Milestones: Pulling Himself Up To Standing

I know what you're thinking.  The kid isn't even 8 months old yet!  I could hardly believe it myself, but it's true.  John-boy is now very proficient at pulling himself up on the furniture, and standing there as proud as can be!  But that's not all, folks.  Johnny also WALKS along the furniture, and has even climbed up onto Sophie's toddler bed all by himself.  What a big boy he is!  I'm sure he'll be walking before we know it.

And I don't know how I feel about that... ;)

Claire's First Primary Activity

Claire absolutely LOVES Primary!  She asks every day if it's Sunday, and she can hardly wait for Sacrament Meeting to wrap up so she can go to class.  As soon as we get in the chapel on Sunday, she scans the crowd for her teacher, Sister Perez.  And then she says, at a not-so-reverent volume, "There's my teacher!  There's Sister Perez!!"

I figured if she loved Primary on Sundays, she would just flip for a Primary Activity!  On Saturday the 9th, the two of us headed to the church to get set-up.  I love serving in Primary, but it has been especially fun over the last four months since Claire became a Sunbeam.  I feel privileged that I get to share this time with her, and watch her love for the Gospel and our Savior grow.

The activity was centered around Easter.  First, Claire decorated an Easter frame for her picture of Christ with the children.  

Claire is so artistic by nature and loved working on the frame.  She kept saying how much Jesus loves her.  Claire has been fortunate to have very good Primary teachers so far, and she really does know that Jesus and Heavenly Father love her.  And she's such a good sister, she made a frame for Sophie too, just so she wouldn't feel left out.  

After the frame project, we moved on to make an FHE lesson about the last 12 days of Christ's life.  It is really cool, and I think we'll do it every year to help remind the kids of what Easter is really about.  There are 12 eggs, which are numbered.  Inside each egg is an object and scripture reference about that day proceeding the resurrection.  We've already opened a few eggs, and learned about the ropes that were used bind Jesus, and the 30 pieces of silver that Judas Iscariot received for betraying Jesus.  The lessons have really made an impact on Claire.  

And what good would a Primary Activity be without a yummy treat?  :)

Claire made her own Easter Bunny cupcake!  Both yummy and adorable. :)  And again, she helped make one to take home to Sophie, who was so sad that she couldn't come to this one.  What a good girl!

I really do love being able to share this time with Claire.  I'm so proud of her and her fervent love for the Gospel.  She is so reverent during Primary, and loves to give talks, prayers, and scriptures.  She is an example every day of her life, and I'm so grateful for her.  I love you, Claire Bear!

Sophie's First Haircut

I postponed it as long as I possibly could.  And honestly, I probably waited longer than I needed too! :)  Ever since she was just a wee one, Sophie has had the most beautiful curly hair!  As it has grown, it has gotten less and less curly.  But I was afraid to cut it.  What if ALL the curl got cut off?  I just couldn't part with the soft ringlets, no matter how nappy her hair looked sometimes. :)

But finally it had gotten so long and unruly that there was rarely any curl at all.  At this point, I figured the curl was either gone permanently, or cutting it may just bring it back!  Either way, it was time for a trim.  

I was worried about how Sophie would handle the haircut, especially the wash.  I hyped her up about how big of a girl she was, and that if she let them wash her hair I'd buy her Berry Star.  It totally worked!  She was a little nervous to let them wash her hair, but as long as I held her hand, she kept perfectly still. 

And she kept right on being good through the actual cutting.  I was floored!  I don't think Sophie has sat so still for so long in her entire life.

I opted not to pay the extra for the style.  I think it's ridiculous that you should pay extra for that, by the way.  Anyway, once the stylist was done cutting, and they took the cape off, Sophie looked down and exclaimed, "Look at all my hair!"  Then she looked in the mirror and said, "They cut my hair!"  She was so happy!

And so was I.  Though you can't tell in the picture, the curl has come back some.  Sophie is such a beautiful little girl!  We're so lucky to have her.

Girl's Week! Oh, and Johnny... :)

After our crazy fun week with Jeff and Jami and their kids, we had a week to get ready for our next fun visitors.  Grandma Call, Aunt Julie, and Aunt Katie were coming to visit!  Yay!  We were sad that Papa Call had to stay home this time, and we were sad that Danny had to be in Tucson that whole week, too!  But that meant it was just us girls, with Johnny being the man of the house.  We were a little excited about that.  :)  

Grandma and the aunties got here on Monday evening, and it was so nice to see them!  We enjoyed visiting for the evening, and Julie and Katie were stoked to be out of the car.  Can't say I blame them!  We were all pretty tired, so we went to bed early.  

True to form, Grandma was up before me, playing with Claire and Sophie.  My kids are so lucky to have such a fun Grandma!  But once Johnny got up, it was time for Grandma to enjoy her littlest grandson.

While Johnny and Grandma were playing, Aunt Katie and Aunt Julie helped the girls set up a Princess Party.  Claire was beside herself with joy!  First on the list was decorations...

And then somehow everyone got distracted playing Play-Doh.  Still fun!

Play-Doh wasn't the only distraction.  Sophie made the mistake of showing Aunt Katie how to play "Cut The Rope" on the iPod, and we lost Katie for the rest of the trip!  Just kidding!  Mostly... :)

The weather was pretty nice while they were here.  It was certainly better than it was in Utah, which was really all they cared about!  We let everyone play outside for awhile, and then decided to head into town for a bit.

Well, we let almost everyone play outside...

Much to John's dismay, he was stuck inside.  Jack did his best to make him feel better.  :)

We went to the mall to do some shopping and get Sophie's hair cut (to be covered in a forthcoming post).  And then, just since we were out, we enjoyed dinner at Rubio's and dessert at Berry Star.  Yum!  The next day, Wednesday, was a pretty low-key day spent playing together.  Grandma was scrambling to finish up some blankets for Baby Andi, but she took a break to build a giraffe with the girls.  Cool, huh?! :)

Then Grandma and the aunties headed to San Pedro for that night and next day.  There was a new grandbaby that everyone was just dying to get a hold of! :)  The kids and I cleaned up and recuperated for the day.  And then my favorite day came...Friday!

Friday was the day Daddy got home!  :)  I went into LA (all my myself, I might add) and met Danny at the temple while Grandma watched the kids for us.  We enjoyed a session together and then made our way to San Pedro to see Robbie and Kris and meet Andrea.  She's pretty cute, with a head FULL of hair!  I'm a sucker for the hair...

The four of us decided on dinner at a restaurant in San Pedro called Raffaello's.  Danny found it using his "Yelp!" app, and it had received some good ratings.  Well, let me give you our rating.  It was absolutely amazing!!  Danny ordered a veal and chicken cannelloni, and I got some shrimp diablo dish.  I'm seriously salivating just thinking about it!  It was by far the coolest dining experience I've ever had, and we fully intend on dining there again!  Mmmmm....Raffaello's...

Danny and I really enjoyed our date together.  Thank you, Grandma!  It had been WAY too long.  :)  We made the long drive home, and the kids were so excited to see their Daddy!  I've never been so far away from John or separated for so long, so I was expecting an excited little boy when I got home.  I had an excited little boy, all right.  He was just excited to see his Daddy!

Johnny wouldn't let go of Danny's neck for a good 20 minutes once we got home.  Quite frankly, he couldn't have cared less if I was there or not! :)  As much as I was a little miffed that Danny was getting all the love, it made me happy to see how much Johnny had missed his Dad.  There really aren't words to express how much my children love their Daddy.  And I love that.

Unfortunately, the next morning came and Grandma, Aunt Julie, and Aunt Katie had to made the long trip back to Utah.  It was so fun to have them here!  We really miss the Fam.  But it will only be a short 6 weeks before we're there for our summer visit, and we can hardly wait!

Disneyland - Day Two

Can I just say, we all slept GREAT after being at Disneyland all day!  The beds were very comfortable at the hotel, and best of all, the kids were so tuckered out they didn't wake up once!  Love that!

We had big plans to get up early and be at the gates before the park opened.  Jeff had already mapped out where they were going to get Fast Passes first and what to ride in the mean time, so as to ride as many of the fun rides as many times as possible!  We didn't get quite as early of a start as we had planned, but I do believe we were at the park right as it opened.  

Jeff took a contingent of big ride-goers, and headed off in search of Fast Passes.  Danny and I, along with Jami, took the littler kids to Tomorrowland.  Bowen was dying to see Buzz Lightyear!  So that was our first stop.  

The ride was so much fun!  You got to shoot at aliens and things, and it actually kept your points for you.  I thought I was doing really good with 4500, until I found out that Danny got like 14,000!  Oh well, it's for the kids, right? :)

We actually rode this ride twice before we headed towards Adventureland again.  We wanted to do some of the bigger family rides while Jami was feeling good and before the kids got too tired.  We had noticed on our way in the night before this awesome ice cream stand that served fresh pineapple soft-serve ice cream.  The night before, the line was SERIOUSLY long!  But at 10:30 in the morning, no one was thinking ice cream!  So of course we had to get some.

It was delicious!  Lily even got them to put a tiny umbrella in hers.  That's what being super cute gets you!

Once we were finished with our ice cream, we decided the Jungle Cruise looked fun.  Plus, the line was moving quick!  This ride was really cool.  We got on a big boat and had a "tour guide" through the jungle.  There were a bunch of animatronic elephants, giraffes, apes, and fishes that were really cool and decently life-like.  My favorite part was all the vegetation.  It was so green and luscious!  

When we got off this ride, we found a cute little alcove that didn't have anyone in it, and had plenty of seating. I decided I should probably feed Johnny, so I got comfortable and started nursing.  Danny and Jami took the kids to do some playing and climbing around at Tarzan's Treehouse.

Johnny was eating contentedly, and I was just taking in my surroundings, when literally out of no where (well, not literally, but you get the point) came Aladdin and Jasmine!  Of course, I was bummed that the girl's weren't there, since Princess Jasmine was seriously 20 feet away from me.  But mostly I was a little self-conscious that all of a sudden I had a whole bunch of people watching me feed my son!  There is now a nursing mother in the background of a decent amount of pictures with Aladdin, Jasmine, and some person's kid. :)

Danny came back with the girl's just in time to wait in the long line to hopefully get an autograph and picture before Aladdin and Jasmine moved on.  This was the first princess they had seen that day, and they were excited!

We were seriously the next family in line when it was time for them to move on.  We weren't able to get autographs, but we were able to snap a quick picture!

I can't seem to remember now why Claire and I weren't with Danny and Sophie, but at some point they came across Aladdin and Jasmine again while we were in Adventureland, and Sophie was able to get an autograph.

I think Sophie was nervous without Claire, so she wouldn't quite stand still for a picture.  You can tell Jasmine thinks it's cute...

By now we'd all had lunch and rested and gone to the bathroom and even seen a princess!  Jeff handed Danny a couple of Fast Passes and told him they would watch our kids while Danny and I went on the "Indiana Jones" ride...alone!  How cool!  We got to walk together, holding hands.  We got to actually talk to each other for more than a few sentences without being interrupted!  It was great.

I might have gotten a little giddy...just being with my Sweetheart.

The ride was a lot of fun, and just the right amount of scary for me!  The only problem was it didn't last long enough.  :)  All too soon, it was time to get the kids and move on to the next thing!  But the little reprieve from reality was great.  Just what we needed.  :)

Since we were all together as family now, we decided to hit the ride of the day:

Pirates!  Yay!  I was a little concerned how the little kids would do.  But Danny and Jeff assured me they'd be fine.  We got on board our boat, and headed "where dead men tell no tales".  :)

Claire was really excited at first.

And then we started moving. :)  She remained in this position until we came to a full and complete stop.

Yes, those are white knuckles.  Poor thing!  She still talks about how scary that ride was.  Sophie bought a Jack Sparrow Pez at Wal-Mart the other day and can't wait to do the ride again!  You can't get two kids on more opposite sides of the spectrum.  On a somewhat related note, how cool is the Pirate band?

After traumatizing Claire, we thought we'd replace a bad memory with a good memory, so we headed back to Critter Country and the "Winnie The Pooh" ride.  We had fun on the ride, again, and we were SO excited to see who was waiting for us when we got out!

We got in line just in time to see Pooh and some of his friends from the Hundred Acre Wood.

While it was really cool to see Pooh and Eeyore, the real highlight was getting to see Tigger!  He's kind of Danny's favorite. :)

Tigger was true to himself, and very bouncy and excited!  And definitely silly...

You know what the most wonderful thing about Tigger is, right?

He's the only one!  :)  Before we left, Claire got in just one more hug.

I swear Claire is in there somewhere!

Next we made our way back toward Fantasyland for the Princess Coronation that we had missed the day before.  We had a little bit of time, though, so we stopped for one more ride around the carousel.  And Mama and Johnny got to go this time, too.

And I've got to give some props to my kids...especially Johnny.  We didn't have a single tantrum, fit, fight, or meltdown the entire two days that we were there!  Considering we had a 7 month-old infant and a rambunctious two-year-old, I'd say that was another Disneyland Miracle!  Never mind we just have awesome kids.  Seriously, just look at this kid!

But I digress.  We made it in time for the Princess Coronation and it was everything we dreamed of! ;)  Well, the girls got a kick out of it, at least.  The adults thought it was kind of silly.  Claire, Sophie, Lily, and Megan (yes, the 16 year-old couldn't miss the Coronation!) got to learn a real Princess Dance and even do a may-pole with Cinderella, Jasmine, and Snow White.  We were under the impression that the aforementioned princesses would hang around after the coronation for pictures and autographs.  But that didn't seem to be the case, so Danny took Claire, Sophie, and Lily to wait in line to meet some other princesses.  The line was a long one, and as they were waiting, we found out that Cinderella, Snow White, and Jasmine had come back after all!  So Danny, being the awesome Dad that he is, continued to save their place in line and sent the girls back to where the coronation had been.

My girls missed Snow White, and they had already met Jasmine.  But they just loved their time with Cinderella!

Because Danny stayed in line, the little girls didn't have to wait too much longer before they got to meet Ariel, Tiana, and Mulan!

All of the Princesses are nice.  But some seem to be nicer than others.  This Ariel, according to Danny, was super nice to the girls, and really got to know them for the few minutes they were together.  Thank you, Wednesday-Afternoon-Ariel!

Although Sophie and Lily had already met Tiana, Claire hadn't.  She was pretty excited!

Now, my girls had NO IDEA who Mulan was!  But hey, she was a pretty girl in princess get-up, so sure!  Sign our book and take a picture with us! :)

With the Princesses done for the day, we proceeded to make our way through Fantasyland when Danny remembered a ride that he had enjoyed the last time he was there.  The "Storybook Village" ride ended up being one of Jami's favorite.  She couldn't get enough of all the cute, miniature settings!

Things really got exciting at this point.  It was right after we got off the "Storybook Village" ride that we felt the first few innocuous drops of rain.  We slowly made our way over to Pixie Hollow to see the fairies, and the rain slowly got more intense.  No big deal, though, cause we brought ponchos just in case!  We began getting them out when we realized we were a couple ponchos short.  And then it REALLY started to rain!  We found some pathetic shelter under a little awning, left Danny with the kids and a few ponchos, and Jami and I raced to the nearest store to buy WAY overpriced but necessary rain gear.  At least they had Mickey Mouse on them!

Once we were donned in our plastic, I took Megan, Lily, and Claire for what we thought was a quick walk through Pixie Hollow.  Turns out, we were getting in line to meet Tinkerbell and her friends.  Which would have been cool, except for a few minor things.  One, Tinkerbell goes inside when it rains, so only her less cool counterparts were there.  That wasn't too bad, Claire would still love to see any fairy.  Two, I didn't know we were meeting characters, so I didn't have Claire's autograph book with me.  And three, IT WAS RAINING! 

So, we stood in line for about 20 minutes in the rain to meet a couple of fairies.  Good thing it was still cool for Claire, so it was hard to feel too put out. :)

We walked at a rather brisk and splish-splashy pace to meet up with everyone else, who was hanging out under some umbrellas in a food court in Tomorrowland.  That's when I saw this:

Johnny had fallen asleep for a quick power nap during the it's-really-raining-now fiasco, and the poor guy's eye got gooped shut!  :)  While we were staying dry, Danny and I decided that we had better get our kids back to the hotel where it was nice and warm and dry.  Unfortunately, it was only about 4:00 pm, but it didn't look like the rain was going to let up and we needed to be responsible parents.  Jami wanted to get Bowen and Lily inside too, so she was going to join us.  But as we were getting ready to leave, we spotted "Nemo's Submarine Adventure".  Jeff ran to see how long the wait was, and it was only 15 minutes!  Most of the queue was under the monorail, and so mostly covered from the rain.  We thought, why not?  So we did!

What we did was wait in line for an hour!  And once we realized that we would rather just take the kids back to the hotel, we were too far into the queue and we were committed.  We waited, doing our best to keep our cold, shivering kids dry.  I was pretty upset, and really regretted our decision.  All I could think was, "This ride better be worth it!"

Once we got into the submarine, Sophie looked up at me with this look that said:

"I'm cold and wet.  Is this ride going to be worth it?"

Turns out that it totally was.  The kids loved it, especially Sophie.  Admittedly, it was pretty cool!  And it was out of the rain, which was all I needed at the time.

Unfortunately, the time came to have to go through the rain all the way to the shuttle pick-up.  Not fun.  But, we made it, and the kids were mostly dry.  Though Claire was completely asleep. :) 

Then it was time to bid farewell to our beloved Disneyland.  *Sniff, Sniff*

Wow.  All I can say was Disneyland was incredible!  I didn't know what to expect, and I really thought I would mostly love it through my kids' eyes.  But honestly, I can't wait to go back!  For those two days, it really was "The Happiest Place On Earth".

And the kid's had all the fun they could handle.

What a wonderful adventure for our family.  It made Danny and I so happy to see our girls filled with so much unmitigated joy.  It was so fun to share this experience with Jeff and Jami and their kids.  What more can I say?  It was wonderful!