First tooth

Yup it finally happened. Ashlyn lost her first tooth. It's been wiggly for a while now and her adult tooth had just recently started to poke through. So I knew we needed to get that thing out soon. I told Ashlyn to wiggle it every day, multiple times a day. It kind of gave me the heebie jeebies to be quite honest. But when it came down to it, I was the one to pull it out(probably only because Paul was gone with a church assigment). I know, I know.....I'm SO brave! Haha.... It was getting so lose though that I was worried it would fall out in her sleep and she would swallow it or something. So after some prodding, I was able to convince her to let me try and get it out. Amazing what a potential visit from the tooth fairy will get a kid to agree to! So I made a slip knot in a string of dental floss and after MANY attempts, finally got the floss around that little tooth. And you know what....it came RIGHT out! She was scared to death that it would hurt, but once it came out, I had to actually tell her that I got it. But then it started to bleed a little and that kind of freaked her out. I guess I should have prepped her for that. A tissue (or two) cleared that up pretty quick though and she excitedly went off to find something to put her tooth in. We decided on a "hello kitty" change purse. It blended in PERFECTLY with her "hello kitty" sheets, so you can imagine how easy it was for the tooth fairy to find that little pouch that night. But that little tooth fairy was successful, and in the morning Ashlyn was delighted to see that a dollar bill had replaced her tooth. She did ask me though how a little tooth fairy could carry a whole dollar bill. Luckily, she quickly answered her own question and said, "OH with pixy dust". Of course. She also thinks that the tooth fairy uses her old teeth to make that pixy dust. I didn't correct her. I thought it was cleaver of her to even consider what happened to her tooth after the tooth fairy took it away.

Sorry if the pictures gross you out. I had to document it. Honestly though, they'd probably gross me out if it wasn't my own child.

I swear she has the TINIEST teeth ever. Her dentist comments on it every time we go in the office. So funny!

American Girl

I have walked past this store at The Grove COUNTLESS times. Never even thought to go in. Well, last weekend I went there with my friend Rebecca and my two girls, and OH MY GOODNESS! It is doll heaven. I have seriously NEVER seen such hard core doll lovers. There was a doll beauty salon, doll hospital, doll ear piercing station, doll cafe, and doll exhibits EVERYWHERE! It was incredible. My girls wanted every single one of them and excitedly ran from room to room to see the next doll. It was very cute, until Leah started whining when I told her we weren't getting one (do you know how EXPENSIVE those dolls are? The cheap ones are $100.00. Seriously). Anyway, it was fun to walk around and look at everything. In the end, I let the girls both pick out a "miniature"(and much less expensive) doll to take home. They seemed happy with that. Afterward we went to a fun little restaurant called "The Farm", right there at The Grove. Another place I had never gone into on previous visits. But honestly, if I had Brandon with me, I wouldn't have gone. It was a yummy little brunch/lunch place. Rebecca and I had a very delicious omelet(our own, not shared), while the girls enjoyed their favorite....cheese pizza. Lastly we rode on the trolley around The Grove and then headed home. It was a fun day and nice to be with just my girls and Rebecca. I'm excited to do more girly outings in the future. Thanks for the fun idea Rebecca. It was a great day!

On the trolley. Ashlyn was NOT happy with me that we didn't go up to the top. Ended up being a good thing because they make all the people on the top get off at the Farmer's Market. But because we were at the bottom, we got to ride the trolley back. Made for a much shorter walk back to the car. Especially since once we got to the parking lot, I realized I had not even paid attention to where I had parked. Not what level I was on or ANYTHING. That is SO not like me. I don't know what I was thinking. But thanks to Rebecca, who told me to push my panic button, we were able to find the car after only three levels. haha....I'm such a dork sometimes.

Around here lately....(well, before the rain started)

Leah started ballet. It's a really cute class. They do fun things like pretend to go on a quest to find the princess castle. They dance around and get to carry wands and wear tiaras. Leah loves it. But when I asked her if she liked ballet or gymnastics better, she said gymnastics. I can't say I wasn't surprised. Gymnastics is more her thing. We'll probably go back to it after this class is over. But at least now she knows which she prefers.

Did you see the double rainbow after the rain a few days ago (if you live here that is)? It was SO amazing. The pictures don't do it justice. The first rainbow was SO bright and vivid. The other one was lighter, but still very seeable. (Yes, I was driving while taking pictures. Shame on me...)

Me and Brooke are visiting teaching companions. Brooke always comes up with fun things to do for VT. I love it. This month we went with Michalle on a hike around Placerita Canyon. It was a BEAUTIFUL day and the kids had a lot of fun.

This lady volunteers here and comes once a week to take the owl on a "walk". It was showing off for us. Pretty cool huh!

Can you believe the SIZE of this dog? I've never seen one SO big. And once again, the picture does not do it justice. It was like a small horse. It's an English Mastiff and it holds the guinness book of world records for being the dog with the greatest weight (at 343 pounds). It is also the same type of dog that was used in the movie "The Sandlot".

And here he was, just walking around the mall right by our house.

Called out by my 6 year old

I was helping Ashlyn with her homework tonight. She had to put 10 words in ABC order. That has nothing to do with this story really except for one of her words was "good". Ashlyn has had a really hard time getting her d's and b's straight. She always switches them up. I think it's a common mistake for a 6 year old as I've seen her classmates do the same thing. But still, I must admit I have begun to lose my patience with it. So tonight when she wrote "goob" instead of "good", I sighed and said, "your D is backwards AGAIN". She looks at me and says, "Mom, you don't have to get so frustrated with me. I'm just learning".

OUCH!!! Okay, Okay, I'm sorry Ashlyn. But let's try and remember next time okay.

Sheesh! Nothing like being called out by your SIX year old.

Disneyland Round 2

So I mentioned we bought annual passes to Disneyland. We got the cheapest ones, which means they have lots of black out dates. So I sat down and figured out days we can go this year. I know, I'm a dork. But I figured if I wanted to make the most of them, that's how it'd happen. Ashlyn had THREE weeks of school off for "Winter" break, so I took advantage of that last week, and went again with the kids. I brought along one of my favorite people, Tina, who also has passes (and four kids). So all together, there were 2 adults and 7 kids. We must admit, we were a little nervous to not have our hubbies with us, but we thought we'd take it slow, bring our own lunches, and just play it low key. It ended up being a GREAT day! We had so much fun. The kids were good. We got on a good number of rides. And we still made it home before major traffic hit.

This was the SPINNING tea cup.

Tina took the "non" spinning one. Or rather, the kids that didn't want to spin had to go with Tina.

Brandon can be such a ham sometimes.

On "It's a Small World". It was still decorated for Christmas, which was SO fun. I think this is my girls favorite ride.

We rode in the monkey cages on the circus train, cuz that's what we are....monkeys.

Brandon LOVES Tina's oldest boy, Braden. I don't blame him. He's a great kid.

I think this was Mr. Toad's Wild Ride. Poor little Ashlynn (Tina's daughter, for those who think I just spelled my Ashlyn's name wrong) did NOT like this ride. I felt so bad for her. She kept her head down almost the entire time and then came out crying. It was a pretty dark ride. I don't blame her. I'm sure, in time, she'll start to love it though.

Had to ride the carousel of course. Plus it helped that there was NO line.

Lunch time. We decided it'd be a lot easier (and cheaper) if we brought our own lunches instead of trying to buy it all there. So we parked ourselves as a nice little bench and dug in. It worked out great.

Don't know why this picture is sideways, but I'm too lazy to fix it. And yes, I put a leash on my boy. If you know him at all, you understand why. I prefer to call it a "harness buddy". I saw those cute little monkey backpack ones all day at Disney and wondered why I had this dorky looking one that really did look like a leash. So I set out to find a monkey backpack. And I was successful. They were just at Target. Go figure. So I'll have it for next time.

We opted to walk in to the park from the parking garage, instead of taking the tram. There was really no option. We couldn't have unloaded everything, and our kids, and folded up our double strollers to get on and off the tram. It wasn't a bad walk though. Just took about 15 minutes. But Ashlyn was tired of walking. Leah and Brandon were in the double stroller. I tried putting her in the middle of them, but Brandon would NOT have it. He kept pushing her out of his space. So I tried putting her on my back. Tina of course took a picture of it, right as I started to say, "You better not take a picture of me". But I'm kind of glad she did. Good for documenting purposes. Ashlyn didn't last too long on my back anyway. I had to have one hand to push the double stroller and she was complaining that it was too hard to hold on by herself. Oh brother! We made it home, with one short pitstop for drinks. We'll definitely be going again. With Tina of course. Or any other friend that has passes. I won't go by myself. I'm not that brave. Plus, it just wouldn't be that fun.

One More Celebration

Which ended up being New Years Eve I think. But who cares. I had one more Birthday celebration in me yet. I really was SO stinking spoiled this year. But anyway, I got to get together with one of my favorite friends Beth. We've had two babies together....literally. I met her when she was just barely pregnant with Tyler and I was just barely pregnant with Leah. They ended up being born 3 days apart. Then when I got pregnant with Brandon, she was pregnant with Audrey. They ended up less than 3 weeks apart, which actually felt like a really long time. Anyway, I went down and picked her up and we headed out to a cute little lunch place(known for their pregnancy inducing salad) for soup and salad. We didn't have the pregnancy salad, but I have. And it was good. But it didn't put me into labor.

Then we were debating about whether or not to go shopping. But then we found out that NEW MOON was STILL playing at Universal Citywalk, which is like less than 10 minutes from her house. So we jumped on it. She'd already seen it and I was gonna be in big trouble for going without my other friends, but I knew this was really my last chance to see it in the theater before it left for good. It was such a fun day. We chatted and laughed and really just had a good time. I'm all for big groups and getting together with lots of friends, but honestly, sometimes it's nice to just be one on one. So thanks for the fun day Beth and thanks for humoring me and seeing the movie again.

Unfortunately, this is the only picture I got.

(That's because Rachel wasn't with me and she's the master picture taker.)

The Day After

I did a whole lot of celebrating for my birthday this year. One would have thought it was my 30th or something big like that. But no, I just have fabulous friends and family. So the day after Disneyland, I got together with some of my ward friends up here for some yummy CPK and Cupcakes (Starbucks style).

I would like to say we were deep into thought here deciding what we wanted for dinner, but that would be lie.

Serious discussion going on here I guess. They look TICKED off! ha.... They weren't. Just a funny shot.

And I don't know what my facial expression is responding to in this picture, but it was another funny one. Rachel just snaps pictures constantly. She could make a flip book.

Getting a birthday treat....that they charged me for. Crazy huh? But my kind, kind friends paid for it. Which I'm still not happy about, but finally agreed to....as if I had a choice.

Group shot. Apparently the server did not care about getting a good shot. It's all blurry at the top right. Oh well, you can still get the idea. GREAT friends I have!

So then we headed out to The Cupcake Tree bakery. I do not go because I want to. I must. I have to support my friend. It's her shop (are you buying any of this? I didn't think so.) Okay, I LOVE cupcakes. They are delicious. But the shop was closed. Boo!!! I guess it was my own fault. But in the window I could still see my friend, finishing up for the night, probably wanting to go home and relax after a long day. But instead, she gets ME....knocking on her door at almost 9 at night. I offered to pay for them. I just really really wanted some. I'm so stinking spoiled huh? What a brat. She was SUPER kind and gave us all a free cupcake. TOO TOO nice. Now I shall have to continue to support her (darnit)! So we took the cupcakes to Starbucks, cuz they were still opened. We got some hot cocoa and settled down for some more laughs.

Yes, I was making this face on purpose. No one else bothered to mention that when they posted this picture on their blog.

I'm pretty sure Michalle was doing this on purpose too.

Here's a nice one of her though....so she'll still love me.

Then a few of us ended up back at my house for some toe nail painting and movie watching. But mostly we just continued to chat while the TV was on in the background. It was SUCH SUCH SUCH a fun night! Thanks so much gals. I love you all! And I had the best Birthday ever!