Happy Birthday to Me~ 2009

Yes- its been a whole year since my last birthday and our trip to the snow! What a fun day that was! This year we decided to stay closer to home and take advantage of Disney's Free On Your Birthday special happening this year.

Rick, the girls and I headed into Disney Sunday morning with ideas of going to CA Adventure and spending a leisurely day there.

The traffic to get into the park was horrible and in all it took us an hour and a half just to get through the entrance gates. Unknown to use there was an ANTHRAX scare at the ticket booths earlier that morning that had shut things down for a bit. LOL It was later determined to be sand- but good to know Disney is on top of their game! Another thing we were oblivious too was the fact that one of the Jonas Brothers was at CA Adventure with his girlfriend the same day. I heard someone talking about it- but figured it was a fluke- yep- clueless!

I used my free admission towards renewing my annual pass so I am now set for another year!

Once we were in the park we had a blast. It was very cloudy and rain loomed all day- but we never got wet! We hit the new Toy Story ride first since Rick didn't get to go on it last time (Halloween). I rode with Maddie and he rode with Emily and Ashley- there are only 2 blasters so he had to let them shoot- I think he's ready to go back for a turn of his own. After the ride we had a picnic lunch on the pier since the weather was OK and there was this cool corner near the roller coaster and lake. As you can see- the lake is currently drained to prepare for the light show they are working on.

We found Goofy and got a picture with him.

And then we found WALL-E!

Pictures with Mommy: Emily

Ashley

Madeline

Later in the afternoon we headed out of the park to meet friends and family at Rainforest Cafe, located at Downtown Disney. we got to sit in a really cool, semi-private room with a HUGE fish tank (there were only 2 other tables).Of course we had to have dessert- this is their famous Volcano dessert- as they bring it they come through the restaurant yelling, "Voooollllll- caaaaaaannnnn- ooooooooo!" The girls had it down by the end of the night! This thing was big enough for the whole group to share!
The girls loved the sparkler on top- here Maddie gives Daddy a tickle...
This is the fish tank!

Below is our whole group- I'm so grateful to have amazing friends and family that will come out and do fun things with me on my birthday!

Michelle, Mike, Joann, My Dad, my sister Sara, my Brother in Law Rich, My Mom, the girls, Rick and me.

Yep- it was another awesome birthday!

Memories Monday 2/23/09

These were taken in January 2005! Four years ago! The one above is in our family crib and below is the picture we used for their first birthday invitation!

We celebrated my birthday yesterday with a trip to Disney's CA Adventure and dinner at Rainforest Cafe at Downtown Disney. it was a fabulous day (and it didn't rain! phew!). Pictures and a post to come tomorrow!

Wordless Wednesday 2/18/09: Yes it Rains in CA!

Memories Monday 2/16/09

I love this picture. This was summer 2004. We were actually able to get the 3 girls into coordinating outfits and not have to change someone before getting a picture! My sister game them these outfits. To this day we still love the Very Hungry Caterpillar book. Can you tell who is who? Ashley is in Orange (with cute socks that had the sun on them), Maddie has the hat on in the middle and Emily has the white outfit and cheesy grin!

Here are a few more pictures from this photo session:Ashley had a death grip on Maddie's hat and would not let go!

Ahhhh....memories!

Happy Valentines Day!

Happy Valentines Day!

I just have to post it again...it's tooooo cute! :) I think its going to be a quiet one around here. We are in between rain storms and have been sick, sick, sick. :( All 3 girls are on antibiotics, cough suppressant, lots of Tylenol/Motrin and ALL 3 are on breathing treatments (yep- even Emily). Our nebulizer is working overtime this week (thank goodness we just had it replaced!) and we aren't getting much sleep. Maddie broke out in hives again on Thursday night so we've added benedryl to the mix too. The girls missed school 3 days this week- Emily missed Monday, all 3 missed Tues/Wed and Maddie missed Thur. (I guess Ashley only missed 2 days?) Sadly, Maddie had to miss her Valentines Day party at school, but with a fever there was no way we were sending her to school. I was able to pick up their valentine projects early and we made them at home so they had their mailboxes ready for Valentines.

Above: Ashley with her Valentine mailbox and below is Emily with hers.

The girls brought home Maddie's valentines and we had a mini-party at home with her.

Emily with the gorilla I sent her- we do Valentine Grams through Student CouncilThe girls got to pick one treat to eat- Maddie is showing me her choice while Emily gets hers.Valentines Hats too!
Maddie's was her teachers- she gave it to me to give her.
Emily being silly with her hat- we just need to draw eyes on the hearts!

Thankfully, I think we are on the mend and am hoping we are done with doctor visits until their 5 year checks next month! GULP- in one month I will have 5 year olds!!!!

FFF#?? LOVE!

I guess I need to count my Favorite Foto Friday posts as I have lost count as to the number this one is! We've had a rough week here with all the girls sick (see my post tomorrow for more details). Sarah chose the one-word theme LOVE for this week's FFF- appropriate yes? :) here are some things that I love:

Sick or not, I LOVE my girls!

This is one of my favorite pictures ever! I took it for Rick to post as his computer wallpaper. As cute as my girlies are- their backsides are just as cute! I remember this was just when I was able to start getting their hair into ponytails~ I was so excited! Have I ever told you I had BALD babies?! They are almost TWO in this picture! Hard to believe when you look at their hair now! And, thinking back- I'm pretty sure we/the girls have been sick EVERY Valentines Day! Yuck!

I also LOVE this time of year... why? Birthdays are looming for one! Plans are in full effect for the big FIVE birthday party! I was also thrilled this week to peek out among the rain clouds/rain and see this:

This is our plum tree!!!!! I had to get a quick picture because it was starting to rain (you know I melt in the rain! I admit- I'm a weather wimp!) but this little flower means spring is coming (and delicious plums too!) So here's a little glimmer of hope for all my cold weather friends! Since taking this picture several more flowers have opened. Like last year, I'll post progression pictures. The real treat will be once the peach tree blossoms- always makes for beautiful pictures!

I hope you are well and that you have a great weekend! Check back tomorrow/Saturday for our Valentines Day post!

And to see more LOVE pictures, don't forget to visit Sarah's blog!

One Year Blogging Anniversary!/Memory Monday

A year ago today I started my blog! It was thanks to my friend Tanya that I started. She seemed to think I had funny stories to tell and that I should write them down. Funny or not, she had a point. I'm making slow progress on the girls' scrapbooks so this is a quick way to get the big moments recorded to refer back to, as well as share some of those funny moments along the way. Our new favorite snack: Snowmen Bananas!

My first post was about my first trip to Disneyland with the girls by myself. I met Tanya there and between us we had seven kids aged 4 and under. We were so proud of ourselves. So much has happened in a year. Thank you for taking this journey with us and for checking in on us. I've made some new friends along the way- some I've met, some I hope to meet one day. I love reading all your comments and visiting your blogs in return.

I hope more of you will come out of lurking and post some comments this year! I see you over there on the site meter- telling me who visits from where. I'd love to hear from you! I'm also looking to add a counter to the blog so we can see how many people visit. I do get a weekly report and on average about 140 people visit per week! And I've had over 9,000 people visit this year! Please feel free to introduce yourself in the comment section! It's easy! :)

I recently changed the background of our blog and promise the music will be updated soon! I'm also in the process of loading all my pictures from CD's to my external hard drive- as I do this I plan on starting "Memory Monday" where I will post a picture from the CD of the week. Should be a fun walk down memory lane. I was watching some videos last night from 2006 and was amazed! Not sure if I've shared this one before- but its one of my favorites!

To honor this special occasion, I'm going to complete a tag my friend Leslie gave me. Leslie is a blogging buddy- she has a beautiful family!

Per the rules, I have to list 5 reasons why Life is Grand and pass this on to 5 friends

I think life is grand because...

1. I have an amazing family- I’m married to my best friend and have 3 beautiful girls.

2. I have a great job! (I have a job for that matter!) My job allows me to work part time doing what I love- teaching- and I still can spend lots of time with my girls!

3. My friends are my building blocks that I depend upon daily. I have many friends from many walks of life and I value every one of them!

4. I live two blocks from my parents and get to see them all the time. I don’t take it for granted. My parents are young and I am grateful that they are such a huge part of their granddaughters lives (and mine!).

5. We are healthy! Sure we have our aches and pains- but we have nothing to complain about and our girls are healthy- and always have been. For this- we thank God every day!

So there you have it! I'm not going to tag anyone because if you are reading this- i think you are GRAND and if you have a blog, please feel free to create an entry on this too!

Thanks again for a great year! I can't wait to see what this next year brings!

No Girlie Girls Here!

We had great weather earlier this week again and have taken advantage of it as much as possible since we are getting rained on now~ the girls and I were outside every afternoon- playing in the front yard, playing in the backyard, gardening, digging, all things dirty, gross and grimy!

My girls do love girly things, they love dolls, dress up, barbies, doing my hair, drawing, etc. They also love cars, trucks, animals, wrestling, computer games. Well-rounded I'd say! LOL This week we seem to be focusing on less of the girlie things. It all started with the famous lizard from THIS post. Then we had the concrete guys on our street all week fixing the sidewalks. The girls loved watching them. They lined up the chairs in the front yard and watched all afternoon, every afternoon.

Nothing like free entertainment!!

I used the time to garden in the front yard. I found a worm while doing so and thus we met "Mr. Wormy". Emily loved him so much. She and Ashley made a dirt cup for him gave him some leaves and she carried him around for about 2 hours. Took me forever to convince her he needed to be back in the ground. We finally got him in the garden, she turns and exclaims, "Oh look, a caterpillar!" Groan... here we go again! The dirt was emptied out of the cup, leaves were added and the caterpillar was added too. He stayed in the cup outside after we went in. He just happened to "escape" by morning- I helped checked on him before I went to bed. :) Madeline wasn't as interested in the worm- she spent a majority of the time between watching the workers and kicking the soccer ball around the yard.