DISNEYLAND

Monstrous lines, inflation, tantrums, airplane ride with children, public restrooms,…these are all things that come to mind when I think of taking a vacation to Disneyland. So, why am I always so excited to go? Well, I gotta tell you…I love Disneyland!!! The bright colors, characters, inspired settings, variety of rides, expensive souvenirs, well, I love it all! A $7 ice cream cone never tasted so delicious! Visiting Disneyland with my family is truly one of my favorite things to do. The excitement on the kids’ faces as we see a character come to life or the enthusiasm shown as we are about to climb onto a ride makes it worth the hassle.

We started off the vacation a little rough by almost missing our flight…yes, they actually called our names over the intercom and then lectured us as we were boarding our flight. Whoops! Disneyland was great, though…especially when we were able to utilize our early entry passes. We even got Jace to ride on something other than Small World and Dumbo. I coaxed Hallie into riding Space Mountain with me, and she loved it! So, then she decided she wanted to go on Tower of Terror and California Screamin’. I was a little nervous to take her on either, but she insisted. I don’t know if it was to show up her cowardly dad or an actual desire, but we went and both had a blast! I finally have a partner for Six Flags!!! Whoo hoo!

We also frequented Cheesecake Factory while we were there. As we were enjoying our dessert (Jace licking his ice cream straight from the dish and Hallie talking incessantly about nothing) Kevin looked at me and said, “Our kids are weird.” Before I could agree, Jace looked up and said, “I’m not a kid. I’m a puppy.” Lick, lick. Seriously...what more can I say?

Oh, and not that it matters much, but I totally met Mark from this season’s “The Biggest Loser.” Well, at least I thought it was cool. We really did have a wonderful time!

My cute family (minus Emerie, who was vacationing at home with Grandma Debbie)

Hallie and Jace couldn't get enough of this little water park. Jace even took a couple squirts right in the eye and kept on truckin'.

Hallie and I got quite a giggle out of Cruella-she told Hallie her shirt looked like bad wallpaper. She's great!

It's not a problem getting Hallie to let me take her picture...as you can see, the problem is getting her to stop posing.

Tender Moments

Mornings are few and far between when I actually get to cuddle with any of my children. I’m usually finding a way to drag myself out of bed to then rush and get us all ready to start another day of chaos. However, it is the first day of spring break today, so when Jace crawled in bed with me this morning I was happy to take a moment to cuddle with my little bag of bones. It became an even more precious moment when he leaned up and gave me a little kiss on the cheek. As I was stretching and thinking how I love little moments like these I was rewarded with......a wet willy—so much for my tender moment.

Happy Birthday!!!

It has finally happened...I am now married to a grown-up. Well, in the physical sense anyway. Psychologically, it might just be another story. Kevin turned 30 yesterday. He is a wonderful person, who continually makes me laugh and is not afraid to look like a moron in the process. What can I say? I just love him.

FAVORITES

So, I know in the hypothetical Parents 101 handbook one of the top rules is to not play favorites with your children, but sometimes kids make it really hard. On one hand, I have Emerie who is, seriously, the world’s best baby. This is not “just because I’m her mom” talk either for the reason that Hallie could possibly have been the world’s worst baby. It is just when Emerie is awake she plays quietly with whatever you give her, and she gives heart-tingling smiles when she catches your attention. Another thing that helps Emerie’s standing is she sleeps 19 hours a day still…she knows mommy NEEDS some quiet time. However, Jace and Hallie have completely missed this vital piece of information.

First, I have Mr. Attitude, who seems to never stop talking or pestering and then this week interrupted me while I was telling him to go pick up some toys by yelling, “No, I’m in charge!” I, apparently, didn’t get that memo.

Then I have Hallie, who the majority of the time is a very sweet little girl…that is, until six-year-old hormones kick in. I didn’t realize six-year-olds needed to worry about having too much arm hair or what hairstyle they were getting—I wish she would just focus her energy on actually brushing her teeth now and then.

Don’t get me wrong…I wouldn’t trade my kids for anything, except for maybe a banana shake now and then. Motherhood does have its wonderful moments amidst the chaos. I just didn’t realize the ratio of “wonderful” and “what was I thinking” would be so lopsided.

Here are some pictures to help show that I really do love being a mom...most of the time.

This is the greeting I get every time I get Emerie out of her crib--I love it!

She's not crawling quite yet...but look at that form.

Emerie is the first of my children to not have an automatic detestation for strangers. Whoo hoo!

Emerie is thinking..."I hope Jace can't find me under here."

Don't hate on the hottie!! She might be smuggling popcorn in those britches.

You've got to love blanket huts. I always felt like a genie--so fun. What you can't see is me in there running the show...just teasing.

All I can say is...poor, poor Emerie. Weird...Jace is in his spiderman outfit.

Here's Jace helping with the laundry...oh wait.

Oh, and HAPPY 8th ANNIVERSARY TO KEVIN & ME!!! Boy, do I love my man!

Armpit of the United States

HAPPY EASTER!!!

The world lost a wonderfully sweet lady this month—Kevin’s Grandma Pursel passed away after dealing with both Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. I never used to give the death of an elderly person a second thought before because, well, they were old. I didn’t think a death like this would cause a spouse to grieve as another might who had lost a mate who is still young. Then I realized that a loss like this is still more than I can imagine. They are couples like this who have been companions, lovers and best friends for decades—much longer than the time they were without one another.

With this event I have come to a realization…life really does go by too fast. All those “older” folk that continue to say “time flies by” or “kids grow up too soon” might really know what they are talking about. Who knew?

Accompanying this realization I made a decision…I don’t want to let the days slide by without making the most of my time while I am still “younger”. I have heard people talk about life lists before, but had never thought to make my own. During my time in Nevada I was reading a book that once again talked of life lists. With my recent epiphany I decided this was a great idea. So, here is the beginning of my life list (I figure if I share some with others I’m more likely to actually follow through):

*Read the Book of Mormon (pathetic, I know, I’ve started several times, but never finished)
*Go sky diving
*Run a marathon
*Go deep sea scuba diving
*Learn to play the guitar
*Learn patience AND humility
*Publish a children’s book

These are just to get me started…we’ll say this is my five year plan.

While the trip our family made to Nevada this week was due to a sad event, we also had some sweet moments. The trip always starts and ends on a bad note—I never have been one to enjoy road trips. However, you have to love the comatose state automobile DVD players inflict on children.

We made it to Nevada with making only one stop halfway for gas and grub. However, the trip home was not so smooth sailing. Eight stops. Eight stops. Seriously, eight stops. Jace had to go potty right out of Fallon. If you’ve ever been to Nevada you know its pretty much barren wasteland, so you know you don’t have convenient stops along the way for potty breaks. After two separate stops I finally got Jace to go potty at the side of the road—we did have to find a secluded area to conceal his manly girth, which is a chore in itself because of the “amazing” flora and fauna of the armpit of the United States. He did succeed and was so proud of himself he figured he’d encourage Hallie to do the same. This excitement didn’t last for long because 15 minutes later he had to go “poopoo”. Well, mama don’t play that at the side of the road, so we cruised as quickly as we could to the next trailer park town. This routine repeated itself several times because as it turned out…Jace had the ol’ hershey squirts. I’ve never been so excited to be home in my life. We did have some sweet moments while we were there, though.

Kevin’s sister, Natalie, and her two oldest girls made it over from Alabama. It was really good to see them—Brielle and Brooklyn are like a couple of spirit leaders. We got to visit Kevin’s Aunt Robyn and his purple-haired Grandma Robbins, who spoke of giving strip teases for her guests. We also went bowling where Hallie outscored me, and she didn’t even get to finish all her rounds. Jace was a bit of a different story…he scored 12 and that was with the bumpers up. He had one ball that didn’t even make it to the pins—apparently, he has Kevin’s former arm strength. (Disclaimer: Kevin is waaaaaaaaaay burly and brawny now!) As for Emerie, when she wasn’t sleeping she was wowing everyone with her content, sweet nature and dimpled leg rolls. It was really good to spend this time with my family—they make me laugh and that is one of my favorite things to do!

Reality

So, this is kind of what I was afraid of…that my life would continue to be as boring as usual, and I would not have anything interesting to write about.

My typical day is:

Wake up and get ready
Get kids ready
Eat breakfast
Get Hallie off to school
Teach preschool
Think about the weight-loss program I started that day
Eat a treat
Wish I was a Hilton (“that’s hot”)
Eat another treat
Welcome Hallie home from school
Finish off the rest of my chores for that day while eating more treats. The weight-loss program will just have to start the next day.

If I was being advertised my slogan would be “I just ate my will-power.”

Yep, that’s me. I did, however, manage to embarrass Hallie at the bus-stop this week by yelling at some of the kids from her school. They, apparently, think it is cool to run across the main road in front of large vehicles, buses, dumptrucks, etc. So, being me, I let them know my true feelings…the words “stupid” and “idiot” may have been liberally used. A few days later I walked Hallie up to the bus-stop and noticed a variety of looks I was receiving, which I found to be pretty amusing. Hallie, however, didn’t.

Before the bus arrived she said to me, “Did you want to go home now? Are you cold?”
(I usually stay until I have waved her off in the bus)
Smiling with an idea to what she was getting at, I ask, “Why?”
She answers me with, “Well, I’m a little embarrassed that some of the kids might remember when you yelled at them.”

Seriously, could I have a more devious child? Although, she has made a great turnaround this week from being annoying to somewhat cute again. We’ve been watching American Idol, and she commented after one of the performances, “Yeah, that had a few pitch problems for me.” Hallie is totally in the know. At least we’ve had a rest from Hannah Montana…I’ll count my blessings.

Wow! I Can't Believe I'm Blogging!

So, here's a tidbit of information I'm a bit ashamed to admit...I have, if you can believe it, in the past had a giggle or two about people blogging. I know, I know, I'm not usually one to mock, but go figure. Perhaps I was a bit self-conscious that no one would want to view mine if I ever put one together...Kevin and I aren't a "power couple" like some of our other gifted family members.

However, after becoming more or less enthralled with others' blogs I decided to take a stab at it. Worse case scenario...I'd be talking to myself, which isn't too uncommon anyway. So, with that said, I would like to make my sincerest apologies to those of you who paved the blogging road.

This whole process will be baby steps for me. I may have somewhat of a computer nerd as a dad, but this apple fell far from that tree. I don't know...this will be interesting.