Disneyland Family Vacation 2012

Our annual "summer" vacation has come and gone. But the memories of this one will absolutely last forever. We had an unforgettable 4 days together at Disneyland-California Adventure last week. All 13 of us (plus two on the way!) had a blast. It went better than I could have ever imagined!

Here is the top 10...

#1 THANK YOU, once again, to my Mom and Dad/Mormor and Papa for your really fun idea and generosity in making this trip happen. The looks on their faces as they enjoyed Disney with their grandkids said it all. Here is just one example...

#2 The Grand Californian Hotel. Wow. As if the really short walk to both parks wasn't enough, this amazing oasis provided us with afternoon naps, pool time, breakfast with Disney characters, and much much more. Bunk beds in the rooms, pack 'n play cribs that fit in the closet, chocolates on our pillows, and a special TV channel where a different Disney princess read my girls a bed time story every night...this place was a parents child's dream come true.

#3 Permissive parenting. Cotton candy before dinner? Sure. Chocolates before bed? Why not. Ridiculous Princess Mouse ears? Of course. Staying up past 9pm every night? Absolutely. It is really nice to have every excuse to just say YES to your kids every once in awhile :)

#4 The weather. Want to know the absolute best time to go to Disneyland? I'll tell you...the week after Spring Breaks are over, on days when they predict rain, but no rain comes...and you get to WALK ON almost all the rides. We are officially ruined for all future visits to Disneyland.

#5 Soarin' Over California ride at California Adventure. This was my FAVORITE ride. And pregnant moms could do this ride - so I did it twice in a row. Imagine feeling like you are flying over Napa, Morro Bay, Lake Tahoe, Malibu, San Diego and more. I can't believe I was ever hesitant to move to this amazingly beautiful state. This ride was a highlight for me!

#6 World of Color show at California Adventure. This show is unbelievable. Unlike anything I have ever seen. Thankfully it more than made up for the one hour of keeping our crazy 2 year-old contained in the viewing area before the show started (at 8:30pm).

#7 The Ariel ride at California Adventure. Singing every Little Mermaid song with my daughters as we spun through Ariel's world in a clam shell was this Little Mermaid loving Mama's dream!

#8 Girl-Boy experience. The fun thing about having all boy cousins is that we got to experience both sides of Disneyland. From fairies and princesses to fighting Darth Vader...love it!

#9 The happiness factor. Disneyland really is like another world. Our faces hurt from smiling. The following 23 seconds (captured right as California Adventure opened) pretty much sum up the week.

#10 The cousins. Oh my word these kids had fun together. Here were a few of our attempts to get a group shot of these darling munchkins.

Almost got all 5 of them in there.

This shot actually captures them in their natural state.

Finally we got smart and gave them candy so they would sit still for a picture.

What a trip. What wonderful time as a family!

And a few more picture highlights for fun...

And just like that, she's FIVE!

Five. 

How on earth did that happen?

It honestly feels like yesterday that we drove at lightening speed to the hospital downtown Denver and a couple crazy hours later I gave birth to my beautiful daughter and became a mom. It feels like yesterday that she took her first steps in our townhouse in Littleton. It feels like yesterday that we packed her little 2 year old self in a car and drove to California to start a new chapter in all our lives...or that she started preschool...or that she moved from a toddler bed to the top bunk (oh wait, that practically was yesterday). It all feels like yesterday, but it wasn't.

What do they say about the first five years of a child's life? That they are the most important and formative years in a child's life. Oh my word, how did we do?

Samantha Joy. Samantha means 'God heard'. Yes, He most certainly heard our prayers for a child. And He saw fit to give us this remarkable child. And Joy. Yes, she is...even when she isn't.

Samantha has always seemed older than she is. Perhaps because she was totally conversational by age 2. Perhaps because she is really stinking smart (if I do say so myself). At her preschool conference the teachers feedback was summarized like this....
1. She is totally ready for Kindergarten, more than ready
2. She is moody
3. She talks about God a lot
I love this feedback because it is totally her.
Our smart, moody, spiritually sensitive little munchkin.

Sam is also...a daredevil (see missing front tooth), a water/beach girl, nurturing, sassy, the best-big-sister-ever, creative, stubborn, dramatic, artistic, energetic, messy, tough, a picky eater, sensitive, quick-thinking, spunky, intense, and affectionate.

Oh how we love her! What an honor to be her parents.

Happy birthday Samantha Joy.

5 years of Samantha...

Credit and thanks to Stacy Bostrom for the two really good photos on this post (sand and laying in grass!).

Disneyworld...er...land, make that Disneyland

We have a REALLY big family vacation coming up. 3 nights and 3 days at Disneyland...with 5 children ages 5 and under. Whoa! This is our annual "summer" vacation with my entire side of the family (flying in from Nashville and Chicago). And there is a little bit of a story behind this "summer" vacation in April.

Here is how it all went down... It was Christmas in Illinois and it was time for the big reveal. Papa and Mormor gathered all 13 of us in the living room with the intent of revealing the surprise location for our summer vacation this year. We had already decided on the week in August ages ago (like we always have to do so it works for everyone's schedule) but this year the location was a surprise.

They sat us down, handed each family a monogrammed duffel bag and instructed us to open in. We pulled out Micky Mouse ears. We pulled out a brochure for the really sweet hotel that was already booked. We were being videotaped. Mouths dropped and kids danced together. Wow. 5 days in Disneyworld in Florida. Holy cow, we did not see this coming.

I watched the elation in the room and as Samantha jumped for joy with her cousins I choked back tears and tried hard to look super excited for the camera. There was no way I was going to impact this moment for everyone else by revealing what we had just discovered a couple weeks earlier...I was pregnant...due in August...and most definitely wouldn't be traveling to Florida at 38 weeks. No family vacation for my family this summer. I made up some lame excuse for needing to bathe my kids and got upstairs before I totally lost it.

Later that night while watching basketball together I decided I couldn't carry our big secret any longer. I told them I was pregnant. Trust me, this was a TOTAL surprise, I explained. They were all thrilled (of course) and I had adjusted a bit and was going to be OK with missing the vacation. I mean if there is a good excuse for skipping out on a trip, it is a baby.

What I didn't expect was the ALL FOR ONE, AND ONE FOR ALL response that we got. They didn't want to go to Disneyworld without us. Awwww. We talked about earlier dates for the trip in April so the airlines would actually let me on a plane. The thought of traveling across the entire country pregnant with two children was a bit daunting for me, but we were game.

Then the next morning my dad woke up with an epiphany. Would the kids really know the difference between Disneyworld and Disneyland? No, no they wouldn't. Why not change the trip to Disneyland, then the pregnant woman wouldn't have to trek 2,000+ miles over 10+ hours on 2+ planes (x2). Sounded good to me! And sounded good to everyone else. My mom had the hardest time adjusting as she has emotional connections with Florida and Disneyworld, but adding a couple extra days in Laguna Beach for her and my dad seemed to help.

So there it is, the story of how Disneyworld turned into Disneyland.

But really, this is also the story of an incredibly loving family who didn't want to leave my clan behind...a family who knows me well enough, loves me well enough, to know that pregnancy is super stressful for me and was willing to adjust the plan for this high-maintenance mama.

I'm so excited. This trip is going to be SO MUCH FUN. And the thought of those 5 little cousins boppin' around the happiest place on earth together brings a BIG smile to my face already.

It's a GIRL! (And a few unexpected hours of letting go.)

We recently found out we are having a GIRL

Yay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Being the oldest of 3 girls myself, the fact that we will have 3 girls leaves me both thrilled and terrified. Why terrified you might ask. Well I'll tell you...because I remember the teenage years...very clearly. But I also remember the fun and the bond of an all-girl household. And every day I get to live out the reality of having two best friends who are my sisters. In addition to all of that, having kids of all the same gender sounds simpler somehow. We have the clothes, the toys, and the fairy wings...we are in the girl mode and mindset, and we get to stick with the really good thing we have going on in this household already.

I am very excited to have 3 girls. But most of all I feel incredibly blessed to be having a 3rd child.

After the high of the ultrasound experience faded and I found myself with a few minutes alone at home I was hit with something really unexpected. Something that felt like loss. As excited as I was to be having another girl, I all of the sudden realized that this meant I wasn't ever going to be giving birth to a boy. No boy. And a felt a little sad about that. No tripping on cars and trucks, not a lot of blue or camouflage, no football, no mother/son outings, no seeing Chris with a son.

For 12 hours I had to work through this loss and let it go. I felt really guilty about my feelings, but honestly they weren't directed toward the precious baby inside, they were feelings related to "the void of a baby boy" that just became a reality. There were even tears. By the next morning I was A-O-K. And now I feel like I have let go. In the end I think it was actually an important thing to go through. I think losses in our life, even losses that are because of a gain, are important to acknowledge so that we can let them go.

So back to my baby girl.

Monday all four of us got to spend 20 minutes or so with our girl. I did something I swore I'd never do (I'm getting famous for that). We went to a place that does elective "just for fun" ultrasounds. My OB office only does the one ultrasound at 20 weeks and for some reason we came away from that appointment with 2 pictures, neither of which were any good. I didn't get any pictures from my first appointment at 9 weeks (because that appointment was a total fiasco where I was falsely told I had had a miscarriage!). Since this is going to be my last pregnancy I am feeling even more sentimental about it and I really wanted some good documentation of this child. I told Chris this was my Mother's Day wish (a little early) and the appointment did not disappoint. Happy Mother's Day to me!

I can't wait to meet this child. Actually, strike that, I can totally wait...because we aren't even remotely ready for her, and I absolutely need Abby to be 4 months older and Sam to be in Kindergarten before the bambino arrives. 15-18 more weeks should be just right, and I can't wait to meet her then.

Love you baby girl.

Spring "Break"

We are coming to the end of WEEK 2 of Spring Break for Samantha.

Spring Break for preschoolers is kind of funny to me. Do they need a break?  Really? I'm sure their teachers certainly need a break, so I am glad for the teachers. But for my preschooler, I think Spring Break is kind of a bummer. She literally skips to school. She adores the social interaction, the learning, the playground, the time away from home. She loves school. She needs school. She misses school. And add to all of that the fact that I don't have a preschooler who is OK with staying at home and being mellow. I have the kind of preschooler who has been known to ask upon exiting Seaworld or the zoo, "What are we going to do now?" After nearly 2 weeks, I'm about done answering the question, "What are we going to do today Mom?"

Don't get me wrong, Spring Break has been fun and Samantha has truly done great, but it's been 2 WEEKS now, and it hasn't really felt like a break for Mama. In fact, I lost out on my normal break of 3 days/15 hours a week where I only have one child with me...so I'm exhausted. And I'm 21 weeks pregnant. And I have a 2 year old. So, really, I'm totally EXHAUSTED.

Here is a little pictorial highlight of our Spring Break activities, including, but certainly not limited to:
a visit to Zoomars, egg hunts (there were 4 just for the record), a 2nd birthday, a little beach time, Kelly Clarkson concert (just mom and dad at that one), and The Lorax at La Paloma. And that list doesn't even include a beach birthday party for my April babies, or Easter.

Whew. No wonder I am exhausted.

I leave you with a short clip from the Kelly Clarkson concert. 

I think the words, "what doesn't kill you makes you stronger" could be applied to Spring Break this year.

One more day to go...

Fun back story on the Kelly show...my sister's dear friends from Nashville are Kelly's backup singers. 

Jill and Kate are awesome and extremely talented women, who also love my sister and her sweet husband and babysit my nephew. It was a treat to get to hang out with them in their dressing room for an hour before the show, and very fun to watch them on stage. 

And truly, you haven't lived until you have been on your feet with crazed Kelly fans for an hour and a half...in wedge flip flops...at 21 weeks pregnant...an hour past your bedtime. 

It was a super fun and memorable date!

What a weekend!

This was quite a weekend.  I kind of feel like I have a birthday and Easter hangover.

This weekend
...we REMEMBERED the most important death ever
...we CELEBRATED 2 & 5 years with our girls
...we REJOICED in the resurrection
...we ENJOYED friends and God's beautiful creation and this BLESSED life.

As I said, it was quite a weekend.

And just like that, she's TWO!

First things first. Special thanks to a special friend and special photographer Stacy Bostrom who seems to haphazardly snap photos at playdates...yet they come out like THIS one. Thanks Stacy!

My baby girl is 2 today. 2 years old. I can't even believe it.

Abigail Charis means 'source of joy' and 'grace' and no two words fit this child more. I knew Abby was going to be a source of joy for us, but I didn't anticipate what joy she would bring to so many other people. And grace. Yes. I will always see my second daughter as a gift of grace from her loving Father. A gift after heartache that seemed late in coming, but was actually perfect timing.

Abby continues to be a great source of entertainment for us. She is a clown and has all three of us laughing at her daily. I will admit, her hilariousness and ridiculous cuteness make her hard to discipline sometimes. Her expressive face is her biggest entertaining asset. It will be interesting to see if 'funny' continues to be a defining quality for Abby throughout her life.

Abby continues to be SMITTEN with her older sister. "Where's Sammy?" are usually the first words out of her mouth when she wakes up. I often catch Abby hugging Sam out of the corner of my eye throughout the day. She wants to do everything her sister does, and although Abby is also fiercely independent, being separated from Sam is one of the most devastating experiences for Abs.

When she was a baby we used to call her 'Happy Abby' and after surviving a few months of 'Crabby Abby' due to teething and language frustration I am glad to report that she is happy once again. I can wake this child up from a nap to go pick up her sister at school and she will be all smiles (a habit her sister and I DO NOT share with her). Abby is full of hugs and affection, which is a nice compliment to her sometimes rough and aggressive habits. And just because she is happy does not mean that she is not also extremely strong-willed (apparently that trait is a dominant trait in this family).

Abs, Abby-cadabby, sweet Abigail,

...our source of joy and gift of grace, our little sister with the big personality, our feisty, happy, naughty, loving little girl who likes to eat and can't sit still,

...HAPPY 2nd BIRTHDAY little one.

We are SO IN LOVE with you! 
You have blessed us all abundantly.