Disneyland

So my Brother-in-Law, Evan Mountford, graduated from Chiropractic school in December. My sister decided to throw him a big graduation party and since family was coming down we also threw in a trip to Disneyland since their passes were about to expire. I left John here by himself for 4 days and drove down with my mom and another couple that are really good friends of Emily and Evan's. It was such a help to have them along, it gave Michael someone else to talk to besides me. My dad drove down in a different car with my Grandpa which turned out to be a good thing because they ended up leaving town early to take my Grandpa to the emergency room up here so that they wouldn't get stuck down there if he was admitted.

Anyways, so we drove down Wednesday and went to disneyland on Thursday. Emily had accumulated a lot of Disney Credits so we all (my dad, grandpa, me and Michael) got into the park for $1.00. Yes 25 cents each. The first thing we saw when we got in the park was the Hooks and Ladders Co.
Here is our group watching the show. (I should get the video's from my dad) You can't really see Michael and Matthew's face, but they are there looking behind them.
Chip and Dale came out to join the frenzy.

Then Cruella Deville came out to torcher everyone and to try and buy the firehouse dog.

Then Goofy came out to get giggy with us.

Then we headed over to It's a Small World so that my Grandpa could enjoy some nostalgia. The Christmas decorations were so awesome.

While we were waiting for my Grandpa to make it through the handicap line My sister took over waiting with him and my dad came with me and the kids to ride the Alice and Wonderland caterpillars. Since we were still waiting for Great Grandpa and since it was that time anyways, we stopped for a lunch break. Evan found us there.Along with Janae Gonzales and her family. We knew they would be there that day but it's still funny that we ran into them right outside "It's a Small World after all."

After lunch we decided to head over to California Adventures and ended up running into the Marry Poppins Band. Emily hadn't seen this show yet and was very grateful to see it before their passes expired. Bert showing Matthew and Michael how to make faces.

The second time they pulled this out Michael ran over to "Help" them put it back in. I didn't notice at first since I was taking pictures so I ran over there to get him and Bert said (In his accent of course), "It's alright, He's just being a helpful little chap." I thought that was pretty cool that they weren't annoyed with kids crossing the line.

I don't know if the previous incident is why but Marry Poppins chose Michael first to dance with her. I was pretty excited and started clicking my camera like crazy. Here are the best pictures I got though.

"Chim, Chiminy, Chim, Chiminy, Chim, Chim, Cheree."

Michael even got to hold Bert's hand.

When that was over we continued our course to California Adventures but we were stopped yet again when we saw the opportunity to meat Mickey and Goofy. When I had told Michael we were going to Disneyland the day before he asked if we were going to meet Mickey Mouse and I said yes and then he asked if he could talk and I said, "No, he can't talk." and then he asked if he could run and I said, "No, he probably can't run." Then he asked if he could walk with him and I said, "Maybe." Then he asked if he could give him lovins. and I said, "YES." It was sucha cute conversation so I'm glad we had the opportunity to meet Mickey Mouse.

We finally made it outside Disneyland and while we were waiting to get in Michael and I had fun posing on the candycane striped letters that spelled CALIFORNIA.

L is for Lucky Lorina

A is for Awesome

and Adorable

and Arriba (spanish for 'up')

Once we got in we were trying to hurry to the Bugs Life Show and had to watch out for this float. Michael stopped a couple times and I was like, "Come on hurry up." and he's like, "NO, I have to dance." It was hilarious. Finally I told him he could dance while he walked.

We let Emily and Evan go ride the roller coaster alone (which they had also never done and wanted to before passes expired) while we went to see the "It's tough to be a bug" show. After that we went over to the Bugs life Kid ride area to wait for them. I sat with Great Grandpa and Vivian (hoping she would fall asleep) while Grandpa took Michael, Rebecca and Mathew on all the little rides there. (And we were worried he wouldn't have enough time witht he grandkids... I think he was pretty tired after that.)

Emily and Evan still weren't back so we headed over to Turtle Talk. Some teenagers gave the kids some streamers. (Thank-you, thank-you) They had so much fun dancing and twirling with them while we waited to go in.

They made for some pretty cool pictures too.

Vivian kept seeing how far she could get before I could catch her. I'm glad the other kids were occupied because this one kept me running any time she got out of the stroller.

After that we watched the parade from behind the crowd (Emily and Evan had gotten us priority seating but without Great Grandpa, who was using the restroom, we couldn't use them.) Then we decided to send the kids and Great Grandpa home with Evan and then Emily and I could enjoy some time with our Dad. The kids were able to entertain themselves on the tram ride pushing eachother heads.

When we got back to the park My Dad got a super cool shot of the Christmas tree with the Moon in the background posing as the star.

We tried to do things that weren't possible with kids but I don't know if we were successful. We rode the submarine, Materhorn, and Buss Lightyear. We had just enough time for one more ride before the park closed so we choose... The Tea Cups.

Dad and Emily

Lorina and Dad

Emily and Lorina

I wish John had been there to enjoy it but I'm sure we'll get a chance to go some day. It was really nice to take the day at a slow pace and enjoy the shows and not worry about rushing to get as many rides in as possible which is how I usually am at Theme Parks.

Thanks Emily for giving us a trip to Disneyland. It was so great to see The Happiest Place on Earth at Christmas time. And Congratulations to Evan, Doctor of Chiropractic. It was so great to be there for your Graduation, We are so proud of you!

New Job

New Years Eve a Sister in our Ward decided to throw a big party. The turnout was really great and I got to talk to several people that I just haven't had the chance to get to know very well, so I had a blast.

I was talking to one of the sisters about her kids (Naomi-8 and Malacai-1.5) She is functioning as a single parent right now and is working full time. She has the older one in before and after school programs and the younger one in day care all day. She had a few concerns about the day care she was using so I offered to take care of him since I am home all day anyways and I live a lot closer to her than where she was taking him before.

I asked John what he thought about the whole thing and he said it was GREAT and that he had been praying for something to come along that would help us financially since we've always been full tithe payers. We decided to try it out that Friday and see how it would work.

Meet Malacai!

He is such a sweet, tongan boy. He is 6 weeks older than Vivian and almost the size of Michael and seems to weigh either the same or more than Michael. My kids love having Malacai come over. Vivian was getting a little tired of Michael not giving her any space to play by herself so now they each have more alone playtime while the other two are playing together.

Sheree (Malacai's mom) drops him off around 8 in the morning and comes to pick him up around 6. She works everyday except everyother monday. It's nice to have one day off that I can schedule my appointments on.

He is such a good nap taker that he just takes a nap on the couch while Michael watches a movie.

One day, a couple weeks ago I also took on watching another friend's 4 kids so I had 7 kids in my house all at once. There was Macey (5 months) don't mistake her for the doll.

Then Chase who is 2. Chase fell asleep in the car before she even dropped them off so he woke up a couple hours later in a strange place.
Then there is Andrew (standing) age 7 and Ty (looking away) age 4 who loved playing rough with Michael. I had put Vivian to sleep before they got there and she ended up sleeping over 4 hours even with all the noise. But I am grateful because she would have been fighting for my attention with all those other kids there too. John brought Pizza home with him so they all enjoyed that and I'm glad because there was no way I was going to try to cook dinner with 7 kids in my house.


These are some pictures of this morning. She is way too much like me with some of her tendencies.
See the bananas lined neatly in a row?
Then I looked back a few minutes later and she had 4 of them stacked on top of eachother but by the time I got the camera she had eaten one and had another one in her hand so there was only 2 left in this picture.
Then I took some more pictures of the cute kids. Malacai looked adorable in this hat.
I love his long hair and wish that Vivian had nice thick, long hair like this.
Aren't they so cute together. When we fisrt moved into this ward before either of them was old enough for nursery we would tease them for flirting and stuff.

Vivian and Malacai are both cuddly and often have to share my lap so that I am not ignoring the other one.

Malacai doesn't use too many words yet but being around Vivian and Michael (who dont' stop talking) is good for him, his language use has picked up a lot the last few weeks.

My adorable princess, I had to snap this picture real quick before she turned the hat around. She prefers to wear it backwards.
And here is Michael still in his favorite Dinasaur pajama's that Nana gave him for Christmas.

I love my new job and we all enjoy having Malacai over to play.

We're Still Alive!!!

OK, I know it's only been a month since my last post but it seems like forever because I'm so behind. But we're alive and doing well and (for once) not too sick. I'm finally starting to get in the groove of things after the holiday's so this time I really am going to update the blog like I said I was going to. I have all the pictures ready to go so I don't have anymore excuses. I hope you all enjoy my next few posts and hope you all had a great holiday season.
This is just a cute pic of Michael from last friday when we went to my friend Mallory's house in Lathrop. He sat there for a good half hour playing with this toy lap top. I guess that is a good thing though because the kids that were actually interacting with eachother all got sick. Vivian was anti-social the whole time too but that is normal for her.

Sweet Boy

Michael Quote of the Day: John was running late for work this morning so in his haste he said, "Vivian, MOVE!" and Michael says, "Say 'excuse me' Daddy." I have no idea where he learned his manners but he is a really sweet boy. I know that I get really frustrated with him a lot but moments like these remind me of the sweet spirit that he has been blessed with. I've never really paid much attention to the spiritual gifts that kids possess, but that is definitely one of his.

Soooo... I've been a complete slacker in the whole blogging thing the past few weeks. But I wanted everyone to know that I am still alive and that I've just been busy. The kids and I just got back on Saturday from So Cal. My Brother-in-law graduated from Chiropractic school so we went down for his graduation and threw in a trip to Disneyland. It was such a blast I just wish John could've come. I'll try to get the pics from that up soon but I can't promise how soon because things are still pretty crazy around here. But look forward to me catching up on my blogs before the end of the year.