California Day Three

Day three in California we spent the day with my Aunt and her family. They had a wonderful bbq (the best meal from our trip). Here is Jonah doing flips on the front lawn. My tailbone hurt just watching him.
The kids loved all the beautiful flowers and plants in their yard, they even had avocado trees and a lemon tree. Emma now wants to live in California so she can have lemons whenever she wants.
They had a climbing wall in the garage that Jonah and Hudson "beat."
My cousin and her husband were really patient with Hudson and played ping pong with him for a long time.



We also went to church with my Aunt and we were lucky enough that it was Stake Conference, which was lucky because Tanner, from our ward, is serving as a missionary in that stake. We were able to see Tanner and even visit with him for a few minutes.
It was one of our favorite days in California.

He Knows!

I just had to post about a conversation I had with our sweet Jonah Monday night. He had given the lesson for family night on temples and being a forever family. I helped him but he really did most of it. When I was tucking him in this conversation took place:

J: "Mom, I have something to tell you."

M: "What?"

J: "I know I was supposed to be in our family."

M: "Oh Jonah, I'm so happy you finally know!" (We have talked about this a lot because he has a lot of questions about why he was born in Ethiopia if Heavenly Father wanted him in our family.)

J: "I really do. I felt something here (pointing to his heart) when I was talking (at FHE)."

M: "Jonah, I want you to remember how you feel. That is the Holy Ghost telling you that it is true."

J: "I will. Mom, will you tell Dad? I want him to know."

Isn't that the cutest? I've been meaning to write it down. I was reminded this morning when I walked in the kitchen only to overhear Jonah telling the other kids that "he knows". What a simple yet HUGE step in our family. We love our little Jonah so much, he is growing up so fast!!

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California Day Two

On our second day in California, we went to Disneyland. We started in Fantasyland and went on Peter Pan, Dumbo, and all the other rides. I snapped the picture above during the Snow White ride. This is Gracie seeing the evil queen fall off the cliff.

The teacups made me feel old. I did not want to spin, but I fell to the pressure of the two boys sitting with me and boy did we spin. I still feel a little dizzy.

Here are the kids patiently waiting to see the princesses.
Ring around the rosie with Belle and Jasmin.
We then went to ToonTown and enjoyed the rides there.

We went to Tomorrowland and went on most of the rides there even though Space Mountain was closed. We then went to the celebration parade where it was hot and the dancers were literally dripping sweat.

We stopped for a photo in Tarzan's Treehouse

Shelly was a trooper and waited two hours saving us a place at the fantasmic firework show that night. Meanwhile, the kids and I went on the Matterhorn and Star Tours. All of Shelly's work paid off, the kids loved the show. I found out afterward that after those two hours saving us a spot a couple came in at the last minute and stood directly in front of Shelly, so she actually didn't even see the show that she worked so hard to see. I was upset that Shelly didn't tell me so that I could ask the couple to move or atleast give her my spot. What this really does is speak to how much Shelly and I didn't see eachother during our vacation. With four kids, even with Shelly's parents, we were always preoccupied with the kids, it wasn't until the ride home that we really got to talk and be with each other.
Day Two was perfect, all in all, we went on 23 rides, saw a parade and a firework show.

California Day One.

Last month we packed up the kids (except Sammy, he got to stay with his aunt), Grammy, Grandpa and we drove to California to have a week long vacation.
It was a long drive, but the kids did well. They had all the food and treats they wanted and watched movies the whole time. Hudson even said it was funner than being home (Of course that comment was made 4 hours into the trip, 5 hours in he asked why we didn't fly).
We arrived at the hotel in Anaheim late in the afternoon, so we still had time to swim and order pizza.

Tinkerbell is dead

Here is Gracie on her first day of dance class. She loves it so much. She is on my lap right now as I post this and she said "I love to dance around...Dad, did you know that Tinkerbell is dead?" I don't know what to make out of that comment, other than she likes dance.
Gracie also started preschool, she is getting so big. She just pointed at the picture and said "Hey, I have a hair bow like that!"
These pictures are from a family party we went to at Grammy and Grandpa's. The kids had a lot of fun playing down by the creek.



Shelly and her sister took some of the kids to the old train museum where kids get to climb all over trains. Hudson says that next time he is going to climb to the top of the black train and look down the chimney.
I just figured out the dead Tinkerbell thing. Next to the keyboard is Gracie's Tinkerbell doll. The doll is missing it's head, hence Tinkerbell probably will not pull out of this one, pixie dust or not.

Emma's Baptism

Congratulations Emma on your beautiful baptism day! She was very excited and had a wonderful day.
We had our family's over for lunch after the baptism. Emma helped Gracie get her teeth clean. We are limited on our dental toys, so salon toys had to be used too.




Why all the dental work? Because Shelly made these yummy cake balls and Gracie ate a lot of them.Time outs don't occur as often as they used to. This morning Jonah and Hudson were fighting and got sent to time out to calm down. Sammy was so sad for them and hugged them the whole time.