Have a spookie day

I am so glad Halloween is here. I am glad because it means I am done sewing. For the past week my friend Shalynn and I have been frantically sewing three jedi knight costumes. I would like to thank my mom for doing Leia for us. I would also like to thank Shalynn who sewed with me the entire time. She is the most awesomeist friend ever. I know that awesomist is not a word but it just fits her so well. I think we finished last night at 11:00 p.m. The costumes look very very very good. I think I will have the kids wear them all week. I will be taking group photos later today and will post them for all to enjoy. Have a very scary day and don't get too sick eating all your kids candy.

Tae Kwon Do Belt Testing

My three little ninja's had belt testing last week. Or maybe it was the week before. I can't keep track of my weeks anymore. Time is flying faster than me. Anyway, Hayley and Jaden were testing for their yellow belts and Mariah was testing for her green dragon (she is in little dragons). They all did awesome and earned their belts! After Hayley had done her testing she had a break before breaking their boards. She was got her hand slammed in a door so she had to break her board with her left hand. She still did it on her first try! I am so glad they are all doing something that they love.

This pic is of all the kids that are testing. It's pretty much the whole Tae Kwon Do school.

Those boards didn't stand a chance.

Stop! I don't want any trouble!

I love this picture of Hayley and Jaden. It really shows their personalities.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JADEN

I can't believe that Jaden is 9 years old today! That's what happens when you blink. He was an especially easy delivery. I had him an hour after I had gotten to the hospital. When I arrived I was already dilated nine centameters. I got my epidural right away and after a few pushes we had Jaden. Raising him has been just as easy. He is very smart and loves to build things. He is perhaps the most tenderhearted child I have. He is also an excellent cleaner. This may be the most important trait in a child. He is joy to have around and I cannot imagine my life without him. Last night my dad jokingly asked Jaden how it felt to be turning 20 today. Jaden joking right back said, "I'm not going to be 20, I'm going to be 19." Happy Birthday Jaden. I hope your day is super duper awesome!

Happy Birthday Baby "A" and Baby "B"

My good friend Haylie had her babies today! She has been on bed rest for four weeks and in the hospital for 3 1/2 weeks. They were born by c-section this morning. Baby "A" weighed 6lbs 11oz 18 in. long and baby "B" weighed 5 lbs 4 oz and 17 in. long. I went to see her tonight and got to hold Baby "B". He was so cute and tiny. Baby "A" is in the NICU. His lungs aren't quite ready to be on their own yet. Also, note to Haylie: Please name you babies soon. It feel dumb saying "A" and "B". You really don't want that to stick.

Mariah and Captain Jack

I still have a few more stories to tell about our trip. I am bound and determined to tell all. Once nice thing about going to Disneyland for five full days is that you get to see everything. There are places in the park that someone going for a day or two might never see. One of these such places for us was Pirate Lair on Tom Sawyer Island. The kids had a great time exploring caves for lost treasure. That is until Mariah fell and received some major gravel rash on her knee. We had left our diaper bag on the other side of the river and had no way to clean her up. Because we didn't even wipe it with a kleenex it got pretty nasty looking. During this time our other kids had discovered the lost treasure. Captain Jack Sparrow was there to make sure no rotten little pirates stole his treasure. He was Captain Jack true as true. The kids would line up to get his autograph and he kept moving about like he was drunk and messing up the line. He wouldn't sign any ones book and would only grant you his signature if you let him do it on your pirate map. If you asked him for a picture he would say, "I don't have a picture." and walk away. Scott was holding Mariah while we were waiting for the other kids to get an autograph and Jack came right up to Mariah. He asked her what happened and she told him her gruesome tale. He thought it might be best to go get her leg cut off and replace it with a nice peg leg. He also suggested that she get a hook for a hand. Apparently they have a two for one deal going, it will only cost you an arm and a leg (his words, not mine). When he walked away (quite unsteadily I might add) Mariah said, "I didn't understand the language he was speaking."

my young jedi

I have not finished reporting on my trip to Disneyland. I am determind to give a full accounting of all our frivolity. One of my favorite things they have there is the "Jedi Training Academy." Jaden was selected and I am so glad I was video taping. How many boys get to battle Darth Vader? Simply said, it was awesome. Needless to say four of my kids are going to be Jedi Knights for Halloween and Gabe is going to be Yoda. I would like to thank Disneyland for making the torturous selecting of halloween costumes painless.

sleepy

While at Disneyland Gabe found it quite difficult to get in his naps. However he had more than I expected him to have. Without his quiet room and crib to put him off to dreamland he often crashed his way to sleep. Twice he did this "crashing" while eating french fries. I say what better way to drift off than by eating food. He really wanted to keep eating and did so until I took away the fries and layed him down. I think this is my favoite moment captured on video from our entire trip.

Oh yeah, it's me.

This is how I feel whenever I look in the mirror. I am really not used the darker color yet. I wanted a change without going shorter. I think I got it. Mariah says that she doesn't like it because she doesn't know who I am from behind. She then asked if she could dye her hair blue. I told her she could when she is 32.

Losing Bella

Yeah, you read right. We lost Bella at Disneyland. Surprisingly enough this is not a bad place to lose a kid. They are very good at finding them. I am not recommending doing this I am just saying it was not as traumatic as you may think. We were heading from the Haunted Mansion over to Indiana Jones and somewhere along the way, we lost track of Bella. When we got to Indiana Jones we discovered that the ride was temporarily down. If it had been running we would have noticed then that Bella was gone. Yeah, it took us a while to notice. With the Nelsons there were eight kids all together. Because the ride was closed we did not do our normal split up and swap routine. Instead we headed in a large mass over to the bathrooms. It was not until everyone had pottied and such that I did my quarter hourly head county. Bella was no where to be seen. For some reason I did not panic. I think there must have been a whole troop of angels calming me down. Scott raced back to Indiana Jones and Shalynn went back into the bathroom. After about a minute of this we decided we needed more resources. We told a street sweeper we had lost a kid and he sprung into action. He took us over to the nearest store and they called security. They really are a well oiled machine. After a few moments they told us that they had Bella over by New Orleans square. This means that we lost her right after we headed to the ride. In fact I had just done one of my head counts. They must have found her moments after we lost track of her. They said they are always on the look out for distraught children. After 15 minutes they make an announcment. They brought her to us and she was very sad. They assured us they have not lost a child yet. Needless to say for the rest of the trip she wore a sticker with our cell phone numbers on it just in case. We also did our kid count much more frequently.

Hanging with the Nelsons

My super duper friend Shalynn, her husband Stan and their three adorable kids Kate, Chessa, and Jared hung out with us our first three days at the park. It was so nice for our kids to have some of their very best friends at Disneyland. They would get mad when we would seperate. Needless to say we didn't do it very often. When they left to go home Mariah said, "What will we do, we'll be so lonely." We would take turns taking the kids on rides. It was nice to be able to actually go on rides with Scott. It was so perfect that it was Shalynn that was there with us. She spends so much time at our house that it may have felt strange not to have her around.

Disneyland ROCKS!!!

I have been so busy since I got home I haven't had time to post about my trip. So much happened and I have so much I want to post I think I may have to take baby steps. You know I'm busy when I feel overwhelmed about blogging. I will begin with giving you an idea of what our trip entailed. Ready? Disneyland, Disneyland, California Adventure, Disneyland and finally a little Disneyland mixed with a bit of California Adventure. Yes, you counted correctly. We spent five whole days in the happiest place on earth. In fact we stayed across the street to give us easy access to the happiness. We had a very happy time indeed. If at any time our kids whined or complained we gently reminded them we were indeed in the happiest place on earth and they needed to knock it off. I am so sad to be home. Sure five kids at Disneyland may sound like crazy to you but I have five kids when I am home. At least at Disneyland there is no cleaning, cooking or laundry (I am not counting the two loads I had to do. What do you expect I have five kids). Besides that I never once heard the words "I'm bored". It was truly magical. That's all for now, baby steps. More to come.