Disneyland!

This was Kylie's first time and my second time to Disneyland!  I was so excited to go that I did so much research beforehand!  It was a little ridiculous how much research I did.  I had about 4 pages worth of notes.

We left for Disneyland at about 7:40am and got stuck in a little traffic on the way down.  We arrived in Anaheim at 9:30am, parked and took the tram to the park.  The weather was great! It was overcast which made it not too warm, but it didn't get way cold at night either. We got tickets and surprisingly got there the same time as the rest of the Fletcher gang.  We headed into the park in hopes to stop at city hall to get Kylie the 1st visit button.  They had a marching band playing music and some Alice in Wonderland characters dancing to the music.  Scott hopped out there with Kylie and danced a little bit.

So cute in her Rapunzel dress!

We went while it was spring break in California, so it was pretty crowded.  I tried so hard to mentally prepare myself and not get upset or frustrated by how busy it was. I had this plan and I took all this time to research that it just couldn't get messed up!  I just wanted the day to be so perfect that my expectations were a little too high and I got disappointed at the smallest detour from my plans.  I swear, I'm the worst vacationer because of that.  I know that Kylie won't remember this vacation in the slightest, but I wanted it to be fun for her and for me.  Which led to another dilemma.  I wanted to have fun at Disneyland too! I wanted to ride all these rides with Kylie and then other rides without her.  I got so overwhelmed at wanting to make it great for me and her.  Scott pointed out that he could help make a great time for either Kylie or for me, but not us both.  Brita and Kristene both do things at Disneyland for their kids because they're at the age to enjoy and remember Disneyland.  Kylie is not, but it was hard to not feel guilty about leaving her anytime we went to go do something without her. *Sigh* Scott is such a good man to put up with me! :)

Anyway, there was a line for City Hall and I was getting impatient, so we left to head off to Fantasyland where everyone else was.  On the way, we passed Tomorrowland and I decided we should get a fast pass for Space Mountain so we waited in line and got one.  After that we headed to Fantasyland.

Once we got to Fantasyland, we noticed everyone in line for Dumbo so we hopped in! It worked out great because Dumbo was a must ride with Kylie.  I mean, I can't come to Disneyland and not ride the elephant ride! Scott opted out riding it to take pictures.

After Dumbo, the grandparents fed Kylie (while waiting in line for Jocelyn & Brooke to see Elsa and Anna from Frozen) and some of us went to ride the Matterhorn.  The line was a little long, but it was fun.

After the Matterhorn, Lane and Scott ran to get some fast passes for Thunder Mountain Railroad.  When they came back, we rode the Pinocchio ride because the line was short.  Kylie was asleep in the carrier the whole time.  It was like 1:00pm by this point and we were starving! Our fast passes for Space Mountain were at 1:50pm so we needed to eat lunch before going on the ride.  We left Kylie with the grandparents once again and headed off for lunch.  One of my favorite blogs, Picky Palate, has a section about food at Disneyland.  We didn't want a sit down restaurant, but I also didn't want the standard burger and fries.  I remember reading about the corn dog truck so we asked someone where it was and got them.  The corn dog was actually quite delicious as far as corn dogs go!

Brita & Becky through a window in the line for Pinocchio.

Picture from Becky's phone.

Picture from Becky's phone.

Scott and I were able to get onto Space Mountain pretty quickly with the fast passes.  Afterwards we met up with others and Lane gave us some extra fast pass tickets for the ride, so we went right back and rode again!  This was another must ride for me so I was super excited we were able to ride twice.

We then headed over to Innoventions because Andrew wanted to get a picture with Captain America.  I got tired of waiting in line and I really wanted to see Kylie so I hopped out of line and held Kylie while she took a nap until they were done getting the picture.

Mark, Andrew & Captain America!

The Jungle Cruise was next! I was excited to take Kylie on this ride and she loved it! She was squealing and excited the whole time!  On the way to the Jungle Cruise, I had to get the famous Dole Whips! There was a choice between the soft serve or the float and I chose the float and Scott got the soft serve.  I ended up liking the soft serve way better than the float. 

My best attempt at a group picture.

Since we were in the area, Splash Mountain seemed to be the next ride to go on.  I wanted to ride another ride with Kylie, so I took her on Winnie the Pooh along with Nadine, Brita, Brooke and Dylan. After the ride, I got some treats from the Pooh Corner Bakery (another recommendation from Picky Palate).  I got this peanut butter sandwich, which I didn't like as much as the author of Picky Palate did, but I did love this white chocolate chip cookie.  It was so, so good (it had bits of caramel throughout)! I forgot to take a picture of my cookie, but here is one from the website.

source: http://picky-palate.com/disney-eats/review/pooh-corner-bakery/

Since those who were waiting in line for Splash Mountain weren't done yet, Brita convinced me to go through the single rider line.  I got on right away and I'm glad I went on!

Me single riding it!

Splash Mountain took so long that we missed pretty much the whole parade and caught the end of it.  Scott, Kylie and I headed off to ride Pirates of the Caribbean which Kylie loved as well.  She was great on all the rides she went on!  We then headed to Thunder Mountain Railroad where we saw some of the group in line! It was perfect timing and I hopped in line with them while Scott stayed to watch Kylie.  After the ride, it was time for fireworks! Kylie slept through the whole show.  After the show, we walked down main street and I shopped for a keychain and got some pressed pennies.  While getting one pressed penny, there was Mickey Mouse standing there! Of course Scott and David had to rush off and we missed getting a picture with him! :(

We then headed home and went to bed! Despite some of the stress I felt and maybe a breakdown, Disneyland was a lot of fun!! It's hard to coordinate things with a large family, but it is also more enjoyable with them there.  Who knows when we will go again, but it better be during the off-season. ;)

Quick California Trip

From Saturday the 22nd to Wednesday the 26th, we had a little vacation to California.  Scott's parents wanted to get some family pictures done with everyone as things have changed since the last time pictures were taken.  There were some family pictures taken when we went to California after getting married, but they didn't turn out so well.  The original plan was to go the first week of April as that would have been my spring break if I was still teaching.  Since I quit, we were able to go when Brita and Lane would be there so we would be able to participate in all the activities.

We left Friday night at about 10:20pm and arrived in California around 6am.  David & Kristene so kindly hosted us at their house in Rialto, which was nice as Scott's parents home was crowded with everyone else.  I'm glad we were able to have our own bathroom to get ready in.  Kristene was so nice and watched Kylie for a few hours while Scott and I caught up on some sleep.  After we woke up, we headed out to see David & Kristene's potential new house!  It looks great and I hope everything works out for them in getting it.  We ate lunch and then headed to Riverside.  I went shopping with Nadine for some last minute clothes for the pictures which took about 2 hours.  Brita and Lane had arrived and we all ate dinner, played some games and then headed back to Rialto.

We had a little birthday cake for Brooke's upcoming birthday.

They decided to sing to me too even though my birthday isn't for a month.

Scott fed Kylie some delicious Californian oranges! She loved them. I do get a little worried with the acidity though.

Sunday, we went to church in Riverside.  Kylie was very wiggly during sacrament meeting and when I put her on the ground, she crawled right on over to the people across the aisle!  She hung out with them for the rest of the meeting. Abrie even walked over there once or twice to see what was going on.  It was pretty funny to see that Kylie was content hanging out with perfect strangers.

After church, we just hung out with Scott's family and played games the rest of the night!  We also tried to figure out what everyone was wearing for the pictures.  We picked this color scheme here:

What I didn't realize is that there is a variety of salmon colors out there! There can be salmon pink to salmon orange and we sure had a variety!  I was feeling pretty helpless because there was so much variety I wasn't sure it would all look good together.  In the end, I think it worked out great.  Monday was picture day and took up pretty much the whole day because it was down in Orange County.  It was at a studio which was a little small, so it got a little crazy trying to get a family picture with how many people were there.  I don't know which end pictures were chosen, but I hope to find out soon!

I loved our color combination for our little family.

Kylie's dress was so cute!

Once again, we ate dinner in Riverside, played a few games and left a little early to get ready for Disneyland!  Tuesday was Disneyland and I'm going to do that in a different post.  We had planned to go to the beach on Wednesday, but the weather wasn't good beach weather.  Everyone was still exhausted from a full day at Disneyland, so we decided to have a game day!  We pretty much played Bang! all day and it was awesome.  That game is fun because it is a different game each time and you really don't have to worry about being bored while playing.  We left Wednesday night at about 9:30pm for home.  The drive home was a little harder and Scott and I had to keep switching off about every two hours.

Nikki & Kylie!

Kylie playing by herself during a round of Bang!

Despite it being a quick trip, we had a great time seeing everyone! 

High Five for Monday

Yes, usually this is a high five for Friday, but I didn't want to wait until Friday to post it as everything I am posting is overdue to be talked about.

1. In the middle of March, Bryan, Natalie & Max came to Utah for their spring break.  Bryan's parents just bought a home in Orem so they came out to visit them.  They headed up to our place one day and we played on the WiiU they just bought.  There were some pretty fun games!  We tried to get Max and Kylie playing together, but there is just something about our cat where every kid wants to pet and play with her.  Natalie did get some cute pictures of Max and Kylie, so these are her pictures, not mine.  We headed down to Orem another day to see Bryan's parents as Scott knew them back in California.  Bryan graduates law school in May so it will be interesting to see where they end up!  Either way, they will have to come back to Utah occasionally to see Bryan's parents.

2. We also found out at the end of February that Scott did not get into BYU's nurse practitioner program.  It was definitely a bummer that he didn't get in.  Scott had applied to the University of Utah's program and didn't get in (he did try pretty soon after graduating though), but the school's high grade standards make it impossible to get in without re-taking some classes.  There is one other school in Utah that offers a master's program in nursing, which is Westminster College.  Scott decided last minute to apply there and the deadline was quickly approaching.  We filled out an online application, turned it in and thought all was done.  Scott got an e-mail a day after the due date saying they were missing about 5 things still!  They said he officially had until Friday to get it all in.  We rushed getting transcripts, drug & background tests and letters of recommendation in.  It was a little stressful, but worth it as Scott interviewed with them just last Friday, the 28th! We hope to hear back from them again in mid-April with a positive response.  If Scott doesn't get into Westminster, we might look at options for school outside of Utah.  It would be more expensive, but if he has the opportunity to get into school somewhere, we'll take it.

3. Last Thursday morning we returned home from California.  My dad & Roberta came into town that afternoon and stayed until Sunday morning.  They stopped by for a short visit after getting in on Thursday then came over again Friday morning.  We went shopping at the mall and they watched Kylie while I bought some new makeup with Christmas money they gave me.  I hope the girl at Sephora gave me the right stuff.  I haven't tried it out yet, but if it doesn't work I can always return it.  Saturday night we headed to Andrew & Rebecca's for a BBQ dinner and games.  It was a short visit, but great to see them!

 4. We've discovered that Kylie sure loves strawberries.  You need to be careful when you let her bite into one as she will suck that thing into her mouth quicker than you can blink!  I like that she likes them, but I need to remember to take her clothes off when she eats them as strawberries stain clothes.

5. Here are two great recipes.  One for perfect M&M cookies (and they are delicious!): http://picky-palate.com/2013/04/03/how-to-make-perfect-m-and-m-cookies/ and one for sugar cookie bars (such a time saver compared to rolling and cutting out sugar cookies): http://www.crunchyrock.com/2011/01/sugar-cookie-bars.html.  Both are really yummy and stay soft for about a week!

Tag Blanket

For a while, we've been noticing Kylie chewing on her seat belt strap every time she's in her highchair.  I also noticed Kylie chewing on her straps to her changing pad as well.  While looking through pinterest, I noticed a pin about a tag blanket.  It's a blanket with a variety of ribbons around the edges for the baby to happily chew on.

Since Kylie liked the seat belt material to her high chair, my mom thought it would be a better idea to sew that onto fabric instead of ribbon.  Also, I guess if I bought ribbon, I'd have to make sure that the color would stay on the ribbon and not rub off into her mouth.  My mom was nice and bought the materials for me.  I had to do a few things differently than the instructions as I had different "tag" material.  That seat belt material frays when you cut it, so I had to cover up the fray with a piece of fabric first before sewing.  It was also thicker to sew down as well.

This project was simple and took me about 2 hours to do.  Kylie doesn't chew on it all the time, but it's another option besides a toy to keep her busy.

7 Months!

Even though Kylie will be turning 8 months here soon, I am still okay to talk about her being 7 months!  She has grown so much these last few months.  My baby sure is learning so many new things.  Here's some new things she has learned.

• Standing!! It was all about crawling last time, but now all she wants to do is stand! She will pull herself up on anything (including you) and just be content standing there.  She is ready to stand on her own and get walking.  This girl just wants to move, move, move!

•  She is talking more now.  There are certain times of the day where she will talk more than others, usually in the morning and at night.  She also likes to spit a little with her tongue.

• Kylie is laughing more now! I just love it. I've found that when you jump up and down with her and spin her around, she'll laugh and laugh.  Also, chasing her and playing hide and seek will make her laugh as well.  This video is evidence of that:

• This video is also evidence of how much Kylie loves the cat! Well, she likes all animals actually. While in California, Kylie took to the dogs great! She would squeal every time she saw them and just let them lick her face.  Poor Maddie gets chased quite often by her too.  Hopefully one day she'll stop running from Kylie.
• The main thing now is that Kylie is so active! Brita once pointed out that no matter what Kylie is doing, there is some body part of hers that is moving.  This girl just wants to explore and learn about everything.  She sure is keeping us on our toes.

Since Kylie no longer just lays still, it is getting harder to take pictures of her!  She goes straight for the sticker when I put it on her and then just wants to roll around if I lay her on the ground.  So, here's what I got.

See ya later, mom!

Ooo, pretty camera!

Fine, I'll pose just this once.

Look, a sticker!

Laying on the ground is boring mom. I'm ready to crawl away!