Happiest place on Earth

This year for the kids birthdays we decided to forgo the presents and took them to Disneyland to celebrate. My wonderful parents were able to take off a few days and join us which made the celebration even more exciting as we usually only get to see grandma and grandpa twice a year. They were such an immense help with the kids, and made it much more enjoyable for Daniel and I. We would have been frazzled without them. We had good luck with lines for the most part, and only had a few tantrums due to exhaustion and starvation, but after a nap here and there and some sugar coated snacks, we were back to the smiles and wonder of it all.
Kylie was most excited for the Dumbo ride, as it is very calm, but she decided to be adventurous and ride the less than calm rides with us too. She even rode on the tower of terror, even though her dear friend has told her that its NOT fun.
Toast loved everything, but his favorite was Star Tours of course. He was so funny giving us a play by play while on the ride. He loved it so much he rode that ride 5 times.
James and Ben were so curious in regards to the characters, especially Sulley and Mickey Mouse. James loved the Buzz Lightyear ride and loved blasting Zorg with the lasers. They both crashed hard at the end of each day after so much fun and excitement.
And we all loved the Halloween Spooktacular fireworks. Disney sure knows how to put on a great show!

Kiddies

As it is the month of birthdays around here, we update the kids pictures. All of the kids were little punks, and we had to bribe them silly to get these smiles. The poor photographer. She must have been so exhausted by the time we were done. But I like how they turned out. We have all the kids pictures on one wall, and in those frames I have each years picture behind the present year. I love updating their pictures cuz I get to go through from their newborn picture, and each subsequent year and watch my kids grow right before my eyes. Its fascinating to me how my kids grow and change each year, but I dont usually notice the changes until I see how different they were the year before.

Birthday Girl

My Kylie girl turned the big 7 on Monday. She was so excited for her birthday to finally arrive that she couldnt sleep the night before. Since it fell on a school day, we didnt get to do the fun "birthday-day" things she wanted, but we did make cupcakes so she could celebrate with her class. That night she chose Olive Garden for her birthday dinner and with the crazy boys in haul, it was quite a dinner indeed. After that feast we headed back home for her to blow out her candles. She wanted a teddy bear cupcake cake and even with my pathetic decorating skills, she loved it.

It was quite fun for Daniel and I to reflect where we were 7 years ago on that day, and all the joy that our baby girl brought into our lives. She is a sweet heart, and has enriched our lives immensely.

Fire

Anyone interested in buying this kid, here's your chance. I am selling him off to the highest bidder. He is really bright, and has an imagination like no other, he gives the best spontaneous hugs, has the cutest little dimple that can only be seen when he does his mischievous smile, can be extremely thoughtful at times, and has a tender little heart. He is a cute kid, and I love him so much it hurts, but I dont know how to raise this kid. I dont understand the way he thinks and its a challenge, therefore, trying to teach him the do's and donts in the world. (I guess if I made everything related to star wars we might get somewhere, but thats another thing all together.)

So whats prompting this auction you may ask... well today I got a call from none other then his principal informing me that my Tyler was in fact the cause of todays fire alarm chaos at their school. (if you live around here and have young children that go to the same school, they might tell you all about the exciting morning starting with the alarm going off, teachers rushing the students out doors into the blistering heat, the fire trucks and fire men rushing to the school and the confusion and mayhem that ensued as they made sure there really was no fire/emergency.) Lucky for Tyler they cant really incriminate a kindergartner, but unfortunately they know how to make the mother feel like a schmuck cuz of all the kids in the school, mine happens to be the one who caused all of the madness.

And if thats not bad enough, my dearest darling Daniel actually has the gall to laugh when I tell him what went down today and says, "I ALWAYS wanted to do that when I was a kid." Seriously? Thats the way he responds to the crisis. Our sweet little son is marching down the path of trouble maker and he laughs? (of course when I informed my mother she did the same thing, but thats only because she has already been through similar scenarios with my 5 brothers and I guess things seem funny after the fact.)

So if you are interested in this sweet, but trouble making boy- I am considering ALL offers!

MAUI WOWEE

What can I say? Maui was magical. Daniel and I had such a great time and decided we are definitely going back for our 10 year anniversary. We left the kids in extremely good hands, and drove up to Phoenix last Wednesday night. Daniel had to put in some long hours to get things squared away before we left, so we got in around 1 in the morning, and had to be at the airport at 4:30, so we didnt get much sleep. But like that was gonna interferer with our fun. We stayed at a really nice resort in Wailea. That whole area was breathtaking. The beach was the most perfect beach ever. The sunsets were out of this world beautiful. We spent the first day driving around, taking in the sights and sounds and scents- who knew paradise has such an incredible smell. We zonked pretty hard that night, but woke up to the sound of the waves crashing on the shore. It was HEAVEN! We went on a snorkel cruise to Molokini crater. That was awesome! And we got to swim with the sea turtles too. Saturday we spent the day on the road to Hana. We found the best waterfalls, and got to jump from a couple of them. We completely wore ourselves out exploring and hiking and swimming and jumping that day, so we were glad to have a day of rest on Sunday. Monday we got up at 2:45 to go watch the sunrise from the Haleakala volcano. It was FREEZING! Daniel and I thought we were gonna die, but it was well worth it! Glorious is the best way to describe it. We then got to bike down it for 28 beautiful miles of breathtaking views. That night we went to the Luau at the Grand Wailea- it was awesome! And the sunset that night was the most colorful one I have seen. The music and dancing and feasting were fabulous and after it was done, we explored that resort for a while. Its got to be one of the coolest resorts ever. Seriously- if you ever go to Maui- totally go check out that resort- its incredible! Tuesday we went exploring in Makena and found a really cool beach covered by lava rocks. Not the best beach to swim at, but it was really cool to explore it. We then packed up, but then headed out to Lahaina and explored and shopped over there. We then sadly said our goodbyes to our island paradise, and caught the red eye back to the mainland. The trip was as perfect as it could have been. We met some really awesome people, saw some really incredible sights, ate wonderful food-(macadamia nut and toasted coconut waffles with freshly whipped cream- to die for!), had lots of adventures, got to chillax, but most wonderful of all was the simple fact I got to spend 6 entire days with just my Daniel. We laughed at how many times people asked if we were on our honeymoon- we werent overly lovey dovey and kept our PDA to a minimum, or so we thought, but still any restaurant we went to, any adventure, and even while shopping- that was asked even more so then "where you from?" Anyway it was a dream come true, and we cant wait to go back.