Wow! 7 Already?!

Derek had a great 7th birthday last month.

I asked him what kind of cake he wanted and he said "a camo cake" and that triggered a whole "army theme". We invited some family and a friend over for a little party. It was very low-key, but fun all the same.

My 7 Year Old

I bought army hats at the dollar store and the kids played a relay game where they tossed plastic "army dudes" into them.

Instead of "Pin the Tail on the Donkey", we blindfolded the kids and they shot Nerf darts at the target.

My brilliant sister, Stephanie, made up an obstacle course on the fly. The kids loved it!

After games, we ate cake and ice cream and Derek opened presents. I must say that I was quite proud of the cake. After I Googled "camo cake" for decorating ideas I found fun camo tank cakes. I convinced Derek to let me try a tank instead. It was a lot of fun to make.

My parents...ahhh. McKenna and her cousin Clayton.

Happy 7th Birthday, Derek!! We sure love you!

Derek's First Day of School

I've been looking forward to this day, which is a totally opposite emotion from this post. The boys are getting bored at home and I think school will help. (I still could have used a couple more weeks though.) Derek's birthday is a week from the deadline (Sept. 1) to enter Kindergarten. I put him in when he was 4 and I've always felt like I should have put Derek into school a year later. So with the new school and new neighborhood, we put much thought and prayer into it and decided to put him into First Grade again this year. I think he'll enjoy being the oldest in his class instead of the youngest. He seemed happy to go to school on his first day, and came home happy with reports of new friends already. He told me that his teacher "is young and nice, so young teachers must be nicer than older ones". (His last one was older and a little short-tempered.) He also told me that his teacher is as nice as I am. Ahhh... But there is already trouble and it is very serious. Listen to this..."There are kids blocking the tunnel slide!! And it gets very hot in there!" I'll take this kind trouble versus the teenager kind any day. :)

Please Don't Go, Summer!

Thanks to our brother-in-law, Devin, we once again purchased very discounted season passes to Seven Peaks. We've been able to go quite a few times and the kids live for it. Here are some pictures from our most recent visit. We are hoping to make it back at least one more time before it closes.

(Yes, McKenna is riding backwards in her floaty. She kept leaning forward and almost tipping in, so this was Dave's solution.)

Lazy River

The boys think it is hilarious to dunk their daddy.

McKenna is addicted to this slide and will go as many times as you'll put her up there.

We spend most of our time in this kiddie area. They don't seem to get bored of it.

The Wave Pool

Oh Summer, we sure are going to miss you!

Ahhh...the last days of Summer.

The last visit to the park before school starts. I think it's wrong to make kids start so early. August 19th is still very much Summer!

McKenna is fearless. She does way more than my boys when they were her age. I went down this slide with her the first time, but she was on her own the 10 other times after that. Here's some video footage of it. (I think it's cute how she claps for herself as she walks away.)

The kids love the park and a great way for them to expel energy, but I do get bored fast. Do any of you other moms feel that way?...or am I just no fun.

Our Kenna Girl

I have a lot of catch-up to do, so look for few posts today.

McKenna turned 18 months old on August 4th and I've been wanting to make a post for my memory's sake. She has been such a fun baby and gets plenty of attention from her brothers. McKenna has been slow to start talking, but her vocabulary has really grown in the past couple months. Here's a list of her words and her pronunciation:

Daddy (her first word) - "Da"

Derek - "Dee"

No

Mine - "my"

Cheese - "chee"

Hat - "Haa"

Ball - "Baow"

Car - "Ca"

Bye Bye
Uh-oh

Baby - "Be be"

Thank you - "A- ooh"

Slide - "wee"

She knows the parts of the body and will point to them when you ask where they are.

She loves dress up especially bracelets and necklaces. She'll turn any circular object into one.

She gets very disturbed if she makes a mess and cries out "uh-oh, uh-oh", until it's cleaned up.

She has learned early about guns. She chases us with random objects and makes a girly gun noise like "ch ch".

She will rarely say "bye bye" to you unless the door is closed and you are gone.

She loves shoes and will put yours on if you leave them lying around.

She folds her arms for the prayer and will clap for herself afterward.

She loves being chased and her squeal, that accompanies it, is ear-piercing.

She likes to hold the remote when I rock her to sleep.

She loves pillows and if you tell her to "get comfy" then she'll smile big and lie down on it.

She notices when I wear jewelry and will say "oooh" and point at it.

She cries...a lot. I think there are a couple reasons for that...#1 She has 4 teeth that are coming in all at once and #2 People in this house keep telling her "no".

She actually holds still when I fix her hair.

If you get in her personal space expect her to give you a stiff arm.

After a bath she loves to be wrapped in a towel and called "baby Kenna". She cries when you take the towel away.

Some of her nicknames are: Kenna Girl, Kenna Baby, Pretty Girl, Little Girl, Princess

After you take her picture she runs to see it on the camera.

She makes the funniest faces.

I know all moms say how fast they grow, but this time it really is true. The past 18 months flew by! We love our little girl and would take 8 to 12 more babies just like her. Right, Dave! :) Ha ha ha.

McKenna at 18 months old.

My Brain is Turning to Mush

Okay, I'll admit it....I haven't read a book (besides children's and The Book of Mormon) in years. I have been wanting to get back into that "reading thing again", and with school and soccer starting up I have more time to kill while waiting for kids. However, I need suggestions for a good book to get my interest back. Please leave a comment with your answer to this question: If you were on your death bed and had time for just one more book...what would you read? Any suggestions? (BTW...I'm not dying.)

Disneyland!!

Even though we never had much money growing up, my parents always found a way for us to take a family road trip. That is where most of childhood memories were made. Now that I have my own family I am a firm believer in taking an annual family vacation. Last week we spent 4 days in Disneyland! I've never spent that many days in the park, but we still didn't get to everything. It was a fabulous vacation and we sure can't wait to go again. Oh man...where do I start?
Dave had a CME conference in Anaheim so his work paid for the gas, hotel, and Dave's food. How could we pass up the chance for all of us to go too!? He had a few hours of seminars in the morning and then we'd go into the park after lunch. The kids and I went into the park without him one morning and came home when it got too hot. It was pretty crowded in the afternoons and evenings, but we used a little thing called Fast Pass for the the popular rides. They even have a cool "Switch Rider Pass" that allows families with babies to go in two groups and the second group uses the pass like a Fast Pass with very little wait. It worked perfectly with our family size. Here are my favorites out of the 220 pictures we took.

Dumbo! Derek was 9 months old the last time we went to Disneyland. We have a picture of him riding Dumbo then and look how we've grown over the years! We spent one of our days in California Adventure. It does have a few great reasons to go in, but the kids begged to go back to Disneyland. It was fun, but I'm not sure if we'll spend a whole day in there again.

Please ignore the socks with sandals. :) I thought it was a cute picture. They loved watching their shadows...instead of where they were walking...urgghhh.

There are lines for any character you want a picture with. We found Mickey, Pluto, Minnie, Goofy, and Stitch. Goofy was in a hurry to get somewhere. So we got a picture of the kids with him walking away in the background. We did get cute pictures with Mickey and Pluto though. Sorry Stephanie...we never saw Jack Sparrow. ;)
They have a fun new show inside Disneyland called "Jedi Training Academy". A Jedi Master choses children from the audience and trains them how to use a light saber. Then the stage rises up dramatically and Darth Vader and Darth Mal appear. The kids each get a turn to battle one of the characters. We were too late for seats the first day and just watched from a distance. Dave really wanted the kids to get chosen, so we came back on the last day. This time we were in the front row and Dave coached the kids how to get noticed. Well, Taylor suddenly became against the idea and Derek just stood there with his hand raised while the other kids jumped up and down wildly. Surprisingly, Derek was chosen to participate. (I guess good things do come to the patient ones.) I'm not sure who was more excited about it...Derek or his parents. :)

The kids battled either Darth Vader or Darth Mal, but somehow Derek was lucky to battle both of them!

One of the best parts of vacation...eating free donuts for breakfast every morning!! :) We stayed in the Tropicana Inn and loved it. The rooms were small, but not stanky! It was literally across the street from the Disneyland entrance. Walking to our hotel was faster than using a shuttle. We would stay there again.

The new Buzz Lightyear ride was a total hit in our family. It was the most-ridden ride for sure with Star Tours as a close second.

McKenna loves her stroller, so she was pretty good to sit in it for four days. She got a little restless at night, but nothing that fruit snacks couldn't cure. :)

Derek's favorite ride was Indiana Jones, even though he sat with his head in his lap and his eyes closed the whole ride. And he went about four times. Funny kid. Taylor was too short to go. I was quite proud of my boys. They went on every ride.

What Taylor had to say about the trip: I like Buzz Lightyear. Buzz Lightyear was fun and Star Tours was fun and bumper cars was fun. That's all.

Derek's Opinion: I really loved Indiana Jones a lot. It was cool. I liked the donuts too.

Overall, it was great family time together. I'm thankful we were able to go and hopefully the kids will have some memories of it. I'm sure we'll have to go again when they are older...maybe during the off-peak season though. :)