Just a sneak peek at one of the darling pictures myMandy/cousin/friend/forever love, sent from the pictures she took in Disney Land! (She is for hire in the California Area) I am so excited to see them all! She is so very talented. This morning was pretty chaotic, to say the least. Everyone but Whitney, Syd, Scott, and myself were VERY sick. Halle had been to an insta-care (emergency doctor visit) in California the night before! Mandy visited us just in time to load her up screaming into the car. She had been crying and holding her ears for about an hour before that. I entered the coordinates into my GPS on my phone and found the little clinic that would be closing in an hour! We were so lucky to get some antibiotics for her very sad infected ears.
The morning of this picture, we had to get up at 5:30 a.m. to get everyone ready and into the park by 7:00. This was our goal anyway because at 8:00, the public was being let into the park and there would be slim to no chance of getting a picture without other people we didn’t know in it. We made it in by 7:30 and did our very best to hurry and get a few pictures. Between every picture the littles’ laid down in the stroller because they were so sick.
Thank you Mandy, for being workable and so talented. Taking beautiful family pictures in Disney Land on THE very busiest day of the year, with a sick family, takes talent!
On the way home to Utah, we encountered some major fog at the John Wayne airport. We had no choice but to sit on the runway for over an hour. We had to wake up on this lovely morning at 4:30 to be out of the hotel by 5:00 an to the airport…to sit. Ugh. I wouldn’t have planned it this way, but I thought it would be really fun to challenge ourselves with sick kids that early in the morning (and the flights were several hundred dollars cheaper *each*)
I know you can’t see it, but everyone but Kinley and Whitney are are asleep in the back of the car. They (we) were all SO tired, and sick. The trip was amazing though. We took it easy, had naps when we needed, swam when we felt like it, and partied like it was 1999 on New Year’s Eve.
We came home to the rest of Christmas to put away, unpacking, and one day to relax before school was back in session. Then, I got sick. I don’t know how I held out that long, being the one that was with the kids the most, other than Jon. I drank their drinks, wiped their faces, and all the other mommy stuff. But, my body held off for a while.
When I was finally ready to blog again, I realized my computer charger was D.E.A.D. so I have so many random (catch you up) kind of things to say.
Because Jon is the amazing hubby he is, he has made sure I have had plenty of sleep since I got sick. He took the kids all day Saturday, so I could sleep. He took all 6 kids to the *GUN SHOW* and returned with a gift. My very first handgun with a laser attached. This is a little red light that shows you where your bullet will hit. This comes in handy when a dog in Alpine is charging for your ankle, and you are trying to shoot it and flustered.
Laugh if you will, hate me if you want…but if you have ever had this happen, you would understand. Every time Tiff and I go for a walk in Alpine Wyoming, we are approached by dogs. Some are Running full speed, and others walk up and start circling us. Some dog owner’s stop their dog, others couldn’t give a crap less if they ripped my leg off.
I was actually bit about a year ago by a pit bull. Luckily I had on Sorel boots, so I only bruised and didn’t break the skin. But, I have sworn that I will carry a gun next time and if I am charged again, I will shoot. Maybe in the air, and maybe somewhere else.
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I slept Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and half of Monday. Monday was Halle’s 5 year birthday, and because of our crazy schedule, I decided to combine Halle and Jordan’s birthday party in a few weeks. But when she woke up yesterday, I asked her what she wanted to do….I shouldn’t have.
“Ma Ma, I wanna go to Chuck E Cheese!”
“Really……?” insert a possible whine on my part
“Yes Yes Yes! I love Chuck E. Cheese!”
“Don’t you want to go to Chuck-a-rama or get pizza or …anything else?”
“No.”
“…………”
“ok.”
So we went.
That place just sicks me out.
All the kids running around the pinball games, toy cars, and touching the buttons were sick. All kinds of combinations of germs that I didn’t want to get as I am just getting my family over the last set. I try to get excited about it, I really do. I just would rather do anything than that. The pizza came, the chuckie cake, and the kids started running around with the coins.
Ella found her favorite game. The one where the coins drop onto a sliding shelf that hopefully pushes of a whole bunch of coins. It’s kind of like gambling, because you can see all the coins that might fall but they are magnetized to the shelf. It is very rare, if ever, that they actually make it into your pocket.
“Mom Look!” Ella said “I need your help! Just hold this button down, and I’ll get more tickets.”
This kid has learned how to trick the system to get more tickets than I have ever seen! She doesn’t even care about the rides, and every time she had to waster her time sitting on one and not winning tickets for prizes, she had an extremely bored look on her face.
“Oh Oh OH!! We are going to get all of these coins!!”
and then the machine stopped. We looked at each other with huge eyes, and I thought, “well good. Maybe she won’t take her life savings and live in Vegas to earn an income. Just then, Kinley walked up and BUMPED the machine with her hip! She coins came piling down!
And then the ALARM went off.
No, I’m not kidding! The sound was blaring and made for people just like Kinley. I started laughing and rounded the corner, so Ella could take the blame when the chuck-e-cheese security arrived. I’m not sure what they did to her, so I can’t finish the story.
Halle Bug had this outrageous idea to go in this flying ticket machine, that I had never seen before! She was really excited at first, and then became nervous as they geared her up. The point behind the game is to catch as many tickets that are blowing in the air that she can. We were all laughing so hard at her reactions!
First the goggles!
I don’t know if that video will work or not…. (WOW I just reviewed it and my laugh is REALLY loud and close to the speaker!! SO sorry haha)
Anyway, it was fun. I forgot to mention that on the way to Chuck-E-Cheese, Jon took the girls to Toys-R-Us to watch Halle pick out her present. Sometimes my kids choose to pick out their own presents because they have so much fun walking through the store and comparing all of their options.
Because I was sick, I didn’t go to this part BUT when I got into the car later, Jon handed me something that made my sick day, week, or even month!
My VERY own cabbage patch doll!
The first thing I did is RIP open the top. And then the sides. And then the bottom, and realized our newly adopted “Lizbeth Keely” wasn’t coming out! I pushed, and breathed hard, just like a natural child birth but she was just. stuck.
I resolved myself to the fact that it was going to have to be a C-Section. But I wasn’t prepared for this! It wasn’t in the birth plan or anything. So instead I just kept pushing….
“Heee heee whoooo…..heee heee whooo…”
and eventually, she popped OUT!
As you can see, some of the placenta is still attached, but we hadn’t had the chance to clean her up yet. I let the Birthday girl have the first hug, as hard as it was. I had already passed the box around to let my girls smell her. She has a darling belly button, and such a cute little bum!! I used to have a cabbage patch that my mom made me. Katy was her name. She had LONG brown hair, blue eyes, and was chubbier than any cabbage patch baby I had ever seen. I french braided her hair over and over and over again. At the time, it was because I had all brothers and only a baby sister with no hair. Now I know that Katy was an angel. She (and my mom) were preparing me for my future with half a dozen heads of hair to do daily.
And with that, I am over and out.
See you tomorrow!
oh oh, I almost forgot! With all of those tickets, Halle picked out a prize. When I asked her what she wanted, she said, “I want the Angry Bird animal” When I asked her if she wanted the cute green pig, she said, “No, I want the one with the sweaty eyes!”
“Huhhhhh”
And then I saw it.
