What a Vacation!!

What an amazing week we had last week! My Mom and Dad took my entire family to Palm Springs and Disney Land for Christmas! We did it early so we could beat the holiday crowd! It was such a fun time for us. We left last Saturday morning flew down to Palm Springs where we stayed in a house with a hot tub and a pool! The kids swam non-stop while we were there! On Monday morning we woke up early and drove to Disney Land! The kids had no idea where we were headed (we told them we were going to a really cool water park!) When we got there they were so surprised and so excited! We spent Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday hopping from Disney Land to California Adventure! We drove back to Palm Springs on Wednesday night and played around until we had to leave on Saturday afternoon! We were even able to see Granny and Pa and their new house while we were down there! It was a trip we will never forget! Thank you Mimi and Pappy for such a priceless gift! My pictures are all out of order because I can't figure out how to get them in order, but oh well, at least they are still on here!

On Friday we took a Gondola ride up the mountain right outside of Palm Springs. It was amazing! The kids thought the ride up and down was pretty fun! I think it was something like 8500 feet up! Beautiful from up there! We went to the World War II Air Museum in Palm Springs. Gracie had been begging us to take her since she spotted it when we landed on Saturday! It was very very neat, we were able to go inside of B-27 with a guide who told us all sorts of neat facts that amazed me! It's really amazing all of the brave men who sacrificed their lives for our freedom! Thank you!

At Disney Land! Gracie's favorite thing was meeting Tinkerbell! She was so excited!
We stood in line for about 45 minutes to meet with the princesses! I think Joey liked it more than any of my other kids! He just couldn't get enough of them. He hugged them and wouldn't let go! Belle was the most beautiful he said and she just loved him right back! He actually bent to kiss Sleeping Beauty's hand! What a Ladies Man!

Mimi and Pappy spoiled the kids rotten! They all got their faces painted one day and it looked sooo neat! Of course it took me until Friday to convince them that it was time to wash them off! They were painted on Tuesday! :)

I wanted to put this up first, but oh well! This is Gracie and Cole's reaction when they realized where we were going! PRICELESS!!

The kids spent ALOT of time in the hot tub and pool at the house in Palm Springs. The weather was absolutely perfect!

A few more pics of the kids and some of the characters. It amazed me that what they talk about now is not the rides, but the characters that they got to meet!

I asked the kids what their favorite things were and Gracie said "Meeting Tinkerbell, the Tiki Room and the Princess and the Frog show!" Cole said "I wish they never made Space Mountain, then I wouldn't have had to go on it!" LOL "My favorite thing was the Screaming California Roller Coaster that I didn't get to go on" LOL "Okay Cole but what was your favorite thing that you got to do or see?" "Small World!" Joey said "The airplane!" LOL He was pretty excited about everything that we did that he was able to go on! Cole really really didn't like anything at all that was dark. Gracie was always willing to try every ride but after she would say "That was really fun but I don't want to do it again!" Eli well... considering that he was sick for most of the trip, poor guy, I think he was just glad to finally be home! LOL

Happy Birthday Joey?!! And Eli's yummy dinner!

Today Joey sat behind the couch and ripped up a cardboard box then brought it to me in little pieces and said "This is for my birfday. I'n gonna brin it to my pardy and then it's gonna be on fire and i'n gonna blow it out!" LOL so all day Joey was convinced that it was his birthday. I don't know how many times I tried to throw the pile of ripped up cardboard in the garbage and he would say "No Mom, that's for my birfday pardy!" So when Mike got home Joey said it was time to go to his party! He was happy to take it outside and burn it in the fire pit. We had to sing happy birthday to JoJo! When we asked him how old he was he said 2! LOL That kid cracks me up!

The past few nights Eli has been refusing to eat! I try and give him a bite and he just screams! I get frustrated and give up and he drinks his milk and is off. Well I thought it was a matter of him being picky. Tonight when we sat down to eat dinner and I tried to give him a bite again, he screamed his head off. I said "fine here then do it yourself" handed him the fork and he was happy as could be! He ate more than all his siblings combined I think! I think it's so frustrating when they don't know how to talk and can't tell you what they want, but man it must really be frustrating to him! So I think he filled his tummy good tonight! Giving over that control was hard, it really just makes a big mess and is more for me to clean up, but that's part of being a Mom and part of growing up I guess! :)

Halloween Party!!

This is the only picture I have of the Mummy before he turned into a Zombie!
Here's the crowd! Left to right front to back. Cassidy (our friend Cyle's daughter), and Cole on the floor, Faith, Lala on Hannah's lap, Mallory the spider on Gracie's lap, Avery, Payton, Elijah, Joey, Fiona holding Addison and Charlie in back

Mimi does such a great job making the night fun for the kids! This year she was Gypsy Rose! She told the kids their fortunes looking into a crystal ball! They thought it was great! The steamy black cauldron was spilling over with "fog" as the kids walked into the dark house after trick-or-treating. Uncle Chad was dressed up in a spooky gas mask and scared some of the kids so bad! It was pretty funny! Click on the pictures to see them closer!

Cole was "Incredible Hulk" this year! I forgot black hair dye so Mike stopped at the grocery store on the way home and got some black icing! LOL It actually worked really well! I was worried his hair might be black for weeks, but it actually came out really easy! He was a little afraid of the Gypsy, but after making sure she was really Mimi, he got in on the game!

Gracie was "Hannah Montana" She had so much fun dressing up and wearing makeup! She got tons of candy and I think ate more than the other kids! When she was getting ready for bed she said "Mom I think I need an apple, my stomach hurts and I have to get something healthy in there!" LOL

Joey was a "baby tangaroo" as he called it! He was so cute and had such a great time! He started saying or rather yelling "Trick-or-Treat" about 20 yards from the door! Then as he got to the door he would say "You have M&M's?" LOL He was such a crack up! Of course he had to go potty in the middle of our outing so we found a nice big yard with a dark corner and the baby tangaroo relived himself! LOL Emma had to get a good picture of that one! :) I found Joey, Avery and Payton sitting in the corner when we got back eating candy like it was going out of style!

Then there was our "little dinosaur"! Eli was so cute and did great until he was ready to be done! Then he decided to SCREAM until we were done! He was happy with M&M's but those quickly ran out and then until we found a sucker and put him in the car he could not be consoled! LOL

I have to share a little story that I think we will all laugh at for a long time: Charlie was going to be a mummy! He and my Mom worked and worked in the bathroom for about an hour and a half perfecting the costume. He wore a pair of Mike's long underwear and then Mom tore up white sheets into strips to complete the look! Well Charlie was finally done and really looked great! Mom was doing a few little adjustments on his costume when things started to "fall apart" Somehow the strips of cloth were drooping and falling and someone noticed that Charlie looked pretty bare under the old worn out long underwear! Mom says to Charlie quietly "Charlie do you have underwear on" Charlie says "ya, wait do you mean my underwear, um no....." LOL poor Charlie's zombied out white face turned red under all that face paint as he ran back to the bathroom to completely destroy the costume and decided to be a "dead zombie" for the night! LOL Maybe you had to be there, but I cried and cried I was laughing so hard! Thanks Charlie for the laugh! :)

Another great Halloween Party! I wonder what Mimi will be next year?