My Birthday Week!

My birthday was last Tuesday, the 15th! My Mom-in-law had a luncheon party for me and Chad's sisters and aunts came. It was yummy and fun!! Then later that day Jordan had a baseball game. After his game, Chad and I went to dinner at Logan's Roadhouse (like Texas Roadhouse only cheaper.) They have a good deal where you get 2 dinners for only $13.99!! Plus they have YUMMMMYYYY rolls that just melt in your mouth!! It was so good. Then when we came home, we had cheesecake that Chad surprised me with. Mmmmm!! It lasted a few days til we scarfed it down. My dad came over the day before to give me my card and gave me some money to spend on myself (since I hardly ever do it) and Chad's mom gave me some too!
Then on Friday, my mom and sisters and brother came to town from Coolidge to take me to lunch and then shopping afterwards while my brother babysat the kids. We went to lunch at Gecko Grill then went shopping for clothes. I got some cute shirts and shorts and capris. It was nice to shop and not have to chase after kids or keep giving them food to keep them quiet or listen to them fight over who holds the bag of food. We did take Callie with us and had a poopy blow-out and she threw up twice, once all on my mom and herself so we had to get her a new outfit (she pooped on the extra one.) Aside from that, it was fun!
Then on Saturday night, I had a girl's night out with Chad's sisters and cousin. We had dinner at Olive Garden then went to the new San Tan Mall. It was a beautiful night! We walked around and had a good time with NO kids! What a great week it was for me!! I wish I had a week like that more often! (Don't all moms?!)

Hilarious Video of 2 cute kids on YouTube

Fun at the Beach

We went to Huntington Beach on Saturday after the kids got tired at Knott's but by the time we got there is was late in the afternoon and quite chilly. Chad and Jordan didn't let the cold stop them! They went right in the ocean!


Here he is trying to contain the shivers because he's freezing but having so much fun he can't stay out of the water!


Jocee and I preferred to have our fun in the sand!! Even then, I was still freezing my toosh off!


He came running back..... "I'm fweeeezing!!"

Then snuggled up with his towel to warm up!




Before he snuggled up with the blanket he had a run in with a wave....watch the video...it's hilarious! (It's obvious my kids don't know what's in ocean water!)





A short time later, we packed up and went back to the hotel. The kids said they wanted to get in the hot tub at the hotel so they could warm up.

The sun was almost all the way down...

More Knott's Fun

(I don't know why this is blue and underlined!) Anyways...KBF was having a promotion for Spring Break called "Camp Snoopy" and they handed out maps to each kid and it had locations marked where they could pick up free gear, like a hat, bandana, wristband, and compass. The kids loved this! They looked so cute with their hats and bandanas on!

Me and Jocee had a blast on these spinning hats!! We went so fast that Jocee went flying out of her seat and onto my lap!! She couldn't stop giggling. She had too much fun!

Chad isn't much of a ride guy, but he agreed to go on the ferris wheel with Jordan. He was okay at first....
Here's me and Jocee having fun together... when we went down the first time, Jocee said "I feel like a tickle in my tummy!"
Then we both were stopped on the top while they load/unload people and I turned around and Chad looked a little worried.... I don't know if you can see, but he's got a death-grip on the lap bar and a nervous look on his face!! It was so funny!! Jocee and I kept yelling at them and trying to make them laugh.
Here they are on these semi-trucks they rode on. They wanted to be in the front, so me and Chad had to squish together in the back. They thought it was funny.
Peek-a-boo Jocee!!
Here we are in the back seat.

They are getting tired!! Good thing we took the wagon with us! I'm so glad we did. It was a very wise decision. It was much easier to pull around than pushing a double stroller! They really didn't even walk that much, they just let Chad pull them. Spoiled! I do admit--I even took a seat in it while the kids were on a ride. :)

Jocee also had a fun time on this Woodstock Air Mail ride! She saw this picture and said, "I'm sitting next to a cute little girl!"



This is me on the Sidewinder. It was so much fun! Each little compartment spun around while going on the roller coaster!! It was awesome!
I could hardly believe it, but Chad WANTED to go on this roller coaster!! He doesn't do roller coasters so I was shocked when he said he wanted to go on it. Unfortunately the kids weren't tall enough so I had to stay with them while he went by himself. He ended up going on it 3 times!!

Chad took this cute picture of Jocee.
Handsome boys!

Race Car Ride

This was their favorite ride of all. They went on it so many times. It was the last ride that Jocee went on the last night we were there. We were all the way across the park and they were getting ready to close in like 10 minutes and she begged to go on it one last time (Jordan had fallen asleep sitting in the wagon). Chad wasn't up for running with them in the wagon so I ran across the park-- nearly killing people and not even waking up Jordan, and we made it in time for her to ride it twice!! We were both SO happy! She would have been so upset if she didn't get her last ride before we came back home.

Fun at Knott's Berry Farm

Ahhhh!! Vacation is great!! We definitely need to do it more often! :) My mom was kind enough to take care of Katelyn and Callie so we could have a more enjoyable time with just the two older kids. I think she was mostly afraid of us losing one of the kids so that's why she changed her mind and agreed to watch the two girls. She kept telling the kids "Make sure you stay with Mom and Dad while you're there!! Okay!!??" She's funny. It was nice to just have the two kids though. I missed the other girls but there's no way we could have had a fun time with them all.

Here they are posing with Snoopy!! I was so happy they got to say hi to him!Here's the view from the front of our hotel. The park was just across the street! It was awesome. We could hear the screams from the roller coaster riders! This saved us money because we didn't have to pay for parking, plus we didn't have to buy food at the park either. We just walked back to our hotel and got in the car and drove down the street and paid the equivalent of a meal for 1 person at the park for our whole family! Plus when the kids got tired, we just went back to the hotel and rested for a while, then went back in to play some more!

We made it!!! Woo hoo!
This was the first ride we went on. (I know, it's blurry but oh well) Jordan was nervous about going on rides at first so I went on with Jocee. She was awesome!! She wanted to go on everything and wasn't a bit scared!! She's like a little version of me! Which I never would have guessed because when my dad swings the kids around and hangs them upside down, Jocee is usually the one who doesn't like it. She tells him to put her down. Katelyn on the other hand, LOVES to be thrown around! Maybe next time she can go have fun with us!
To get Jordan in the "riding" spirit, we all went on a little train ride around the kiddie area of the park.
Me and Jocee on the train.
Chad and Jordan in the hot air balloons. The kids really liked this one too. (And even Chad could handle it!)
Here's Jordan on a fun spinning ride. (Jocelyn's behind him.)
At first, Jocee wasn't too sure about this one because it goes up high and goes around in a circle. But I talked her into it and she loved it! (Can't see us in this picture but we're in there!)
Here's one up close on the bus.
Then we all went on this little kiddie roller coaster. Chad was brave enough to try it! (He HATES roller coasters!) He actually enjoyed it--mostly--besides the fact that the lap bar was jabbing into his stomach!

More pics to come....I'm going to bed for now!

Finally! A Vacation!

The last trip we went on was the Gardiner family reunion 2+ years ago in Utah! So when we got our tax refund, we decided that we should take a family vacation. I got online and found a really good deal on tickets to Knott's Berry Farm (Disneyland is pretty pricey so we're waiting till the kids are a little bit older so they can remember going.) and I found a really good rate on a hotel right across the street (it took a while to search out all the different sites, but I found it!). I figured that the kids would be exhausted after a few hours so we would probably have to go back to rest in the middle of the day, then could go back in the afternoon so a hotel that close would be great. I wish we could take the wagon with us to pull around 2 of them while the other 2 are in the double stroller because I know Jordan and Jocee will get tired of walking real fast.
We are really excited about going. I know traveling with 4 kids is going to be stressful at times, but hopefully I can be well prepared with games, movies, music, and food to entertain them for 5 hours! If anyone has any car games or entertaining ideas, I'd love to hear them! The kids are excited to go but keep telling us they want to go "TODAY!" I think I'm going to mark it on a calendar so they can count down! We're going to leave Thursday, the 20th of March and come home on Easter Sunday. It will be good for us to just go and have a fun time as a family. We get so caught up with every day life, that sometimes we forget to "stop and smell the roses" per say, so we're looking forward to enjoying some fun with the kids! (Maybe some day, when Callie's old enough to leave with Grandma, we could take a trip with just "us!" Someday...