Disneyland Fun

I know, I know.... these collages are on here 2x, but the ones below won't let you click to enlarge, and these will...I can't figure it out but until I do I'll just leave these up! The post really starts below....

OUR DISNEYLAND ADVENTURE
September 14-19th, 2009

Get ready for a major overload of pictures!!!Above are Parker and Emmie as we walked in through the bright & shiny D-Land gates on Monday morning. Parker glowing with anticipation....
Emmie.....SOUND ASLEEP.

That's right. Right next to the marching band!

Our week at the Happiest Place on Earth was full of excitement, big smiles, exhaustion, and a few (to be expected) break downs. Overall, it really was so magical! There is just something about Disney that makes for an incredible experience. Watching Parker and Emmie's faces light up at every turn was absolutely priceless and we definitely created some memorable moments!

10 of our FAVORITE THINGS on this trip.....

(in random order!)

10. Meeting Disney characters!
Parker was so excited to get everyone's 'autograph', and the cute little book he had them signing also provides a place to put each character's picture above it. He is going to love looking through it once we get the pictures developed!

9. The Tiki Room!
This is a show of dancing and singing birds and Parker and Emmie loved it! Chris and I loved the A/C that accompanied the show! :)
Also a favorite in that neck of the woods was Pirates of the Caribbean. Parker referred to it as the 'scary' ride and told us the first couple days that it was his favorite.

(Keep reading to find out what quickly became his true #1)

8. Turning 30 at Disneyland! (That's right - I said T-H-I-R-T-Y!!!)
Celebrating my birthday at the park (Tuesday, the 15th) was so much fun. I was given a Happy Birthday button to wear with my name it and every time a Disney employee spotted my button, they would say, "Happy Birthday, Michelle!" For some reason it was just fun to have random strangers constantly yelling out "Happy Birthday!". Plus they gave me a $72 gift card to use on merchandise in the park. I totally recommend going for your big day. It was really, really fun!
After our day at Disney, we went to the Cheesecake Factory (now just down the street) for dinner. I was blessed to end my Big Day with some Oreo cheesecake.
Now THAT is something to celebrate!!!


7. Feeding the ducks in Critter Country at lunch time.
Parker loved this when we did it with him at 20 months, and he loved it at three!


6. Finding Nemo!
We only went on this twice due to lines, but Parker and Emmie both really loved it!

5. Toy Story Ride!

There is a new Toy Story ride over in CA Adventure, and it is sooooo much fun! We went numerous times and it was definitely a top favorite!

4. Emmie meeting the characters!


Her face would just light up every time we got close to a character. Some kids were afraid of them... Not our Emmie. She was grinning ear to ear and would try to grab their noses and even attempted to eat a few of them....! (Surprise, surprise.:))

3. The Pixar Parade in CA Adventure Park!

This parade was soooooooooo well done! The kids loooved it and the choreography was amazing. Definitely a highlight!

2. Parker meeting his beloved friend, Mickey Mouse.
Parker has been infatuated with his buddy Mickey for about a year and a half now. He was Mickey for Halloween last year, is a HUGE Mickey Mouse Clubhouse fan, sleeps with his two Mickey's every night.... you get the idea. We've been talking about meeting Mickey all summer and he was really looking forward to it! Luckily, we had several run-ins with Mickey during our stay. It was very exciting! :)


1. What was Parker's favorite ride you ask??? None else but
THE MATTERHORN!!!
That's right, my (barely) 3 year old looooved one of the fastest rides in the park! He went on it four times, and it would have been a lot more but the lines were long. This was the only 'big' ride that he was tall enough for....can't wait to see what he thinks of Space Mountain in a year or two!

Amidst all of the excitement, by the end of the day (like 5:00!) our kids were more into DREAMland than DISNEYland. It was such a fun trip, but truly exhausting for all of us!

We are so grateful that we could go and spend such adventurous, quality time together.

We LOVED it and can't wait to do it again! :)

All About Cali Part I

We just got back from California last Sunday. We were gone for almost ten days and had such a great time! I feel like family vacations are a true necessity in that you really get to spend quality time together. You know, meaning those oh-so never-ending, obnoxiously continually beckoning chores of laundry, cooking and cleaning are simply just not a worry! WHAT A RELIEF!!! Just good times and making memories is the focus.

Seriously, what is better than that???

So we are a little CRAZY and decided to DRIVE! It actually wasn't so bad- it only took us ten hours total, and the $1500+ we saved by not flying and renting a car was definitely worth it!

The nicest part was that my Mom and Stepdad live in St. George, so we stopped there for a night on the way there and back. It was nice to see them and a great break from driving, not to mention a nice place to stay overnight!

Here are the kiddos doing one of their favorite activities -- playing in Grandma's Jane's guest tub!

That was Friday night, September 11th. On Saturday, we left for LA, where we stayed for a night at my Uncle Mark and Aunt Susan's home before heading out on our Disneyland adventure.

A little sidenote for the family history....

My Uncle Mark (my Dad's brother) is the founder and CEO of WET Design, a firm that designs and makes fountains all over the world. He is truly a creative genius! He has done numerous fountains for Disneyworld and Epcot Center, many of the water features around the LA area including at The Grove and the Watercourt at California Plaza, not to mention works spanning from Hong Kong to Madrid. Probably his most famous water feature however, is the Bellagio Hotel fountain in Las Vegas, which you may also know by it's four-minute scene in the movie Oceans Eleven. Locally, he did the fountain at Gateway in downtown Salt Lake that all the kids love to play in, he did the 2002 winter olympic games huge spiral torch of glass and water that was lit during the opening ceremonies, and his current local project is in the works is for the new downtown Salt Lake City project by Temple Square.

Phew! Just to name a couple. :)

Mark is genuinely one of the most humble guys you'll ever meet. I've never heard him boast about any of his work, even when they obviously deserve some sort of recognition and praise! In fact, most of the time we have to really coax him to get him to tell us much about his projects, as world-renowned as many of them are!

We are so proud of my Uncle Mark and continue to be awed by the many talents and the inspiration he has delivered all across the world.

We were honored to get to stay in their guest house for a night and Parker and Emmie looooved playing with their two kids (their second cousins), Harrison and Madison. Parker gets along great with these two and had such a fun time playing with them!

Thanks Mark and Susan for letting us be your guests for a night and for such great accomodations! :)

Next we were off to Anaheim for six nights! I will post the Disneyland excursion separately, but the other non-Disney adventure we had was going to

NEWPORT BEACH!!

On Wednesday morning we took a break from the parks and headed for the beach, sand and sun.

We all had the best time and the kids totally loved it.

Parker looved looking for seashells with Dad, and Emmie couldn't get enough of the water. She would scream when I would move her away from the waves hitting her little legs.



An excited (and pretty cute) little explorer at Pirates Cove (Newport Beach)Emmie also looooved the sand! No, I'm telling you, she REALLY LOVED THE SAND! EW!

For the girl who puts EVERYTHING into her mouth, why wouldn't she try a mouthful of

sick, germ infested, birdy pooped-on, fishy-smelling DIRT?

UGGHHH!!! LOL

We still love you, Emmie. :) Despite that little incident that unfolded before my camera-catching lens, we still loooooved our morning at the beach!

If I lived in Cali, I think I'd have to arrange for play dates at the beach at least weekly! I might blind fellow beach goers with my glowing white skin as I did on this trip, but eventually I might just end up with tan.

*Sigh*

I think it's been at least a good 8 years since I had one of those... :)

Haircuts for two please

We just got back from a way fun, 9 day trip to California today. (more about that later...!)Parker and Emmie were going to be meeting Mickey & friends and we didn't want them looking shabby, so the day we left I took the kiddos in for haircuts.

This was a special event for Emmie, as it was her monumental, very

FIRST HAIRCUT! :)

Here they are in their before picture:Wild and crazy!

Emmie was a little nervous to cut her luscious locks, but she took it like a big one year old and sat bravely as the hair stylist snipped away, giving her a cute slight stack in the back.

Ahem...

Drum roll..............!

THE FINAL PRODUCT:

Ta-Duh!

My reaction?

I love it! Finally got rid of those uneven ends!

Her reaction???

"Hmmmm.... I thi--ink I like it....it might take some getting used to....."

Finally a slight smile....
"Yeah, okay. I think I do like it!"
Such a girl I tell ya! :)

And as for Mr. P.... he's always happy to get his haircut as long as he gets to watch a movie, play on the slide and get a balloon and sucker on his way out the door.
We love Cookie Cutters!
Too bad I don't think I can afford it much longer now that I have to pay for TWO kid's cuts!

First day of Joy School!

Parker started Joy School last Tuesday.

He was very excited to wear a backpack and meet his new "bends" (friends).

I was very excited too!

Are these little guys cute or what?!

They learned about the letter "A" this week and about animals and participated in lots of fun little activities over at Zach's house.

They had a great time and we are looking forward to the year!

We all scream for ice cream

We had a party for Emmie's birthday 2 days before the actual big day, so on her REAL birthday, August 25th, we decided to let the Birthday Girl have her very first taste at ice cream,

and we made a trip to Cold Stone.

For a girl who LOOOOoooves to eat, she wasn't so thrilled with her Pink Lemonade sorbet. (I will testify however that it was soooo yummy!) I think she was a little put off by the cold.....She was still a super happy girl though to be on a family outing.

The one in for a REAL treat, however, was this little boy:

OH MY! He was in pure HEAVEN!!!
Can't you tell by the mesmerized look on his face?

This kid sat digging and savoring his double chocolate icecream with mixed in oreos and gummy bears on the side (that he meticulously lined up on his chocolate feast) in almost COMPLETE SILENCE for a good 15 minutes! Let me just tell you----THAT.NEVER.HAPPENS!

with our chatterbox, never-sit-still little Parker!


I suppose Cold Stone does have that magic effect on people.
I guess we should have made this outing for HIS birthday, not Emmie's....

Thanks, Em, for giving Parker a little bit of heaven on your birthday!

Who am I kidding? We all benefited from the outing!

Pink Polka-Dot Party

We celebrated Missy Em's birthday on Sunday, the 23rd. It was a lot of FUN!

Take a look for yourself....

Sorry for the picture overload but I can't help myself!The Birthday Girl!The tutu... I've seen these things on LOTS of blogs lately as 1st birthday girl attire. I think they are pretty stinkin' cute, so naturally as Emmie's big day was approaching my thoughts were, "Emmie. Must. Have. Tutu!" So, rather than pay a ton of money to purchase one (since I'm kind of cheap and on a budget), I found a tutorial on You Tube and whipped this up for only $8! It was really actually fun to make and was super duper easy!

Special thanks to the You Tube 'How to Make a No-Sew Tutu' Girl! The Birthday Party Attendees....

(Above)

My Dad, Grandma, my brother and his wife, Gma and Gpa Lonczyna (they are in their 90's - are they the cutest or what?) and the Hansen Clan (minus a few sibs whom we missed). And sorry Zach - we missed catching your picture!

We had everyone over for dinner, cake and ice cream, and other pink treats...

The Birthday Party Decor....

We went with the theme of Pink and Polkadots.

Very creative of me, I know....:)

My Big ONE YEAR OLD!!!

Where did my baby go??? This last year has been full of so many bright moments with this little one as a member of our family.

A few MORE things about Emmie at ONE:

Emmie is such a sweetheart! She loves to be held but is also very independent and happy to just hang out and play with toys. She knows where we keep the toys and will help herself by opening the console and pulling them out when she is ready to play. She is quite the little acrobat crawling up onto whatever she possibly can, doing chinups on the high chair when Parker is in there (yes, my 3 yr old still uses the high chair the majority of the time!), she'll stand on top of the push and ride fire truck with no hands,(while giving me a heart attack) and loves to try and get in the bath tub all by herself. She also loves to try and sneak pretzels into her mouth when the pantry door is open. This wouldn't be a problem except for the fact that I have to break them up for her because they are a little too big and she'll choke on them! She sleeps for a good 12 hours straight at night - from 7 to 7. She's a little tease and has such a vibrant, fun little personality. She adds so much light to our home and we have thoroughly enjoyed every minute with her this last year!

Back to the the party..................

Thanks to all who were able to make it out for the celebration!

Emmie is loving her new baby stroller, her 3 new baby dolls, cute pj's, bibs, bath toys, darling dress and hair flowers, fun new toys including a shape sorting hippo, and I'm not sure who loves it more - me or Emmie - but her new singing glow-worm seahorse is the cutest thing EVER! (Thanks Dad!) It deserves it's very own blog post...seriously. I wish I would have had this thing when Parker was a baby. She cuddles right up next to it and falls right asleep!

And thanks Mom and Reed for the darling hair bow holder, all the cute hair flowers and clips and money!

We're looking forward to another year with our Em, Emmie Ems, M, Emsie, Baby Ems, Missy Em, Sis Miss....(the list goes on....!)

Phew. Birthday parties are FUN but a lot of work!

After two in four weeks ---

I NEED A NAP! :)

If only getting one were a reality....

One year and what's in a name....

I can't believe that it was a whole year ago that our precious little Emmie entered this world!

On August 25, 2008 after a super unbelievably easy and fast delivery (only four hours start to finish!), our cherished little Em popped into our lives. She tried to make an early entrance 2 months premature, setting me into painful preterm labor at 32 weeks, but after 8 weeks of (modified) bedrest, Emmie was fully cooked and thankfully made her arrival full term.

She has been a pure JOY and we just love having this little angel in our lives!

While pregnant with Emmie, but before we knew what we were having, I had the following dream:

I walked into a room where a darling baby girl - approximately 10 months old, with big blue eyes, chubby cheeks and tiny pig tails, by the name of Emma (my grandmother's name) was sitting on the ground happily playing with some toys.

There was not much else to the dream but it was so vivid and the impression on my memory was long lasting as it came to my mind many times throughout the remainder of my pregnancy. I was excited at the prospect of having a baby girl, but I didn't share the dream with anyone but Chris because I wasn't sure I'd be lucky enough to be blessed with a girl and wondered if my dream was just wishful thinking. Not that having a boy would be unlucky... :)

Sure enough, when the day of the ultrasound arrived,

IT WAS A GIRL!

After Emmie was born and before we named her, the dream that I had had laid on the forefront of my mind and I wondered if this baby girl was the Emma from my dream. I wanted to be sure! After several days of contemplation between naming her Brooklyn or Emma (Madelyn was our third choice), I finally felt confirmation that this really WAS Emma! What a relief... the poor girl finally had a name... Emma Lee - (with the intent to always call her Emmie).

Emma is after my maternal grandmother (pictured below), whose name was Emma Lou. She passed away of pancreatic cancer when I was 16 but she was a woman that I absolutely adored. I love sentimental names and ever since I was a little girl I thought it would be neat to name a daughter after her.

Isn't she so pretty???

The "Lee" is after Chris' darling grandmother, who is named Leona. Part of my struggle in naming her Emma was that I didn't like the way it sounded with Hansen. So I felt we needed a middle name, but I have this thing about only giving girls a sentimental middle name - if one at all. So it occured to me one day that we could take the beginning of Chris' grandmother's name, and wa-lah - Emma Lee!

We are proud to have Emmie named after such amazing great-grandmothers!

This last few months, as Emmie has grown, I've been shocked at how much she looks like the baby from my dream! We know that she was meant to come to our family and we are so incredibly blessed by her!

Here are some of the top 12 things that we love and want to remember about our Emmie at 12 months:

1) She has six teeth and a smile that is completely contagious

2) She has been an IN-CRED-IBLE sleeper and has pretty much slept through the night since day 1. (we had a few rough spots at 6 months when those darn teeth were coming in but we passed by quickly!)

3) She LOVES her brother and wants to be near him, even when he bullies her around.

4) When he DOES bully her, she holds her own and will thrash back by biting him and screaming! I can't explain where in the world she learned this (the biting) so all I can say is that it must be innate!

5)She is a phenomenal eater and can pretty much out-eat Parker and I both!

6)She isn't fully walking yet but takes 3 or 4 steps before falling. Any day now and she'll be plowing full speed ahead, I'm sure....I haven't pushed it or even encouraged it too much... they all take off sooner or later!

7) She says "Ma Ma" "Da Da", and "Dog"

8) She squeals with delight to be chased and tickled

9) She likes to clap, dance on command, and did I mention that the girl loves to eat???

10) She has been extremely physical since 6 months... she's been crawling super fast since that time and is into and tries to climb ONTO EV-ERY-THING!!! She races up the stairs and thinks she's hilarious to pull down a pillow and then climb onto the couch - which I'm not such a big fan of because I don't want her falling off and cracking her head on the kitchen tile.....

11)I've said it before but she LOVES her silky pink and purple blankets. They are a must have wherever we go because they instantly soothe her!

12) She has such a sweet and soft countenance, but she also likes to be heard and make her presence known. What fun this little girl has brought into our home! I truly didn't know that having a baby could be as smooth sailing as she's been this first year of life.

We don't just love you, Emmie, we ADORE you!

HAPPY FIRST BIRTHDAY!!!

Handy Hubby to the rescue.......

Walking in from my garage I have a tiny laundry room, which is also known as a huge "dumping zone" for shoes, diaper bags, purses, mail, JUNK - not to mention what the room is supposed to be used for - LAUNDRY! I have hated that room because it always just seems to be such a disorganized MESS! By the time I come in from the car with armfuls of kids and diaper bags and sippy cups and flyers, etc., everything usually gets dumped on the washer and dryer because I am off to feed starving kids some lunch or change dirty diapers or put someone down for a much needed nap.... you catch my drift. Hence, neatly organizing and finding a place for all this clutter time after time gets pushed down to the very bottom of my priority list.... IF it's even lucky enough to make the list at all!

SOooo... A few months back I was dreaming of THIS to help put a little organization back in the room: Well, I kept DREAMING (a common behavior of mine when it comes to PB items!), because this sweet little Pottery Barn bench and shelf system hold an $800.- pricetag!!!

Yeah. Right!

Way Way WAAAAY out of my price range!

Sooooo, I showed my "dream" to my blessed husband, and he came up with THIS:

BLESS HIM!!!

E-VEN BETTER!

That's right. He actually built it - from scratch - himself!

Pretty awesome, ay?

I LOVE IT!

And the pricetag? $70 for materials vs Pottery Barn's $800!

I don't know about you, but I feel like I got quite the steal here.

We've enjoyed this for several months now and I really think it's the greatest!

Honestly, that room still tends to be the most dishelveled room in the house at times, (well that along with my closet - which is a whole other story...!) but I can't even imagine what it would be without the added storage this sweet little thing has contributed! It makes all the 'stuff' much more manageable & everything actually has a place!

I sure love having a handy hubby!!! :)

So. Don't hesitate. What are you waiting for? Give your man a hammer. He can - despite what you thought - help with some organization in your home AND make your dreams come true - AT THE SAME TIME!

All with a few nails and boards.

Mine did!

And I've been smiling about it ever since.:)

Lions, mice and snakes -- oh my

A month or so ago we took my car in for some repairs due to the check engine light being on. After a few hours we got a phone call from the auto shop telling us that they found a dead MOUSE in the engine! YIKES! This might be surprising news for some people, but not us. Not at all. Why? Because over the spring we were blessed enough to encounter SEVEN - yes 7- mice in my SUV! (Four of which were babies trapped in the back side console.) CRAZY, I know. And disgusting. And gross. And creepy. And sick. And disgusting. I know, I know. What can I say? In our defense, most of our neighbors have had the same problem...

The explanation?

We live at the base of a mountain and there is nothing but open field behind us and the poor little guys I guess were looking for a place to keep warm! Not to mention Parker's cracker spills were providing lifelong food storage for the critters, I am sure! I was WONDERING why in the world Parker was all of a sudden being so clean back there! Come to find out - I had some of Mickey's friends on nightly janitorial duty in the backseat....How nice of them! Ha ha.

Still EW. I know.

However, this post isn't about our crazy mice situation.... but it IS about something pertaining to that that Parker said today.

The kids and I were driving to pick up Chris because HIS car is having issues and the check engine light is on. (one thing after another, right?)

On the way, Parker said this:

"Mommy, what's wrong with Daddy's car?

Does it have a MOUSE in it?.... Ooor a SNAKE?.... Oooor maybe a RATTLE (I think he meant rattle snake)?.......

......Ooooooorrrrrr a LION?!"

A lion??? I sure hope not! There ARE cougars around here but I THINK we'd notice... I may not be too afraid of mice, but a lion (or a rattle snake!) - those would definitely scare me!

I had to laugh. We haven't had the mouse issue for a while so it was funny that he'd remember that a mouse in the engine was a feasible problem, and then to throw in the other prospective culprits I thought was quite imaginative of him....

I have to say, I really love this age where I have this little buddy with whom I can have full on conversations with. He is so inquisitive and full of his own ideas about life and his surroundings.

Little P is always good for providing a smile on my face!

(Okay so I'm not gonna lie... he's also pretty good at flipping on my aggravation face at times!)

Oh, and just for your closure, there were NO reports of dead (or alive) mice in Chris' car, thank goodness. :)

Cruise control

11 months and there's no walking to report of....yet.

What about pushing? We've got pushing.

LOTS and LOTS of pushing!

From one end of the room to the other....

Over, and over, and over............ :)

I think she's just holding onto the firetruck until we get her that pink mercedes she's had her eye on.

That must be it.

What can I say?

She's a smart girl!