Dani's Birthday

Happy Birthday Dani! Dani celebrated the morning with her friends as they gathered for cake, presents, and a parade. Her friends brought their decorated bikes and rode down the street where parents and neighbors watched on. They all loved it. Dani wanted a firefighter cake, but somehow with her persuasion, Taylor talked her into Minnie Mouse. Just don't look too close at the cake, I don't profess to be a professional and I was limited in time.

5 fun facts about Dani:

1. Dani has a stuffed Turtle named Franklin whom she takes real good care of and takes with her most places.
2. Dani adores her big sister Taylor and insists on doing every thing she does.
3. Dani loves her little brother Sam and takes care of him like a mother.
4. Dani loves to dance and twirl around the room to Barbie music.
5. Dani loves to swing and asks every day "What's on the schedule?"

I've finally been tagged

There are a lot of different "tags" out there, but I've managed to avoid them all until now - thank you Valerie. I don't think you'll learn anything great about me through this.

A- Attached or Single: Attached - happily
B- Best friend: My Husband
C- Cake or Pie: Chocolate pie or Cream cheese pie - nothing with fruit
D- Day of choice: Sunday - it's the only day Mark isn't swamped with homework (even if he does have a million other things to do).
E- Essential item: Baby wipes
F- Favorite Color: Yellow
G- Gummy bears or worms: Not a huge gummy fan, but I suppose I prefer the worms.
H- Hometown: Salem, Oregon
I- Indulgence: Popcorn - especially when my dad makes it.
J- January or July: July, I'd rather be hot, than cold.
K- Kids: Taylor - 5, Dani - 4 (tomorrow), Sam 1, 1 on the way
L- Life is incomplete without: Home, family & faith in God
M- Marriage Date: May 19
N- Number of siblings: 2
O- Oranges or Apples: Apples
P- Phobias or fears: Mark dying or becoming incapcitated
Q- Quotes: "You get what you get and you don't throw a fit"
R- Reason to smile: family
S- Season of choice: Spring
T- Tag 3 times: Patty, Debbie, Jen N. (I'm trying to think of who I know that actually checks my website.
U- Unknown fact about me: The chore I like the least is cleaning the shower.
V- Very favorite store: DI?
W- Worst habit: Leaving stuff around the house
X- X-ray or Ultrasound: Ultrasound - they had to come up with something for X I guess
Y- Your favorite food: Besides popcorn, I do love Tacos.
Z- Zodiac Sign: Pisces

Child #4

What you're probably not seeing in this image is the fetus of the baby growing inside Stacey's tummy, but believe me, it's in there. We're excited and hope you will be too. The baby is due to come on December tenth and there is a count down already placed on the right and it seems so far away. The doctor will not let this one come late due to little Sam coming out at a whopping 101bs 1 oz. We don't need to go through that again. If the baby comes on December 4 he/she can share a birthday with their daddy and great grandpa, but for their sakes let's hope they get to have their "own" birthday. This will definitely be a busy holiday season (especially with Mark in finals at that time - and then graduation!!!) Guess you can't always plan things just right. Nausea is the new norm, but what can you do, but get up and keep going. It's there whether I'm up and moving or laying down miserable, so I prefer the former where at least my mind can be taken off it a little. The kids are excited and hoping for a girl. We wouldn't mind having another boy to be playmates with Sam, but a girl would be wonderful too. We'll post a poll for you to choose which you think it will be.

Smoke Detector

This is what happens when you have a high ceiling and no ladder. The smoke detector chirped at us all night and day until we could make it to the store to buy a new battery and when daddy could manage to squirm his way up to the detector. This is one of those times when it would be nice to have a ladder - maybe Christmas?

Preschool Graduation

Both of the girls had their preschool graduation yesterday. Dani's little preschool coop learned their letters, numbers 1-10, and went on field trips. Taylor's preschool was much more advanced where they were well prepared for kindergarten. Taylor was very saddened to leave preschool behind, but Dani looks forward to attending the same preschool come fall

Parade of America

I was able to take the kids to the parade in Nampa this past weekend. We found a nice shady spot that kept us cool for the first little while. The kids enjoyed the candy. Poor Mark was stuck at home building a fence in the 90 degree weather.

Canyon County Historical Museum

Dani's preschool went on a field trip to the local museum and they got to go inside the caboose and climb up to the top. Most of the museum was about trains. They made it feel like they were going on a real trip by handing out train tickets and punching them as they climbed aboard. Dani talked about it for awhile.

Learning to Balance

I wouldn't say that Sam is walking yet, but he is attempting more and more and is still learning to balance. He can actually go quite long distances as you can see from the video, but he usually loses his balance fairly quickly. We're almost there!

Disney World

Overall it was a good vacation. We took a lot of pictures and here is a sample. We're glad to be back home.

Animal Kingdom

Instead of going through another day like that at the Magic Kingdom, we decided to try out the Animal Kingdom for day 2. It was much slower paced and enjoyable and the park closed early making a shorter day, which was nice. We enjoyed a nice safari and the best part was that we happened to be in the right place at the right time where they handed each of us a dream fast pass (which means that there is minimal to no wait time on all the rides in the park). That was real nice because we could fit more in. The rides were a lot more exciting here too, although not as many and not a lot for the little kids. Our favorite part of the day was seeing Finding Nemo the musical. I just wish we would have had time to see the Lion King as well. Because it's not as busy here the kids had the chance to see a lot of characters as well. This is where they got all of their autographs.

Magic Kingdom

Unfortunately, although we still had fun, the magic kingdom was probably our least favorite part of the trip and yet the most anticipated. There was just way too much to try and fit in and we were rushing all over the place trying to do what all 12 of us in the party wanted and it made for a long day. The children didn't like all the big people rides and especially all the waiting on the ones they wouldn't go on. The parades were good (although we couldn't see real well). The rain that poured in the later evening made the night miserable for awhile. We were most anxious to visit the princesses, but after waiting in line for 45 minutes and not even getting half way through the line the girls decided it was not worth the effort. Poor things. The look on Taylor's face at the Swiss family Robinson tree house was pretty much the look on her face all day. I recommend taking a couple days here and not trying to fit everything into one day.

Daytona Beach & Canoeing

Since we were so close to the beach and I wanted to say I had been to the Atlantic Ocean we went on a day trip to Daytona Beach. It was fun for the kids and the walk on the beach was real refreshing. Unfortunately there had been a lot of reports on rescues from the rip tides there. The day we went supposedly there were 100 rescues and 1 person still missing. Scary. The canoeing was from our resort out on the lake.

Chip and Dale Campfire sing-a-long

The girls really enjoyed cooking smores, singing, and of course seeing Chip and Dale at the campfire program. Dani was a little too timid to hug Dale, but it was fun to see their first characters. Sam just enjoyed eating the rocks. They showed a Disney movie after, but it was already late, so we skipped out on that.

Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique

This was the highlight of the trip for the girls. Thanks to grandma for making it happen. A salon where fairy godmothers in training do little girls' hair, makeup, nails, and more. You'll have to decide for yourself, but personally I think they look a little scary (although these pictures don't give you a good look). It was fun to see Dani with long hair. They sure felt pretty the rest of the day getting oohs and aahs from every one on the street. Taylor asked me to do her hair the same way the next day, but since I didn't plaster it with hair spray, it didn't stay very long.

Parks and pools

The playground at the resort was really neat. It was themed as ancient ruins and had swings, slides, sand "boxes," typical toys, and very nicely decorated. The biggest pool had a pyramid and included a spa and kiddie pool. There was a water slide that Taylor insisted she needed to try out. We look back and decided it would have been a good idea to rent a life vest. Daddy, not realizing Taylor could not swim, stayed in the vicinity to "catch" her, but once she came down he was too far away and the life guard ended up jumping in and saving her. Oops - lesson learned. She probably won't we going down any of those any time soon. The girls got blisters from their flip flops the first day and ended up having to wear their tennis shoes the whole trip, oops, make sure you take sandals with straps on trips with a lot of walking.

Our motel - Coronado Springs

Our favorite part of the trip was staying at such a nice resort. It was so relaxing and since we had nothing else to do (besides Mark in his conference) we went exploring and swimming and enjoyed the scenery. It was so beautiful there and the weather was gorgeous. It stayed in the early 80's the entire time we were there - not too hot, not too cold!

We're Back! At the airport.

On our way out. The girls were so excited to ride on an airplane. Oddly enough, even though the thoughts of Disney World were exciting, Taylor had a melt down before leaving. She wanted to stay home and was really distraught about leaving. It was hard to see it, because we had been anticipating the trip for so long seeing her so excited. Once there, however, all these feelings dissapated.