A DAY AT DISNEYLAND

We went to Disneyland on Sunday for the first time since moving to California! We surprised the kids Sunday morning and told them that we were going to celebrate Maleah's birthday at Disneyland. It was a FUN day......

Our first ride was the merry-go-round.........Maleah, Grandpa Steve and Cameron.

Of course, the kids had to ride Dumbo!

And then it was on to the tea cups.

We made a short stop in Toon Town........but didn't stay long because we HAD to get over to the Jedi Training Academy in Tomorrowland before the show started!

We luckily got to Jedi training a few minutes early and everyone was able to sit down and rest for a few minutes. It was a much needed break!!

After our short rest (and some light saber skill training) we headed over to The California Adventure Park.

We rode another merry-go-round --this time with fish instead of horses!

We went on a very HIGH (but slow) ferris wheel.

And we rode on the California Screamin' roller coaster. It was a very fast, twisty roller coaster that even looped upside (that's Jeff & I in the 2nd row from the front).

Cameron surprised us on this one and said that he wanted to give it a try. He didn't like any of the rides in Fantasyland (because they were inside in the dark), but I think he actually liked this one. I was really nervous about him riding it (and was actually secretly hoping that he wouldn't be tall enough to even try it) because I thought it'd get going and he would HATE it, but he made it through it and he even gave me a high-five after it. He and Jeff are in the 6th row back......you can barely even see Cameron's head in the seat.

At the end of the night we let each of the kids pick out a special toy to take home......

Cameron chose this light-up shooter thing (that makes a very loud obnoxious noise).

Rena chose Minnie Mouse (after looking through the gift shop for a good 15 minutes and changing her mind at least 15 times)!

And Maleah chose this Minnie Mouse that has a little balloon that says "It's my birthday".

WE MET THE PRINCESSES

While we were at Disneyland we went to "Ariel's Grotto" for dinner and to meet the Princesses. We told Maleah that Cinderella had called the night before and invited her to dinner for her birthday. The girls were really excited and had fun meeting the princesses. Maleah was a little bit disappointed that Cinderella didn't actually sit down at our table and eat dinner with us (next time I'll chose my words a little bit more carefully), but she was really happy that all of the princesses that she met said "Happy Birthday" to her.

Maleah needed a little bit of help from daddy blowing out her candle.

Rena, Ariel and Maleah

Maleah, Jasmine and Rena

Maleah, Cinderella and Rena

Maleah, Snow White and Rena

Maleah, Aurora and Rena

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MALEAH

Maleah is 4 years old!!! We had a little birthday celebration for her on Saturday night with the 5 of us, my dad and our neighbors.

Here she is waiting for us to sing so that she can eat some cake and ice cream.....

She requested a pink cake with pink frosting and pink sprinkles. Sooooo that's what she got.....

After cake and ice cream it was time for some presents............

She got this cool wagon full of sand toys from The McCullough's.

Cameron got Maleah this Nerf Gun...... "because she really wanted it".........so he said! Rena picked her out something "girly" (as Rena says) and got her a Barbie swimming pool.

The neighbor girls, Jacinda and Gabby helped with opening the presents. Jacinda (the one on the right) read all of Maleah's cards for her.

Maleah is ready for the pool in her new swim suit cover up from The McCullough's.

Maleah got LOTS of nice things and loved everything.....THANKS everyone!!!!!

TAYLOR GRADUATED

Last week the kids and I took a drive to Pine Mountain Club, California to celebrate my cousin Gimi's oldest daughter, Taylor, graduating from high school. Pine Mountain Club is up North past Los Angeles and it took us about 3-1/2 hours to make the drive. We joked with Peggy after we arrived about the drive being NOTHING like the drive through Central Illinois that we made many times to visit her while we were living in Peoria. There was A LOT of traffic the whole way there and we didn't see 1 corn field! :) It was, of course, worth the drive once we got there and got to celebrate with everyone.

Here's Peggy (wearing a t-shirt with a baby picture of Taylor on it) with Taylor the graduate.

The Herren's have this trampoline set-up at their house and the kids loved it! Maleah only liked it if she got to jump by herself, though. If she was in there with the other kids she could never stay standing.

Scotty (Gimi's youngest son), Cameron and Rena waiting for the graduation ceremony to start.

Maleah and Peggy anxiously waiting also.

Taylor was chosen to give the "Senior Speech" at graduation. She didn't tell anyone from the family (including her mom and dad) that she would be speaking so we were all surprised when we got there and saw her name on the program. Her speech was excellent and she did a great job talking in front of so many people.

The next day Gimi & Paul had a bbq at their house to celebrate. My dad drove in from Las Vegas to celebrate with Taylor also so it was a fun couple of days with family. Gimi also has 3 dogs that the girls were so funny with.....they were completely terrified of these little dogs when we first got there, but after a day they loved them and couldn't get enough of them.

Here's Gimi and Peggy getting ready for the bbq.

Paul was in-charge of barbecuing the hamburgers and hot dogs.......they were yummy! :)

Peggy, Hailey, Taylor, Gimi, Paul, Ryan, Steve, Scotty and me.

SEA WORLD

The kids and I had our first big outing yesterday to Sea World. We went when we were here during Spring Break and took advantage of their promotion - buy one day and come back free for the rest of 2009 - so instead of unpacking, organizing or cleaning at the house we spent the day playing at Sea World.

We spent most of the day in the "Sesame Street Bay of Play" area. The kids started out by putting on a little show for me..........

They did A LOT of bouncing..........

They did some running and bumping..........

They rode on Elmo's Flying Fish..........

And spun circles in Abbey's Sea Star Spin.....

AND they (and I) did lots of climbing and crawling..........

We did get out of the Sesame Street area for awhile - we got to see Shamu and the killer whales show, go through the penguin exhibit, watch a "pet" show, watch a 4-D movie and eat lots of treats! Everyone loved and fought over the popcorn and coke, but Maleah and I were the only ones that liked the cotton candy...........

WE'RE HOME

We have moved into our new house in Carlsbad, California!

We got the keys last week and have been busy getting settled ever since. The kids and I spent the first day out in the driveway while we had the house cleaned.....

The next day our things arrived. I wasn't aware before they arrived, but they ended up unloading our things, putting it all in storage for a few days and then reloading and delivering when we got the keys to the house. Because everything had been unloaded and reloaded I chose to check off every item that was delivered to make sure we got all of our things. The movers had to account for 400 red stickers and 297 yellow stickers. It was crazy, but everything made it!

Cameron and Maleah hung-out in the driveway watching the movers and "helping" me mark off numbers.....

Rena didn't feel good so she spent a large part of the day sleeping in the dining room. She didn't bother anyone and no one seemed to bother her -- the movers just worked around her!

And once everything was unloaded and we started unpacking Cameron had a good time playing with (and in) the boxes......

SO - we are here, our stuff is here and we are ready for visitors! :)