Best Pictures of 2007

I loved Brett's post so much that I decided we had better steal the idea and do one of our own. I would love to see all of you do it on your blogs too. I know I see very little of your family and would love to see more. So Tag, you are all it.

So I gave this to Abi thinking she would like it and she did, but every time she licked it, she cried because it was too cold. I tried to take it back but she wouldn't let me.

Abi rests up before tackling the second half of that piece of lunchmeat.

Grace's future in competitive donut-on-a-string eating seems to be in doubt.

You really have to click on this one to see it all. It is a little dark but I love how all the kids have simultaneous squeals of delight at the fireworks.

Gotta love pool pictures.

Time to bust out that ugly stick.

Disneyland. See? It really IS the happiest place on earth.

What cookie?

Random Kid Quotes

In the car on the way to the Mordecai family reunion:

Scout: "When I was a baby I didn't know if Grandpa's were crazy or not!"

In the car on the way to the 4th of July party at Amy's house:

Grace: "I'm sad that President Hinckley died"
Scout: "I'm sad that Jack died"
Grace: "I'm sad that Jack and President Hinckley and his wife died"
Abi: "I'm scared of Lions."

During the opening credits of The Neverending Story, upon seeing the title for the first time:

Scout:"Oh no! This is going to take forever!"

Sea World

Usually Sea World is my favorite thing to do on our trip, but this time we went on Sunday instead of Tuesday and it was busy. I hate going anywhere when it is busy. Since it was busy we didn't get any really good pictures. We only went to the dolphin show and the killer whale show.



Abi was still sick and had a fever. She just sat there the whole time.



The baloogas are always one of my girls favorite. They sit or stand forever looking at them. Last time we went we got a great picture of Scout with them, but there were too many people crouding around this time that they couldn't even get to the glass to see them under water.







We got to feed the seals and the sting rays. When feeding the seals a bird came and grabbed the fish right out of Abi's hand. We almost got the picture right as it happened.



Scout wouldn't feed anything because she didn't want to touch a dead fish. She did finally attempt to feed the sting rays by pinching the very end of the fish tail but she kept dropping it as soon an the ray swam past. Grace loved the sting rays. She sat and touched them forever and didn't want to leave.





Scout's favorite is the tide pool. She loves to touch the star fish.

Playing at Disneyland

There is nothing better then relaxing and just goofing around at Disneyland. We didn't do much of this when I was a kid, but it is one of the best parts about being at Disneyland with my family. The favorite place to just play this time was at Tom Sawyer's Island, they loved the pirate theme and had to try everything out. It was fun exploring all the caves and just splashing in the water. Grace wanted to get on every stationary prop in the whole park and have her picture taken like 10 times on it, leading the other girls to wanting an equal portion in the picture taking.

Disneyland Pictures

These are just the posed pictures that we took. We got pictures with a lot more characters this time then we have before. We didn't get around to going to the princess line though. Personally, I think that was a horrible idea. I am much more likely to stand in five 10 minute lines to see the princesses then to stand in one hour long line to see them all at once.

Our little coaster enthusiasts

I know what you are all thinking. Not another post about Jared's kids' affinity for circular condensation catchers. But don't worry. I'm not talking about that kind of coaster. I'm talking about roller coasters!

All 3 of our girls are big fans of thrill rides. Abi isn't tall enough to ride any of them except for the drops on Pirates of the Carribbean, the Matterhorn, and the small toontown coaster, Gadget's Go Coaster. However she loved all of them and eventually rode every one of them with her arms up the whole time.

Here are a few videos of the girls enjoying (in a shrieking manner) the coasters of Disneyland. Sorry I didn't have time to edit them, so there will be bits where it's too dark to see anything, and a few seconds of my shoes as I try to turn the camera off with my sausage link fingers.

(as a sidenote, pay no attention to the big fat guy you will occasionally get glimpses of. The camera adds like...40 pounds. It's a scientific fact.)

Gadget's Go Coaster was a favorite for pretty much everyone. As little kid coasters go, it's actually fun.

Here is one of Grace not really enjoying The Matterhorn, but Scout and Abi liked it. You can't really see Abi, but she's there sitting in front of Brittney.

Big Thunder Mountain Railroad was probably Scout and Grace's favorite ride this trip. Our last day in the park we went on it about 9 times. I have a couple videos of this ride, but this one was my favorite.

They both love Space Mountain too, but that one is way too dark for video.

There will be more disneyland posts coming. Stay tuned!

Dateline: Disneyland

I'm writing this from my cell phone so I hope it works. I haven't been able to get actual internet access from the hotel yet.
It's been an interesting start to our trip. We had an uneventful drive, with an equally uneventful stopover in mesquite. Thursday we spent several hours in the park and had a great time even though it was a little busy. It's great to be back here.

Thursday night things got interesting. Abi started throwing up in the middle of the night every half an hour until morning. Everybody else woke up feeling fine, but about an hour later Grace threw up twice. We waited around for awhile but the puking didn't resume so we headed over to the park, assuming it must've been some mild food poisoning or something.

About three hours later Abi decorated herself, Brittney and the inside of the Monsters, Inc. ride cab with strawberry gogurt enhanced gogurgitation.

Brittney bought her and Abi some new clothes and we kept on trucking.

No more puking after that yesterday.

Today we had a great time at the beach, then when we got back to the hotel this evening Scout started complaining that her stomach hurt. About an hour later she started in with the upchuckage. During her fifth round Abi, Pukemaster General of our little vomit brigade, suddenly sat up and threw up all over the bed.

So after a call to housekeeping for new bedding, and getting everyone to sleep, I am now keeping watch at midnight with bucket at the ready. Abi has tossed her proverbial cookies several times now tonight, casting doubt on our theory that it was a fast moving bug that only lasts about 12 hours.

So now my question is, who out there has puking kids? Who got us sick before our trip? Come on now. Fess up.

By the way, it hasn't been all nastiness. We have some great pictures and video to post once I can get the computer online as opposed to just my cell.

Highlights have included Grace nearly tackling Mickey when she saw him, Scout and Grace riding Gadget's go coaster with each other in their own car (awesome video!) and Scout watching the electrical parade in a state of pure joy.

Keep your fingers crossed that the sickness goes away soon so we can enjoy the rest of our trip.

Random Video!

I really just wanted to test putting a video on here. But as a bonus you guys get to see my cute girls being cute girls.

"I did it!"

Scout had another game on Wednesday. She is slowly getting more comfortable with the competitiveness of soccer. The last game she had she had a goal to keep up with the rest of the kids, and she did. She ran the whole time she was in the game and was pretty good at keeping up with the group. This time we just told her to do it again. There was a little bully on the other team we played this Wednesday. She kept pushing the kids on our team if they got next to the ball. It started with pushing (which one of mine got mad about and started pushing her back after she had lost the ball, it was a mess). Then she started pulling hair and pushing the other kids over. As a result my team stopped going after the ball, leaving it open quite often. I was so proud of Scout, she saw the ball open and ran to kick it. She was quite proud of herself. She told me she kicked it "7 TIMES!" She even tried to kick it when the bully was around.

Future Beautician in the Family?

Scout doesn't like to have her hair in her face. Today she decided to do something about it and cut all of the sides off her hair so they wouldn't hang in her face. She didn't do too bad of a job considering, it's almost layered down the sides. She cut all of the top part so it looks like banges? I don't knowand then on her right side she has cut all of the hair down the side so it's 3 inches shorter then the rest. Her hair is curly enough that it doesn't look too bad until we can get her in to a stylist. She's mad that she has to get her hair cut now. She said that she doesn't want her hair cut short but she already just did it. Hopefully we will be able to keep it in a medium length hair cut and it won't all have to be cut off because I refuse to give her a mullet. I was debating whether to get her hair cut this month so it looked really cute for Disneyland but had decided not to because we don't have the money for that right now, but apparently she was meant to get it done.

I think I am going to have to get Grace's hair cut too though because she will feel bad if she can't get one too. Her hair has been pretty scraggly lately and could use being cut anyway, but that was certainly $80 I was hoping to go to other things.

Scout and Soccer

Scout and soccer. Scout hates the idea of soccer, but she enjoys herself at practices. She absolutely hates the games. These are the pictures before the game where we are just practicing. Once the game starts she just complains and cries and asks to get off the field.

I asked her after what we could do to help her like soccer better. She said “Make it warmer.” It was really cold. Ok, what else? “More snacks.” Scout we had a snack at half time and at the end of the game “I know I just want one before the game, in the middle, and at the end of the game.” whatever, move on. What else? “Not go anymore.” Scout we have to go, we already paid and I’m the coach. But what could we do to make you like playing it more? “Not sign me in.” What? What do you mean? “like not make me sign in and play” You mean just let you sit out the whole game? “Yeah” Uh, Scout everybody has to play in the game. “I just don’t want to” well you have to. “fine, can I go play now?” yeah, go ahead.

I can see why she doesn’t like playing on our team, some how every other girl on our team is REALLY good at soccer and fast and very aggressive. That’s just not Scout. So Scout never gets the ball and can’t keep up with the other kids. It’s not just her though, the other team couldn’t keep up with them either. I felt bad for them. Our team made like 20 goals and the other didn’t get any, and only got 2 shots at the goal through the whole game, and that’s with Scout being on the field for most of the time just holding my hand. So my team had one less player and still just murdered the other team. I have a feeling that Scout would like soccer more if she was on their team instead of ours. And I am realizing, not only are our kids not athletic, they really are quite out of shape. How do you get kids into shape? The whole thing is very frustrating and I personally don't think it is fair to have all of these girls together on one team. They need to even the teams out, but I have a feeling that they won't.

Meltdowns

We have had a busy week this week so it's no supprise that my girls have been quite a bit cranky. They do really well around everyone untill they are with Jared or me. This is Scout throwing her fit in the car when we made her leave Grandma's house. It all starts with getting angry at me. Glaring, talking rudely, and then comes the water works. It's the same with all of my girls, I just happened to have my camera around when Scout did it this time. One thing I did notice with these pictures is how young Scout looks when she is crying. Usually I am acutely aware of how old she is getting, so in some ways it's nice to see her little again.

Conversation with a five year old

Scout: I learned something yesterday.

Brittney: Oh yeah?

Scout: Yeah. I learned that if you do something wrong you get a cut.

Brittney: You do? Like a real cut?

Scout: Yep.

Brittney: Well you have a cut on your hand, did you do something wrong?

Scout: No.

Brittney: Then why do you have a cut?

Scout: I don't know. . . Oh. Yeah, I did do something wrong, because I just picked my nose a lot of times.

Scout tells a joke

Tonight I was washing the girls hair with some strawberry/melon smelling shampoo Bailey gave to Grace for her birthday. The girls were commenting on how good it smelled. I said something about how it smells good, but I bet it doesn't taste very good. For example, I told them, roses smell good, but they taste gross. And Scout gives me a sly look and says "Yeah, kind of like fruit loops."

I was asked to coach Scout's soccer team this week. I said yes but I am apprehensive. I don't know the first thing about soccer or about coaching. The more I think about it the more stressed out about it I get. I am not the make a decision without consulting everyone else first type, but it's up to me to chose where and when and how long practices are. With us being the "new" ones on the team I worry about everyone else being annoyed because I am not doing it the same way they did it last time. On the other hand I think that they can't really complain because all of them had a chance to sign up to be the coach before I did and none of them wanted to. So I am just flying by the seat of my pants and hoping it will all work out in the end.

On the other hand I am really excited. I remember having my mom as a coach when I was little and I want my girls to have that experience. I want my kids to remember me being actively a part of their childhood and look forward to this as a bonding experience.

Scout is so excited to be on a soccer team. When we got her uniform she immediately tried it on and wanted to wear it everywhere, saying it was her "library uniform" so it would be ok to wear it there. I hope that she ends up really liking it because she needs something that gets her up and moving instead of just sitting all day- on the computer, playing video games, watching t.v. and reading.

Scout is so quiet in groups that sometimes I wonder if she is making friends. Lately we have found out that she is. The kids do a writing workshop at school where they can choose to write letters to their friends in class. She has been coming home with "love" letters from a couple of the boys in her class. The most recient ones have been from Caleb. He wrote a letter to her that said "Scout, I love you." When we read them out load she just beams. If you ask her if he is her friend she always says that all the kids in her class are her friend. Yestarday was Valentine's Day. Scout had her Valentine's party at school. On the front of Caleb's Valentine to her it said "To Scout From Caleb You are cyoot" (cute)

When it comes down to who her best friend is, Scout always says it's Cooper. He has sent her letters too, even before they were writing them at school.

Today we took the girls to the library and then out to eat for burgers and shakes. At the restaurant Scout said "You made my tummy shout 'Hurray!' Because this is the best food ever."