Mother's Day

I am so spoiled and so blessed!  I have the most amazing family ever!  So, for Mother's Day this year, my hubby brought me home 2 dozen roses and a "chick flick" to snuggle and watch together. It's one of my favorite things in the world be wrapped up in his arms.  For someone as tall as I am, it's hard to feel delicate or even small and fragile.  Shawn has this amazing way of making me feel like I am worth more than anything, and as fragile as a porcellian doll.  So after we put the kids in bed on Saturday night, we watched "The Vow".  I really thought I was going to like that movie, but it wasn't that good.  But, it was the thought that counted. 

When I woke up on Sunday morning, the kids brought me breakfast in bed (A blueberry bagel and Dr. Pepper - YUMMY).  Shawn had bought a mother's day coursage for the kids to give me to wear to church.  Then Shawn (with the help of the kids) wrote me a poem.  I cried!  I sometimes feel like it is so hard to raise 5 kids, and keep the house clean, homework done, piano practiced, running kids to and from their activities.  I feel like I am going to "drop the ball" sometimes.  But, my family always lets me know that somehow - I am doing an okay job!  I love my family soooo much!

Disneyland 2012

We took our first trip to Disneyland as a family this year.  It was absolutely perfect!  I don't know how it could have gone any better.  We left on Monday morning at 3:30am (we wanted kids to sleep most of the way).  We stopped in St. George for breakfast & a potty break, then it seemed like no time and we were in Anaheim.  I was expecting the drive to be the worst part of the whole trip...but it wasn't bad at all!  The kids were fantastic.  When we got to California, we checked into our condo, then went and got grocieries at Costco.  We had plans to eat breakfast each morning in the condo, and pack a lunch to take into the park.  Then we went to Downtown Disney District.  The kids had saved their money to do a build-a-bear in Disneyland.  Then we took them to Goofy's Kitchen to eat.  It was an amazing experience.  Most of the food is centered around kids, so you know they got tons to eat.  Then Disney characters came and signed autographs and took pictures at your table with you.  It was so much fun to see the kids faces light up when those characters came to see them.

The next day was our first full day at Disneyland!  The weather was perfect and so were the crowds.  I think we may have had to wait in 2 lines, otherwise we just walked on to all of the rides. 

 The morning of the first day we wanted to take the boys to Jedi Training Academy.  Kids get chosen from the crowd to come up on stage and participate.  My worry was that 1-2 of my boys would get chosen, but someone would get left out.  But, all three boys were chosed to participate up on stage.  They were so cute!  I was so proud watching my boys fighting Darth Maul and Darth Vador!

We had so much fun at Disneyland.  The next day we went to California Adventure.  We told the kids that if they went on every ride with us at California Adventure, then we would take them to the Rainforest Cafe for dinner.  McKenzie was scared to death to go on California Screamin'  but she dug up enough courage to go with us.  It was funny too, because as soon as she rode it once, she wanted to go again - now she says it was her favorite ride!  Taking the kids on the Tower of Terror was fun too.  They were so scared - but we all had a lot of fun.

On the third day, we went back to Disneyland. I made reservations for Brooke and McKenzie to go to the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique.  This cute little shop next to the castle that does hair and makeup and treats your little girls like princesses.  It was so much fun to watch them get pampered by their fairy godmother in training.

While I had the girls busy at the boutique, Shawn took the boys back over to tommorowland to build a jedi light saber.  They were huge - I really think that Carson's light saber is as big as he is!

We had tons of fun riding rides, visiting characters and getting autographs!

At the end of each day, we watched Fantasmic, World of Color, and the big fireworks show.  They were amazing, but Carson always seemed to fall asleep before each show!

What an amazing trip!  We had tons of  fun together as a family - I would do it again in a heartbeat!

We came home with tons of smiles!  These kids are spoiled rotten  : )