Oldies But Goodies

I love all of the memories we made as a family on this trip.

Here are some of my favorites

Still don't know why kids LOVE carousels so much

Tower of Terror (we are in the front row on the left)

We saw Muppet Vision

It started to rain so here we are in our super flattering ponchos

Star Tours

Pirates

Meeting Donald Duck

Toy Story Mania

 

Taking a break and eating ice cream

Waiting for the parade to start

My love

Pooh Bear ride

Splash Mountain

:)

Freak he's cute

Ariel Ride!! 

Daddy wearing Brek's hat. 

Hottie.

My in-laws were down for a choir concert and spent a day at Disneyland with us!

It was so great seeing them!

 

Toy Story

Brek really wanted to hold Grandma's hand... It worked out :)

Dev, Me, Rick, Eli, and Sam on Tower of Terror

The other people were HILARIOUS! They freaked out the entire time. I couldn't stop laughing!

I love my family like crazy! I love spending time with them. One-on-one and all together. They are my life. I can't wait for the next family trip! Love you guys!

Something New

We just got back from a week at Disneyland and it was, as always, so much fun! We got to spend lots time together which was much needed! Deveren has been really busy with work and it's only going to get busier.... 

For those of you that don't know already, Deveren is going out to sell alarms again this year. His office is going to Texas! He switched companies and will be selling for Skyline. We are thrilled about our decision and have high hopes for the summer! 

The kids and I are going to be staying here for the summer. 

We will go visit him a couple of times but other than that we will be here!!

Last summer was really hard. 

Let me tell you why.

I have been SO BLESSED to have family live so close and great friends that I missed dearly last summer! 4 1/2 months is a long time to be away from your home and all of 'your stuff'. We have a great ward that we missed being a part of. I struggled last summer being away from it all. I felt so bad for Bailie and Brek because there weren't very many kids out there to play with so they got pretty lonely. They wanted to go home. Deveren was such a TROOPER! He put up with/listened to me cry and whine about how much I missed home. 

It was stressful for him because he was trying to balance running his office and being a husband and Daddy to us, and he did his best. But it was very hard not seeing him very much.  

I have the most hard working, amazing husband and I couldn't ask for a better one. It is going to be SO incredibly difficult to not have him with us, but I know he will work hard everyday so this will be worth it.

We are going to keep ourselves so busy this summer that it is going to FLY BY (I hope)!! 

Family, Friends, Seven Peaks, Swimming

 It's going to be great!

Wow, that turned into a really long story! I just wanted to update everyone :)

Now on to our awesome trip!

Since we have gone to Disneyland quite a few times, we decided every day we would do something we haven't done before. 

1. We went to Russell's show in the Wilderness Explorer Camp

2. Bailie became a Jedi! She got her robe on and trained to fight Darth Vader, but then when the bad guys came she started to cry....

One of the workers went over to her and talked to her and asked her if she wanted to come back to us, but she said "No, I just got a little bit scared but I'm ok."

She composed herself and fought the bad guy. 

So proud of her

3. One morning we went to Minnie and Friends Breakfast. There were 9 different characters that came around to our table and hung out with us. It was great!

4. We met up with our good friends Stewart and Sara Kimball and their adorable kiddos Bree, Ally, and Kate. They live in LA and have season passes so it worked out perfect!

Me and Sara  

Bree and Bailie. They had SOOO much fun together

All of us on Pirates of the Caribbean

5. We went to Tom Sawyer's Island. 

It had a bunch of caves you can explore, a treehouse, and a lot of treasure!

6. Deveren took the kids to a class that teaches you how to draw different characters. (I went to the bathroom and by the time I got back they wouldn't let me in)

7. I had beignets for the first time!!!! 

It will not be my last.

Dang they were so yummy!

8. I rode the Grizzly River Run ride! 

We were only there for 6 days so we did a few extra new things :)

Road trip!!

On the 23rd of March Deveren had his Annual Art Around the Corner art show in Saint George, Utah. We planned our last family Disneyland trip around it so we wouldn't have to keep driving back and forth... Friday after Bailie got out of preschool and we had lunch, we headed down to St. George. 

The trip started off swell :)

I'm kidding. It wasn't bad at all. 

We had naps...

And snacks. 

We arrived about an hour before the banquet dinner/program started so we checked into the cute bed and breakfast they had for us and then headed down to dinner.

The guy that took our picture was older so that's why Miss B and I are blurry :)

The food was SO GOOD!! They have an awesome caterer every year for it!

After dinner the Mayor of St. George and the chairperson of Art Around the Corner spoke.

Then they spotlight all of the artists and have them explain what their inspiration was for their sculpture. 

By the time the first artist got up the kids were done sitting still (they were in the car for 3 1/2 hours... I don't blame them) so they started running around and talking loud (and opening the spouts to the drinks so it got all over the floor). 

Bailie told me she was hot and her throat was hurting (the last time she said that she puked all over) and I didn't want to take any chances so I took the kids back to the hotel room so they could run around and play before bed.

Bailie had her own big bed and this is how she slept most of the night...

The next morning Deveren got up early and headed down to install his piece. The kids and I got ready and went down to eat breakfast. 

Doesn't his bicycle look great??

The best news is that the bike company that is sponsoring the pedestal it's sitting on, is going to buy it next year after the show is over!! They wanted to buy it after they saw the picture... 

They hadn't even seen it in person! 

BAM.

That's my amazing artist husband!

After he was done installing it and eating breakfast we left for vacation!!! 

DISNEYLAND.... HERE WE COME!!!! (Again)

Two Words:

HUNGER GAMES

We got to go Thursday the 22nd (the day before opening day) and it was SO much fun!! I really enjoyed the movie and I thought they did really well keeping to the book. 

We were excited!!

My work out buddies, Rachel and Delightra were there too so we had to take a very flattering photo :_

My bestie Amy and her hubby Chase came with us 

(Chase was coming from SLC and got stuck in bad traffic so he came late)

This group of people were dressed like characters from the movie so I took a picture of them but you can't tell how sa-weet they looked.
Classy Tal. Classy.

My Firstborn Turns 5

I can't believe my Bailie turned 5! I can't believe I'm old enough to have a five year old. Her birthday was on the 20th of March. Around 10am my Mom came and picked her up for a date :)

Bailie LOVES one-on-one time... Especially with her YaYa.

They went to see Dr. Seuss' The Lorax!

Had to have popcorn of course

After the movie they went to the store and Bailie got to pick out whatever she wanted! She chose a movie and a little puppy stuffed animal that she sleeps with her every night.

Thanks YaYa!! 

Backup a couple of months ago. I was talking with Bailie about her birthday and what she wanted to do. She told me she wanted:

A Dora cake

A piñata

A birthday card  

So we decided to do a Dora themed party... 

Dev was in charge of making her cake.   

He did alright I guess... :) 

(When I say alright I mean it's freaking amazing and pretty much the coolest cake i've ever seen)

The cute birthday girl

Dev and I spent the day getting ready for her party that night so the kids just played. 

That evening we had family and a few friends over for cupcakes, ice cream, a Dora piñata, and presents.

I'm sad I didn't get a picture of the entire gang... All of you, thank you for coming!!

After all of our guests got to our house, we went over to the church to do the piñata. (Thanks again Rachel for letting us in)

I forgot my camera at home but the kids LOVED it! 

Afterward, we came back home and opened presents. Bailie was spoiled once again! Here are some of the cool things she got.

A Dora table and chairs that you can color on with dry erase markers

She LOVES to draw and color so she got new notebooks

The game Guess Who

Markers

My older sister made this ADORABLE quilt for her! Thanks Aunt Brie!

Then it was cake and ice cream time!! 

When we were singing to her, her face was like this the whole time! No idea why.

Best picture of the evening! Haha

Bailie girl,

You are the most wonderful, smart, sweet, thoughtful, caring, kind, funny, little princess! I am so lucky to be your Mommy. Thank you for bringing so much love and laughter to our family. I can't believe you are already 5 years old. I hope we stay close to each other forever! I love you like crazy baby.

Love, 

Mom

Happy Birthday!!!!!!

FACTS ABOUT BAILIE:

Can't wait for Kindergarten, but will miss her preschool teacher, Miss Karli so much

Knows how to write all of her letters and is learning the sounds they make

Is a great big sister and teaches him LOTS of words... the most recent being "what the heck"

Is still the most social little girl 

Wants to be everyone's friend and gets her feelings hurt if they don't feel the same.

Favorite food is Mac and Cheese (Kraft brand) and can eat most of it by herself

Loves to be outside playing and riding bikes

Favorite color is still pink

Still wears size 4T clothes... Petite little thing!

Favorite ride at Disneyland is Pirates of the Caribbean and Splash Mountain

Cant wait to learn how to snap her fingers!