Day 6 - Disneyland

Disneyland was probably my favorite day...although it's hard to say for sure. I went to bed way too late preparing all the stuff for the next day and then we woke up super early and got ready for our day of fun. We made good time, even though we made a wrong turn and missed the parking area and then got turned around and ended up at California Adventure instead of Disneyland. You can tell we are true Disneyland rookies. We didn't know what we were doing! Despite the spring break crowds, we were still able to hit quite a few rides and enjoy our day at Disneyland. It was fun to see Amy, Esteban and Abuela and the kids throughout the day, but we didn't stick together the whole time.

Dylan was so brave and rode all the big rides with Marcos. I don't know if going with older cousins helped or what, but I think he's finally over his fear of big roller coasters. We'll see if it works when we go to Lagoon this year. I was super nervous at first. Our first ride was Peter Pan and Preston was throwing a fit the entire 30 minute wait in line. I didn't bother sending him on Dumbo after that. He was content to sit in the stroller with his box of Cheez-Its. I finally realized what it was. He liked the stroller and the rides, but NOT the lines. Sorry bud, none of us like that part.

Later in the day, we rode Buzz Light Year with Esteban and the kids. When we came out of the ride, I was shocked to find Preston sound asleep in the stroller. Marcos had been watching him in the shade for a bit so I traded him spots so he could watch the Jedi Training show with Dylan and the cousins while I sat with Preston. I propped the stroller up on the backpack so he would be reclined a bit more and he slept for close to 2 hours. He definitely needed a recharge that day though so I'm glad he got in a good nap.

Amy and I went on the Jungle Cruise while Marcos and Esteban were on Indiana Jones. Preston LOVED seeing all the animals. It was definitely one of his favorites. Dylan says the Matterhorn was his favorite, but loved them all. In the evening, Marcos and Dylan got in line for Splash Mountain. They were all out of fast passes for that and Space Mountain so they just stood in line. Holy cow! They were probably in line for 2 hours. It was INSANE! Luckily Winnie the Pooh was right across from it and had very little wait. It quickly became Preston's obsession. We went on that ride probably 20 times while we waited for Marcos and Dylan. Then we let them join us a time or two and finally headed toward Tomorrowland. Preston cried the whole time saying, "I want Tigger Pooh, Mommy." He was so attached to that ride by the end of the night. It was pretty cute!

We watched Captain EO and then Marcos and Dylan rode on Star Tours while Preston and I ate churros and watched the fireworks. Then we waited for Nemo and finally headed towards the gates to go home around 10:30. I talked Marcos into waiting in one more line to get our pictures taken with Mickey and we were so lucky. The guy came and stood behind us to close the line for pictures right after we got there. So we were last ones in line for pictures with Mickey. But... it was worth it. Preston was so excited to see Mickey and actually smiled for a picture. It's a miracle!

Dylan was asleep in the van within minutes while my little couch potato, Preston, attempted to stay up for a movie. We hadn't eaten a real meal for quite awhile so we found an In and Out burger and had fast food at midnight before we drove back to San Diego. We were both pretty tired and I stayed awake to help keep Marcos alert on the rode. It was rough getting home, but we made it. What a GREAT day!

Look at Preston completely out in the stroller. He was exhausted!

Even abuela needed a little nap. Kylie fell asleep and when Amy and I got off the Jungle Cruise ride, abuela was asleep next to her.

Riding Winnie the Pooh. Notice the picture of Preston with his churro and his cars light-up souvenir. Those kids got pretty spoiled this trip!

I'm so glad we stayed late. We were able to get a few more rides in and the kids were going strong. Dylan was a die-hard and Preston had a nap so we were all good to go. What a fun day at the Magic Kingdom!

Day 6: Part 2 - The Beach

After Sea World, the kids were dying to go to the beach so we ran back to the house, grabbed our stuff and headed to the beach...at 6:00 p.m. I didn't even want to get wet. The wind was blowing and the sun was starting to set, but that didn't stop the crazy kids. Preston was INSANE! He loved the water and would run in, wait for a big wave and then turn and run back as it knocked him off his feet. Marcos had to follow him around the entire time. He was fearless! Dylan was a bit more cautious, but loved everything except the salt. He kept coming back from the water and spitting onto the sand. It does take some getting used to, that's for sure. :) We could only stay about an hour, but that was perfect. The kids had a blast and then we had to strip them down, wrap them up and turn the heater on full blast to counter the hypothermia. It was so worth it though.

Day 6: Part 1 - Sea World

Tuesday was Sea World for the entire family. It took a little coordinating with that many people, but was fun to be together all day. We had a lot of fun seeing the seals and sea lions, sharks, baluga whales and walruses, feeding the sting rays, and of course taking in a few shows. We were only able to make it to the seal & sea lion show and Shamu, but both were incredible! Here are a few pictures of our day at Sea World.

The bigger kids were able to go on a ride when we saw the baluga whales, but the smaller ones couldn't so Marcos took Dylan and I took Preston. It's always fun to have some one-on-one time with the kids and my time in Antarctica with Preston was priceless!

Spending a fortune on junk food! :)

Of course we couldn't resist the family photos at the end of the day.

Notice Dylan's lazy moment - he hopped in the stroller and told Preston to sit on his lap. He kept telling Preston that Preston was his big teddy bear. Those two are such cute brothers!

Day 5 - Legoland

Sunday night Dylan and Preston slept on a twin blowup mattress in our bedroom and fell asleep watching a DVD. Oh the horrible mess I have created for myself this week. It is taking me forever to undo the damage of lax rules allowed on vacation with young children. But it was so worth it. The original plan was to go to Sea World as a group early in the week - probably Monday - because our tickets let us in twice. Then those of us going to Disneyland would go there and then eventually those going to Legoland would go. Tentatively Sea World (M), Disneyland (T), Sea World (W) and Legoland (Th). No we did not hit the lottery people. We found some 2 for 1 passes online to Legoland so Amy and I decided to send the dads with our boys. I knew Dylan would die if he didn't get to go. And I'm so glad we did. Oh, and for those who don't know, we volunteered to get our Disneyland passes and just had to purchase Preston's. It was still a big expense, but without volunteering, finding coupons and getting discount tickets from my cousin, we wouldn't have been able to pay for three parks in one trip.

This is pretty much what happened every night. One or the other kid would fall asleep first and the other would eventually drift off while watching a movie on the portable DVD player. I love how Dylan is laying on Preston's arm here. So cute!

I went in 20 minutes later and found Dylan's face plastered to the DVD player. He was completely out. Funny!

Monday morning Amy woke up feeling really sick. Kylie had a rough night as well, but wasn't in as bad of shape as her mom. Amy spent the entire day with a stomach bug that kept her close to a bucket and a bathroom. So instead of Sea World, we decided the best thing to do would be to send the men and older kids (except Gabi) to Legoland. I was feeling a bit cooped up by this point. I was really ready to get out and start the theme park part of the vacation, but it was obviously the best choice for everyone. I was probably just tired of chasing Preston though. :) I almost sent him to Legoland, but I'm so glad I decided not too. Instead I just let him be a couch potato again and run a couple errands with me. We went to Costco and to get gas - big day for us! :) It was so much better that way though. The older kids and dads, no strollers, no grumpy tired little ones. Preston would have cramped their style for sure. Plus without him they were able to squeeze into one car for the drive.

I made Marcos promise to take millions of pictures, sad I was missing my "baby's" first real amusement park experience. And that he did. He took tons of pictures of crazy kids posing and playing and getting soaked in the rain. They had a blast! Marcos lost his wallet and called to tell me about it. I was sitting in the car reading because Preston had fallen asleep when I was driving home and I didn't dare move him inside for fear he would wake up. I had a major panic moment and did the only thing I could think of - prayed. I have to say that the whole day was a bit overwhelming. The excitement of going to Sea World, the low of finding out it would be a day at home for the girls, feeling so bad for Amy and trying to figure out how to help, running errands, hitting a pole in the van while trying to get gas (everything was fine, but still), finding out Marcos had lost his wallet, finding out later that someone had found it on a ride and turned it in (cash and all)... I broke down for a minute AFTER the wallet had been found. Stupid, I know, but I was feeling so grateful and undeserving of such a blessing. And it was just a long day for those of us at home. Laura couldn't figure out why I was crying after the wallet was found and not before. Who knows? Hormones...blame everything on hormones, right?

A little later in the afternoon, I could tell Gabi was pretty bored and it had stopped raining so I decided to take Preston to the park and offered to take Gabi with me as well. It took a total of 30 seconds to tell Kylie knew what was going on and was about to be sad so I offered to take her along too. Especially with a helper like Gabi, I knew I could handle the partners in crime at the park. Milli wasn't feeling well and didn't want to be away from her mom even during mealtime preparations so I figured she probably wanted to stay home. Poor thing! Turns out she had a double ear infection - no wonder she was so miserable the first few days. Well, I didn't get lost and the kids had so much fun. We were there longer than I thought we would be. Some other mom was there with her baby and was pretty chatty so I talked to her while the kids were playing. The guys got home from Legoland and Marcos called to make sure we were fine. I'm sure he thought it was weird we were just gone at the park and assumed we were lost or had been abducted. Nope, we just needed to get out (at least I did).

We went back, had another delicious meal, said a lot of prayers for the sick people (and prayers that the rest of the group wouldn't catch anything) and put the kids to bed.

Here are some of the MANY pictures I had to choose from. Ahhh... he really DOES listen to me! :)

Legoland was Dylan's favorite place so I'm glad they went. He said it's the best because you get to drive your own car and everything.

Cute kids! Don't you love how boys are always posing with pretend swords, guns or lightsabers. Honestly!

Day 4 - Beach Pictures

Sunday afternoon, we all got dressed up in our matching outfits and headed to the beach. Apparently we were in the car when the earthquake hit Mexico and completely clueless. After looking for parking for what seemed like an eternity and finding a spot we had to do a 100 point turn in, we headed down the path towards the beach and began hearing all sorts of rumblings from strangers discussing "the" earthquake. What earthquake? We didn't feel anything since we were in a moving car. So weird to be part of something like that and not even know it. We all had mixed emotions about that, but it's probably better to be oblivious than to have the kids (and adults) paranoid.

Hair done, matching outfits, beautiful beach....great concept for a fabulous family photo. However, attempting to get nine young children to look at the camera and smile at a crowded beach on Easter afternoon with the sun in the exact wrong place was the reality of this chaotic photo session. The kids took one look at the water (especially Preston) and could not resist. It was all we could do to keep them semi-dry while Dave snapped as many pictures as possible. I brought my camera and captured a couple too, but Dave was the brilliant official photographer.

This was our reality - doing everything possible to keep the kids out of the water. Preston was grumpy and trying to pull his shirt off the entire time. That kid's part fish - I swear it!

I took this one with my camera. It's more backlit than I would like, but it's my favorite picture! I love how all the cousins are just sitting on the wall looking out at the ocean.

Abuela with the grandkids. This one was impossible to take. There were a million other people at the beach and we became quite a spectacle as we invaded the beach with our matching outfits and cameras galore. But...I still think the pictures turned out pretty decent considering we were not on a private beach.

Our family at the beach

Another shot we liked.

Preston was not cooperating at all so I'm surprised Dave

was able to portray a happy kid from that little stinker.

The three families at the beach

The happy couple

This is me at 25 weeks pregnant. I have to remind myself of that every time I think

I look less than thin in these photos. Yes, I am expecting a baby people!

Another shot of the family at a park in San Diego

Day 4 - Easter Morning

Easter morning was as it should be - completely chaotic! As I mentioned in yesterday's post, the kids got up pretty early, although surprisingly they forgot it was Easter. They wandered out to ask if they could get up and didn't even notice the goods on the table. Thank goodness because it was only 6:00 at that point. I told them to go back in the room and quietly watch TV. It was more than any of the kids were used to having so many kids opening baskets, looking at new toys and wanting to go on an Easter egg hunt at the same time. Preston and Kylie were partners in crime watching movies and climbing in and out of the playpen we had set up for Preston. Crazy mischievous little monkeys! As you can see, not only did the Easter Bunny spoil the kids a bit, but Abuela gave them a bag of goodies too.

We finally pulled Diego the bear out of hibernation so the eager kids could go on their Easter egg hunt (that kid can sleep forever). The yard was tiny so it was pretty easy for them to find their allotted 12 eggs in a hurry. They loved it though. The younger three went first and then the older 6 were unleashed after the youngest got a head start. The kids seem to always enjoy the hunting more than the candy anyway, but the whole day was filled with kids getting used to a new house, constant playtime with cousins, movies, video games....all with a major sugar high. We eventually found conference on TV, but didn't watch much of it. Marcos and I DVRed it and planned to watch it when we got home knowing it would be difficult given the circumstances. Easter was super fun for the kids, but not quite the Easter Sunday we are accustomed to - getting ready and going to church after checking out the baskets.

We did have a little family night lesson by Laura that taught us about Jesus' life, death and resurrection. The older kids were pretty good for it - Preston not so much. I finally gave up trying to get him to listen and let him wander around. Ah, 3-year-olds. It did bring in the spirit though and brought tears to my eyes (of course). I'm such a baby!

Anyway, that was Easter morning and afternoon in the house in San Diego. More to come on Easter afternoon/evening in the following post.

Checking out their loot. Notice the picture of Preston holding his basket, bag of goods from Abuela and his shovel and pale. Makes it look like major overkill, doesn't it? And there's Preston mid-climb during the playpen mischief. Dylan and Mason were funny comparing their baskets. Dylan was sad he didn't get a chocolate bunny and Mason thought Dylan's carrots with pixie dust (a.k.a. flavored sugar) sounded good so they traded. Dylan got part of a chocolate bunny head in exchange for one carrot with sugar in it. Funny kids!

Here's the Easter egg hunt. Preston LOVED it! He finally got the hang of this game of finding stuff and putting it in your basket. The kids are all in the picture above and are in birth order oldest to youngest. Here it goes for those who don't know (Gabi, Mason, Leah, Dylan, Diego, Mylo, Preston, Kylie, Milli).

Day 3 - San Diego or Bust!

We got up Saturday morning and got on the road. We met up with Amy and Esteban to drive to Vegas and meet up with Laura, Dave and abuela. Unfortunately, Amy forgot one of her bags and they had to turn back. A little more coordinating than we had anticipated trying to meet up and caravan with everyone. Next time, driving separate and meeting up when we get there might be the easiest way to go. Luckily, we made good time and were there by afternoon. Laura and Esteban headed to Costco and a couple other stores to buy our food for the week while the rest of us unpacked and got organized. We stayed in the home of some friends of abuela's. It was super nice, which made it a bit stressful with nine kids running around, but it was great to have a place to stay together. We survived kids destroying the house by pulling out every kid vice possible - DVD's, DS, Leapster, etc. It was a free for all week as far as electronics were concerned and the kids were in heaven. They keep the home stocked with everything, which was nice because we didn't have to pack a lot of extra stuff (you would never know it looking at our cars though), but meant that the room we were staying in with our family already had the closets and drawers completely full. Thankfully Amy & Esteban let us use one of their empty closets to put our clothes in so we wouldn't be so cramped. The kids ran around checking out everyone's rooms and then we ended up having the older kids sleep in our bed that night and put the youngest three in playpens to sleep. Preston had a great setup. To get him to stay in the playpen, I set up the portable DVD player for him. Talk about the life of luxury. We needed them all confined that night though so we could attempt to do Easter. Marcos and I ended up sleeping on a blow up mattress in the living room and Amy and Abuela were on the couch sleeping (Diego stole Amy's place on her bed the first night). It was hard to get the kids to go to bed because they were so excited, but we were eventually successful. I went in Easter morning to find 4 of 5 kids awake before 6:00. We knew then that we would probably need to have each set of kids sleep with his/her parents or no one would ever get any sleep. Here's what Saturday afternoon/night looked like at the house in San Diego.

Exploring and vegging...

Here are 5 of the oldest grandkids awake and then asleep (Diego ended up crashing on Amy's bed) and Preston's custom-made playpen. And yes, that's a picture of all the Easter stuff. That's what nine spoiled kids on Easter looks like crammed onto one kitchen table (the only open space available).

Spring Break 2010 - Days 1 & 2 - St. George

We got back last night from our 10 day spring break trip. Holy moly! It was an adventure. We squeezed so much into a week and a half that I have no idea how I'm even going to document it. But I'm still going to try...of course! To top it off, I came down with strep throat yesterday. Thankfully it was the final day and all we had to do was drive home. After my 101 fever all night and day, I went to the doctor this afternoon and got an antibiotic. It wouldn't be a real family trip without at least a few people catching some crud. Unfortunately every family experienced some illness on this trip - our family's timing just happened to be the best.

Thursday, April 1, we waited for Dylan to get home from his field trip at noon, fed the kids lunch and then hopped in the car to drive the first leg of the trip to St. George. The drive was perfect! Preston ended up taking an afternoon nap (perfect timing) which helped the time fly. Plus with the kids' new DVD players we bought with their birthday money from grandparents, we were definitely living the life of luxury. They would've stayed in the car all day if we let them. :) We were originally planning on leaving Friday, but decided it was worth an extra day in St. George, which would give us a day in between drive days to play. It was a good decision! We got spoiled with lots of yummy meals by my grandma and got to go on some hikes and just chill in St. George. Dylan was so excited. Right after we took off, he said, "Mom, I'm going to look for the 'Cindy' okay?" I was so confused and replied, "What?" "You know, the Cindy that's in St. George." "Oh, the Dixie. Okay, you keep your eyes open for the Dixie rock okay bud." We were still in Layton at the time. Funny boy!

Friday we met up with Esteban's kids and abuela to go for a hike on the red rock. The kids were really cute and had a great time. Marcos and Esteban played tennis, Amy got her running in (she's training for a marathon) and we were going to go swimming, but the water was ice cold. Overall a really fun day with each other and cousins.

Here are some pictures just hanging around grandma and grandpa's house. The kids LOVE all the little animals in the gardens, the golf cart and the tractors. I couldn't believe in just one day of playing, we wore Preston out enough that he crashed on the couch for an afternoon nap! Yes! It made it easy for me to rest while Marcos played tennis and Dylan played with cousins.

This is a picture of our hike Friday evening. There is a little park not far from my grandparents' house and it has several hiking trails that seem crazy, but are not that bad. They end up taking you to the TOP of the mountain very quickly. So cool! We also ran into some ducks and fed them a couple pieces of bread on the way.

Another Project

I've been going in circles. I feel like I have so much to do, but seem to be waiting for this until I can do this, etc. I finally decided I just needed to do something. So I moved the toys to the basement (with help from the kids and Marcos). I feel totally claustrophobic right now, but I'll get used to it. My sister came by and said she didn't think it felt crowded at all. I'm just used to having space in the dungeon. My plan is to move the computer and printers upstairs (I'm going to buy a computer armoire to put in the living room so I can shut the doors when I want the computer tucked away). We've been wanting to put the computer in a more central location anyway and now with kids playing downstairs, I really don't want them messing with electronics by themselves. I'm going to keep the desk and shelves so I have a craft/scrapbook area, but it won't really be an office space. So here's the toy room/craft area in our house. More pictures to come of other areas as I rearrange everything. Poor Marcos, I seriously drive him CRAZY with my need to move things and reorganize all the time. It's definitely my little OCD niche. I can go a couple weeks without dusting my furniture - things don't have to be completely clean all the time - but if there is not a place for everything I own, I go insane.

My desk & craft stuff will still be downstairs, but the computer and printers will be upstairs

Toys, toys, toys

...and more toys

Just another view of the room

Oh What a Night... (doo doo doo doo doo...)

Yesterday was insane! I spent the morning trying to prepare for the crazy afternoon. I made sure homework and reading were done and all that. I have no idea what I did, but the day flew by. I had a doctor appointment at 2:30 and was going to take the kids now that the ban of germy little ones tagging along has been lifted. It's been 6 weeks since I've been to the doctor and I knew I had to get it over with. I'd been rescheduled twice and had to cancel once. The bad news...she was 45 minutes behind. AWESOME! So now I get to entertain these boys for even longer. The good news...they did okay in the office once we were in the room. AND... we're still having a girl. I had my doubts, but now I guess I can get to setting up and painting when I can find some motivation.

After the doctor, I hosted a YW cooking class (all the leaders are taking turns hosting it). Only 2 girls came, but I figured we'd be lucky to get 4. Two more that should have been there had eye doctor appointments. DANG! Oh well. But it was fun anyway. I literally had to run from that over to the caucus meetings so I could do my civic duty and be involved in the political process. Again, we tried to wing it and take the kids. I should've found a sitter. Preston was SO MUCH WORK....and poor Marcos let me stay in the meeting while he chased him down the hall and around the drinking fountain. Marcos would've rather stayed home anyway so I feel bad for dragging him along. He's such a good sport. People are pretty ticked off right now, so it was a record turnout, which meant the meeting was extra long this time. Needless to say, the kids were quite late for bed. Thankfully I'd already taken care of reading for the day.

Whether it was being overly tired or what, poor Preston had some sort of a nightmare right as Marcos and I were climbing in bed. I asked Marcos to just go in and pat him gently to settle him down. Big mistake! He started crying so Marcos tried to get him out of bed so he wouldn't wake Dylan. This started a night of inconsolable, half-awake Preston moments. I held him for a good 20 minutes and finally decided I would go for a drive to put him back to sleep - at 12:30. The streets sure are quiet in the middle of the night. A couple cars, a dead skunk in the road, and some random jogger. Seriously, who jogs in the middle of the night? Even if you have a weird schedule you should probably go to a gym at that hour. Kind of dangerous! I got back and the attempted transfer from the car to the bed was a complete failure. I ended up putting him in my bed next to Marcos with Little Einsteins on and going down to the couch. He fell asleep, but two hours later was awake again. Marcos didn't hear him so I went upstairs to start the whole exhausting process over again. Three times that happened. I nearly had a breakdown at 4:30 this morning when I had maybe slept 30 minutes total. Of course Dylan wanders downstairs at 5:00 saying he was scared and hops on the couch with me. I cannot sleep on a couch with a child next to me. There is just not enough room so I finally got him back up to bed, which woke Preston again. Thankfully he was awake enough to slide off my bed and walk in and get in his own bed. Good! So I finally got to bed at 5:00 this morning and was up around 7:30-ish. No wonder I'm exhausted! I swear if it happens again tonight, I'm getting some children's benadryl. Yep, I'm THAT mom.

Kindergarten Drama

I can't help but laugh at all the "who wants to marry whom" drama that occurs in Kindergarten. Forever it was Dylan and Kambrie, true love forever, but when Kambrie got one look at Cameron in her class this year, she was hooked. I've heard her say, "Oh, he's just so cute!" several times. And Cameron and Dylan are friends. But Dylan got over it because Abby was in love with him and he was okay with that. I thought it was weird how loving he was to her though and tried to help him understand he could just be friends with a lot of people. Then Abby decided she was mad at Dylan. Dylan explained some of it to me. I think the boys chase the girls at recess and he didn't protect her and that made her mad. Something like that. She wouldn't talk to him so McKaitli was the middle man for the two of them. What the crap, dude? Then one day it was, "Cole hates me. Now I have no friends." Of course I felt bad and worried about the fact that Dylan was burning bridges with friends at school so we had a little talk about being nice to everyone and not choosing some friends over others, etc. The next day, Dylan had an "invitation" to go to Disneyland with Kole so apparently they worked it out. Jeez! Sometimes it's hard not to get caught up in their "drama." I wonder what the teenage years are going to hold for us. Well, the past couple months, Dylan tells me he and Abby are friends again...until today. Here's what Abby sent home in Dylan's backpack with him today. GIVE ME STRENGTH!

Clothes, clothes, clothes

I thought it was a bit early to be thinking about getting shorts out, but Preston didn't have ANY short sleeved shirts in his closet and it was really warm a couple days this week. I have to say I am super grateful for hand-me-downs, but holy cow there were a TON of clothes to sort through. So this is what my family room looked like yesterday. It's getting close to clean now and the clothes are pretty much sorted through, but man, it was a job. Sorting, washing, drying, putting outfits together, hanging, putting away, reorganizing drawers, DI piles.... You get the idea. I love and hate the changing of the clothes. It's nice to get all organized, but it really is a ginormous project. But especially with the approach of our spring break California trip, I knew we would need to trade our sweaters for shorts and short sleeves. I can't wait!

80's Night

Last month the YW had a combined 80's night activity with karaoke, rock band and dance dance revolution. I was sick and didn't end up going (which I was totally bummed about) but apparently it was a HIT! The YM were begging to join in so this month for our joint activity with the YM, we reenacted it. Once again, it was a really fun activity. And we added American Idol Wii so we would have enough stations (thanks Courtney - they LOVED it!) The kids all got into it, although the boys mainly stayed on rock band. It was hard to get them to branch out (boys are lame sometimes!) But most of the YW were involved in all the activities at one point or another and seemed to have a good time. As always, I just couldn't help myself. You give me music or dancing and I am bound to go a little crazy. With my side ponytail, double shirts with the sleeves rolled up and alternating bright socks on top of my jeans, I let loose. I seriously think I scared some of the YW with my excitement towards a singing/dancing night. We even line danced to boot scoot boogie on karaoke...I was out of breath by the end, but I danced my butt off. Of course this was followed by a definite need for a bathroom break...stupid pregnancy. Anyway, here are a couple shots of the night. I took pictures at the beginning and then had to join in the fun so I'm sure I missed quite a bit of cool shots. Oh well.

Preston's Birthday

This is my sweet baby boy...Preston Santiago

This was the day he left the hospital. He was 4 days old.

My "baby" on his 3rd birthday - as happy as ever.

Preston turned three on Monday, March 15. We decided to keep things simple for Preston's birthday and just make it a special day with the family filled with things he loves. So that's what we did. The birthday bear came again and decorated the house. Dylan was devastated when he realized we didn't leave him any honey. Silly kid! Preston was thrilled with his balloons and Diego decorations (all courtesy of past parties).

Unfortunately we had a funeral in the ward too so I spent the morning getting a sheet cake ready to take over to the funeral. I picked up Dylan from school, dropped off the dessert and then we headed to McDonald's. Preston had kind of picked Arctic Circle, but he has a persuasive older brother who helped him decide McDonald's would be more fun. Whatever! The kids had a blast. We rarely go to McDonald's so the kids were thrilled to get a happy meal and play for awhile. We headed to the park after that. I was going to take them to the Treehouse Museum, but ran out of town. I had to be to a YW meeting at 4:30 and it was after 3 before we left McDonald's. We ran to Wal-mart to get a couple extra small things for his birthday and then went back start the evening rush.

After my YW prayer/meeting, we headed home to make a quick sandwich and throw all our stuff together for swimming. That is one of Preston's FAVORITE activities so that is what we decided to do. My dad called that morning and wanted to come take the kids to dinner for their birthday. He ended up joining us for a fun swimming experience and dinner at McDonald's afterwards. Yes! Two times at McDonald's in one day. I thought I was going to die! But I sucked it up for the sake of my birthday boy who was once again thrilled to be there.

I still don't know if he understood it was actually his birthday we were celebrating. I kept asking him how old he was and he just said, "Good." Now how are you, how OLD are you. So if you ask and he doesn't respond, that's why. Anyway, I love my sweet Preston! We have been through a lot with that kid, but I couldn't have asked for a better kid. He has the sweetest, kindest disposition and we are truly blessed to have him be a part of our family.

The kids playing at McDonald's

Playing at the park

Swimming