Disneyland

We have been talking about going to Disneyland for EVER!!  Disney started their Give A Day Get A Day program and we thought what a cool idea.  Let's give a day of service which will be a good experience for our kids and then we can actually take them to Disneyland.  Well we were 1 week outside of our date of service and Disney announced that they were no longer doing the program.  That they had reached their limit of 1,000,000 tickets.  So even if you had already reserved your day of service, done your day of service or showed interest you were our of luck cause there were no more tickets.  Needless to say I was heart broken.  We had already discussed with the kids what we were doing and they were very excited to be going to Disneyland.  As you can imagine it is quite expensive to take a family of 6 to Disneyland, or pretty much anywhere for that matter...LOL.  So Pete and I talked and decided that we were going to do our day of service anyway, because again, it would be a good experience for the kids and maybe give them some appreciation for the problems they do have and the ones they don't.  And we decided we were going to take them to Disneyland anyway.  We thought maybe we would go next month and then I mentioned to my husband Sunday morning that our good friends Ryan and Steve were leaving that night for their Disneyland family vacation.  Pete looked at me and said "Do you think they will mind if we crash their vacation?"  I totally thought he was joking, then again I should have known better because Pete is always popping up with big plans last minute.  I know that life will always be exciting with my husband :)!  So, I called Ryan and asked and she said "Absolutely not, that would be a lot of fun!"...well maybe not that EXACTLY, but something pretty darn close.  We jumped online and made our hotel reservations and bought our tickets and I hurried through cleaning the house and taking care of a few loads of laundry.  Between noon and 6:00pm we had planned, booked and prepared for our 2 day trip to Disneyland.  The kids had NO IDEA what was coming.  Well, Zayna did only because she was at Ryan and Steve's and overheard the conversation between Ryan and I.  Skyler was at her dad's and Ryan was at Grammy and Pops' house.  Ryan came home about 3:00 and was SO excited when we told him.  Skyler walked through the door at 4:45, one hour before our departure time.  When she came in there was a stack of bags by the front door.  She looked at me and asked "Are we going somewhere?" and I said "Yes, we are going on a trip".  That is when my son, who was relaxing in his recliner and watching a Scooby Doo movie, turned his head around and said "Yup we are going to Disnyland".  I thought Skyler was going to come out of her skin.  It was so neat to surprise them like that.  So we left Sunday night got to the hotel and attempted to crash with full anticipation of the next day.  We got up early Monday morning and had breakfast at Goofy's Kitchen.  The kids had lots of fun there.  They were able to meet Pluto, Goofy, Chip (from Chip and Dale), Alice and Baloo.  They danced with them and helped Goofy mix some stuff up. 

 Next we headed off to Disneyland.  We rode rides from 10am to 10pm, it was a LONG day.  Emily even got to ride some rides.  She rode Peter Pan's Flight, It's A Small World (which was her absolute favorite!!!), The Hauted Mansion, Finding Nemo (Emily didn't really care for this one) and the Train.  Everyone really enjoyed The Matterhorn, Thunder Mountain and Space Mountain (well except Ryan).  Ryan didn't so much like the fact that he couldn't see the track on Space Mtn.  He cried when the ride was over, but he was ok. 

 Then we left the park and went to Tony Romas for dinner.  We were exhausted, which caused the sillys to set in.  Ryan (my friend), myself and Steven were in tears we were laughing so much.  I think at one point I actually started to cry, literally cry.  We had so much fun.  Then off to bed, no one had trouble sleeping Monday night.  Tuesday we woke up and headed off to iHop for breakfast.  After that we went to California Adventure.  We watched the 3D movie A Bug's Life, Emily HATED that movie!  Then we were off to Soarin' Over California.  The Lee family went in and rode it and then when they were done they watched Emily for us so we could ride it as a family.  It was SO neat.  You actually feel like you are flying.  I have NEVER had an experience like that in my entire life.  I don't know how they do it.  I did get motion sick and almost lost it, but was able to keep it together.  It was worth it!!  Next we walked around and found some food and then parted ways with our good friends.  They had a reservation at Ariel's Grotto and we wanted to ride one more rollercoaster before we left.  We were headed towards the biggest roller coaster in the park.  California Screamin'...we got there and Ryan stood up to the marker and he was BARELY by a hair big enough to ride the ride.  Pete and I told him over and over that it goes REALLY fast and it goes upside down.  We kept asking him are you sure you want to ride this ride and he kept saying yes, yes, yes.  Skyler, Zayna and I got in line first while Pete, Ryan and Emily waited for us.  When we got to the front of the line Zay's tummy wasn't feeling too well (our diet hadn't been the best the last couple of days) so she left through the exit and hung with the other 3.  So Sky and I rode the rollercoaster.  It scared the daylights out of Skyler, but I thought it was AWESOME!!  When we were done we ran down and told them all about it.  Ryan couldn't wait to get on.  Skyler decided she wanted to ride it again, so off she went with Pete and Ryan.  2 minutes later Skyler came running back, she didn't want to get on it again, she changed her mind.  Right then Zayna decides she wants to get on it so she takes off running to catch up with Pete and Ryan.  Minutes later Pete and Ryan come running down the ramp.  IT WAS AWESOME!!  When they first got off the ride Ryan said "That was not cool" ( only because that is his new thing right now ), but when they got to me he said "That was kind of awesome" with the biggest smile on his face while he was jumping around like a jumping bean.  I asked where Zay was and Pete told me he had no idea.  She came down the ramp at that point with the biggest smile on her face!!  She wasn't able to catch up with dad and Ryan so she rode it by herself and LOVED it.  She took off and rode it again.  Ryan wanted to ride it again too, but it was time for us to go.  We had an awesome 2 days of family fun.  My husband didn't work, was hardly on the phone and we got lots of time with him!!  I am so blessed and so thankful for my family!!!  I can't wait for our next adventure together.

Julie and Julia

Ok...so I am a little slow on the whole movie thing.  I have had the movie for a month, but have been waiting for my hubby to have the time for a movie so we could watch it together.  That hasn't so much happened because he just doesn't get that kind of time.  So I decided to watch it today while the house was quiet.  First of all I didn't realize that it was based on a true story, I thought that was kind of cool.  Second I thought that it was a cute movie, but not as good as I had expected it to be.  And thirdly I found it extremely discusting how everyone in the movie talked with their mouths full of food.  The husband was the worst.  Honestly he everytime he ate something he was shoving it into his mouth as if he hadn't eaten in days and he talked while he was shoving food into his mouth.  Kind of spoiled it for me.

Heart of gold

So this morning wasn't so different from most mornings.  The girls were at each others throats, which is just about an everday occurance.  They can be so mean to each other sometimes.  It drives me crazy the attitudes they display and the tone that comes out of their mouths!  So after a cat fight this morning we got in the truck and left for school.  I had made green chocolate chip cookies for Skyler and Ryan to take to school for their classes.  Skyler asked me how many I made for her and I told her 19, because that's how many kids are in her class.  She proceeded to inform me with great attitude and discust in her tone of voice that they have a new girl in class and so there are 20 kids now.  I was supposed to know this how?  Couldn't she have told me that last night when I was making the cookies?  What is up with the attitude?  Shouldn't she be grateful that I even MADE cookies in the first place?  All of that aside I told her that there would be plenty of treats there and not everyone would want to eat a cookie so she should be fine.  She continued to huff and puff and argue with me.  Then came the heart of gold.  My oldest daughter sitting in the backseat,didn't get a bag full of cookies to take to jr. high instead she had 2 small cookies in her lunch, offered her cookies up for her sister so that she would have 20.  She took the cookies out and gave one to her sister.  And I know for a fact that even if she had only one cookie she still would have given it to Skyler because that is who Zayna is.  She can be catty and attitudy sometimes, after all she is a teenager and a female, but mostly she is kind, loving and has a big heart of gold!  She is constantly giving to her younger brother and sister without regard for herself.  She selfless and she is a great example.  I love you my Ziggy Zayna and I am SO proud of you!  Thank you for making my day. :)

Emily is 4 months old

I just CANNOT believe how quickly time is flying.  Emily, baby girl, you are growing too fast for me!  Let's see...this month:

• You are still loving  your Moby
• You are rolling over and scooting ALL OVER THE PLACE
• You can sit up now with little support
• You have lots to say
• You have the cutest laugh
• You love it when your big sister Zayna sings to you
• You think that Ryan is pretty funny
• Your face lights up whenever you see Mommy, Daddy, Zayna, Skyler or Ryan
• You are starting to cry when strangers hold you
• You don't like it if you can't see mommy
• You like your exercauser and have figured out how to move the seat around to get to the toys that make noise
• You talk to your "Your Baby Can Read" videos and are actually responding to some of the words
• You have just recently realized that we have a white fluffy thing that walks around on 4 legs, we call him our dog, Duke
• You weigh 20 pounds and are 25 inches long
• You reach and grab for toys now, it is SO cute!
• You to be held so you can stand and stomp your feet.

I am sure I say this every month, but it's true.  You are such a joy to our family.  You are very happy and content all the time.  And you amaze us everyday!  Happy 4 month birthday Emily Olivia Grace Kennedy!  We love you so so much!!

Dinner Table

We have always made it a point to have dinner together at the table.  I guess for me I never thought about dinner any other way since that is how I was raised.  It is just the norm for us, for me.  Sometimes we talk and occassionally I give in and we watch a show together.  In that instance it is always a show that makes you think and sparks conversation between all of us.  My son's favorite is Family Fued.  My husband always pauses the t.v. right after the question is asked ( thank goodness for our dvr!) and lets each on of the kids give their answer before we see what answers are on the board.  It is so cute how excited they get when one of their answers is up there.  It also gives us a sense of their individualities and an insight to how their brains work, some of the answers are pretty interesting.  Anyway, not the focus of this post. :) Last night as we were sitting down to the dinner table, right before we turned the t.v. off we were watching the news.  The story was about the WASP reunion and award ceremony that happened yesterday.  To see the first female pilots to ever be a part of our military was pretty cool.  So after we turned the story off and said our prayer my son asked how many woman died in the war.  Then he wanted to know why it was so special that they were allowed to fly the planes.  And from there the questions began to build between the 3 children.  Each one had questions about a different time and a different war.  It made me realize how little I retained from History class in school and how little I know of our country's history.  Needless to say it sparked some new research in our home and it also gave the girls a little more appreciation for the time in which they were born.  I don't think they had ANY idea of what if was like for woman all those years ago.  You should have seen there faces when I told them there was a time when woman were not allowed to vote or even work outside the home.  It was acutally kind of funny.  A lesson learned for sure though.  I love the topics that develop over dinner and the continued learning they usually bring.

Stages...

lately I have been getting really annoyed with the fazes that my children are in.  I know that I should express patience and understanding, but sometimes it is oh so hard!  I have to continue to remind myslef that each faze passes and once it's gone it's usually missed and would be traded for the current faze.  LOL!  Are we ever satisfied?  I have good kids, but they have their days!!  I look at Emily and remember when they were all that little and how much I miss them being that small and I have to take a step back, take a deep breath and realize that tomorrow we will be onto something else.  Skyler, who is in the 5th grade, is going through this whole lying faze...over things that are so unimportant.  I was struggling with how to get her to realize that there is NO point to lying.  That it only creates a bigger problem, but then I took a step back and realized that she was lying in an attempt to please me.  Her answers were not the truth, but were what she thought I wanted to hear.  I needed to reasses my reactions to her choices.  Find a way to make her comfortable with being her and making her own choices and being honest about them.  Let her know that she doesn't have to be just like me and make the choices I would make.  She is going to have to make her own choices and her own mistakes and grow into her own person.  Man that's hard!!  I want to save them from all the mistakes I made, but I can't save them from all mistakes!  And my lovely son Ryan, who is 6, just can't seem to stop talking.  Which lately has been driving me UP THE WALL.  At least until it hit me that one day he will be to caught up with his own life, friends and activities to even talk to me at all.  Now I stop whatever it is I am doing and give him my full attention even if it's 50 times in 1 minute because I don't want to miss a thing.  I am going to relish in being his main focus as long as I can and then maybe when I am no longer it won't hurt so bad.  Sigh...the life of a parent.  I choose to see what I will miss about all the stages of life and enjoy them while I can rather than allow them to drive me crazy! :)