Valentine's Day

We had a great Valentine's Day this year.  We decorated the house and Lucy left me Valentines in her special mailbox all month long.  Joyce really liked playing with favors from our Valentines party.

 We've had some glorious weather so all Love week we played outside.

On Wednesday Danny and Lucy went out on a special Daddy/Daughter Valentines date. Danny had sent Lucy an invitation to be his Valentine in her special mailbox and she was THRILLED that they were each others valentines. She wanted big curls so she could look fancy on her date. They drove down to Walnut Creek together to Kara's cupcakes. After a fun treat they went to Luke and Emily's and Lucy got to play with her cousins.

On Wednesday night we had a special dinner with Grandma and Grandpa Leininger. The babies got special Valentine animals inside plush cupcakes and were thrilled with them. Lydia especially loves her froggy. Lucy got a polly pocket in a very Valentine's pink purse. 

On Valentines Day Lucy had a fun class party at school. When she got home we made heart shaped sugar cookies and did a little Valentines craft (I was feeling ambitious this year:) That evening Mom and Katy came over with some Valentines. 

Lucy made Katy a Valentine book mark-this is my favorite pic ever.

The girls loved their Valentine books-Splat the Cat, Elmo and Peter Rabbit

Katy put the kids to bed and Danny and I went out. I forgot my phone so the only pic of the night is this one... me with my other true love

Even though we eat their ALL the time (we're going tonight! I haven't been to Chipoltle in 5 days! Have I mentioned this new obsession on here? Well, I'm obsessed. Its filling some deep emotional need-and my waist line.) So Danny took me to my favorite place. Afterward we went he drove me to a few locations that were important in our relationship. He made me guess and I guessed right! We went to the Montecito trails parking where I told him I loved him for the first time (yep, I said it first, couldn't help myself), and near his home for our first kiss. Finally we walked up the hill by his house where he had two lawn chairs positioned with candles and we got to relax and talk and look at the stars. Danny is such a romantic:) It was a really fun evening of reminiscing-we talked about things I hadn't thought about in years. One of the most exciting events of the evening was when Julie called up to us from the Leininger's house and announced that she was having a baby girl! We could not be more excited for her:)

Valentines Party

A couple weeks ago I walked through the Target Seasonal section. I grabbed some Brave Valentines for Lucy and noticed they had adorable party favors.  They were too cute to pass up so I decided we had to throw a little party. Our ward has two CTR 5 classes and I have only met one little girl that is in Lucy's class so I thought it would be a good chance to meet some of the kids Lucy's age.  We invited six little girls from church and one girl from school who Lucy said she really liked. 

We held the party at my Mom's house which was wonderful-there was no school so I had two great helpers! I brought over all of my Valentines decor and Katy made these incredibly cute hanging heart banners. Lucy also decorated this Valentines tree:)

 

We started the party by decorating mailboxes with stickers and gems. Afterward we made Valentine's for each other and family members and got to put them in our mailboxes. I mod podged the boxes afterward so the stickers would stay on forever.

 The finished product!

 Afterwards we made our own heart shaped pizzas. The dough was all ready and the kids put on the sauce, cheese and heart shaped pepperoni.  While the pizzas cooked the girls got all dressed up for our fancy lunch. Everyone put on a dress and there was lots of jewelry, accessories and make up that kept everyone very happy.  I made them pose for me before lunch.

We ate some grapes, our delicious pizzas and had princess punch in real china tea cups.  Afterward we had dessert: pink sprinkle popcorn and peanut butter heart cookies. Then we played until pick up time.

It was such a fun little party. Lucy was a great a hostess and had a lot of fun. The most important thing is that she feels like she has new friends:)

Disneyland=Heaven

So our latest trip to Disneyland was by far the BEST EVER. Now, I am a serious Disney fan. This trip turned me into a Minnie Mouse ear wearing, crazy fan. I sang, skipped, laughed and cried my way through the park and I'm not ashamed to admit it. 

Now to tell you about THE TRIP:

On Wednesday we packed up and took Lucy to school. The weather forcast showed rain for the two days we were going to be there so after dropping Lucy off we headed to Sports Basement and bought me a great hooded jacket. Then we took the babies to the Leininger's house.  Lindsay, bless her forever, was kind enough to watch the babies. They had so much more fun playing with Aunt Lindsay than being dragged around and unable to do anything at D Land. Danny and I turned to each other throughout the trip so happy that they were having fun and we weren't carting them around. It really made the trip a vacation for us.

Here we are on the tram into the park. Lucy saw this pic and asked if I was scared. Nope. Just so excited I could hardly stand it. We got there an hour early and were standing in the front row of CA Adventure when the park opened. With Cars Land being so new still the cast members walked us slowly through Radiator Springs and began the line to the Racers ride. We were within the first ten people on the ride-it was well worth the wait. We were ecstatic!

 My favorite pics of the trip.

 Lucy LOVED Radiator Springs. When I was pregnant with the babies she went through a real Cars phase and we watched it constantly.  She and Grandpa Greg have lots of Cars inside jokes. It was really fun they could go to Radiator Springs together:)

After a bit in CA Adventure we went over to DLand. Our first thirty min. was spent meeting characters that were hanging out around Main Street. It was the perfect way to enter the park. Goofy took Ruby by the hand and walked her all the way around the circle introducing her to the other characters around-adorable.

 These girls had a riot meeting people together. Lucy tried to help Ruby feel comfortable meeting the princesses and succeeded-both girls just beamed and loved it.

 Ruby meeting Cinderella was a BIG deal. She LOVES her. The parks weren't very busy (we never waited in line long and often just walked onto rides) and while walking by the castle we saw Cinderella over by Snow White's wishing well.  This wonderful girl really spent some time visiting with us and happily hugged Ruby as much as the child wanted. She was so sweet. By the time our visit was over Snow White and her Wicked Stepmother had come by as well. We got autographs and hugs from each and then Lucy went to throw a penny into the well. Snow White excused herself from chatting with someone else and came over and gave Lucy a tutorial on how to really have a wish come true. It was adorable.

While we explored CA Adventure a bit, we spent most of our two days and Disneyland. Becca was unable to do the serious rides so she often helped out by taking Lucy and Ruby on a kid ride while the adults ran off to Indiana Jones or Space Mountain. Space Mountain is my FAV and I got to do it three times in a day! Bliss.  See Mom's badge? It was her birthday on the second day and she LOVED all the cast members wishing her a happy birthday. It was so cute:)

I loved spending lots of time with my big girl. I sometimes worry that Lucy gets lost in the bustle of keeping up with her sisters so it was super fun to have one-on-one time with her in our favorite place. When I asked her what ride she was most excited about she said Dumbo. Really? I replied. Yep-Dumbo was her first Disneyland ride and she says it will always be her favorite. 

 

We caught Tiana, Naveen and Lewis signing all their songs in New Orleans square. It turned out to be a highlight from the trip!

 When we were kids we always skipped the parades. While everyone else sat at the parade we did all the big rides with no lines and thought we were very clever. I am now someone who stakes out a parade spot and watches the parade. In fact, they are one of my absolute favorite things about Disneyland.  This year we got an awesome spot with plenty of space for the whole gang. I was surprised that most of the onlookers just watch quietly The dancers and characters are exuding energy and enthusiasm and get nothing from the audience. That was not true of us. We clapped, sang and screamed the whole time. The characters LOVED us. We got high fives, and waves from every character that passed. It was AWESOME.

 Danny went out to get fastpasses for us and sent me a text of this pic. Just chillin' with a Storm Trooper.

 Doesn't get better than this.

The joy of this trip is that Danny has promised me we will be Disneyland people. He has committed to me that he will take us to Disneyland once a year.  I look forward to it:)

rushed

In the ten minutes before I have to throw the kids in the car and get Lucy to school I thought I'd blog. I'm actually ready for the day which is surprising. The Haps:
* The babies have been waking up at 7 AM like usual, but for the last week or so they have just played in bed until I wake up to hear them yelling "Mommy! Mommy!" It is the perfect situation because Danny is up early getting ready for work so he gets them bottles when they start yelling for him and then the girls play and chat until I wake up. I haven't woken up at 8 AM consistently for a whole week in years. I am so much happier.
*I'm planning a Valentines Day tea party for Lucy and the CTR 5 girls. I don't know any of them( and Lucy only "knows" two of them, so it will be interesting, but I'm excited to get to know them and their moms. I really want Lucy to have good friends in this area. I also love planning a little party because it gives me fun errands to go on with the babies while Lucy is at school. In fact, I only decided to throw the party because the Target Valentines favors were so cute.
*The Super Bowl was so disappointing yesterday. We had a little party at the Leiningers with the whole gang and Danny made his famous ribs.  It was hard to go from a depressing conclusion of the game to a rather depressing Downton Abbey an hour later. Poor Cora.
*Katy, Mom and I have been working out together every evening. We've found some really fun classes and I love going and feeling motivated. We're motivating ourselves further with incentives. If we work out four days a week for four weeks we get a new pair of work out shoes. I was sneaky and bought mine early so I could wear them to Disneyland, but seeing them in my closet and being unable to wear them is extra incentive:)
Out of time! Next post about Disneyland-the greatest two days ever.