HAPPY BIRTHDAY. . .

. . .to the most amazing person I know. I can't (and won't) imagine life without you. Hope you have a superfantastic birthday!!!! Love you.

Disneyland.

We're back. We survived. The baby is still inside me. My feet still hurt.

The trip to Disneyland in a word: Perfect.
Absolutely perfect.

The thing heard most from each girl:

Mya: "I don't want to go on that." The first time around on ANY ride, I had to hold her, while she cried, and said she didn't want to go on the ride. Just for the record, Mya is 40 lbs. And I'm already carrying at least an extra 30 with this baby. So I got to pack around an extra 70 pounds while we waited in EVERY line. That was not so awesome. But I'm the kind of mom that forces her kids to do things. At least once. (maybe twice).

Jaida: "Is that real?" She asked that about everything. Are those princess's real or are they wearing costumes? Is Nemo in the water real? When we went on Soarin' over California, she asked if everything was real?
Nope. None of it's real.

The girls were in heaven. Mya thought the princess's were the coolest thing ever. And Jaida was perfectly behaved the entire time. Mike was a trooper, and I didn't go into labor.
The park wasn't very crowded (for Disneyland standards), the lines were tolerable, the food was mediocre at best, and the fireworks at night were probably my favorite.

I took as many pictures as I could while holding Mya or pushing a stroller or riding a ride. I don't have enough room on my hard drive right now to upload them. So they'll be coming later.

Outta here.

We're going to Disneyland. Wahoo. I thought going when I was 8 months pregnant would be an awesome idea. So we're packing up and heading out. The girls are excited. Mike is willing. And I'm ready to just go. Somewhere. Anywhere.
I've been trying to get the girls excited since they don't quite understand where we're going. We were talking about it at dinner and Mya turned to me with the most animated face and yelled
"Boomshakalaka--we're going to Disneyland!!"
And off we go!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MYA!!!

She turns 3 today! It's a good thing we have a baby on the way, or this birthday would be a lot harder for me. She's so big. She's not a baby anymore. And I hate it. I asked her to stop growing and she said "No. I want to be big and have a baby."

And a funny story. Mya was kneeling down the other day and her foot fell asleep. She stood up and tried to walk, looked at me in surprise, and said
"Mom, my foot is buzzing. . . .can you hear it?"

Love her. More than words can express.

Happy Birthday Miss Mya! I'm glad God sent you with a lot of personality.

Halloween at our house. 2009.

Started the day off carving pumpkins since we "forgot" to do it before then. The girls refused to touch the goo inside. Seriously. Then it was costume time and trick-or-treating. Thankfully we found some trick-or-treating buddies along the way. The Utah football game was on so I volunteered to take the girls (I'd rather do that than pass out the candy). They lasted almost 2 hours. I thought I was going to go into labor. It was awesome.

Mya and Cam

Mya with her cousin Cam. They're pretty funny together.

Random.

It's late. And I'm tired. Perfect time for some random blogging thoughts.

**I often wonder if an unborn baby has ever broken out of the uterus and popped through it's mother's skin. If not, my baby may be the first. He's a mean little sucker.

**Halloween is bizarre. We dress up, knock on random people's doors, and ask them for candy. What?

**Somehow, I caught Mike in a moment of weakness and he agreed to go to Disneyland. He's been saying "no" since Jaida was born (although if I really pushed it he would have said yes because he's nice like that). But when I asked one more time, he agreed. So we're going. In two weeks! Wahoo.

**It's disgusting when I can actually feel my skin stretching.

**We had to break down and get a new car (new to us--it's a used car). The 4-runner isn't big enough for 2 boosters and a car seat. So we traded in the truck. It was a sad day. We loved the truck. But we love the new car too. Only now I'm a nervous driver. New cars will do that to you.

**Lately, my eyes have started to burn from looking at the computer too much. Bad.

**I went to Costco today (twice, actually) and found a little gem (though I didn't buy it because I'm trying to be more frugal--it's not working very well). They have a collection of Roald Dahl books. If you're not a Roald Dahl fan, there's probably something wrong with you. The BFG is one of the best books ever written. Ever. I may just have to go back and buy it. Or someone can give it to me for my birthday! That's a good idea.

**I still can't figure out why I enjoy watching the Biggest Loser. It's a mystery. I missed last week and couldn't believe they voted off the lady whose husband and baby were killed in a car accident. Kick her while she's down. Ouch.

**Now that Jaida's in Kindergarten, we have begun the wonderful process of learning to read. And it has become quickly apparent that Jaida is a "guesser". She doesn't even look at the words half the time. She just starts saying words to guess what might come next. It takes a lot of energy for me to not get frustrated by that.

**Mya's new favorite things to say: Boomshakalaka (story about that in my Halloween post),
"I don't know" (she'll say that in response to pretty much anything I ask her before she completely listens to what I ask) and "What the crap?"

**And, as I'm typing, the little man in my stomach just took his elbow or some other pointy body part and drug it all the way across my stomach. Yes, it hurt. Yes, I poked him back.

Time for bed.

Front porch.

I cornered them on the front porch and made them let me take their picture before they could go play with friends. I use the "friend" card as leverage any time I can. It seems to be the only thing that works. Whatever it takes.