More Disneyland Pictures!

We love Winnie the Pooh!

Posing by Small World

Buzz Lightyear - one of Callie's favorite characters

Riding the Rockets

Nate and Colton on the rockets (taking their own pict)!

Honey, anyone?

Disneyland!!

Snow on Main Street

Small World

Cinderella's Castle

Family in Toon Town

Meeting Minnie Mouse

The weekend before Thanksgiving we did a short family vacation to California. Our main destination was Disneyland. I really wanted to take Callie before she turned 3 and we would have to pay for her, and I wanted to see Disneyland all decorated for Christmas. It was opening weekend for the Christmas festivities and it turned out to be not crowded at all. The longest we ever stood in line was 15-20 minutes (not including the hour wait for Nemo)! It was a great time of year to visit! I even convinced Nate to fly to CA. We flew into Long Beach - I would highly recommend that airport to anyone. It is a small airport so it is not crowded at all. You can walk right through security without a wait and walk right up to the rental car counter and have your car in 5 minutes. We have flown into Long Beach before and had the same experience. FYI: If you book early, Delta will have flights from PHX - LGB for $49 one way. We waited too long to book and had to fly to SLC and then to LGB but it was still fairly cheap.

Friday we spent all day at Disneyland. Our family is known to be perpetually late, but we were actually on the shuttle from our hotel to Disneyland at 7:30 am. I know, miracles do happen! We first headed over to NEMO. I thought it was a cute ride. Colton really enjoyed it. At the beginning of the ride, Callie said "Look, there's Nemo!" and then was silent the rest of the ride. When the ride stopped, she started crying and said "I don't like it!" I didn't blame her. I can imagine Nemo can be scary to a 2 year old with it being all dark and a lot of loud noises.

Colton was insistent that he wanted to ride the train roller coaster (AKA: Big Thunder Mountain). I convinced him to go on Matterhorn first since it is a smaller coaster and warned him about the Abominable Snowman (me telling Colton: Just like the one in Monsters Inc.). He wasn't too scared of the monster, but the coaster itself kind of scared him - too bumpy and fast. Needless to say, he didn't end up riding "the train roller coaster". Colton enjoyed all the rest of the rides except Pirates of the Carribean and the Haunted House. Of course, Callie didn't like those two either.

Callie took a while to warm up to the rest of the rides after the Nemo scare. She was even a little nervous in Small World and didn't crack a smile until the ride was almost over, but I think she enjoyed it. She really liked Autopia, Buzz, the Rockets, Winnie the Pooh, and Peter Pan. She absolutely loved the evening parade with all the characters. She kept saying, "Mom, look! There's Cinderella, or Goofy, or Buzz Lightyear, etc." I thought she would be afraid of meeting the characters, but she wasn't. Colton and her were able to hug Winnie the Pooh, Eeyore, Tigger, and Minnie Mouse. They must have more guts than me. I have a picture from when I was 4 or 5 years old, and I was scared of Chip and Dale!

The kids both took a short nap in the evening, so we were able to take turns riding Indiana Jones and I got to ride Big Thunder Mtn. while Nate headed over to get a seat for the parade. At the end of the night we saw the musical fireworks show and had it "snow" on us on Main street. It was fun to see Disneyland all decked out with Christmas decorations throughout the park. (Small World and the Haunted Mansion actually are totally different rides at Christmas time. They both are full of Christmas decor inside the rides!) We loved our day at Disneyland and hope to be able to do it again sometime!

Colton is 5!

For journaling purposes, I am still trying to play catch up!


Colton turned five on August 30th. I can hardly believe it has been five years since we welcomed this little boy, as the first child, into our home. He can be very sensitive and sweet. He loves to snuggle with me for naptime, or before going to bed. He tries hard to please his sister, and is always telling me how cute she is. He has a great imagination, and is very inquisitive. We love how his energy always keeps us on our toes. There is never a dull moment with Colton around! We love you Colton!

We first celebrated with my family at my parent's house for a Sunday night get together. Jamie's son, Bryan, turned 7 on the 27th, so we had a joint celebration. We had dinner, cake & ice cream, and opened gifts. They each got their own little cake, courtesy of Jamie. Of course, Colton's was a train cake - his favorite ride at Disneyland is the train the goes around the park! Bryan had an army cake.

The next day, we went with my family to Makutu's Island in Chandler. It is a great indoor treehouse/playground, with gigantic slides, bridges, zip lines, etc. Kids and adults can climb and play. There is this one huge covered slide that is super steep, that even makes me a little nervous to go down, but it is fun. The kids had a lot of fun chasing each other through the treehouse, and racing each other down the slides. Colton scraped and bloodied his leg all the way from his knee, down to his ankle on a piece of grip tape as he was climbing a ladder. On the ride home he got this sad look on his face and said, "I never want to go there again. That place just beats me up." After we talked a little, he decided he did have a lot of fun, and would want to go back sometime. Jamie's kids got friction burns on one of the slides on a previous visit, and were prepared to come in jeans and turtlenecks. Jamie convinced them otherwise, being that it was August!



Thursday was his actual birthday and we had Nate's family over to our house. We did the same old dinner, cake and ice cream, and presents. This time Colton had a Spiderman cake. We used strawberry frosting and we tried to use food coloring to make the frosting red instead of light pink, but it turned out bright pink instead. Colton does ask me on occasion if it is okay if he likes the color pink, so he didn't mind the bright pink Spiderman cake. We enjoyed the night.

Colton had his 5 year well check with Dr. Chang. Health wise, everything was looking good. These are his stats: Height 43 inches (5oth percentile), Weight 37.8 pounds (25th percentile) and 20/40 vision. He is such a skinny little boy! He was a GIGANTIC baby though. Supposedly if he continues on this growth curve, the doctor says he will be 5'10" and 140 pounds as an adult. Sounds like he'll be just as skinny as his dad was in high school! We'll have to see if it really is true!

Weekend in Pine

Nate's family (minus 1 sister-in-law Becca, and his brother John's family who live in Germany/Iraq.)
Nate, brother Mike, great uncle Don, and brother Dan

The first weekend in Oct. we were able to spend a day up in Pine, AZ at Nate's grandparents house. His grandparents have both passed away, but the family still enjoys going up there and having fun together. The rest of Nate's family went up on Friday night, but we had soccer games and stuff to do around the house on Sat., so we didn't drive up until Sunday. It was general conference weekend, so we watched the Sun. morning session, and then drove up north between sessions. We had a great dinner up there. The kids had fun playing at the park down the street and roasting marshmallows with their aunt Becca (although they didn't care to eat the cooked ones!). Colton's highlight of the trip was shooting his uncle Dan's BB gun, with his cousins Kyle and Zach. Nate's great uncle Don, and his wife Carolyn, live in Payson and also spent the day with us. It was a nice time and we enjoyed being able to spend time with family.

Halloween Festivities

Colton: Red Power Ranger, Callie: JoJo (from JoJo's Circus)
Callie, Colton & Jamie's kids: Morgan, Dylan, & Bryan

This past Saturday was our ward Trunk or Treat. I had to work, but Nate was a good sport and took the kids. They said they had fun. I guess Colton discovered that he doesn't like cotton candy - kind of crazy because he loves anything with sugar in it. Nate said several comments were made about how cute Callie was (and of course how cool Colton looked). After the trunk or treat they headed over to a party Nate's brother, Dan was having. Colton said they watched the Charlie Brown Great Pumpkin show. He also had fun trying to eat a donut off of a string, with no hands. Nate said it was quite the entertainment. Between the two events, they had a fun filled night.

Monday we all went over to my parents house. We had pizza, took pictures of the kids in their costumes, and made and decorated sugar cookies. The kids seemed to enjoy the night. They love spending time with their cousins.

Tuesday, Colton's class rode the bus (his first time, he was so excited!) to a retirement home. They wore their costumes, sang songs for the residents, and passed out candy. He told me his favorite man at the retirement home was one who played the harmonica. He thought that was really neat. He also paraded around the school in his costume. He specifically asked his teacher to go to his "grandma's classroom". My mom was more than happy to let them parade through her classroom and sing "5 little pumpkins". He loves being at school with his grandma and great aunt!

Tonight, we are actually staying in our neighborhood, which is a first. Usually our past Halloween's have been spent trying to make it around to all the grandparents and my aunts houses, so they can see the kids in their costumes. This year though, they have already seen the kids dressed up, so we are going to be staying home. I guess one of us will stay home and pass out candy, while the other takes the kids trick or treating. Sounds like fun to me!

Callie - a.k.a. Busybody

Callie has been quite the little busybody over the last day. Last night she had taken my oven mitts, had them on her hands, and was calling them her "puppets". I was okay with this. Then the next thing I know, I look over at her, and this is what I see:

I just started laughing. I guess her feet were chilly or something! She had just had a bath so her feet were pretty clean, however my tile floor is a different story. I think I am going to be investing in new oven mitts very soon. (Don't mind that the mitts themselves were already filthy - I have been due for a new pair for a while now:)

This morning I was in shower and Callie comes in crying and saying, "nose, nose." She can't stand to have the slightest little booger in her nose, or be sniffly at all. I knew she needed a kleenex, but this was a problem because we were the only two at home, and I was in the shower. I proceed to tell her to get "a little piece of toilet paper" to wipe her nose. She heads to the TP, and a minute or so later, she so proudly says, "I did it! I did it mom!" She goes off on her merry way. I finish my shower and step out to discover this:

I couldn't get too upset with her, since I had told her to do it - and she was so proud of herself for making her nose feel better. (Note the empty toilet paper roll in the background. Disregard the dirty shower door!)

Callie has such a tender heart. She is always saying, "Oh, thank you mommy!" for things that I don't even expect her to say thank you for - like combing her hair, or putting a new shirt on her, etc. Neither of my kids have ever climbed out of their crib, which still amazes me because they both love to climb. I guess it never occured to them to try to get out of their crib. Well, Nate has been wanting to change Callie's crib over to a toddler bed for quite a while. I have been resisting because that means she'll have freedom - being able to get out of bed whenever she wants. (I mostly feared naptime.) However, we took the plunge a few weeks ago and she LOVES her new big girl bed! She still has been sleeping good at night (has yet to come out in the middle of the night!) and will still just go lay down in her bed and fall asleep at naptime. What a good little girl! She absolutely loves stuffed animals. Everyday she sleeps with a dog, horse, bunny, Pooh bear, Mickey, 2 sheep she calls "mommy" and "daddy", a burp cloth, and 1 or 2 blankets. I don't know how she even fits or has room to sleep with all those crammed into her little bed. She takes inventory every time she is going to sleep and definitely lets you know if something is missing. I guess it just helps her feel secure in her bed. What a silly litle girl she is!

Colton's School

Okay. I know what you all were thinking. I must have a dead blog. However, I have just been overwhelmed by the fact, that for journaling purposes, I need to do several months worth of blogging. I am going to skip to the present time, and sometime I may actually go back and blog about our adventurous summer.

Colton started an early learner's kindergarten back in August and loves it. The program is through Mesa Public Schools and is specifically for kids who have summer birthdays, or who barely miss the cut off for kindergarten but turn 5 by Dec. 31st. The kids do kindergarten curriculum and use the kindergarten report card, but the way they learn the material is different. They do more hands on activities than paper and pencil activities like a traditional classroom. Next year I plan on having him repeat and do a full day of kindergarten at the school by our house. Right now, he actually has a boundary exception to school in Mesa, where my mom is a 2nd grade teacher, so he loves being able to see his grandma every day before school. My aunt also is a teacher there, so he also gets to see her too! He has a great teacher and is enjoying making new friends. Colton is my active child, so the first few weeks we had some behavioral issues with burping every day at snack time and an occasional spitting or throwing sand incident. I think we are past that stage now though. He really isn't a terrible child, he actually is very sweet. He just tries to test his limits though. I tried to make Colton burp on command to see if that is what he was doing at snack time. He couldn't burp on command though, and told me, "Mom, you just don't understand. It is just my body." He has been known to tell his teacher the same thing. However, his burping starts the giggling at snack time and then other kids burp too. I did find that if he gulps down water, he will accidentally burp. So, we have had the discussion on just slowly drinking his water. I guess it really is just his body though! My Colton is such a true boy, and I love him for it!