Monday, March 21, 2011

Happy Birthday J-Bug!!

Happy 4th Birthday to our sweet Jaylee Bug!!! The last 4 years have been so much fun, with so much learning!! We are so thrilled to have you in our family!!! We hope you have the BEST day ever!!!
Newborn and ready to go home
1st Birthday
2nd Birthday
3rd Birthday!!

Sunday, March 6, 2011

The Many sides of MaKynna...

Oh MaKynna Shirley how we love you!! The last 7 months have been so fun as well as so stressful!! No more sickies for you, Missy!! Your little faces make us all laugh so hard and your cute little giggles make us try harder to make you super happy!!!
Even though you have this thing with pulling out your bows and flowers, we still love you and still think you are super cute even when we find one missing!!! You are our littlest princess!!
But when you sleep, we could just watch you for fun!! You are so adorable and so sweet!! And we all know that the moment you wake up, your sweet smile will be right there waiting for us!!!

Your toothless grins,
your wannabe serious faces,

your constant need to be sucking,

your dirty looks,

and even your hand in your mouth, make your Mommy, Daddy and big sister Jaylee so thrilled that you are a part of our family!!!

We Love how serious you get when it's time to eat, and how much you enjoy it!!!

And we love how big you are getting!!!

We even LOVE your wiggy hair!!

And Love that you'll kind of sit still long enough to get your hair done!!
We LOVE how curious you are-but we don't love that you are getting into everything already!!!
But we just love you just the way you are!! We Love every bit of who you are!! You are so beautiful and so sweet!! Keep those kisses coming!!!

Our First Family Trip to Disneyland

**WARNING: This is a REALLY long post mostly of pictures!!**

On Tuesday morning, bright and early, we headed to the airport at 4:30am. We were all so excited!! And Jaylee did wonderful on the plane mostly because she had her very own TV and Dora was on!! We were all very happy that she was so happy!! MaKynna slept most of the way there and was great too!!


Once in California, we grabbed our luggage and a shuttle to our hotel. Of course we barely missed the rush hour traffic which I was super grateful about!! We got to our hotel around 8:30am. Well lets just say, the hotel was the worst part about our vacation!!! Wouldn't recommend it and would NEVER stay there again!!! We all got dressed and headed over to Disneyland!! I'm not sure if it was just because she was super tired or what but every day Jaylee would drag her feet to get dressed, but then every day when it was time to leave Disneyland, she would cry!!! What a pain, but while we were in the park we had a GREAT time!!!
Get use to seeing a map in Jaylee's hand-she was a little obsessed with having one!!





MaKynna and her silly faces!! She was so good the entire time!!


Churro-the long yummy goodness that Jaylee asked for daily!! Yes I think it's safe to say that they are her favorite treat!!

Both girls fell asleep while we were waiting for a table to have some lunch

The first day was kind of a "let's get our feet wet a little" kind of day. We had gone ahead and bought the 4th day, mainly because it was only $11 more for a whole extra day. But we only went to a few places that we had "planned" to for the day. We knew our plans would be switched up a little so it really wasn't a big deal!! Next time, we will plan to fly in the night before and keep the whole day for better use!! In fact, I know some people think that 4 days is plenty of time at Disneyland, but we totally all agreed that we needed another 2 days at least!!

Day 2
We mostly stayed in California Adventures and went on a bunch of rides there. We LOVED the Toy Story Ride and Soaring over California!!
Kynna was asleep but these nice people I took a picture for offered to take one of us together so we took the opportunity

This was the first ride that Kynna went on!! She is going to be like her big sister I think and LOVE rides!!

The crazy Mickey's Fun Wheel-we opted for the stationary cage!! But it might have been fun to go on the moving one too!!


Oh Toy Story Mania!! How you have given a new meaning to the whole amusement park ride!! This game was so much fun!!

Have I ever told you that I HATE rides that just go in a circle? Well my dear 3 year old LOVES them and it was my turn to ride since Brady doesn't love them either. I can't wait for her to get a little bigger so she's tall enough to go on the actual roller-coasters!! Then we will both be happy!!

Jaylee and the Map-She loved the fact that she could see where we were going at all times!! We went ahead and rented a stroller for her while at Disneyland, and she would constantly tell us she needed to stop on a bench somewhere so she could decide where we were going next!! Every day as we went in to both parks, she had to get a map. It was super cute and way funny to see her decide what we were doing for the day!!

And the Characters-I never really thought much about waiting around to get their autographs and pictures until I realized it was something that our little girl wanted. We had bought her an autograph book, mostly because we knew she wanted to see the princesses, but it's a pain to wait for them. You see Disney needs to hire a lot more people to dress like the characters. They come out like 3 times a day for like 30 min. Well if you aren't in their lines by a certain time, guess what? They're not going to let you in!! No joke!! Well you try telling a 3 year old that she can't get so-and-so's autograph because he's leaving again!! We all know that Disneyland is making big bucks on that place, so why not just make it simple for us parents out there that have kids that think they need to see the different characters. Especially the main ones!! It seemed like Chip and Dale, along with the head army guy were always out, but really who wants those? Next time we go, I'm not even getting an autograph book, and I'm telling my girls that we aren't going to waste time in a line where we might get their autograph and picture!! Seems easier said then done I'm sure!!! But trust me I will try!!
We did see a few though mostly out of luck where the lines had just started!!




We found a couple rides that were nice and relaxing with no waits around mid-day that were a nice relaxing moment for all of us. One was the Mark Twain Riverboat and the other was the Disneyland Railroad. Great break rides for everyone!!!


Jaylee was so excited when she finally saw Sleeping Beauty's Castle and got to walk through it!!

On the train-you see that big lollipop? Yes and her Daddy thinks that I spoil her!! She licked it a few times and she was done!!




Day 3-
This was the Princess day!! We knew there were 5 princesses that Jaylee really wanted to see, so we planned to wait the 1 1/2 hours to go to the Princess Fantasy Faire. Toontown is right there so one of us would wait in line while the other took the girls over to Toontown to kill time. Brilliant idea-really everyone does this pretty much everywhere!! Well Toontown is pretty much a waste of time so I'm glad we only spent time there while waiting for what we really wanted.

After being dissed by Goofy 4 other times, she finally was able to see him but she didn't have her book-it was with me in the long line, but at least she got a picture!!




It's almost our time-Really it was closer to a 2 hour wait and Kynna woke up just before it was time to go in

J had her book all ready for the princesses

Ariel was first-one of the 5 requested

Next was Jasmine-she loves her but she's never even seen the movies. I guess the books are good enough for her!!


And the beloved Cinderella!! This was her second Favorite!!
The Princess Fantasy Faire is really cool however I think they should have all of the princesses there all of the time!! We never did see Belle, but I think Jaylee has forgotten!! The princesses are so sweet and it was cute to see them just take time with Jaylee. I guess I expect to much though since I think they should have all of them all of the time!! Come on!! How hard would it be to play princess all day?!! Well Tangled has it's own place right now because she's so new so we headed that way to see her. First we stopped at the little shop by the princesses to see if Jaylee wanted anything and you know what our princess told us she needed, a crown and a sword and shield!! She is so funny!! So instead we found these little crown clips for her and Kynna and she got her sword and shield!!
Lucky for use the carrousel is right near where the line for Tangled was so J rode it many times!!

Another funny line thing-Tangled only see's x amount of people 3 times a day. I don't know the exact number of people. I just know that we waited in the pre-line for this one since it was the one princess that Jaylee said she was really excited to meet!! Yes she calls Rapunzel, Tangled. The person watching the line told us that we could come back when the line was opened but that it's been filling up within 10 min., so we decided to wait. We waited another 1-1 1/2 for her and Flynn Rider. They were so cute and Flynn kept calling Jaylee Little Blondie!! Jaylee LOVED that!!
She didn't say a lot but she just kept hugging Tangled!! It was so cute and worth every boring moment in line!!!


Day 4-The final day
It rained but we bought those cool rain ponchos so we were good to go!! It was on and off raining all day, but I think it was our best and favorite day!!
This is the new Disney Bear Duffy that Jaylee was sad to learn can't write, but they gave her a sticker for an autograph and she was happy!!

Pacific Wharf Cafe
YUMMY!! We had soup in sourdough bread bowls and loved it!! It was so good!! I just wished we had known about it earlier and then we could have gone back to it!! Maybe it was the San Francisco Sourdough bread, or maybe because of the rain, but whatever it was it was good!!!
And they had a kids fuel pack thing for Jaylee that was perfect!! Yogurt, string cheese, fish crackers, orange juice and apple slices!! Perfect food for our little picky eater!!!


And back to Churro's we went for a treat!!!

MaKynna's Favorite Ride was...
It's A Small World





Jaylee's Favorite Ride was...

She loved that she got to decide if we went high or if we came down lower!! We stayed high most of the time!!!

Because of the rain, the teacups were closed for a good part of the morning while we were in Fantasyland. Darn!! Really neither myself or Brady were sad that we didn't get to ride this one!!

Remember the rain-well we didn't want Kynna to get wet either so we bought a rain poncho for her stroller and it was great!! We would peek in on her through the hood!!

Brady and I-Kynna was sleeping again and Jaylee was being a little turkey and didn't want her picture taken again so we asked someone to help us out by taking our picture!!!

Mickey Mouse Pretzel-so cute and rather good!!! We had to take a break to feed Kynna so we got a snack too!!
The stroller was great for many uses!! Naps, Rides and high chair!! I do wish we had thought before going and bought a double stroller. Jaylee loves rides but all the walking is a lot for little kids!! Highly recommend it for anyone with little kids that will get tired!!



Day 5-Time to head home!!!
We packed in the morning and then the shuttle service picked us up around 11:30ish. We got to the airport pretty early but it was perfect to have lunch at the Legends of Aviation and take our time. We got home around 6:30pm, and sad to be home after having so much fun!! We could have stayed another week and been totally happy!!


At the airport waiting to go home
Daddy and MaKynna

She was so sad to be going home!! She begged us to stay "just 1 more day!!" I do believe she had a WONDERFUL time!!! We will be going back to Disneyland and hopefully soon!!