What a Smart-Looking Kid!

Ever since Caleb was 3 years old we knew it would be inevitable that he would wear glasses one day. That day is today! Caleb went to the Optometrist yesterday and his eyes were borderline for needing glasses. The Dr. let us choose if we wanted him to start wearing them now, or to wait a while longer. I talked to Caleb and let him decide what he wanted. He chose glasses so he could see. Smart boy! He only has to wear them part time (whenever he needs to see farther away). I think he made a wise decision and they are so stinkin' cute on his little face! He has great style too, because the frames look perfect for him.

He has been so funny ever since we picked up his glasses. He'll look outside and notice things he couldn't see before. Alex liked testing him. Caleb would look at the neighbor's car out the front window without glasses and read the license plate number. Then, he'd put on his glasses and he would get it perfect! Alex was amazed that he could see so much better. Leah's reaction was different when she said, "he looks weird". We let her know that he definitely looks cute and smart with them.

Our Disneyland Trip

Here are some pictures from our vacation to Disneyland. It's taken a few days to get it posted on here because our camera memory card got full after our trip to Legoland, so I had to wait for some pictures from my brother before I could post any. Thanks, Shane, for letting us have some of your pictures!

The Mickey Mouse statue in front of the Disneyland Hotel

"L" for Lanier at California Adventure

Right after we all got off the Tower of Terror. Even the kids went!! ha ha ha!

Waiting for the parade to start in California Adventure

What a cute family.

Autopia (that's Aw-toe-pee-a, Shane)

I've always hated Space Mountain. Nothing has changed.
My kids all LOVED it, so I had to go too.

Jedi Training. Caleb fighting Darth Vader

Alex fighting Darth Vader

Leah, cute as always. She loved doing Jedi Training until she faced Darth Vader. She was the first one to fight him and started crying! It was so sad. She was only 1/4 the size of Darth Vader. The trainer said, "Oh, princess...don't worry. We'll do this together." But, she still wasn't going to fight him.

This was the kids waiting and hoping to be picked for Jedi training.

Fantasyland

Big Thunder Mountain Railroad

Winnie the Pooh

Jon, Braydon, and Shane on Splash Mountain. Braydon had to be bribed to go on the ride.

Braydon's reward for not throwing a fit on Splash Mountain.

We had a TON of fun. I'm so glad we won a trip to Disneyland. There is no way we would have stayed at the Disneyland Hotel if it wasn't free. We decided to bring my mom along with us too. It was fun to have her there, and Shane, Katie, and Braydon too.

April Fool's Day

Much to Jon's dislike I LOVE April Fool's Day! Most of my joking comes by way of food. For breakfast we had magic milk cereal. When I poured the milk onto the kids cereal this morning Caleb's turned blue, Leah's turned pink, and Alex's turned green! Ha ha ha! They wondered how I did it. Leah guessed by saying, "Mom, you're not magic...it was just food coloring!" Oh man, my secret's out!

Lunch was fun too. I went to my mom's house and we had pizza for lunch. Caleb's favorite food is pizza, so he was super excited! That is...until he found out we were having cool veggie pizza, with fruit pizza on the side. They still ate most of their pizza, but it wasn't the hit that Caleb was expecting.

Dinner came around and I called in the family for dinner as I was cooking up some grilled cheese sandwiches. I called twice and said, "Come before your grilled cheese gets cold!" When Caleb bit into his sandwich he was totally disgusted that it WAS cold and exclaimed, "I don't like it cold! I want it warmed up!", but as he was chewing he realized that it didn't taste like grilled cheese at all. It tasted like cake! He was grinning from ear to ear when I said, "April Fools"! I got him good. We made sure our kids finished off their dinner before we gave them "dessert". We had regular grilled cheese sandwiches for dessert. Let's see if I can fool you--which is the real grilled cheese, and which is the impostor?

Legoland, USA

Our kids love getting the Lego Club magazines in the mail. Since I won the trip to Disneyland and we weren't going to have to pay for tickets or hotel there, we thought it would be fun to go to Legoland too while we were in southern California. We signed all 5 of us up for the Lego BrickMaster club. With the club you get a free ticket into Legoland, and a BrickMaster magazine and a lego set every 2 months. The kids are SO excited to get a new lego set 6 times in the mail this year.
We went to Legoland on Saturday. The weather was so nice. We wore jackets in the morning, but by afternoon it had warmed up nicely and we all ended up a little burnt from the sun.
Legoland was great because it is geared for smaller kids. There wasn't a single ride that Leah was too small for. She could ride everything. Here are some pictures of the fun things we did at LEGOLAND...

















It was Legoland's 10 year anniversary when we went, so they had this awesome cake made out of Legos.

We got to see Bob the Builder in 4-D. It was really neat.
The highlight of the trip for the boys was combining their money they had been saving to buy this Star Wars Lego set. Of course we had to put it together, so we spent that whole night, plus Sunday morning finishing it.
Leah also bought some Legos for her Lego set. We got her some flowers and pink and purple bricks. We all had a good time.

San Diego Beach

Our trip started out by staying with my brother and his family in Las Vegas. It was so warm and nice there. We arrived in San Diego Friday afternoon and it was a rainy cold day. The kids associate vacations with swimming, so they insisted on swimming at the hotel's outdoor pool. Although it was a "heated" pool, it was not warm enough to make me stay in for very long. We sat in the hot tub most of the time. After we got dressed we went to the beach. After the cold dip in the pool I wasn't about to get into the cold ocean water, so we just stayed on the beach.



Leah loved collecting some seashells on the beach. We even made one into a necklace for her.


We saw a few chipmunks on the beach, so we shared some nuts with them.

My Happy Birthday

I turned 29 today! What do you think I would do for my own birthday cake? Make it myself? EXACTLY! I had a cute idea for a square cake, so I made it for myself. Happy birthday to me. It turned out really yummy.

We went with our family to Tucanos for dinner. It was our first time there. I really loved the pineapple and bacon wrapped turkey. Also, the beans and rice on the salad bar were extremely good. Caleb loved the restaurant. He is our little carnivore. He has always loved meat and tried just about all of them. Alex and Leah ate a little bit of meat, but loved the choices on the salad bar. Jon was daring and decided to go for some chicken hearts. I would NEVER try them, but apparently they taste just like liver--hmm, another thing that I will NEVER try! I got the royal Brazilian birthday treatment and got to dance to the drums and got a birthday sundae (I actually got a bite before my kids devoured it).

After dinner I got to go do some shopping for a few new shirts. I had a great birthday. My kids made me awesome cards. Caleb even wrote his own recipe book for me. They're recipes he made up that we can make together. Leah made a craft for me and Alex made me my own Lego magazine. They're such great kids.

Help Us Get to Sea World

We need everyone's help to get our family to win a trip to Sea World! It's simple. All you have to do is go to: http://www.kodj.com/pages/sing_seaworld/ and vote for #3 (Leah). Caleb and Leah both entered, but we want to pool all of the votes together for just one of them. I had Caleb and Leah both pick a number between 1 and 50. Leah was closer to the number I picked so that's why we're voting for her. I think they both did a fabulous job!