Car accidents and blessings

This last year we've been very fortunate that Shane's mom has allowed us to use her Minivan.  We needed a bigger car but weren't quite ready to buy something yet.  She had gotten a new car and told us we could use her's until we were ready.

Well this last week we finally decided we were ready to buy a new van.  We looked and test drove a few different kinds and had finally found the one we wanted.  It's a 2013 Chrysler Town and Country.  We were going to pick it up on Saturday.

Well the day before, Brigitte invited us over for a little play date.  I was just about to start telling the girls we were going to get ready to do when Tyler called down the basement to me that my car had been hit.  What? I come upstairs to find this.... (ours is the white van)

The lady, who was super nice, got distracted moving a book off her seat, looked down and ran smack into the back of the van.  Her airbags deployed and burned her arm, but otherwise she was ok.  The police, fire truck, and paramedics all showed up.  It was quite the scene.  Both cars had to be towed.

Holland was pretty upset that our car was 'ruined' and had to go to the car hospital, but it extended their play date and they got to eat lunch on the front lawn while they watched the police and tow trucks do their jobs.

Overall, it couldn't have been better timing.  We were going to sell that car for Shane's mom and list it the very next day.  We had our new van ready to be picked up the next morning and when all was said and done we got 3 new car seats out of it and Shane's mom got a nice check from the insurance when they told us her car ended up being totaled.  I guess it's nice we didn't have to try and sell it after all of that.

We're loving our new van and are super grateful no one, especially the kids, were in the back of our van when it was hit.  And a good reminder how easily accidents happen and how easily people and you can be distracted.

Secret Leprechaun pays us a visit

The Secret Leprechaun made his annual visit to our house the Saturday before St. Patrick's Day.  We had a few books about St. Patrick's Day and I had been prepping them that we have a little Leprechaun that comes to visit and leaves little green treats for us.  They were pretty excited when we looked out on our doorstep and it was covered in presents.  You would've thought it was Christmas morning they were so excited and went from toy to toy to candy.  Their favorite was the Minnie Mouse matching game they got. Jaron's favorite is the shape sorter cube that he loves to shake and pound on the ground.  They stopped long enough to pose for a picture and we were very spoiled with some fun games, toys, book and candy.

All day long they kept talking about the leprechaun and how nice he was.  About 5 days later I was doing something and out of nowhere Aria came up to me and said 'Mom' when I turned and looked at her she said 'Leprechaun nice.'

Thank you to the secret leprechaun that comes every year to our home!

Terrible and Terrific Two's

The girls (I love calling them the girls still) turned 2 1/2 this month.  I thought I would write a little bit about what they're up to these days.

They call it the terrible 2's and I can certainly see why, although I still think the 15-22 month range was the hardest age so far.  But boy or boy do we have our doozy of days.  The fighting between 2, 2 year olds is never ending.  They're either best of friends or fighting.  They still take toys from each other and the screaming has only gotten louder and more intense.  And the whining is non stop most days.  They have no concept of please talk quietly because Jaron is sleeping.  However, if I want to get someone to come to me all I have to say is 'who wants to go first' and they both come running, which then ends up in tears from the person who is 2nd.  But it gets them both to come.   :)  

The independent stage is in full swing and although I love to see their desire to be independent, sometimes it makes me want to hit my head into a wall.  I try....try to be patient but it takes a very conscious effort on my part. Siena says 'No touch you' (aka don't touch me I will do it myself) but if I try to walk away they get so mad because as they say 'watch you' meaning sit here and watch me struggle to put my pants on for 15 minutes but don't touch, try to help or offer any words of advice or encouragement or it makes me mad.

Ok there's the frustrating part of this age but there are so many cute things about this age.  I love that they get the words 'you' and 'me' mixed up.  Like when they want to go somewhere I am going they always say 'come with me'  or when they burp 'excuse you'  Their vocabulary in general is so cute right now.  They are repeating everything I say and Aria has this cute 'uh huh' or her very firm 'Yes!' Siena has started saying 'Tank to Mom' without any coaching on my part.  It makes my heart melt. 

  

They are both obsessed with jumping but Aria by far jumps more, further and higher.  She has no fear of jumping.  They are obsessed with learning letters and if they see a sign or anything with writing they immediately have to tell me 'mom, ABC's'  Siena recognizes a few more letters than Aria but we focus on one letter a week right now and both are picking up on them really fast.

They started singing this month and I can't get enough of it.  Their favorite songs to sing are: Wheels on the Bus, ABC's, Once there was a snowman, Ring around the rosies, What Makes You Beautiful (One Direction but they call it the Na Na Na song cuz of the Na Na Na's at the end of the song).  They also have started reading books to themselves with the books they have memorized and it's cute when I see them read books to each other as well.  They love Little Bunny Foo Foo right now and want me to either read it or sing it to them often and they know all the words to it as well.

They switched this last month that instead of us reading them a book before bed they want us to tell them a story and they always must tell us the subject and it's usually what our focus is at that time.  So for awhile all stories had to be about Mr. Owl, then about Mickey and Minnie and now they want a story about the Potty..well Minnie and the potty.  Yes we're potty training.  Another post about that soon.

They must repeat every prayer we say and they already have a few key phrases memorized.  It's cute when the other day I looked over and Aria had her head bowed and was saying her little prayer as she waited for me to bring her lunch.

They love Jaron and more and more want him to join in on their activities like playing in their play house. Siena loves to make Jaron laugh and is always doing silly things to see if she can get him laughing and I have some cute videos of him belly laughing hysterical at something she has done.  It's usually something simple like throwing a stuffed animal off the couch hitting the ground close to him.  Although it's going to be a rude awakening when he starts crawling this next month and can get into their things.

They still like to sit on my lap to read a book or watch a show and they still laugh a ton at each other and run around like crazy little girls most the day. More and more I see them playing with each other not just next to each other.  I consider it a privilege to watch them grow and play together.  I can just see the bond forming stronger and stronger between them.  

For sure the good outweighs the bad of this age.  We certainly have our days, or hours that feel like days but I am loving this cute age they are at!

California and The Happiest Place on Earth

We had the most fabulous vacation to California last week.  It was not relaxing at all but it was so much fun.  I'll try to keep it to a brief summary but just warning you I have a lot of pictures.  Feel free to skim.

We drove down to Las Vegas the first day and spent 2 nights there.  The weather was warm and sunny and it felt good to wear sandals and short sleeves.  Everyone did great on the trip down until the last 30 minutes. We couldn't get to our hotel fast enough.  We had some pretty tired of being the car girls but other then the last 30 minutes of all the legs of our trip, they did great...unless they were fighting over which show to watch. We happened to stay at the Siena Suites.  It was a 2 bedroom suite off the strip which was good and bad.  I loved having 2 bedrooms to split everyone up but the rooms were not the best and very uncomfortable.  The girls each had their own double bed and since this would be their first night in a bed ever I thought they would be fine in a big bed.  About 5am Siena fell out of bed.  It left 2 red marks.  The one under her eye lasted 3 days.  Poor thing.  The rest of the week she was fine.  Aria fell out once later in the week but landed on Siena's bed since she was sleeping on a trundle right next to her.

 First night in a real bed...

In Vegas I took the girls to the mall in the morning while Jaron took his morning nap then after lunch we went down to the strip and saw the Aria hotel as well as The Bellagio water show, my favorite.  That afternoon we took the girls to the pool.  They just stayed on the top steps splashing but thought it was so fun.  That night we went to my favorite Steak n Shake for dinner.

Click here to see how little she was the last time we were here.

 No wonder we make a scene everywhere we went...

The next day we headed to California.  We stopped in Barstow at this park right off the freeway which ended up being so fun.  It was perfect weather and we had fun getting out of the car for a while and running around.  Jaron got his first ride in a swing.  He didn't seem too impressed.  When we got to Christy's house the girls went to the park with Shane and when Christy's kids came home from church they met them over there and had a great time.  I love that park by Christy's house. Christy made us a nice pot roast dinner since it was our anniversary.

Monday we went to the beach.  It was the first time at the beach for all 3 kids.  The girls were a little unsure of the sand at first but got used to it pretty fast.  We ate lunch, built sandcastles, buried their feet, Aria even took a little tumble as a wave came in and got all wet.  It was seriously a perfect warm, sunny day at the beach and the beach was totally empty.  Jaron even fell asleep for a short while.  I felt bad because I missed sunblock right below Siena's eyes so the rest of the week she had these sunburn marks right under her eyes.

Tuesday was the day I had been anticipating for so many months since we had decided to go on this trip. We took the girls to Disneyland.  Christy was nice enough to watch Jaron for us and I was so glad because I can't imagine how hard of a day it would've been trying to keep him happy, fed, sleeping etc.

I will never forget the faces of my 2 cute girls as we walked into Main St. and first saw Goofy standing there. It was priceless to see their little faces light up when they realized Goofy was there in person.  Then they looked over and saw Mickey, then Donald.  It was the same face when we walked around the corner of Minnie's house and saw Minnie standing there and it was the same amazed faces when the first float of the parade came down and there was Mickey and Minnie with the bright lights and fun music.  They weren't as excited to get up too close to them when we would try to meet them so our pictures aren't great, but they did ok.

We had fun on some rides.  I learned quickly just to stick to the outdoor rides.  They didn't get the concept of standing in line and why we had to wait.  They each had their meltdown moments and each feel asleep on a ride at different times of the day, but overall they were troopers.  It was a long day for them but I know they had so much fun and really enjoyed seeing all the characters the most.  I made a video of our pictures from our trip and every day now they ask to see 'the trip one' when I ask them if they want to watch a show.

The next day Christy went above and beyond her hostess duties and watched all 3 of our kids so Shane and I could go enjoy the older kid rides.  I kind of wished we had a day in between to recover but because of the weather we went the next day.  We were both pretty exhausted but it was fun to ride all the rides and neither of us had ever been to California Adventure before so it was fun to ride some new rides as well.  By the end of the day I could hardly walk and we had our fill of Disneyland and we made it home just in time to tuck our kids into bed.

Christy and her family were so good to us.  They happily gave up 2 of their rooms and all the kids shared 1 room so we could have beds to sleep in.  They greeted the girls with hugs every morning, before school, after school and before bed.  Emmy, who is 3, pretty much thought she was the oldest kid around since the girls and Jaron are younger than her.  I think she liked not being the littlest for the week.  She kept telling me she was babysitting Jaron, it was so cute.  Christy fed us and gave up a lot of her week to watch our kids, feed us and keep us entertained, so Thank You Christy and the Brian family, we owe you!!!

We had one more day in California but it started raining that day (yay for California, boo for us) so we went to the mall and let the kids run around the play area and ride the 'magic stairs'.  That night we met my friend Konstantina for dinner and it's always fun to catch up with her and she was able to meet Jaron as well.

We drove to St. George Friday night thinking it would be a nice quiet stay before heading home the next day.  We tucked the girls into the bed next to us and not even 3 minutes after turning the lights off, Siena thew up.  She threw up everywhere, all over their blankets, pjs, bedding, hair.  She continued to throw up every 20 minutes for almost 4 hours.  I kind of wanted to get back in the car and just drive home but didn't want her throwing up in the car so we stayed and I laid by her catching throw up for 4 hours.  Poor little thing.  Good news is we didn't have to wash all the bedding (the poor hotel maids, but they were so nice about it.)  Bad news, we still had a lot of laundry, blankets, baby dolls to wash when we got home.  Jaron, Shane and I all got sick the next night and luckily that was it and Aria never got it.

We were exhausted when we got home.  Not exactly a relaxing vacation but such a fun week and one I'll never forget.