Snow Day!

Very few things at 5:20 in the morning are good. The exception is the phone call saying school is cancelled. Of course yesterday the 5:20 phone call was that there was a 2 hr. delay, but then at 6:30 a second call cancelled school for Andrew and Ainsley making for a great family fun day. I know Tennille and Nathan will make fun of us for having no school for 3 inches of snow. Life is different in Minnesota where it is a balmy -6 today. The kids took good advantage of the snow. I think we probably said, "no, we're not going outside to play in the snow until the sun is up" about 15 times. So here are pictures of our snow adventure, which started promptly at 8:00 am. The good news-the other kids in our neighborhood were already up and out not long after us! (if you click on any of the pictures the whole collage gets bigger so you can see it better. The picture of Andrew getting hit with a snowball bottom center is great. The kids close up pictures are really cute, and the one with the snowman is really fun.)

Camden woke up later and was able to go in the backyard for round two of snow play as it was melting. He was really cute and so happy-until he fell and couldn't figure out why his hands were so stinkin' cold!




He really did have fun, even though most of these pictures he is unhappy. He was just so cute fussing. Note that the last picture he is mad because a snowball just wizzed by him and scared him-see the remains of it on the fence behind him. The life of the third child.

Next time just give up the boat.

Hudson came home from a playdate this morning with pants that were a little wet. When I asked him what happened he said, "I had to go to the bathroom really bad, but I had the big boat and I didn't want anyone else to get it."

Remind me to delete this post when he learns to read.

I could get used to this

Our weekend away began late because of a quick little jaunt with Camden to urgent care. Not really the best feeling as a parent to leave your children when they are sick. But you know... it has been a LONG few weeks of kids who are sick -so we went ahead and earned another star in our "quality parents" chart and left a sick child. Okay, we actually left three slightly sick children. But before you call the parent police I was leaving with my mom and dad who were very capable of taking care of a slightly fussy child. In fact, my mom probably did better with him than I would have because she was coming in fresh-where I was a bit done with cranky, sick kids.

So here is what the grown ups did: eat, hot tub, play settlers, eat, sleep, hot tub, eat, settlers, sleep, eat, settlers, eat, take a really pretty walk in the snow(Eric and Cyndi went snowmobiling) we continued to eat, sleep, hot tub, watched 1/4 of a movie (turns out they did cut out pretty bad stuff when movies were edited on Clean Films-so when you watch the real version it just isn't okay. I won't mention of who picked the movie...)sleep, eat, play settlers. Are you detecting a theme here? The them is: RELAX

So this picture isn't that good, but have you ever tried to use a self timer when you are wet and it is like 5 degrees outside? We should have had the video set up of us trying to get the picture taken. That would have been compelling stuff.

The weather was so perfect, it snowed that really pretty light snow most of the time we were there. We sat in the hot tub while it snowed and ate ice cream. So fun.

Despite a little illness the kids had an amazing time. Grandma and Grandpa did such fun things with them. They went to Walk with the Dinosaurs and the new Vegitales movie The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything. They also accomplished Ainsley's goals of going to the Dollar Store and eating at Shari's. Very refined tastes that girl has. They read countless stories and played tons of games. And do you want to know the best part? I came home to 3 happy (if not totally healthy) children, a totally clean house, and a lasagna dinner waiting in the oven. Are they not the best parents/grandparents in the world?
Fun time with my husband and friends for a whole weekend, kids well taken care of... do you see why I could get used to this? Thanks Eric and Cyndi for letting us tag along to help you both celebrate your milestone birthdays and thanks mom and dad for taking over here so we could go.

They're going to give me a complex

This weekend we get to GO AWAY WITHOUT OUR KIDS! Grandma and Grandpa Seaquist are coming to stay with the three munchkins for us. (bless their hearts!) I don't know if I will know what to do with myself if I don't have diapers to change, meat to cut, spills to clean up, and noses (and other things) to wipe. We sold it to the kids by saying that they are getting a grandparent weekend so we HAVE to go away so they get time alone. That worked so well these have been the comments from Ainsley:

• Could you please just leave on Friday night instead of Saturday?
• Don't come home until really late on Monday night.
• Why can't it be grandparent week instead of just a weekend.
• I have to get my list ready of everything we are going to do and have fun with while you are gone with Grandma and Grandpa.

And the best:

• I'm just really glad you are leaving because we just need a break from you and time with Grandma and Grandpa.

Hudson Theology

As I was leaving on Tuesday night,

Hudson: "Mommy why do you have to go to Bible Study?"

Me: "Because I love God and want to learn more about Him."

Hudson: "OH! Because you want him to die on the cross for you too?"

Me: "Yes sweetie, Jesus already died on the cross for me too."

Hudson: "Nope, he is going to have to do it again for you."

It's nice to have friends with the same values...

Conversation with Ainsley:

A: "Mom, do you know what Alli and I both think is dumb?"

Me: "No, what?"

A: "We found out that both of our mom's don't buy kleenex. We both think that is dumb."

I hate kleenex. Here is why: 1. Kleenex boxes are clutter wherever you put them. 2. I don't want to encourage people to blow their noses in my family room. Go somewhere I can't hear you. 3. Toilet paper is conveniently located next to the toilet, where you should dispose of tissue that has bodily fluid on it.

So Cyndi-why don't you buy Kleenex? Allison says you don't. This is a potential blog post for you!

Disneyland-the last chapter

A mere 8 hours after leaving our hotel room yesterday afternoon we arrived at home. (thanks again to Eric and Cyndi-who even came in the airport to help us with the kids and get our bags. Could we ask for better friends?) Our plane was delayed for hours, so we had a fun filled time in LAX. Happily the kids did really well considering how exhausted they were.

Our last day at Disneyland was so great. Because of the rain storm the night before the park was so empty that we were able to just walk on rides and didn't have to wait in line for anything. It was so perfect.

One thing we did was go to the Princess Fantasy Fair. Ainsley got to have her hair done like a princess-so she had Belle hair. She was so delighted with it (we may never get her to wash it again). After she had it done all the Disney Cast Members paid tons of extra attention to her (good marketing on Disney's part). Whenever she got on a ride, or even when they walked past her they would call her princess and talk to her. After a couple of hours of this we were getting off of the Jungle Cruise and the guy said, "Thanks for coming princess, it was an honor to have you on our boat." After that Ainsley said, "It's getting sort of annoying having everyone call me princess." I told her I didn't think it was annoying and I thought it was very fun. She said, "yeah, but I just feel sort of like their all trying to fall in love with me or something." So cute. It was such a fun trip.
The princess hair


They are holding a sign that says, "We love your Zech (our 4 year old nephew in Minnesota-he loves Lightening McQueen) Zech-we wish you were there with us!

Princesses, Roller coasters, and Rain

Friday morning was so great- the threat of rain was enough to keep most people out of the parks so we hardly had to wait in any lines. This led to Ainsley riding California Screamin' (the BIG roller coaster-upside down and everything) FOUR times! She would have gone back for more if she had parents that could handle it more than two times each. Hudson wanted so bad to ride it also, but sadly he isn't quite 48 inches so he can't yet. He rode everything else he could though, basically he isn't scared of anything as long as it is not dark. No Space Mountain for him. Camden took a three hour nap in his stroller while we did California Adventure.

We had lunch at Ariel's Grotto. The princesses all come to your table and visit while you are eating. This was a dream come true for Ainsley. Hudson liked Belle.

We came back and took naps, and sadly then the rain began. And began it did. It was no longer "The Happiest Place on Earth," it was "The Wettest Place on Earth." That didn't stop us from going back to the park, but perhaps it should have. It was REALLY wet. Andrew and Ainsley rode Grizzly River Run (water ride) twice, but it was dark out so Hudson wasn't up for it. A couple of other short rides and then we returned SOAKED. There was 1.51 inches of rain last night when we were in the park. We are hoping to be a bit drier today before flying home tonight. Here are a few pictures from yesterday.

Disneyland-and leaving your house before 4am

We are HERE! Here are all the reasons you should always leave your house at 4am. Some are good, some not so good.

#1- you get to hang out with two of the most amazing friends EVER who even after repeated assurances that it would be fine for us to just drive ourselves to the airport and park in long term parking insist on picking us up at the horriffic hour of 3:45 am-both of them come-! (thanks Eric and Cyndi, you guys are the BEST!)

#2- you can avoid that irritating time of sitting at the gate waiting to board your plane. You know... when you are waiting for your row to be called and wondering if you can just sneak in with the first class so you can get the best overhead baggage area? If you show up at 4am it turns out EVERYONE ELSE ON THE PLANET seems to be going somewhere also so it take over 90 minutes to get through the baggage and security lines. This means that you just run to your gate from security and barely make it on the plane (without even putting your shoes back on after security) alleviating that horrible waiting period. Never mind the teeny tiny stress that begins your day with.

#3- you get to watch the sunrise from the airplane, above the clouds, very cool.

#4- when you do get to LA you have missed the horrible morning traffic and have a fun drive to Disneyland- listening to your kids flip out about palm trees which they decided are "fake"

#5- you leave your house at 4, and by 10:10 am you are on Thunder Mountain Railroad with Ainsley and Hudson who are screaming "THIS IS SO SO SO FUUUUNNNNNN!"

#6-by 12:00 you have already had 13 people comment on how cute your family is in their matching Incredibles T-shirts. (our family matches the incredibles perfectly with age and gender right now. Mr. & Mrs. Incredible, Violet (Ains) Dash (Hudson) and baby Jack-Jack (Camden.) Thanks Tennille for making us such fun shirts!

#7- by 1:00 you are trying to feed your kids lunch, but they are exhausted and the middle child is melting into a little puddle on the floor saying "I want to go back to our hotel home and jump on the beds."

#8- by 2:00 you are back in your hotel room with all three kids sleeping, your husband is running around Disneyland like a mad man collecting fast passes because he is devoted to your children having a great afternoon and evening. You are happily sitting in your hotel room writing a blog post.

Happy New Year- 12 years and counting

On the First New Years Eve we were all married, we started our tradition of fondue and games with Heather and Brent. Our games have evolved (from Compatablity and Catch Phrase, to Settlers and Poker, to this year the Wii) but 12 years and 5 kids later we are still doing basically the same thing. (although this year in H&B's very fun new house!)I would like to think we are able to do the same thing because we are such great parents that we are able to manage our kids so well that we don't have to change anything. In reality it is probably because we weren't really all that exciting back then either so our wild New Years Eve isn't that hard to incorporate the 1, 3, 4, and two 6 year-olds into. Then again, back then I wasn't up doing a blog post at 6:00 am on New Years morning because the 4 year-old is already up and playing and I'm trying to keep him quiet enough that he doesn't wake everyone else up. I'm not going to dwell on the fact that back in 1996 I usually got about twice the sleep I do now... Anyway- Happy New Year! Thanks for haning out with us all these years Magnusons! Stay tuned for Thursday... we take off at 6:00 am for DISNEYLAND! Our hotel says it has wireless, so I will try and put up pictures while we are there.

The kids all having fondue


Grown-ups having it after the kids are in bed