Lake Day

 We packed up the kids and a ton of gear to head to the lake for the day. A couple of coolers full of food, sunscreen and beach towels and we were on our way. The kids had a blast splashing around in the water all day. We spent nearly the entire day there, and they were exhausted! So much fun! 

Cousins ready to explore

Yummy in her tummy!

Sunshine & Cheetos - what a girl wants!

Silly Girl!!

Beach Combing with Daddy

Splash Time!!

Conquering his fear of water!

2012 Halloween Costumes

Nanners the Princess

Baby Big Girl Buzz Lightyear

Spunky Girl the Fallen Fairy

Belly Flopping Fun

We decided to head out to the Jelly Belly Factory in Vacaville, it was a last minute plan, but so worth it. The kids had a blast, and they had both grandma's with them. What a treat!

We tour the factory, and stopped in the gift shop for a few treats. Nanners picked out a special coffee cup for PawPaw since he wasn't able to come with us. Baby Big Girl lived up to her name, and insisted on buying scented colored pencils for "her school work". It was too cute to pass up, she just HAD to have them.

50 Little Known Facts About Us

So many of the blogs I read are doing this right now, I thought I'd jump on the bandwagon and toss mine out there too. Yep, totally copying them. ;) Okay not totally since I'm doing the family, and they did themselves. I'm boring, I don't have 50 things about just me. :)

1. My favorite color is emerald green. For some reason most people think it's purple, I have no idea why though, I don't even own purple stuff.

2. I lived in the south until I was 9, and there are times when I miss it. Don't get me wrong, I don't miss the bugs, humidity or other nasties but I do miss it.

3. I've been on the West Coast for practically ever now, and still root for a southern college football team - ROLL TIDE!

4. I give my kids cupcakes or left over pizza for breakfast when they ask for it, simply because it's easy.

5. I almost never shave my legs.

6. I don't wear shorts. See #5

7. I love to write. It's my thing, which is why it's so hard to understand when other people don't like it.

8. I strongly dislike math - I mean STRONGLY. Not in my top 10 favorite things to do for sure.

9. I love making list. Seriously it's like an addiction, my husband laughs at me.

10. I love shooting families, but don't like weddings. I know, weddings are "money makers", but they are also incredibly stressful and make my stomach hurt.

11. I didn't start driving until my husband and I started dating. I was 20.

12. I've known my husband nearly half my life. (HOLY COW!)

13. I sometimes get a little joy out of the stupid comments I get when people find out we homeschool.

14. I get that same joy out of the stupid comments they say when they find out how many kids we have.

15. I don't think that we are a "huge" family. Seriously, there's only 7 of us.

16. I would totally have another child if my husband wanted to. Without question, I would do it.

17. I didn't drink on my 21st birthday.

18. I got into my first car wreck before I had my license. Yes, I know, bad. No one was hurt, except my car that was purchased one month to the day prior.

19. I'll totally look you up on the internet to see if I can find anything else out about you.

20. I have no sense of direction. None. It's really bad.

21. The Boy has an amazing sense of direction and always knows where he is.

22. The Boy also was born and raised till 8 yrs old in the south.

23. The Boy took the blame for my 1st car wreck. Ouch, yeah, he did. LOVE HIM!

24. I only dated one boy that didn't have blue or green eyes, ever. Seriously that was one of my things. The Boy has beautiful blue eyes.

25. I moved out of my mom's when I was 15.

26. I met The Boy a few months later, online.

27. I cried when The Boy told me he was moving away when I was 16, even though we weren't dating.

28. I dyed my bangs pink and blue stripes when I was in 7th grade.

29. I have a crazy obsession with fun socks. I only wear fun socks, but I don't like them because they're too thin so I wear regular Hanes under them.

30. I didn't want any boys. I mean it, and I don't care if it sounds mean. I truly only wanted girls. Of course I would have loved my son greatly, but my girls are my world. Love them to pieces.

31. I wouldn't mind a boy now. Seriously, I know. It took a long time, but I'm now ready for a boy. Problem is The Boy is done now.

32. I wanted to be a nurse before I had kids. I love medically stuff, lol - like that technical term!

33. I'm a little freaked out that I haven't accomplished my "list", you know the one that you set for yourself. I had one that I set for myself to finish by the time I was 30. I'll be there in a few months. The list isn't complete. I'm trying not to stress about that one!

34. The Boy would make a fantastic football coach. I'd totally move to a smallish town (hey a girl has to have options on where to shop and let's face it small towns have very few options) to let him full fill that one.

35. I never wanted to be a stay at home mom. I love it now. At least on most days.

36. Beanie broke her nose when she was little. How - jumping on her bed. She hit a shelf that was above it and the shelf fell on her nose. I'm guessing the little toy she was trying to get to wasn't worth it.

37. I don't think that all babies are cute. I said it. Hey I'm not being mean, Baby Big Girl look quite alienish when she was born. Totally had to do the if you don't have anything nice to say don't say anything at all thing when I seen her the first time.

38. I would love a big ol' plot of land so I could have all kinds of animals. I want chickens, The Boy says no.

39. I'm super crafty but can't for the life of me figure out how to crochet or knit.

40. I have the attention span of a goldfish. It's okay, you can laugh. I would.

41. I sometimes have to hold back a laugh when the kids get hurt in some stupid way. It's a little mean, but sometimes it's super funny. Of course I see if they are alright first.

42. I blog because I suck at baby books. Never even bought one for Baby Big Girl because I knew I'd never use it.

43. I love swimming in the ocean.

44. I'm a cold person. I wear thermals almost everyday from November until March under my jeans.

45. The Boy is a hot person. It's practically unheard of for him to wear long sleeves.

46.

Nanners can do the splits. Both ways. She's been able to for as long as I can rememeber. She just did it one day because she seen a lady on TV do it.

47. My girls still sit and play dolls together. Even the big girls play. They of course are usually the Mom's or whatever else the leader is, but they play.

48. My girls love shoes. I have no idea where they get it from, but they adore them. The Boy doesn't understand why they have so many.

49. I once let Nanners and Spunky Girl eat peanut butter and jelly for dinner every single night for a month. I knew they'd eventually eat something else. The Boy called a stop to it after a month.

50. If we could do it again, The Boy and I both agree we would rather not have as big of a ceremony and take a double honeymoon instead.

Disneyland Recap #1

Disneyland is truely the happiest place on Earth, hmmm, well maybe it's the happiest place most of the time, lol. The girls managed to each find a reason to bicker with a sister while we were there. Ahh, such is life.

Overall we had a fantastic time. The first day we were there we headed to Critter Country and met up with Eeyore and Pooh for some great pictures. The girls were very excited to see the characters close up.

We were so excited to finally be in Disneyland that we only took one break all day. We went back to the hotel for a quick break and to move our luggage into the hotel room. We rushed right back to Disneyland, eating while we walked. :) A little crazy excited right? YES!!

Knowing that we were going to be there for a week meant that we didn't feel like we had to rush anything. It was so nice to let the kids run around Tarzan's Treehouse and Tom Sawyer's Island for as long as they wanted. They LOVED it all! It was hilarious watching them run as fast as they could for a few feet, then stop to let Baby Big Girl catch up.

Disneyland Here We Come!

In just three short days we will be headed to the happiest place on Earth! The girls are insanely excited, which means that we are getting excited as well. Now don't get me wrong, I can't wait to get to Disneyland, but I'm also the one that does all the packing for Disneyland. If you don't know, packing for 7 people, one of which is bound to have at least 2 accidents while in Mouse Land is no small feat.

I let go of some of my control issues and allowed the girls to choose their clothes. I have this crazy need to SEE my kids at all times, and we've found through trial and error that it's way easier to maintain possession of the kids while they are in matching, brightly colored clothes. Obviously this would require some thought, since I had the great idea to donate a large percentage of their clothes about 8 months ago. (This BTW did make my life a little easier!) We kept their favorites, well guess what - NONE of them share a favorite color. After several hours, seriously, like 5 hours, of shopping we managed to find 8 matching shirts for each of the girls.

The living room is taken over with stuff for Disneyland. It's a hot mess right now! I'm telling myself that it's okay since I know it's only a few more days till we head out. A friend asked today how I was going to get all of this stuff into the suburban, hmmmm. I'll take a picture of it, I know I can do it.

Off to school the big girls now. Mass amounts of schooling to finish before we leave town.