Recent Disney Days

We have DEFINITELY gotten our money's worth out of our Disneyland Annual Passes. The kids and I have gone many, many times by ourselves, and we take every chance we have to drag Daddy there with us as well. It's always more fun when Daddy's there because he and T can ride the big rides while the littles and I see characters, but we always seem to have a magical, amazing visit. I realized a few days ago that I haven't posted any pictures from our Disney adventures from the last few months, so here's a little photo-dump (so that someday my kids can tell me how cool of a Mom I was to take them to Disneyland so often!!!) 

The holidays at Disneyland were two thumbs way up. Every single time we went (around Halloween, Thanksgiving and multiple times at Christmas) I was so impressed with all the decorations and attention to detail. I'm a sucker for a BIG Christmas tree and Disneyland definitely delivered.

Her favorite ride by far is this carousel. She prefers it over the Under the Sea carousel at California Adventure--go figure! And PS--she's big enough to ride on that horse all by herself. Teardrops everywhere people, my baby is a big girl.

Baby's first ice cream cone (this was right after her first birthday when we figured out that she was no longer allergic to milk protein--hallelujah!)

Parades are great, but parades when she gets to sit on her favorite person's lap are sure to make for the greatest happiness! That girl loves her Daddy...and loves waving to characters!

About this time Darth Vader was asking T if he was part of the rebel forces and T was saying, "Um, no. No!" Later he said, "Mom, I pretty much wanted to say, 'No, and please don't hurt me!'"

The highlight of James' day. Quinn, not so much!

It's a small world is Ev and Quinn's favorite, favorite ride! I love it too, especially the Christmas edition. 

The force was with this dessert, that's for sure...yum!!!

I squeezed in between those two chickens for the funnest Dumbo ride of my life. Quinn thinks it's the coolest to go high, high, high and luckily this is one of the few rides that doesn't terrify Ever Knight so it was a definite blast. 

You won't see that smile if you tell him we're going on Peter Pan, that's for sure!

What Ever lacks for love of rides he makes up for in LOVE of characters. There is no line to long when it comes to meeting one of his faves. This day in particular the main event was Spiderman, but the Disneyland employee in the picture above was a very close second. Seriously, she deserves a raise! They light saber fought for longer than you can imagine and she was so kind and into it, I love her for that. 

Quinn loved seeing Spiderman nearly as much as Ever Knight did. She even pulled up her shirt to show him her belly button which is her favorite body part. We've got to work on that flashing thing!

Selfies with my babies. Love those handsome boys.

On our last visit I saw this spontaneous little parade and it made me giggle with delight.

And how about the absolute perfect mermaid picture when Ariel was walking by. Honestly, I love Disneyland!

At 20 Weeks-ish

Lately I've been craving Taco Bell bean burritos with no onions and extra cheese. Well, at least I thought I was craving Taco Bell bean burritos with no onions and extra cheese, until I went to Taco Bell (twice--some of us learn the hard way) and had a bean burrito with no onions and extra cheese and realized by way of an upset stomach that no, in fact, I was not craving a Taco Bell bean burrito with no onions and extra cheese. But then what was I craving? Sometimes it's so hard to figure out! This week something exciting happened however. After A LOT of analysis I finally realized why my TB craving yet existed despite my baaadddd experiences of late with the actual item, blog-worthy, no? I'm craving mild Taco Bell sauce--and a homemade bean burrito with no onions and extra cheese to accompany said sauce. Luckily the nice man at the Drive-thru filled my bag all the way to the top with little sauce packets when I mentioned I was pregnant and craving them (and maybe he heard my boys fighting and my baby girl crying in the background and had pity). Regardless, I've got sauce for days and every lunch my picky, snooty, must-be-perfect cravings are fulfilled. Hallelujah!

In other news, I'm also craving Sausage McMuffins and prefer the real deal from McDonald's than any homemade mumbo jumbo any day. Sure, let's add the OJ and hash browns for good measure--heaven forbid I see a drive-thru before 11 am! Other cravings include a Shack burger from Shake Shack, a chicken sandwich from Chick Fil A and every once in a while an Asiago bagel with smear. I'm keeping it classy with my cravings this go-around for sure.

OK...I crave roasted veggies, warm meals and fresh fruit too so it's not all bad. And water--SO MUCH WATER! Honestly I'm a camel lately, only the hump is on my front and not on my back.

This wasn't meant to be a post about pregnancy cravings but there you have it, a post about pregnancy cravings! And since we're on the subject (of pregnancy, not cravings) things are going really well growing this last little Wiglet. Baby girl is moving around like a wild woman and I'm feeling her more and more which is my absolute favorite. James and the boys felt her move for the first time last week and the excitement level was through the roof. This little girl might be joining a circus but no doubt she's joining a circus full of her adorers. 

  

My bump progress is coming right along if I do say so myself. Honestly, I have a bigger bump at 20 weeks than I've ever, EVER dreamed of having before. Sure, no one around me knows I'm pregnant yet and someone at the gym even mentioned this last week that they had no idea how I got so fit after having baby Quinn (to which I responded, "Uh, thanks! But I'm 19 weeks pregnant with her little sister!) But I'm happy with my bump and the boys analyze every single day whether they think I'm finally getting bigger--which I am, so say the little scientists. It's so much fun to be pregnant with older kids around. Sometimes I think I want to be pregnant a million more times, and then comes 7 pm when I am DONE and I think nope, tubes tied for sure!

James was getting some pants tailored at Nordstrom so Ever Knight and I ran over to Claire's to get some bows for Quinny-girl and WHAT? their clearance rack had matching sister clippies that look PERFECT for 4th of July (the Wig's first holiday with baby sister). These little girlies better watch out because I see a lot of matching everything in their future. Eeeek! So exciting!

And let's round this thing off with a couple of pictures of the crazy lady that keeps me on my toes. Quinny is still such an independent, determined, playful and sassy little thing and every time I tell Ashleigh a story about her she says, "That girl was just not meant to be your baby!" She wants to be big and she wants to play with her brothers and heaven forbid I try to put a bow in her hair because lately she wants to wear a baseball hat and hold her basketball and baby and that's all there is to it! In many ways I feel like I'm raising my feisty little clone and holy Hannah has my respect level for my Mom gone through the roof. She makes life fast and fun and never, ever dull. Can't wait to see her little sister keep up!

Our Week--Some Randoms I Don't Want to Forget

For some reason I care about the little things. The mere thought of forgetting a moment spent with my children--the adorable things they say, their eyes beaming as they associate with their siblings, the way they look at me with love and obedience (and yes, the occasional eye roll)--makes me feel so very sick and sad there are no words to truly express it. Because of this strong desire to remember I am a journaling maniac! I keep a personal journal almost daily, I blog and print out yearly books, I have baby books for each child that span until they are eight and I am religious about updating them, I make photo journals for each of my baby's first year and I keep a family Christmas journal. For some people I know this sounds like a chore but I honestly love to write my feelings, impressions, thoughts and moments down so they'll never be lost in my silly, forgetful brain. My Noni and Grammie are also writing machines and I just know that their love for words are in my DNA! So forgive me if some of my blog posts are more travelogue than others, but these little moments spent with my babies at home are something I always hope I remember about my days as a young mother.

T and Ever play so well together (90 percent of the time--a solid A!) and I love it. They are mega into Star Wars right now and that's basically all we talk about. They play with their characters or ships or read their books every second they are home. As we speak Quinn is napping and the sicky boys are huddled by the TV watching Episode 3 ("because I weawy want to see Java da Hut, mom. I wuv dat episode!") 

 Third child dress for our third child! This was right before she ran full sprint down the hall at the hospital when I was trying to give blood. If there's ever been a more active child I haven't met him/her!

 Before the boys went back to school they took turns cooking the family dinner. They did everything from planning the meal to cooking and serving it. T made french toast with buttermilk syrup and pomegranates and Ever made spaghetti with homemade marinara. Both of them did such a good job and it helped me realize that I need to include them more in the kitchen because they really loved it (added bonus that they ate way more when they made it). I'm so proud of these two!

 Ever really wanted to make a giant fort before going back to school as well so a giant fort we made!!!

 Me and Quinn, photo credit: Talmage. "I used to be such a great photographer but now all my pictures are blurry. Oh well, maybe I'll have to not be that when I grow up!"

 All of us take blurry pictures T, even your Mama! But this one is too fab not to post. Here's T at his first basketball game shooting a basket. I thought all my mother dreams came true when he started soccer, but nope--this is when it happened! How fun!!!

 Ms. Elle Woods ready to go to Harvard, I mean, Sunday School!

This baby is turning into such a cheeseburger! She had the boys absolutely rolling with these faces and I was right there with them! I love my little Quinny comedian.  

Ever pushed her around for a solid 20 minutes and how does she repay him? By pretending to drop his beloved Superman under her wagon wheel over and over as he cries! Serious pill status! But she's our baby and we all adore her and somehow she gets away with murder which I think has something to do with that endearing little face...

 And that smile helps too, I'm sure!!! 

Sick babies

I was hoping that the warm California weather would mean that our winters full of sickness were a thing of the past. But ya'll, we've been sick since the end of October with no relief in sight. I sob-storied a few weeks ago on here about how sick we were at Thanksgiving and now I'm here for take-two (haha, jk, no selfies of me crying this time!) Seriously though, Quinn barfed her way through our Christmas vacation and what I thought was a mega-flu ended up being an ear infection from Hades that was throwing off her equilibrium, and thus making her throw up. Her antibiotics finished up yesterday and she's feeling so much better so it's only right that we were in the doctor this morning with T who has had a raging fever and sore throat for days. He has strep, so 10 more days of meds are in our future. Winter as a Wig is wonderful, don't you think?

This is sicky Quinny right after she barfed in the Grapevine on our way home from Sacramento and the next day as I was forcing her to drink Gatorade and eat Goldfish. She wasn't all that excited about either, but the hat she loved!

My poor Talmage was really sick. This kid is the energizer bunny so it was very clear that something was terribly wrong. Yesterday he didn't leave the couch at all and when he did for short periods of time it was ugly. I hope the medicine kicks in fast and he's feeling better in no time. (And I hope that no one else in the family catches it...yuck!)

If anyone else in the family does catch it, however, it will be Quinny who won't leave her brother alone! She is a feisty little instigator and loves to get on her brother's nerves. Just yesterday there were at least 5 times she had Talmage in tears because she was purposefully doing something she knew bugged him (and believe me, you can see it in her face and her naughty smile, she knows what she's doing!) She was climbing on him, screaming in his face, stealing his treats, turning off the TV, jumping on top of him and then pretending to cuddle while he sobbed--honestly that girl is trouble! She's lucky she's so cute!

It's a !!!!

One of the positive things about having high-risk pregnancies is getting to know as much information as I possibly can about the baby I'm carrying before I meet him or her. Some people love delivery-room surprises, but I'm simply not one of them! The feelings of becoming a parent for the first or second (or fourth) time is surprising enough for me, I want to know every detail about the baby so I can plan ahead/look forward to the future/both of the above. (I realize that even with all these tests there can still be surprises--hello Ever's birth--but I still like to do everything I can to appease my worriers heart.) 

Anyway, it's because of all those tests that at 13ish weeks I knew we were carrying (so far as we can tell, fetal echo pending) a healthy baby that was either a: 

 Since this will be our last Wiglet and the kids are a little older, we decided to do a little gender reveal party with a cake from a local bakery. Pink frosting meant girl, blue frosting meant boy. Talmage guessed it was going to be a girl, "because it only mathematically makes sense that another girl comes to our family!" Both boys decided that Quinn thought it was a girl because she clearly wanted a sister. Ever was originally on Team Brother, but when he realized he was alone "against" his siblings he jumped ship. Ever HATES competition and I guess he figured it was better to go down with the others than risk going down alone! Everyone was so excited and nervous to see what color we'd find!!!

 It's a GIRL!!! Quinny is getting a baby sister (doesn't she look thrilled, hahaha!!!)

We let the kids in on this little secret the week before Christmas and to be honest it's hard not to tear up every time I think about how blessed I am to be having two little girls so close together. Having sisters was always a dream of mine since I'm obsessed with my sister, and now it's coming true!!! Two little boys two years apart and then two little girls (less than) two years apart--excuse my giddiness but that's kind of perfect! I'm just feeling so darn lucky that all these little ones belong to me.

 ^^^Who won't be the only girl come June?!! ^^^

New Years Eve Partay for the Crazy Cousins

Happiest of Happy New Years from this crazy crew of celebrating cousins (and Uncle Chase!) We had so much fun throwing a kiddie party for these cuties with lots of snacks, games, dress-up, dance parties, noise makers and a 7:30 pm ball drop...shhhh, they still think they stayed up until the new year!!! I love how much all of these babies love each other and they are just the luckiest little ones to have so many cousin friends (with more to join the group soon). 

The kiddie spread--fruit and dip, chips and dip, lumpia and dip (seeing a theme here?) and LOTS of candy and cider. After the kids were in bed we had a round two adult feast with hot artichoke dip and french bread, freshly made dumplings, potato skins and shrimp cocktail. There's nothing I'd rather do when welcoming a new year than stuff my face!

My little party princess!!! I'd like to think that although she looks just like her Dad her rock and roll lifestyle comes from me!

This game is a win! The adults didn't want to get pie-faced, but the kids were disappointed when their faces weren't covered with cream! 

Waiting patiently for the ball to drop! This looks so peaceful, right? Well you should have seen the next 30 minutes where party poppers were being pulled, fireworks lit, noise makers blown, music blasted and booty shaking all around, kids jumping on furniture, babies giggling and crying simultaneously and the adults loving every second of it until it was clear that every little monster needed a date with their pillow--STAT! 

We had a blast of an adult party after the babies were all dreaming, but of course only pictures of the little ones. I will say though that we were having SO much fun playing games and talking that we didn't realize it was almost midnight until, well, about 30 seconds before it was midnight! It was hilarious to watch everyone jump into action securing glasses and bubbly and turning the TV to Ryan Seacrest and Times Square. We barely made it back into the room with five seconds left to spare and we all found ourselves cracking up laughing as 2015 turned to 2016--a good omen for this new year I hope. I love my family so very much and was so grateful that we could spend New Years Eve all together.   

And, you know, just for good measure. A super overexposed but darling nonetheless picture of our three little princess cousins. These girls make my heart giggle with delight. 

Happy New Year!!!