Random Fun

We had a nice Sunday yesterday. I love it when the kids play well!

Benjamin entertained himself for a long time by making various versions of this tower.

Elizabeth thought it was fun to knock the tower down!


Later in the evening, Elizabeth was being so good to just wander around upstairs. She wasn't really doing anything in particular, except carrying a Magna Doodle and being so cute. I couldn't edit down the amount of pictures, because I like them all for different reasons :)

She loves to spontaneously go into this position! Do we have a future yoga instructor on our hands?

This was recently after dinner -- can you tell?! Although she is still very small for her age, she has grown a lot the last month. She has turned into a carnivore -- her favorites are the baby meat sticks and chicken nuggets.

Walking and Talking

Elizabeth will be 13 months old tomorrow, and she is so much fun! She loves to walk all around the house. She makes circles around the kitchen island . . . sometimes just looking, sometimes bringing toys with her, and other times finding placemats and tupperware in drawers.



One of her favorite toys right now is phones. She loves to carry them on her shoulder and just walk around. It always amazes me how quickly babies catch on to things. I am maybe on the phone once or twice a day -- not that often at all. And yet she knows exactly what to do with a phone and gets so excited that she is such a big girl!

Back to School

All 3 boys started school this week -- Nathan and Benjamin on Tuesday, and Joshua on Wednesday.

Next year I'll have to remember to save enough time to actually go out on the front porch and take pictures there!

Nathan's in 3rd grade. He's wearing the new school t-shirt that I helped arrange :)

Benjamin is in 1st grade. This is the first year of going the full day.

Joshua is starting preschool at Learning Dynamics -- 3 days a week for just over 2 hours each time. They give him a school bag in class the first day, so he didn't have it yet in the picture.

I am so excited to have some time with just Elizabeth around. She will be my shopping buddy. And on the days when we're not out-and-about during preschool, we will be at home for her morning nap. That means I'll have almost an hour and a half all by myself to get things done! This is a new phase of our lives, and I am excited for it!

County Fair

Today we went to the County Fair for the first time ever. It was a little hot, but we had a great time seeing what it was all about.

We started by looking at the art and quilt ribbon entries. I enjoyed it, the boys were anxious to get out, and I think Ryan was somewhere in the middle! So then we looked at all the cows, sheep, bunnies, etc. I thought the kids would love it . . . again, "when can we go on the rides?" was heard a lot.

Then we found the hit of the day -- the bucking bull. I'm already thinking how I might be able to get this for our elementary school Festival :)

Nathan -- notice the huge smile

Benjamin

Joshua -- I love that the gal working it was nice and gentle at first for the littler kids

Then we stopped for a little cold treat. Did I mention it was HOT?! The boys had snow cones, and Elizabeth shared a Jamba Juice with me. It was her first, and I think she's hooked!

Can I have some more?

Then it was finally time for the rides!

Joshua went on the carousel and then this pirate ride while his brothers went on the bigger rides. His smile was HUGE for the entire 10 minutes that the 2 rides took! He couldn't have been happier!

Nathan on a spinning ride, similar to the tea cups. I get sick just thinking about going around in circles, but he loved it.

After being at Disneyland a few weeks ago, I was surprised how much Joshua (3rd car) and Benjamin (6th car) loved this little coaster that went around in a circle.

The consensus was that we will have to try the Fair again another year!

Happy Girl

Here's what Elizabeth has been up to this week:

She walks everywhere and is really fast. She loves just wandering around the main level, exploring the kitchen, the shoe basket, the windows, and her toys.


She plays a lot with her brothers. In this picture they were having fun with calling her The Queen as she'd sit in the big chair.

She LOVES pushing this tractor around outside. She can walk just fine without it, but this is her "toy". The other day, I walked to a neighbor's house while holding Elizabeth to ask a quick question. On our way back to our house, she saw this tractor in the garage and got very upset when I would not put her down to let her play!

Hard Rock Jungle Style

Ryan's sister, Amy, had some Hard Rock t-shirts that she wanted turned into a quilt. So a few months ago we worked out the design and she found this amazingly-cute fabric. (You can't see the back, which is brown with green and tan polka dots.)

I was able to get it done in time for our trip to Arizona so that she could open it on her birthday. I think she did a great job picking out the fabric. Amy, anytime you want to go into business together -- you pick the fabric, I sew -- let me know!

Enjoying Family Time

Sunday we got the chance to go to Grandma-ma's & Grandpa Long's for dessert . . . a weekly tradition for the local family that we were excited to be a part of this week.

Amazingly there were 11 kids in the house, but they all played so well together!

On Monday we celebrated Amy's birthday with a yummy BBQ and pool party. We spent the rest of the day just relaxing and packing to go home.

The drive home was pretty routine, except for when we went to put in a DVD for the kids. We could not get the DVD player to work at all. There is a disc in there, but we can't even get it to eject, let alone play. Maybe the DVD system got reset or something when we had the battery problems. Usually we only watch about 2 movies on the 11-hour drive, but it was hard when the kids got restless to not be able to turn something on for them!

Elizabeth & Benjamin enjoying the McDonald's play place on the way home.

We had a FANTASTIC vacation. Now it is time to enjoy being home and enjoy the last 2 weeks before school starts!

The Fun Continues

Our original plan for our anniversary vacation was to leave Anaheim late Thursday morning, returning to Mesa and our children around dinner-time. But about 6 weeks before the vacation was to take place, Ryan's parents approached us about another idea: they wanted to surprise our kids (and the other grandkids, also) by taking them to Disneyland, too! (I guess everyone thought that Ryan and I had a good idea!)

The way the plan worked out: Grandma, Grandpa, Kaley, & Chase brought our kids to Disneyland on Tuesday, getting there in the late afternoon. Our boys were told they were in the car to go find a bowling alley or arcade. Of course they made a few comments that the car ride was getting long, and they would rather find one closer to Grandma's house! But I hear their faces lit up with joy and a little shock when they got out of the car in Anaheim and realized they were just steps away from Disneyland!


Tuesday night and Wednesday it was just our kids with the 4 adults. (They kept us posted through texts of where they were in the park, so that Ryan and I wouldn't run into them yet.) Wednesday afternoon/evening, the rest of the aunts, uncles, and cousins made it to Anaheim and joined the crew. Thursday morning, Ryan and I caught up to everyone in California Adventure, near the Midway Mania ride (LOVE that ride!). I think it was Benjamin that said, "What are you doing here?" This surprised me since I would think they would want us here now that all the rest of the family was here!


Thursday was Orange Day for two reasons:
1. We have found that when you are a group of 25 people, it is just easier to find one another (and to catch up in line . . . "excuse me, I'm with that orange group right there"!) when we all are wearing the same color.
2. Orange is Chris' favorite color. His birthday was on Tuesday, but we were celebrating it in the park today. Cassi made up a cute scavenger hunt for him throughout the day -- so creative!

Elizabeth -- 3 days of Disney can wear you out!

The kids watching the California Screamin' roller coaster come zoomin' by the pier

Friday was Green Day -- Amy's favorite color . . . her birthday was just a few days away.

Getting on the "Pirates" ride

Snack time -- great "morning hair"!

cousin Katelyn

Joshua

cousin Bradley

Nathan & Mom on Dumbo

Joshua & Dad on Dumbo

Herding our group to the next ride

cousin Bradley on Tom Sawyer's island

We had to share the Gibson Girl Ice Cream experience with our kids!

Grandma & Elizabeth

Saturday morning, our family and Ryan's parents headed back to Mesa while the rest of the gang stayed a little longer in the park. We enjoyed swimming and just hanging out when we got back that afternoon. Nathan had some fun making inventions with all of his fast food trash:

a tank & an airplane

Joshua made a train

We had a fantastic week -- thanks Partridge family and Disneyland for the great memories!