More California

One of the main reasons we all went to California as a family was to see my brother and his family. Emma was especially excited to finally meet 3 more GIRL cousins, but unfortunately some of the girls got sick, so we drove and met up with Glenn and his oldest girl Rachel, who is 6 months older than Patrick. We stopped at a place right near the San Bernadino mountains, and even with the smog they are just so beautiful!

The place we stopped had a little train ride for the kids and Mommy to ride. It was a VERY bumpy ride over the bricks in the courtyard of the outdoor mall.

Can you see the pink stroller? We made a rookie mistake of forgetting our stroller at our hotel, so Glenn loaned us theirs. We needed it desperately because William was so tired! I am so glad we got to see some of the family, and though it was short, the kids are still talking about how much fun they had. Patrick and Emma were super silly, as you can see in the photo.

The kids were so excited to do some swimming at the pool while Mommy did some laundry. We had a few more days left of our trip, so I had my first experience with quarters for clean clothes. William has no fear in the pool, and even though he fell down in the baby pool a few times, he never got any water up his nose. Scared me every time, but he just kept playing and splashing.
Our trip was almost done! We have a few more stops, so that means at least 2 more posts!

My sweet William

Everyday, William cracks me up with how much he is talking, and what he says. Today I got him up from his nap and called him one of my pet names. He looked at me and said "Not Sweet Pea." So I asked him who he was. He very quickly said "William." He did the same thing at the doctor's office, and then answered "yes" when the doctor asked him if he was cute. LOL What a nut. (We were actually there to check on a limp he had from falling down the stairs on Father's Day that carried over to the next day. Thankfully, everything was okay.) He is such a good boy, and just wants to be with the big kids, but he will even hang out alone and play SO well with the toys. Sometimes I forget he's in the basement, until I call him. The conversation goes like this: "William! Where are you?" "Downstairs!" "What are you doing?" "Play people." "Okay. Thank you!" I will poke my head down there and he will be doing just what he says, and looks up at me and smiles. He is the most vocal of my kids, and so quick to tell me "love you," "sure" when you ask him to do something, "thank you" or that I am his "best mommy." That brings a smile to my face! He was just old enough to really enjoy the CA trip that we took, because he has been talking about it. I have the photos on slide show, and every now and then he will yell (since he's been doing that quite often to be heard in this noisy house) "What that, Mommy???" over and over until I look and tell him about the picture.
I loved seeing him grab Mickey's nose, and waving hello to all the rides and characters we met. If any of the rides had a song, he would be singing it as soon as we got on (Small World is the one he sang the most) and would just break into song at seeing the pictures, or even a reminder of the ride. The excitement in his eyes for each new thing is so amazing, and to see how his siblings treat him is so special. He is definitely a stinker in more ways than one, but boy is he going to a great catch when he is older. He is so easygoing and sweet, and loves to "help Mommy" with the laundry. :)

This is his pose for sitting back and enjoying the rides, especially Small World. Doesn't he look so much like Tommy?

The funniest thing I heard on the trip was from Patrick, after a bath. While drying him off, he tells us "don't forget my leg pits." Between giggles, we asked where that is. Do you know where YOURS are??

"What will you celebrate?"

EVERYTHING! Disneyland is the time to celebrate anything and everything and we had much to celebrate! We had 3 whole days to spend at Disneyland to enjoy the rides, sites, shows and meeting all the charactors.

William was so thrilled to meet Buzz! His favorite thing he said was "To infinity and beyond!" He told everybody that line.

I am pretty proud of myself for getting the whole word in the shot. This is right outside California Adventures.

The kids loved being "Mint in the Box: never been opened!" It was so much fun to ride Toy Story Mania after playing the Wii game since our last Disney visit.

This was the ONLY time I could get ears on this kid. He would NOT take off the Buzz Lightyear hat he was wearing.

Mickey Mouse!

Dumbo ride.

When we talked about meeting Woody and Jessie, William always said "Jessie. Biig hug." Emma said she squeezed really hard.
We had an amazing time! I am so happy we were able to take a vaction as a family and enjoy the time at Disney.

The San Diego Zoo

I am so glad that Tommy had a business trip that took him to San Diego. I am also very glad that he decided to plan a trip that involves the whole family! He is so awesome when he takes over the planning of the trip. Our vacation was perfect in so many ways: the weather was great, the company was great, and the sites were just amazing. The first stop was the famous San Diego Zoo, which I will admit I thought wouldn't be as much fun. I was really wrong!
Our first greeting! Can you believe how lucky?

We got so close to these gorillas. The new banner photo (BTW, do you like the new blog layout? Be sure and tell me! My sister Jenn is the one to thank for fixing the layout oddness!) is from a statue area near the gorillas.

The Flamingo stance. It was stinky in that area, said Emma.

We got to see not one but 2 tigers! I could have stood there all day. I still can't believe how close we were to all the animals.
There are 2 hippos in this 120,000 gallon tank.
By far, though, my favorite was the polar bear. He was soo huge and I was super excited to be up close to him. I waited a long time to get this view and it was so worth it!

They have so many pandas at that zoo. I liked his nose sticking out of this one.

Patrick took this for us, and I think he didn't do too badly!

I loved the zoo, and William especially loved visiting the animals. Everything got a hello and a wave, and all the relatives of the monkey family were called just that.

The gibbons were out singing for us that day. At the end of the video you will hear Tommy telling Patrick to do something. The sentence is finished with "get your head out of that trashcan." I didn't even want to know.

It's Official

I will have only 1 child in the house during the day next year. While on vacation, we got a call saying that the school has a place for Emma in Kindergarten next year. I am so excited for the kids, but nervous at the same time. Emma has been asking me so many questions about school and is so excited that she tried to mark JUNE 30 as the first day of school! I know that God has opened this door for a reason, and will provide and get us through this year. Things are going to be so different for us, and I hope the kids do okay!

We're home!

Why yes, we did go on vacation. Hence the quiet blog. We had an amazing, exhausting and adventurous trip to California which included the San Diego Zoo, Disneyland, Seaworld, the Midway, and family. I have a multitude of photos to go through, as well as the usual post-trip laundry and unpacking. I am very grateful that the floor isn't moving under me anymore like an elevator and I don't have to walk to get to the next adventure. I am sorry to leave the beautiful weather and to come home to humidity and heat. Did I mention that I traveled across country with 3 kids? I was sweating enough from stress that I didn't need to come into the heat. The plane ride could have been a little easier if the man next to Patrick had NOT had a couple Maxim magazines held in his tatooed hand when he sat down. To be fair, I don't think he took them out much, especially with me sitting next to him and enjoying his 3 beers. Other than that, we discovered that Emma is a daredevil and will ride every scary ride out there, and Patrick prefers to enjoy the sights more like Seaworld. William loved just being with everyone and repeating everything from our adventures, including telling us all what to do and really loved meeting Mickey and seeing all the animals.

I can't wait to share my photos with you!

Can anyone tell me why my blog looks funny?

Marathon May (which isn't quite done!)

I've been quite busy this month, which shouldn't keep me from blogging, but it has. Here are some of the highlights:

Lynsey's First Communion.

Alex's (Tommy's Goddaughter) First Communion.

Andrew's First Communion (my sister Jess's boy).

In preparation for the upcoming Scouting trip, we had a "camp out" in our living room.

Johnny's First Communion (my sister Theresa and her husband Frank).

Our last visit was to Richmond which involved some sight-seeing. The Dooley House where Patrick did some statue posing. This house was one of the first to have electricity in Virginia. There was also a swan bed. Very interesting.

A stop at Outdoor World for some fish, lunch and fun.

And a little target practice.

A visit to our State Capitol in Richmond, and some really cute kids showed up for our photos.

Free petting zoo. There were sheep, goats, pigs, chickens, black bears (no, we didn't pet them), hawks, eagles and a fox. The sheep made lots of noise, and when we approached her stall, she was walking around in circles. The sign next to her told us that "Daisy is blind and suffers from vertigo which causes her to walk around in circles. She is under the care of us and is monitered with meds." In other words, don't tell us about her circular pattern. We got it.

Mary's graduation from VCU! We have another nurse in the family! We are so proud of Mary, and even though William kept saying "Go Mason!" every time he saw a photo of basketball players, he was excited to see Aunt Mary too. (she made dean's list all 4 years!)

So, in a nutshell, that is where we've been. It may not look like much, but it has been fun!

"Hot and Cold"

You know you've been playing "Just Dance" too much when this starts to happen throughout the day.

May Mumblings

• It seems the the month of May is always full, but this year we have something every single weekend, and in fact, almost every day of the weekends. The kids have loved seeing their cousins on both sides as much as we have, but they are tired. In other words, they are grumpy!


• I am so excited to announce that Patrick will be entering the second grade at our Parish's school! I don't think he has quite grasped the concept because he said "I'll just be going on Sunday, right?" Um, no. We will be finished with his schooling at the end of the month, so I am thrilled that we can enjoy our summer and start preparing. I am excited, but also very nervous. I know I will cry the first day! Emma took her Kindergarten screening the other day and we are still waiting to hear about her. She is reading really well, and I kept asking her if she read anything for the teachers, but she couldn't remember.


• Do you know that I have been blogging for a year this month? That makes me happy. I have enjoyed sharing my kids and our lives, but this is so fun for me to just sit and put my thoughts together in one place.


• It's that time of year again. Ants. Oh, how I hate ants. They always come in our house, and they are those teeny tiny ones. Even William likes to step on them but they are still too tiny for him to squash! Our other problem is that we live next to a house that is almost always empty. The owners never seem to be home, unless it's one day a week. We had a visitor of the rodent kind (*shudder*) in my living room, and I would like to blame that house. The joys of townhouse living. The good news? We found a snake in the front yard, so perhaps it will take care of the mouse?


• William is my little parrot. He says so much now, and has started to tell the big kids what to do. The funniest one is before we leave. My usual chant involves telling the kids to go potty before we leave and getting our shoes on. It's a process, and I say that phrase often. I heard William tell the kids: "Shoes potty! Patrick, Emma! Shoes potty!"


• Patrick saw a fun fact the other day, and wanted to share it with us. "How many words does a woman speak on average in a day?" The answer is about 7,000 and men speak only 2,000 on average "because they go to work" Patrick says.

Here's a picture story I am sharing with you:

My first book signing!

No, I didn't write a book. The Pioneer Woman did! She is one of my all-time favorite bloggers, and she came to our area to promoter her cookbook. If you have an hour or 30, go browse her amazing site. She has such scrumptious recipes, and I was so excited to meet her!

She is so real and down to earth, and I think she is just beautiful.
My good friend Katie met us at the bookstore and I was hoping that my kids would come along to meet the lady who makes the delicious chocolate cake, but Emma was my only companion. Tommy took photos, and William decided to act up, and it ended up being one of those "mommy moments."

See? I get all tongue-tied when I meet a celebrity, and I didn't have a good story like Katie did. I just flubbed my way through the signing, as I do most things.
But we got a nice picture of us! She was so cute and fun and even Tommy said he enjoyed listening to her. I think he is going to be the one to go through the cookbook and tell me what to make, since Ree's cookbook is sure to result in many marriage proposals. (Later that day, on facebook, she told us that she was wearing 2 different earrings. I didn't notice, but in the photo you can see it. She still looks amazing!)
That's her cookbook to her right. I think she has the most amazing dimples! Thanks for coming out to meet us, Ree! We love you!