Let's rewind a little bit

I know that I didn't post anything from Disneyland so I'm going to get some highlights up. We went to Disneyland with the Hardings March 21-30. It started off with a long drive of course because who can afford plane tickets for 7? Tell me, anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

Next we spent Sunday evening with The Skoys. They fed us dinner and we had a chance to catch up and see DJ before his mission. 

We got into our hotel after 10. We stayed at a place about 1 1/2 miles away because they had an AWESOME suite. It was like an apartment with 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a kitchen and dining area with an attached family room. Both bedrooms had a tv, but besides morning cartoons for the kids while we got ready we didn't use them much. When Monday arrived we hit the streets to walk to Disneyland. 

Yes, we made our kids walk that far. There and back the first day. Then we discovered the parking lot and shuttle. We used that from then on. 

Isn't Noah so cute holding Seth's hand, keeping him safe. I love that kid. 

And I digress. 

And the adventure, whirlwind of 4 days goes as follows...

Astro blaster a. Pew pew pew. 

The classic cell-fie. Faith doesn't love it...yet. 

Autopia. Adam drove while I pushed the gas. He was finally tall enough to do so!!

Waiting in line for teacups. Please notice that all the rides that go fast, high, spin, or are worth going on at all you will see Ben Harding and me in line with the kids. Erey time. My Ben and Steph were how you say... Panty wastes. Moving on. 

Adams face says it all for the teacups. 

Seth insisted that he spin us by himself. You go boy?

Love him

After eating only snacks for the first day the boys had had enough. They were NOT going to skip lunch again. Day 2 was going to have some real food. Out of all the food they have of course these boys choose the giant pork leg. They devoured it. It was awesome! 

OMG- Winnie during the princess musical show. She was mesmerized. So adorable. 

What's next you ask? Boyah! Space mountain! Once again. No husband, no Steph. 

Even Seth was so brave, and loved it. 

Red Robin for dinner. I think Noah ate everything. Ugh! Soooo full. 

Cars land rules! It was so amazing. They are riding Luigis tires. 

Red was parked off to the side, but Mater and Lightning would actually drive down the road and park at the cozy cone to take pictures. Then when the line died down they'd drive back home, or behind the fence. It was so fun! 

Oh dang! Josh wasn't tall enough to ride the cars ride. He was devastated. Sorry buddy, next time

Seth and me on the cars ride. Sad the only shot I got was blurry. We must've been going really fast

Tractors is so dumb!

Hi Jo!

Bugs life. Heimlichs Chew chew train. 

 These two were a riot. They both wanted to ride with me. I'm a lucky lady. 

The Muppets show. It's so old, but also a favorite. We wouldn't miss it.

 Isn't that straight out of a commercial?

Front row on the California screamer. Can you believe it! As a mom I didn't know if I liked that, but it was so thrilling for them. 

Thunder mountain railroad. It's my favorite! 

Yup. It had to happen. We locked ourselves out. Just sittin' in the hallway. Waiting for Ben. 

I didn't know it was that kind of a hotel...

Shootin' hoops. Waiting for Ben. 

We even made time to swim while we were there. 

ONTO LEGOLAND

Stopping to pose with Emmett. Yeah we are tight!

They had the entire basement set for the Lego movie there. The boys were in heaven. So much fun!

 The whole trip people kept staring at us because we had 8 kids with us. I thought Disneyland and Legoland would be the one place where I could get away from the staring and visible counting. Well, they had an 8 piece orchestra made out of Legos in this fountain. If you jump on the spot in front of the instrument you can hear its part of the song. However, you cannot tell what song it is. It just sounds like that instrument playing. You have to have someone jump on each spot to hear the complete orchestra. We watched many single people and families of 3 or 4 try and make it work to no avail. We got the whole thing going together. And even had an extra person to sing and one to snap a picture. Ha!! In yo face losers!!

Noah getting his Lego land drivers license. 

Wilson doing the same. 

And Adam. 

Seth too

Josh 

Really huge playground areas all over the park gave our small ones great places to play. 

And big kids too. 

They had a place where you could sit and build if you wanted to. Isn't Adam so handsome?

Noah built this roadster and proceeded to take pictures of it at 6 different angles. I'll spare you and just show one. 

Winnie and Josh got to play some carnival games because they were too small to ride a couple of the rides the older boys went on. Here they are with their prizes in front of my favorite spider. 

Oh man it was cool!

Mini Lego land had cities all over the world made out of Legos. This is Noah in front of Las Vegas. 

All time favorite for almost all of us was the life size Star Wars guys and scenes from the movies. I don't love Star Wars but was impressed. 

On the way home we stayed in Vegas. We drove down the strip, and visited the temple. It's such a beautiful temple. 

What a way to end a great family trip. We didn't want to come home. 

I think I just find excuses

I love this baby! I am always looking for reasons to take pictures of her. I think I may have a problem. Here she is riding in the cart for the first time. She loved looking around and sitting next to Josh. It was Costco so they had the double seater carts. 

Ben suffers from the same problem. When I was out if town this weekend (a post will follow soon) he kept sending me random shots of her too. 

He sent me this one when they were playing outside and she ate a dirt clod from our recently aerated lawn. 

I got this picture after she ate an entire waffle on Saturday. I think he sent it more to show me that he made waffles and he was proud of himself and wanted me to be too. Anyway, he took a picture. 

This is her in the tub Sunday morning. Once again, I think to prove he gave her a bath. 

She's all ready for church! 

How many pictures of the boys did we take in the last couple of weeks you ask? Well, probably a couple, but none that we shared with each other. I think we need help. 

New family pictures

This year I completely give up. This 5th child of mine is so much fun but I find myself throwing my hands in the air and completely giving up sometimes. The battles aren't worth it anymore. In fact when it came to family pictures this year I did just that. Usually I run around for weeks trying to get matching outfits for everyone. I try and get accessories, shoes, jackets or hoodies, and the like. I spend a lot of money and time forcing my kids to look good so they can proceed to shove their new clothes in a drawer and never wear them again. This year I gave up. I said, "we are taking family pictures next week. I'm not buying clothes and we don't have to match. You can wear what you want to wear as long as it's not stained, holey, or flouresant." Not too much to ask I didn't think. Surprisingly my boys said, "Really? We can pick?" Then they actually picked nice jeans and tried to pick nice(r) shirts. Not what I would've chosen, but acceptable. We only had one visible nike sign, which means a lot to me. I hate being a walking billboard. All that mattered really was that Tiny was cute...right? Well, long story over. Here's my pictures.

Winner, winner, chicken gumball!?!

Today was a lucky day. I thought the boys had some extra energy to burn off from sitting semi still on Sunday. So, on a whim I decided to take them to Artic Circle for some lunch and play time. They must've been starving because they ate very speck of food. That never happens. So I decided I'd spring for a gumball for each of them. Anyone who's been to Artic Circle has met (in a booming voice) "The Gumball Machine!" Bum, bum, bum. Josh gets a yellow and chomps it down immediately. Seth gets a yellow also, but takes a second to study it. I've been teaching him to read so his little mind is turning trying to figure it out. I'm sitting there thinking, "come on kid, how hard can it be? They all say double bubble." But I waited. He looks at me and says,"mom, it's got a weird long word on it." I looked at it and sure enough the weird long word was WINNER. He had gotten the lucky winner gumball and was rewarded with a free ice cream cone! Lucky guy:)

Red blooded Americans

Yes, just like every other red blooded American, Davis County citizen we were at the opening day of the Chick-fil-a in Centerville. It was awesome, delicious, and Tiny was adorable. We are so excited to have one close by!