll like him for always...forever and ever my baby he'll be. I love you Tanner!


*On a side note, He went to the Jazz game on the day before his birthday with his dad and Grandpa Mike was there and bought him a new jersey for his birthday. The next day, I took doughnuts into his classroom and then he went birthday shopping after school and then he went out to eat with Brandon and I that night. The next day, he had a late night party with his friends. They enjoyed playing basketball, the Wii, and just hanging out. It was a great birthday!*



10 basketball cupcakes for my 10-year-old!