Disneyland!

I posted a few things from our Disneyland trip so you'll have to see those posts below.

For me, the highlight of the trip was dressing the girls up and taking them to Ariels Grotto to have dinner and meet the Princesses. You have to make reservations WAY in advance (like 10-60 days in advance) to get in to this restaurant. I thought our reservations were at five and around 3:50 Ben corrected me and we realized they were at four. We were still at our hotel. I put the girls in the stroller and R A N to Disneyland. Keep in mind our hotel wasn't all that close to Disneyland. The girls thought that was the most fun thing ever (being dressed like princesses with mom galloping them in their carriage). Of course for the full effect I was making galloping sounds between gasping for air. We made it there in the nick of time and the enchantment began. We met all the princesses and had a wonderful time!

Above: Us at Goofy's Kitchen (another highlight of the trip)

Happiest Place on Earth? Kind of scary to me . . .

Upon arriving on our second day in Disneyland I noticed that there were an awful lot of people wearing black lace, corsets, and such. "Huh," I thought, "we'll have to stay away from that group." But the more I walked around Disneyland the more I saw. Pretty soon, people wearing t-shirts and jeans were the minority. Really odd and unbelievable piercings, white makeup and black lips were everywhere. Low and behold, it freaking "Goth Day" at Disneyland! Wouldn't you know it. I asked one of these people what was going on. She said it is "Bats Day" every November 9th Gothic Groupies from "all over California and other states" join together in Disneyland. What luck. She looked at me like I was an idiot and said, "it's all over the internet." Yeah, I really don't think she and I frequent the same sights.
The oddness of it all did not go unnoticed by Hailey and Aubrey. They were a little frightened. I just told them that, "just like they dress up like princesses at Disneyland, some adults like to dress up too. They just pick really weird outfits." It kind of sucked all the pixie dust and happy magic out of the place and it felt really . . . yeah, words just can't describe it.
We were on Pirates of the Caribbean ride and Aubrey got a little scared (the boat wasn't even moving yet, she was scared of the people getting on the boat in the row behind us). As the boat rolled out and the ride began Aubrey started screaming. (I knew she was screaming because she knew she was stuck on the boat with these freaking scary looking people). Thinking that Aubrey was afraid of the ride the Goth girl reached up and patted Aubrey's arm. (which caused more screams). I tried to comfort her and tell her it was alright and she was safe with us. "Yeah, we'll keep you safe" said the girl. I resisted the urge to say, "Um, actually, she's afraid of YOU!"
Overall the Goths were really nice and polite, just a little . . . odd and eerie. I filmed it.

Forget Mickey, Gimme Ryan Seacrest!

Our trip to Disneyland was fantastic with many unexpected twists and turns along the way. I am going to post all of the highlights as separate posts. The first is below:

On our first day in Disneyland they were filming the Disney Christmas Parade that will air on ABC Christmas morning. Little did we know, the Jonas Brothers were performing that morning for the Special. A Disney employee said "this way" to me and I found myself leading my family to the front row to see the Jonas Brothers. They said we had to wait about 20 minutes and then the boys would sing one song. Naw, I'll pass. We left our front stage spot and moved on to Peter Pan's flight. (Yes, I can hear the shrills of shock and horror coming from all of you that have tweens that would "just die" for that opportunity, but what can I say? My girls don't even know who the Jonas Brothers are . . . and I don't really want them to just yet, Peter Pan however is right up their alley.) So we passed on the Jonas Brothers.

However, as we were leaving the park (about five hours later) they were STILL filming the parade. Someone over my shoulder said, "I can't believe how short Ryan Seacrest looks in real life" Ryan Seacrest? Doth my ears deceive me? Ryan Seacrest is here? Ahhhh!!! You'd think I was one of those tweens that was waiting to see the Jonas Brothers. My heart jumped into my chest and I looked a Ben. My sweet hubby gave me a huge sigh and a knowing nod of approval that meant, "I'll wait here with the girls, go" and I took off like lighting, camera in hand, to find Ryan! Of course I had to jump a few ropes, but soon enough I was standing on the second row waiting to see Ryan; who, by-the-way, was there to introduce Corbin Bleu who sang his new single. When I saw Ryan I held up my camera and yelled "Ryan!" He looked right at me and waved! I was thrilled!

All dogs go to heaven

We went to Disneyland (posts coming) this last week and had a wonderful time. However, while we were gone, our sweet Roxy (she's the family dog, if you're new to this blog) was in an accident and died. She was just five months old, and we've had her for three months. We really had a wonderful time with her while she was with us. She will be dearly missed. I am learning that from experiences like this, come a lot of great teaching (and learning) experiences too. We waited until we got home and settled a little to tell the girls. We buried her in the backyard and said a prayer and thanked Heavenly Father for letting us have her and enjoy her. Then I took the girls to Costco. Hailey had to go potty and we were in the bathroom in different stalls. Hailey decided right then is the perfect time to engage in a conversation about Jesus and the Resurrection (yelling between stalls). "You know Mom, people will come back to life after they die because of Jesus, I bet Roxy will do that too! Don't you think Mom?" I mean really, how do I answer that in the Costco stall? So far, the girls have really been at peace with it all. I let them see the body and pet her one last time. Children are so resilient. I am blessed with such sweet girls. We love you Roxy!

Trick or Treat

This Halloween the girls insisted on being "cute bats" (as opposed to scary bats.) It took some thinking and creativity to come up with a "cute bat" costume. I found two awesome black skirts at Walmart that had fiber-optic lights! Now, what's cuter than that? I added odds and ends together and came up with some pretty darn "cute bat" costumes. The girls were thrilled and were far and wide the cutest bats I've ever seen.Above: Aubrey Cute Bat (she insisted that Bats growl and is growling in the picture)

Above: Hailey Cute Bat

Every year the girls go to Grandma Powell's ward Halloween party. Grandma LOVES to dress-up for Halloween. Here's some photo's of Grandma and the girls on their way to the party.

Kharma

So, Karma came and bit me in the hiney this week. Let me explain:

Rewind my life to October 1996. I am a senior in high school and needing to sow my wild oats. (without alcohol, drugs and sex, I find it a little difficult to sow these oats.) On a "wild and crazy" night we decide to go pumpkin smashing (whoo-hoo, what crazy kids we were). I go to a front door, take the pumpkin and smash it in the street. What a thrill! My friend Alisa won't even get out of the car, she totally reprimands me like she's my mother, "That is so rude, I just can't believe you'd do that! That is vandalism and stealing!" To which I reply, "Oh give it a rest Alisa, it's no big deal, it's just a pumpkin!"

Okay, skip forward to June 2008. We have our new yard! I make a special trip to the store with my kids to buy pumpkin seeds. We excitedly plant the seeds and watch the seeds sprout, flower, and turn into pumpkins. We joyfully wait for our pumpkins to turn from green to orange. As a family, we make a ceremonious trip to our pumpkin patch to pick our pumpkins. We carefully wash them and place them in specific spots on our front porch. Everyone has picked a special pumpkin and we all know whose pumpkin is whose. We are so excited to carve the pumpkins when Halloween is closer! . . . Then comes UEA. It's 11:30 at night and all are peacefully asleep in bed when the doorbell rings. I get up, get dressed and go to the door. GRRRR! AHHHH! BLAST IT! MY PUMPKINS ARE GONE and I've been doorbell ditched! I am so flaming mad. My heart breaks just thinking about telling the children the horrible news. In my usual fashion I totally overreact and can't even go back to sleep. "It's just pumpkins, Kristy." Ben says to get me to calm down. "Just pumpkins? Just pumpkins? No it's not JUST PUMPKINS! It is months and months of my children's entertainment, joy, fun, learning and excitement!" I am furious, when suddenly, my mind sees the faint vision of Alisa's disappointed face in the dim light of the car. I hear my own voice, "Oh give it a rest, Alisa. It's no big deal, it's just a pumpkin . . . " Holy cow. It's karma, what goes around comes around. Crap.

Braces at three?

Oops, she did it again. I don't know if I have the most accident prone children or what. I've still never had stitches (outside of surgery) or any major accident, but my children just seem to love whacks, bonks and bumps! Saturday, Aubrey ran full speed into my closet, tripped over a shoe and smacked her face on the shelf. The worst thing is, I was putting on my makeup and saw it all happen in the mirror. It was awful. I scooped her up and she was a bloody mess. Her bottom lip was split in four places and her front tooth was up in her gum and bent all the way facing the back of her throat. It was really sick. Her mouth was full of blood and white chips. I thought she shattered all her teeth! Luckily (sort-of) the white bits were pieces of the shelf! We had Dr. Mattinson (an awesome dentist in our ward, and a good friend of Ben's) come over to our house to check her out. (Ben and I were in a heated battle over whether or not we needed to rush her to the Urgent Care or not, we settled on agreeing with whatever Mattinson said). He said we need to wait and see what happens with the tooth and they won't stitch lips so that'll just have to heal. My poor baby. Her top lip started to swell. By Monday morning her top lip was very swollen and her nose was HUGE! I called my dentist and he said I have to take her to a Pediodontist. I took her to Dr. Wall in Syracuse. (I know it's not a direct reflection of his work, but he did have a really cute office that was painted in Dr. Suess. All the techs wore matching scrubs in Suess colors and the office was very fancy and kid friendly, I was impressed). He x-rayed it and said it was pretty bad and needed to be worked on tomorrow. So, Tuesday we went back and they put my little darling under. First, they gave her a shot that separates the brain from the body. It totally sucked. I was holding her in my arms and her little eyes glazed over and started to twitch. She was awake, but totally non-responsive, I hated it. I don't have medical bravery and I thought it was really sick. When they took her from my arms to give her the IV and start the procedure I was just sick. It was so awful to see her carried away from me. I don't know how people with kids with really serious medical problems do it. I knew everything would be fine, but it made me queasy. When I saw her again she was laying on a beanbag (picture). The dentist had "saved" her tooth, did something with the nerve and vein and bent her tooth back to place. He also had to bond the tooth to the other teeth so that it heals in place. To do this, he glued a wire from K9 to K9. (she basically has braces). Braces aren't cute on anyone and she looks kind of funny, but it'll have to do. She only has to have them for six weeks.

When we came home from the dentist I wanted her to look in the mirror. She never would, she was just too tired and worn out. I asked her many times to come and look (because I didn't want her to be scared and I wanted to be there to explain what the doctor did). She never wanted to see. My neighbor Lisa and her girls Grace and Ava brought over some puzzles and a mylar balloon for Aubrey. Aubrey was playing with the balloon and turned it over to the silver side. When she saw her reflection she joyfully exclaimed, "Oh my gosh, I have sparkly teeth! Mom look! Holy Cow! How'd they do that? My teeth are so sparkly!" Much to my relief she seems thrilled with her new look. (I'm sure I'll have to remind her of the thrill of sparkle teeth when she is thirteen and gets the real thing). So, for now, my sweet little rambunctious three year old has braces! Joy.

The cute dentist office. My sweet baby totally knocked out after surgery. (so does it mean I'm a bad mom because I took a bunch of pictures with my camera phone when I was bored waiting for her to wake up?)Wow! Look at those awesome sparkly teeth!