Legoland

While we were in California we took our kids to Legoland. It was perfect for 3-5 year olds. Our kids had a great time! It wasn't too bad for us either. :-) This was the lamest ride EVER!! The helicopters went up and down and around on the base, but the kids L♥ved it!
They also had a huge water area for the kids to play in. We went prepared and took their swimsuits.Here is this cool tube in the aquarium. The kids got to pop up and pretend they were in the tank.This ride was not too scary and the kids were both tall enough to go on by themselves. :-)

Talon met Bob the Builder!!Waiting in line...happily.These cars were just the right size...with no waiting!! Hailey totally passed him. :-)

Talon's First Day Pictures

Here are the pictures from Talon's first day of kindergarten. He's so proud and excited to be going to big kids school!The girls are all ready to walk him to the bus stop. Check out Hailey's pose! :) Wait a minute!!! Are all three of my kids looking at the camera at the same time and SMILING? What the crap? Daddy thought we were gonna be late, so he didn't want to wait for Lacy to walk with him.On the bus!!For those of you who read the last post and are wondering: yes, I met the bus at the school again this morning. No, there was not anyone helping anyone again today. There were plenty of kids all over crying again today. One kid in Talon's class also rides his bus with his brother, who's in 1st grade. I found this out yesterday, because he walked him to the right playground (right before the kindergartner started crying and his mom showed up) yesterday.

Right when Talon got off the bus I told him to walk with Gavin because his brother always makes sure he gets to the right place. He also had an older neighborhood (very chatty) sweet girl to help them get there today.

Maybe I won't have to meet the bus at the school for the rest of the year if Talon's hooks up with these guys every day off the bus.

Talon had some really funny stories from school yesterday.

One about a little girl in a yellow shirt who "made a good choice" and sat next to him, because he held the door open for her.

One about a kid who got hurt on the playground and had to go to the nurse. She wrapped up his arm, but it was OK cuz he just used the other one.

One about meeting a "singing teacher" who had music really loud and then turned it to medium loud. He said he got to pick what they do and he picked marching (thanks Mrs. Rogers) and the whole class followed him around the room. I think that might have been in kids corner after school. He didn't seem to know the difference. :)

Today he is supposed to learn his teacher's name and his room number. That was his homework from Aunt Adelina. She said she's gonna call him everyday until he knows those two things. Next we're gonna work on learning my cell phone number.

Talon's First Day

I realize I have more pics to post from California still, but I want to write about Talon's first day while it's still all fresh.

Joe and I disagreed about what time the bus was going to pick Talon up. We went too early and ended up standing in the wrong place because there wasn't anyone else out there. The good news is that the bus stop is even closer than we thought. Talon got on the bus and was excited to start his first day.

After it rode away we took the girls home and I got in my car to meet the bus at school. Everyone at the school assured me there would be people there to help him when he got off, but I don't believe people, so I wanted to make sure.

I got to the school before the bus, so I parked and stood a little bit away from where they said the buses park. I was just going to observe. There was one lady there when the kids where getting off the buses. Mom? Teacher? I don't know but she didn't say anything to Talon. He got off and followed the crowd. He saw me, smiled and waved. I waved back and watched. He put his backpack down with the other kids and started wandering around. This was obviously not the kindergarten playground I was told he would be shown to.

I walked up to a lady with a whistle. "Excuse me, I followed my son's bus here to see what would happen, and nobody has shown him where to go." She smiled, "Oh, that's so good you followed the bus. It only takes them a few times to figure out where to go." I did not smile, "Only if they are shown where to go. Where is the kindergarten playground?" "Oh, it's downstairs in the front." I looked at her blankly. She knows I said kindergarten and I was asking where it was right? I'm ASKING for help, unlike my 5 year old, and you're still not helping. She offered to have an older kid show us where it was.

We followed him past about 7 different playgrounds and down a flight of stairs. Seriously? This is your setup? Make the kindergartners go THIS far on their own? Talon stopped paying attention to where we were going about 20 times on the way there. It was chaos everywhere. We finally made it to the playground and he put down his backpack and played. I witnessed a few children crying, and a few more being found and brought to the playground...you know because everything was sooo organized. When they blew the whistle Talon found the right teacher (who magically appeared right after the whistle blew) and got lined up and headed out to what I hope will not be his "worst day ever!"

Beach Pictures

I am sooo far behind. I realize that. There are just sooo many pictures and memories from our California trip with the Dairmans...I've felt a little bit overwhelmed with where to start. I am a procrastinator by nature. Talon is starting kindergarten tomorrow. I am so worried about him. He is going to get lost, and refuses to learn his teachers name, "I told you mom, I'm going to call her teacher." I tried, "what if she calls you kid?" "Nope, she knows my name." "So, don't you think you should learn hers?" "Nope, I'm just gonna call her teacher." What do you do?

Anyway, back to California. We had planned on a professional photographer, but Joe's sister, Florence, was not able to come. She has one job right now. Take care of those twins in her belly. :) We cancelled the photographer, but those of us that were still there put on our whites and headed to the beach. I know it's hard to see everyone here, but this is a bunch of us who all stayed in the same house. Good times!! Here's a pic of all of the Dairman grand kids (except Carina and Ethan) and the Briggs.
We can never get everyone to smile and look at the camera at the same time, so this ended up being the best view of my family. :-) You can barely see Lacy's head poking out between me and Joe.See what I mean?At least we're (almost) all looking, even if Talon and Hailey look like grumpy monkeys.We stole this idea from the website of the real photographer we hired, and later had to cancel. Thanks to her creativity it ended up being my favorite picture of the day. Yay!! Hopefully, one day we'll actually get the whole clan (including those twins) together and actually get her to take some shots of us.Me and my man...isn't he HOT?Awe, Grandma and Grandpa Dairman.

We had actually intended on getting some "sunset" pictures, but we got there so early we had a hard time keeping the kids entertained to wait for that darn sun to set.And Lacy did her best to get as filthy as humanly possible, but was so cute doing it!

I don't know what he told her...then they caught me looking.

Even though our kids were done, we tried to get a sunset picture. Too bad I'm not a professional and I have a very basic camera.

Our silhouettes

Thanks for taking the pictures Jill. We did the best we could. :-)

I think it's about time I update our 4th of July background too...Geesh!

Before I forget...

I have a million pics to post from our week in CA, but I just don't have the time or energy to group them and post about them yet.

Some of you have been asking me if Lacy has had any more episodes. She has been REALLY close quite a few times, and had one episode while we were in California. She really freaked out some of Joe's family members, which actually made me even calmer - weird. Anyway she is doing really well and says a lot of words very clearly now. Here is a list of things she says, and uses correctly.

Mommy
Daddy
Aaaple Juice
Mik (Milk)
Uh Oh
There you go
Thank you
Ba Ba Ba Ba (Sponge Bob Square Pants)
Aye Aye (at the beginning of the Sponge Bob song)
Ba Ba (bottle) sometimes she'll say Ba Ll if she's trying really hard. :-)
Me! This one is her absolute favorite! She'll say "Me" and point at whatever she wants to do, then look at you and wait, then do it again if you don't respond.

She l♥ves doing whatever the big kids are doing, and wants to be with them no matter what! She l♥ved the beach and walked into the water with no fear. The waves would knock her down and she would get right back up and keep going out. Crazy kid!

Talon starts kindergarten next week. Wow! Crazy right? He's such a great kid. Here is a conversation he had with Alicia last week.

Alicia: Talon, are you excited to go to kindergarten?

Talon: Yah, but I'm a little bit nervous too.

Alicia: Why are you nervous?

Talon: Cuz I'm afraid I'm not going to be a very good listener.

Alicia: Something, something, something (I can't remember what she said)

Talon: I'm not really nervous, but my tummy is.

Better??

26 days with no episodes!

Lacy had a breath holding episode last night. She almost made it an entire month. Almost.

Talon opened a jello and didn't eat it. Not unusual for that kid. Lacy saw it. She wanted it. She didn't want me to feed it to her. She wanted to eat from the spoon herself. I tried to let her. She flung it on the floor. I took it away. Mean mom.

I probably would have put her in her high chair and let her have at it, but we were leaving for Sunday dinner at the Dairman's.

She walked arms out crying. Hard.

Joe picked her up and tried to get her to breathe. Nope. She passed out anyway.

I sat on the couch with her while she was having her "seizure like activity", and Joe loaded up the other kids. When she was finished we put her in the car and went anyway. She cried most of the ride there, until she finally took her bottle and fell asleep. She was, most understandably, a complete pill for the next few hours.

Man I'll be glad when she outgrows this completely. I'm sure she will be too!

Hailey

Last night Joe told Hailey she has diarrhea of the mouth.

It did not slow her down one bit.

We really need to record her. It's amazing!

4th of July in Payson

Our family - Fourth of July 2009Bailee was a little embarrassed to wear matching shirts, but I didn't care. When we got there she looked around and said, "nobody else has matching shirts on." I told her we were the cool kids.

She didn't believe me.

But look how cute we are!!There was a band playing in the afternoon, so we went over and sat on a blanket. Here's a picture of Lacy gettin her groove on.Lacy, Kamryn and Katie dancing (going in circles) together.Lunch! (Talon didn't sit down long enough to eat)Bailee stood in line with Trinity and Sydney for a HOUR to get their faces painted. I thought they would come back with a flag or a flower. Wow!! I didn't get a picture of the bubble machine, which was a big hit with the smaller kids, but here is Joe (a.k.a. Santa Claus) blowing up the balloons for the kids. They went CRAZY for those! Lacy took a short nap on Joe's lap before the fireworks started and was in total awe when she woke up. Talon and Hailey had their moments. We had to convince them that the fireworks were cool and not scary. Ü Here are my little cuties before we left for the park, showing of their star tattoos and new shirts.

P.S. Laurie, that was 6 in one day!!

4th of July Hair

We were in Payson for the 4th of July and I'm such a dork. I totally spaced out on making bows, so I improvised. While at Walmart I picked up some $.49 ribbon and did the best I could with it.I think it turned out pretty cute, but why do those dang plastic rubber bands always break when we use sunscreen?? At least it looked good for a little while. :)

Lacy's hair is finally (almost) long enough for a pony, so she got some ribbon in her hair too!

What a ham!!

Random pictures

Talon L♥VES walking around with my camera taking random pictures of things. Usually it just shows me how messy my house is. :) As soon as he gets his hands on my camera he says, "say cheese momma". That can get pretty old! I mean how many of those shots from his view up do I need really? So I taught him how to take a picture of himself. He got his face in the picture - later we'll work on more flattering angles. :)

In the car, on the way to Payson Lacy was "shushing" Bailee. What a cutie pie!Hailey was crying that the sun was in her eyes. Bailee finally gave in and let her wear her sunglasses to keep her quiet and it worked! (for a couple of minutes anyway) We borrowed my mom's DVD player with two screens. It was a life saver in the car...if Hailey would just figure out how to keep those darned headphones on!This next picture totally cracked me up when I saw it! Talon must have taught her how to take a picture of herself. If she needed a profile picture this would definitely be it!!I can't look at it without laughing!