Disneyland: day 1

This trip was a family reunion with Derek's family. Derek and his siblings all live in different states and getting everyone together at once doesn't happen often. It was wonderful to spend time with everyone. I'm so grateful for family.

FYI- there are so many pictures from this trip its hard to pick only a handful from each day. 

Chase and Zoe being woken up to get ready for Disneyland.

Ready for Star Tours

Chase, Parker, and Maeley

Kim, Marc and Stephanie

This would have made a for a great family picture but Zoe was off with her grandparents.

I love this picture!

Braden and Maeley

Chase with Aunt Kimmy. 

Another favorite picture. Zoe loved the Finding Nemo ride, in fact she rode it twice the first day. Sadly we never made it back the other days.

Back row: Phil, Eunmi, Marc, Marc, and Kari

Front row: Stephanie, Braden, Parker, Chase, Zoe, Derek, Maeley, Melanie and Kim

Jones grandparents with the 5 grand kids however there are 2 on the way.

For the most part we stayed together the first two days and day three we split up. The weather was wonderful and overcast almost the whole trip. It went by way too fast though.

Funny story

When we were approaching Blythe, CA we decided to stop and get gas and have lunch. Of coarse the kids saw the big golden arches and wanted to go to McDonald's. Derek said, "It's closed." Leaving the kids to think  we had to find somewhere else to eat. Well while Derek was getting gas I gave other suggestions on where to eat but they were stuck on McDonald's. I then decided to make an agreement between the kids and Derek. If we ate McDonald's for lunch we would not eat there again the entire trip. Everyone was happy and we drove to McDonald's.

Photo taken by Kim with her phone

It was pretty hilarious to drive by seeing that McDonald's was indeed closed like Derek originally said.  We then ate at Jack in the Box across the street. Zoe was quite concerned that McDonald's was half way demolished and talked about all through lunch. 

When we arrived in Anaheim we drove straight to the beach. It was packed so we just drove to the hotel. I was really bummed because I wanted the kids to have fun playing in the ocean. Instead all they got was to see it through their window. Maybe next time, whenever that might be.

We're back

We had a wonderful vacation spending time with family and having a blast at Disneyland. I'm trying to get back into the daily routine but I think part of me doesn't want too. We have so many pictures to sort through. I am definitely going to be making a photo book.

Derek took this picture on our last day there. Its nice to have a picture like this without random people in it.

Pictures by Maeley

It can be pretty entertaining when I upload pictures from Maeley's camera. Here are a few.

This is a pretty funny self portrait taken just last night.

Chase is pretty stubborn when it comes to Maeley taking pictures of him. I was pleasantly surprised it see this cute one.

I like her point of view here.

Gotcha!

Maeley caught Chase in the act of doing something he knows he's not supposed to do. 

Ha ha ha. Makes me laugh.

Funny pic

My kids have all loved doing airplane. They are nearly too big for it as my legs aren't that strong. Luckily Zoe is still small enough but after 5 minutes while Chase found and brought me the camera my legs were certainly tired.

Please ignore my white legs and look at that cute girl.

Fun afternoon

Sunday after church the weather was perfect so we headed out back to enjoy it. Derek threw a ball while the kids tried to catch it. It was pretty fun to watch. Chase doesn't need a brother when he has two sisters who aren't afraid to be tackled.

It was a great way to relax after church. 

Kindergarten registration

Chase is officially registered for kindergarten. He's so excited. While I began filling out paperwork one of Maeley's teachers came out of the room wondering if I was coming and let the kids play in the classroom while I finished the paperwork. Maeley enjoyed showing Chase and Zoe around her classroom. I really hope Chase gets the same teacher as Maeley. I can't say enough good things about her. She's an amazing teacher. Then we ventured out to the playground where they were giving kids otter pops. They loved every second of that. I can't believe it's the end of the school year. This year has flown by. I'm sure the summer will fly by as well and the first day of school will be here before we know it. I sure will miss him however I can't wait to see how much he learns and grows in kindergarten.

Cookies

A couple weeks ago I got asked to make sugar cookies for a baby shower. At first I was really nervous. I mean I don't make my sugar cookies very often and I'm still learning and I don't feel like I'm good enough to be paid to make them. Then I did a practice set last week and the real thing yesterday. I'm glad I'm done. Now I just have to deliver them.

This is what 5 doezen cookies look like. I think they turned out pretty cute. I hope they enjoy them.

The kids have been staring at the cookies. Poor kids they don't get any.

Easter

Friday before Easter the kids got a package from Aunt Laurel, Zach and Jacob and Devan. They sure like to spoil us. 

These are erasers they got in the package. They are so cute! 

Getting ready to dye Easter eggs Saturday night.

Getting ready to see what the Easter bunny brought them.

Zoe happy to have finally gotten Miss Piggy. And what a surprise Lego's for Chase.

Maeley got her first set of Lego's.

Hunting for Easter eggs. 

This is my new favorite picture of Zoe. It's so hard to get a picture of her with her natural smile. She always does such cheesy smiles for the camera. At first on Easter morning after seeing that both Maeley and Chase got Lego's I think she felt left out not getting any. However it didn't take long for her to love her Miss Piggy. It's been fun listening to Zoe play with her. 

random pictures

Playing with Lego's while listening to conference.

We got a nice snow storm about a week ago. It was beautiful and snowed all morning long. It didn't last long most of the snow was melted by the afternoon.

This is our neighbors tree. We just thought it look so pretty.

What happened to my baby?

This past Friday we babysat our neighbors 3 kids and also 2 kids from one of Derek's co-workers. Maeley was the oldest and the youngest was about 4 months old. Let's just say it was a bit crazy but not horrible. I'm not around babies much these days and it felt so awkward to try and console a screaming baby. After holding the littlest one then Zoe I realized how huge she is. While on occasion she will let me hold her like a baby but she does NOT like being called a baby or even a little girl. In her eyes she is a big kid. If Maeley or Chase happens to call her a little girl she gets so mad and rattles off  "I'm a big kid because I don't wear diapers, I wake up dry (at night) and I don't wake up wet."

I just love this profile picture of her. Makes you want to kiss those cheeks.

Zoe is mostly a very happy child. She does have her days or even moments but generally she's happy. The one thing I can always count on is her love. This girl does not have favorites. If I ask her who she loves she'll probably say "I love my mom" however immediately following she'll say "I love my whole family". It melts my heart every time. She'll even start rattling off everyone's name including Lola our dog and even our house. Randomly throughout the day she'll come to me saying "I've been needing you mom." and  give me a big hug and kiss. Derek has noticed if he's leaving for work and Zoe's upstairs if he puts his face through the banisters she will always stop what she's doing to kiss him. It's pretty cute. I wish I could make her stop growing. She's at a wonderful stage.

Legos

This picture was taken the day after Christmas.

My sister Laurel gave us a box full of Legos back in the fall. Derek and I decided to buy a Lego container and wait and give it to the kids for Christmas. Chase also got a set of police Legos from Derek's parents for Christmas. That is what started Chase's Lego obsession. It really has become an obsession. He talks about Legos all the time and gets more excited about them than almost anything else. There is not a day that goes by that he doesn't play with them. 

Derek and I both loved Legos when we were kids so we are having fun building with him. And to think this is just the beginning.  Oh the other day Chase asked me if we could go shopping. I told him no we don't need to. He was disappointed because he wanted to look at the Lego sets. Hahaha made me laugh.