Disneyland--January

We went down to Brian's mom's January 2. We planned to go to Disneyland that Monday, the 3rd, but didn't want to go in the rain. So pushed it back to Tuesday. It was so much nicer going this time than in November. Mainly because there were so many less people!

There were quite a few characters right there when we walked into Disneyland. The girls wanted their picture with these two, but not Austin. He didn't want to waste time on that--just get to the rides already! Julia's favorite animated movie is Alice in Wonderland, so she was pleased to get a picture with Alice. :)


Brian went to get fast passes for a ride, so I got a few pictures of the kids w/ the castle behind them. Oh my, what a hassle! And the sun was in there eyes for this shot, poor kids. Then we met up with Brian in Fantasy Land and went on Dumbo.

Caroline said when she saw these pictures, "We went on that Dumbo ride! We went up. And down. It wasn't scary..." She's scared of most of the indoor, dark rides. But loves It's a Small World with the singing dolls. ;)

No line at all for the Teacups! Brian's not a huge fan of them, so off he went to get another fast pass.

The kids were all smiling and laughing as they spun us around and around in our cup.

Austin tried to visit White Rabbit. But his door was locked. ;) Caroline waiting in line for the Storybook Cruise.

And off we went, to see the storybook scenes.

That was the last picture I took that day. I can hardly believe it! I was so sleepy and maybe just didn't think about it? I don't remember! Oh well. We really got to do a lot this visit since the park wasn't too crowded. We went to the Tiki Room, and the kids liked the singing birds. We all shared a Dole Whip before we got in, and that was gooood.... Yum!

When we left Disneyland for the night, the lines for the tram to the parking garage were so crowded, w/ people leaving Disney and CA Adventure at the same time. So we walked to the parking lot! It was only about a 10-min walk. We did that the next day too, when we went to CA Adventure. Soooo much faster than waiting in that crazy tram line and dealing with taking all the stuff out of the stroller, the kid out of the stroller, folding up the stroller on the tram, then unfolding it off the tram, and reloading it with all the bags. And the kid. We might have had a little more tired feet (especially Austin and Lauren), but I thought that is what we should do from now on! Unless the tram lines are super short.

Two and a Half

Caroline turned 2 1/2 Jan. 10. She was all smiles when I went to get her from her crib, and told me, "I had a good nap!" Usually Austin gets her up, but being the first day back to school after Christmas break, everyone was still sleeping at 7:15.

I went to make breakfast, and Caroline was pouting and sucking her thumb, whimpering. Me: "What do you need?"

C, pitifully, "Milky..." I thought we'd start weaning today. Guess she has other plans! Soon though. I'm all for extended nursing, but 2 1/2 seems to be old enough to be done, to me!

C: "Can I go to school too? Can I get a cafeteria lunch?"
Lauren answers sweetly, "When you are 5 and go to Kindergarten, you can get a cafeteria lunch..."


I did laundry, and Caroline hung around, not sure what to do without her siblings home. "I'm hungry. Can I have a snack? What me want?"

Energy level picked up after the snack, and she danced and sang and read books on her own while I vacuumed.

Went outside to take her picture. C asks, "I have Smarties?" Smarties are her bribe. She gets them for standing still and smiling. But mostly for standing still! She's a busy girl! We discussed the color of every. single. one. "Dis one's lellow. Dis one's pink. Dis one's kind of peach..."

C hears an airplane: "Where's dat airpane? I can't see it!" We hear another plane a little later. "Dere it is! I see it! I can't wreach it! It's too higher! You wreach it!" I try, and tell her I can't reach it either! ;)


She eats leftover cheeseburger and some berries for lunch. As usual, she asks, "Can I have a bite? Can I eat dis?"

During lunch: Me: "I wonder when Aunt Annette's going to have her baby..." C: "You my baby, Mommy?" Meaning she wants me to ask her, "Are you my baby?" To which she replies, "Yes. I your baby." Then, "Aunt Annette have a baby. Aunt Annette's baby is Anlaliese!" Like of course, I should know that already! She shouldn't have to tell me!

Singing, while waiting to be cleaned up after lunch, "God made me. God made me! In my Bible book I read dat God makes me."

Read Curious George Goes to the Library and Kindergarten, Here I Come before nap. Put her to bed, and she asks, "Can I wake up?" I tell her she can wake up when we get Lauren from school.


At snack time, Lauren says, "I want a few." (Triscuits) Caroline points at L's snack and says, "You got some few! You got some few!" Seeing L already had a snack, Club crackers with cheese.

I was in the office later, and C comes up to me, and out of the blue says, "Knock knock, who's there? Stinky, stinky underwear!" And laughed! I asked her where she learned that, and she said, "Pinkalicious!" Sure enough, Lauren confirmed that joke is from a Pinkalicious book.

I wrote those little things down on the 10th, but wanted to add one from yesterday. We were driving to do errands, and Caroline was singing so sweetly the ABC song, with our Party Like a Preschooler CD. I told her, "You sing so pretty! I like hearing you sing!" We got to WalMart, and walking through the parking lot, C gave me a big hug and said, "I like when you talk to me, Mommy! I like hearing you talk!" Awwww....

Other notes about Caroline at 2 1/2:

*Loves books! Loves anyone to read her stories and looking at them herself.
*Has many stories memorized. Like Julia at 2 1/2. So interesting how alike those two are in the language/verbal/reading area.
*Loves to sing. Also has many songs memorized.
*Likes playing with her Keri Snap-n-Style doll she got for Christmas.
*Likes most fruit, still very, very picky! Prefers processed meat like chicken nuggets, hot dogs, deli ham over fresh meat. Doesn't like any pasta, including macaroni and cheese and spaghetti. Eats a few veggies.
*Knows all the colors or the rainbow, including gray, brown, black white. Calls mixed colors like turquoise, blue or green, depending which they are closer too.
*Has an attitude sometimes! Not toooo "terrible two-ish", but she can throw fits and ends up in her bed to sit for awhile.
*Always excited to go to Sunday School and loves doing crafts there.
*Likes coloring, painting, gluing, and drawing with a pencil in her own notebooks. I think she's trying to be a big kid!

Random Christmas Break

These pictures of the kids in their Christmas clothes were taken 12/5. I planned to post them. Who knows why I didn't?! Austin was so handsome all dressed up. In typical 8-year-old boy fashion, his shirt stayed tucked in for about 2 minutes.

I love the girls' Santa dresses. Brian said they looked like Santa's elves. I called Caroline 'Santa Baby'. Oh, and Lauren is snapping in her picture. She is the only one of our kids who knows how to snap her fingers! She wanted to do it, and practiced and practiced, and got it!

Sweet Santa Baby... You can kind of see the pine cones I spray-painted. Some were silver, and some were white. I also painted one basket red (it was red, but faded. So now it's pretty again!)

Close-ups

These crazy satin headbands were constantly slipping out of Julia and Lauren's hair. Nuisance! So much for that idea.

My mom and dad sent a Christmas package for the kids. These socks were inside, as part of their gifts. My mom knit them all. :) We love Grandma Sharon's knitted socks--warm and cozy! And pretty patterns and colors!

Lauren and Caroline were pretending to be super heroes, with their favorite blankets as capes. Lauren used masking tape to hold their capes together. :) Lauren got her Barbie Dream House for Christmas. Well, now it is a Barbie mansion. I guess! She and Austin added those two boxes from my poor-girl Barbie house from when I was a little girl, to the top of Lauren's Dream House. And now she has to stand on a chair to play with the top rooms!!

Austin got this remote-control helicopter for Christmas. It took him awhile to get used to flying it, and he'd crash a lot! He's practiced quite a bit though, and flies and lands it much more smoothly!

Our Christmas card wall (do you recognize any?), and Julia working a puzzle. She's got interested in doing these 500+ piece puzzles over Christmas break.

The kitties love Julia. They will often come by her when she's sitting reading. I set that pink princess tent up in the living room before New Year's, and it's still up. The 3 younger kids go in and out of it every day. One day they tipped it over (horsing around), so no more tent the rest of that day.

Caroline thought she was sooooo funny with her long, long arm. ;) 2nd picture is our Christmas ornaments for this year. Every year we give the kids each a new ornament. This year they were from Disneyland, since we'll be going there a lot! Julia chose Alice b/c Alice in Wonderland is her favorite Disney movie. Austin chose Lightning McQueen, and Lauren of course chose Tinkerbell. She looooves Tinkerbell! The Mickey and Minnie bells came in a set, so we gave Minnie to Caroline, and Brian and I are keeping Mickey.

Pic. 1: Caroline w/ her Silly Bands from Grandma Alvina. 2nd pic: Austin and Lauren played together quite a bit during vacation. They still are good friends, but he's learned how to push her buttons. She won't take it, and pushes right back, so they are often fighting!

Lauren--the princess with her castle. And throne. She wore her tiara to church on Sunday. I think she's convinced she really is a princess. :) She was a little self-conscious of it in her class though, so it stayed in her cubby during Sunday School.

A true princess: tiara, feathers, fluffy lei, glittery shoes, and a fancy hand-me-down nightgown. :)

The family room was a mess! A disaster! after being played in so much during the break. The kids had to clean it up Sunday night before they went back to school!

Here I thought this was such a nice picture of Austin. Oh what a handsome boy. A mischievous look. Pretty blue eyes. Then I saw his teeth. Yikes! We'd eaten lunch at church (there was a business meeting), and he had chocolate cake for dessert. Lovely. I thought it was cute how he had these Lego guys and their weapons all sorted out.

And then, back to our normal routines Monday morning. We had a nice three weeks off. Very lazy and relaxing, except the last week when we went to Disney. That was nice too. Just not so relaxing. ;) The kids got a lot of playing in. I got several projects tackled. Some new ones started (always some sort of project going on w/ me!). I am very glad to get back to walking to school. After all the goodies and lazing around, it felt good to be moving [more] again!

Christmas with Grandma

We went down to Brian's mom's Jan. 2. We opened stocking presents she gave us, that night. The next day, we all exchanged gifts. Julia still likes her American Girl paper dolls, and was happy to get this Rebecca set. She punched them out that same day!


Lauren got this Tinkerbell sticker book for one of her gifts, and worked in it at Grandma's too.


Even Caroline played with one of her new presents from Grandma. This was her first time painting, and she was sooooo serious about it! So much fun.


Every time we go, the kids play beautiful music on the piano. ;) Caroline liked reading Grandma's books. Just like at home--she loves books!

Austin played with his new toys from Grandma, and also got out her Legos to build with.

Julia read Grandma's Readers Digest, too. The funny thing is, both Brian and I can remember reading our own grandparents' copies at their houses.

Grandma gave the girls these hair bows in their stockings.

We had a nice couple days there relaxing and visiting. The other days we were down south, we went to Disneyland and CA Adventure. More about that soon!