April Family Party

Since we already had a party this month (aka trip to Disneyland), I was tempted to skip out on my commitment to do a dinner every month. But then I thought to myself "Hibbert, are you committed or not!?!?!" So it was kinda adhoc and last minute, but I did it. We didn't do it on Easter Sunday as I'd originally planned, cause I was in vacation recovery, but we did it this past Sunday. And it was the day before my happy birthday, so I invited my parents. Natalie with my Dad ~

I called them that morning and played the "I know this is short notice, but it's my birthday tomorrow, so you have to come" card. It turned pretty good for a quickly thrown together "party". :)

They said they are always up for dinner with great company :)

Tried to do an Easter/Savior/Resurrection/Spring and Rebirth kinda theme, with white and eggs and spring colors.

Tilapia and veggies for the dinner. Melodie made the cupcakes and the kids decorated them, that was all we did for dessert baking. Most of the goodies were store bought (like I said, half hearted attempt, I've just barely been hanging on these past few days)

Then we watched family videos. Can't remember what this video was about, but everyone was laughing, it was cute.

Good family activity. We watched videos from 2010 of another trip to California, and videos of Hyrum and Ethan fighting and explaining their case to their future selves (a very effective way to get fighting kids to see the situation for what it really is...)

And Natalie loves her Grandpa ~ She looked so cute in her little Easter dress.

While she was in the high chair, she showed us how high she could reach her arms above her head, just like a real ballerina! And in her little pink ruffles, well you could tell that she knew she was adorable, we are just loving this little girl.

 Reach, reach... you almost got it! There you go, hold on to that finger!!!

She is crawling around and pulling up to walls, mirrors, and the tub. So fun. The kids watched the videos and we grown up visited, and the kids jumped on Dad and Grandpa. We told Mom and Dad all about our Stake Conference that morning, which was amazing. I shall type up my notes from that and link to it soon, Loved it, Elder Bob Gay spoke to us, so inspiring. Do it the Lord's Way. So it was a good ending to the month of April and remember the Lord and that first Easter morning! And life continues on... :)

The Rest of Our California Adventure

So... trying to finish documenting the rest of our trip is like trying to catch up on scrapbooking all the photo prints I have in boxes from 2003-2007. Which is another way of saying it's not gonna happen, life is attacking me too quickly. So here is a little longer sum up of the rest of our trip -

Wednesday (4/16) we hung out at the resort and spent an afternoon at the pool - as Melodie demonstrates in the photo above. Uncle Mark came ready with water balloons so we could have a balloon toss. The kids made friends with kids in the pool and invited them to come play...

...but everyone knows that all the kids really wanted to do was nail each other with the balloons. Corey took a cheap shot at his boys during the toss, before they had a chance to take one at him. Eth got a nice welt on his shoulder there, Joseph on the left of his back.

We had an easter egg hunt on the grassy lawn area, the kids loved that. I was lucky enough to be able to sit and watch as I enjoyed my happy place...

(love the binky barely hanging on to her little lip!)

Thursday the older kids went to California Adventure. (Note to kids - when you read this, go get Mel and her camera and then bring her camera to me so I can put her pictures here...) While they were doing there having fun, Corey worked on Movie Mouth (which he officially gave me permission to begin to use by name here, before now he made me go edit out all "movie mouth" phrases so it wouldn't come up on search engines, cause he wasn't ready yet, but they are almost ready!!) So, as he did that, the girls and I played Legos. I had come prepared with Lego Disney princesses which I hoped would be as cool as the real thing they experienced the day before. It was, and now that we're home, the only lego we lost that we're aware of was Flynn Rider's hair, not bad!)

Later that evening I took Sophia and Natalie on a walk. They enjoyed the world around them, Sophia kept picking flowers for Natalie (sorry, Marriott grounds crew!)

and I took a lot of pictures of the flowers and my little girls.

Friday we headed back to Las Vegas. When we got to the hotel there, we watched a little bit of tv to kill the time and wait for the rest of the kids to arrive so we could go get dinner, and as we did, we watched "Say Yes to the Dress" which I thought the kids would like cause of Studio C's "Yes to the Vest" sketch. Kinda finny. Something about that show made Corey get sucked into a downward spiral of financial sadness (thinking about paying for all the wedding dresses for his 5 daughters?) He took the kids to dinner at Sweet Tomatoes, but I stayed home and wasn't in the mood for that, as I had eaten 4 head of Romaine lettuce over the course of the afternoon as I drove the car. You know, to keep myself awake and alert, since I needed ot be awake and alter for 6 hours, and you can't eat raisins or peanuts or candy constantly for 6 hours, or I would have gained 20 lbs. After that Corey went to Denny's for some quiet personal time and we went to bed.

Saturday, we drove down the strip for some reason. Just to let them know that "Las Vegas" is not the Marriott hotel with their free continental breakfast in Henderson. When people say "Las Vegas", they are usually talking about something different. So we decided to show the kids a tiny bit of what that was. We put on Brandon Flowers singing the song of the sad truth about Babylon ... "didn't nobody tell you? The House will always win!" So we sang that several times and saw lots of people walking around and lots of big fancy glittery buildings. Abi was excited to see the Statue of Liberty. Corey and the kids saw some Kiss Street performers out the window who were wearing very little clothing. Then they were grossed out and decided they actually don't like Las Vegas anymore. Ok, I guess we're all done then! Good, let's go home.

One brief stop for gas and food Wendy's take out by the Flying J in Beaver City, always a highlight for little kids. Hi pretty baby!!! Do you want a Frosty?

I was actually really in the mood for a chicken sandwich, so I was happy too. I speed demoned limited ourselves the rest of the way home, as Corey said: "leaving dust and lettuce heads in her wake..." left Las Vegas 12:30, home at 7:30. I went the speed limit the whole time, totally legal and no speeding ticket. But it is true that I did throw out the window the stumps of 4 lettuce heads that I ate as I drove to keep myself awake. I think it's okay since they are plants and therefore biodegradable, right? Sorry if that is illegal, but they were crowding up my dashboard.

...And the sprinklers were on when we got home, and didn't turn off... for several hours. We got drenched out in the dark night as we tried to turn them off, but couldn't understand why they were on in the first place. Our landlord was out of town and we didn't want to bother them, they were on all night and all Sunday (sorry Mother earth!) and after a google hangout talk with my siblings, my little brother, who is currently having sprinkler issues himself, gave me some advice and sent up a follow up picture of his sprinkler box to me on Monday morning, and after a short tinker with it I got it turned off. Someday we'll learn all this homeowner stuff, even if we never end up owning a home. So, that was the rest of our trip.

Disney Princesses

(Our day at Disneyland, continued)
 

Sophi, Natalie, Grandpa and I held place in line, and it felt like we were waiting a long time since this line didn't move, but there was no complaining by the little people so it was all good. Abi and Lily had gone over with their cousins to the place where we met the princesses two years ago (Disneyland had switched it up on us!) but it was fine cause there was some fun theatrical thing going on over there that had their attention. Anyway, they wanted to stay for that, so when I did get to the front of the line, there was no one we needed to wait for, so Sophia got her very own reception with the Disney Princesses. We were officially received into the Royal Reception area and the first Princess we met was Cinderella.

Then Aurora. Sophia was a bit in celebrity shock by seeing these real princesses with their sparkley dresses.

Then to Ariel.

What do you think Sophi? We waited for the group a while more and killed the time by watching a special play in the Royal Theater and saw Belle.

Abi and Lily came over during that show, then we all went over again (Grandpa held a new spot in line) and met the princesses again. And look at that, they switched up all the princesses! It was a different (yet equally lovely) Cindrella, Aurora, and Ariel. Sophia lost her shyness this time and gave hugs to the princesses.

I was pretty impressed with the logistics of what had to be going on behind the scenes here to always have princesses ready here a the "hall" and princesses in other areas of the park, plus princesses for the parade and Fantasmic, I mean wow, what a production. Kudos to Disney, they pull it all off awesomely.

I thought Natalie looked cute in that picture above, checking out what all this princess fuss is all about. And last was Ariel again, and this Ariel was the best of the princesses, she was just so cute.

She spent so much time talking to the girls and answering their questions and asking them questions, and she was just so excited about it all, I was laughing and the girls were loving it - it was just like meeting the princess in Enchanted. So fun.

Loved her. So fun.

Yeah, took a lot of pictures of her and the girls, and then my battery died. I need to check with the cousins for the group shot with her, I bet it's a keeper.

And I'll have to get pictures of the rest of Disneyland that day, cause that's all my camera got until it recharged overnight. And this is what my little princess looked like the next morning... all tuckered out from a day of magic at Disneyland.

Little Girls at Disneyland

More of documenting our trip... So, Tuesday 4/15 we all went to Disneyland. The older kids took of running hanging out with the inlaws, doing the fast and fun rollercoasters, and Corey and I just took it easy with the little girls in Fantasyland.

First ride of the day - the merry-go-round. What do you think Lily?

That looks like a thumbs up to me. Sophia had such a sweet little grin on her face during the ride, since she had been coming along with us the whole morning with absolutely no expectations for what was in store, so this was a pleasant surprise!

 Hold on tight, Natalie! Both hands gripping the pole, she's all about safety first.

Next - The Teacups. The girls gave their best to turning the cup for us and then Corey had a turn. I was glad that I didn't get my usual "I'm gonna throw up" after the spinning. I remember in elementary school that I totally lived for the spin-you-till-you-die tire swing, but not anymore.

We said hi to Corey's wonderful parents after the tea cups. "You guys look so cute!" Corey said as we walked over, cause it was fun to see them both cruisin' around with their little pair of scooters. Corey's dad had knee surgery just before the trip so he got to take it easy. There's Abi planning our next move... where to Abers?

Looks like we're off to "Small World". The lines were long but not too slow, but it did get a little hot in the full sun line for Small World. I was glad it was shaded and cool inside. Abi was getting hungry for lunch and thus started to pick out all the MnMs from the trail mix I brought.

Corey and I and the girls were all about ready for a break, so off to the playground at Toon Town. Lily was tired of walking and stopped where she was and sat down as we continued on. Corey went back to retrieve her as she didn't obey us when we called to her to come. Lily did this several times throughout the day.

She will be 5 in June and the Feisty Fours will finally be over (trusting she and we all survive.) The shaded bench in Toon Town was great. The girls loved the slide.

After a good break and deciding what other rides sounded good to us. We took the train over to another cool and calm interior ride - Pirates. Natalie fell asleep on the train ride over. At Pirates there was a long line, but I was thankful that it was twisting and spread out all over the place to give us (and the toddlers) the illusion that we were moving quickly. We struck up a conversation with the nice people behind us, and I hadn't noticed his hat yet, but did after I took the picture of him holding Natalie, which he offered to do when we started in line. We love BYU Alumni.

After that, Corey took off with Abi and Lily, I went with Natalie and Sophi to hold place in the Princess Royal Reception area. That was the longest wait with the least distance to move. We just stood there. For 45 minutes. And didn't move hardly at all. Sophi was patient. Grandpa came and joined us after a little while...

And Natalie taught him how to count to 20 using your toes.

The Royal Reception is worthy of it's own post, so I'll continue with that tomorrow.

Lovers' Quarrel

On our little vacation last week the kids had to share beds. There was no fighting over any spots that I was aware of, so good job kids. Wesley and Sophia got to share the pullout bed the first night. I don't know what started it, but they were being cute and goofy, hugging each other affectionately, then Sophi would smack him in the face or turn away and reject him.

Sophia loved it and was laughing at the reactions Wesley gave. Her little smile here below is just precious.

She was a manipulative girlfriend, leading him on then turning away just when his hope for a snuggle had returned...

"I love you! I love you not! I love you!"

I think she loved him by the time they eventually fell asleep. Cute kids.