4 months

Well, since Jack is almost 5 months old now, I think it's time I posted his 4 month old pictures.

I just love this baby so much.   He is so happy and snuggly and I just can't get over how much I love him.  Kate and Max love him so much too, but it seems that Kate and Jack really share a special bond.

At his 4 month checkup he was a whopping 17 lbs 14 oz!   He's a chubby one for sure and I love him so much for it!

The baby stage just goes by so unbelievably fast.  I can't believe  this much time has already gone by!  I love my three kids!

Feeding Ducks

We've all been sick for awhile over here and last Saturday we needed OUT! I wanted to get outside and let the kids play, but I also didn't want to be around a lot of people, so we decided to drive over to Discovery Park and feed the ducks! This park is really pretty, spacious, and it has an excellent view of our beautiful Gilbert Temple!

By the way, did you know you are actually not supposed to feed ducks bread?  I never knew that!  I guess it's bad for them.  Next time I will bring something else.  The kids had so much fun doing this!

Easter

I know it's been almost a month since Easter, but it kind of got lost in the shuffle and I never posted about it!  Our Easter was really low key this year.  We stayed home, did our own thing and it was really fun.

The kids woke up so excited that morning, dying to go downstairs and search for their stuff.  After daddy "checked to see if the Easter Bunny had come" they went downstairs and wasted no time finding everything!  They both got candy and socks.  Max got a Heat Wave transformer, and Kate got a Rarity Equestria Girl and Frozen underwear.  Jack got a new outfit and a football!  I made cinnamon rolls that morning, we went to church, and then later that evening we went over to Jaron and Beth's for dinner and games.  It was a fun Easter!

Dance Recital

On the Saturday before we left for Disney, Kate and Jaylee had their dance recital! They both looked so adorable and they did so good! I took the girls to the dance rehearsal, so I took a video there. You weren't allowed to take video at the actual recital, so I'm glad I took this. They are so cute!


MVI 6086 from Erin Watson on Vimeo.

Disney day 3

On our last and final day at Disneyland, I was too sick to even get out of bed :( Dustin ran to the drugstore to get me some medicine and then got the kids ready to go to Disneyland with Grandma and Grandpa.  I took the medicine and rested for awhile, when my fever broke I got ready and went to Disneyland anyway.  I was NOT going to miss it!  The kids had fun with everyone else for those first few hours that day.  They rode the Toy Story ride and they met Phinneas and Ferb!

 

 While we were waiting for the Haunted Mansion that day, Kate spotted the Nightmare Before Christmas stuff. I don't know why, but this is one of her all time favorite movies. So with her birthday money she purchased a Sally doll.  She also bought Max a Buzz Lightyear Blaster.  Such a nice big sister!

We also stopped at the candy shop on Mainstreet that day.  Kate picked out suckers, and I got this chocolate and caramel covered marshmallow.  So delicious!

At the new Fantasy Faire they have this little theater where they do little 30 minute shows of Beauty and the Beast and Tangled.  We walked by right before the Tangled show was about to happen so Kate and I waited for the show while the boys went to Toontown.  I'm so glad we did.  This little show was hilarious!  The kids get to sit on the floor right next to the action.  It's kind of done like a melodrama.  You shout "Huzzah!" when you see Flynn or Rapunzel and you shake your fist and yell "Fie" when you see Mother Gothel.  There are two guys who tell the whole story and play all the characters except for Flynn and Rapunzel and they are a riot.  Andy, I've found the perfect job for you at Disneyland!

We spent a lot of time in Cars Land while we were there, it's just so cute and the kids love it!  I finally got a picture by the Here It Is sign.  This is so amazing to me.  The original sign is at a little trading post called Jackrabbit right outside of Joseph City Arizona!  I have a lot of memories there and I just love that a little piece of my small hometown ended up in the most magical place on earth.  It just so awesome!

I cannot say enough good thing about the Radiator Springs Racers.  It is the most amazing ride I've ever been on! The first time I rode it I'm pretty sure my jaw was dropped open for the entire ride.  I'm so so sad that Max was not big enough for this ride, so we will have to go again when he grows about 4 more inches! 

We ended our trip with World of Color!  The kids LOVED this.  Every time a new segment would start Kate would yell and cheer!  

*sigh*  I just LOVE Disneyland and I'm so sad that I was too sick to enjoy most of it.  Time to start planning a do-over trip.  Even though it wasn't the best for me, everyone else had fun, and the kids had the time of their lives! 

Disney Day 2

The NOT-so-magic-morning

If you're not sure what a magic morning is, when you buy 3 or more days at disneyland you get an hour early admission one day.  That day fell on Tuesday for us.  I wanted to get there and hopefully let the kids play in Fantasyland a little bit since it was so crowded the day before!  I woke up this morning at 6 to be able to get me and my kids ready and everyone out the door by 7:30.

We left on time, but it took us awhile to find the correct parking lot since the normal one was closed.  We ended up entering the park at about 9:07.  And that was NOT early enough!  All the fantasyland attractions already had waits of 40 minutes to an hour.  So ridiculous!  A quick look into tomorrowland told us that it was the same story there.  So...we decided to just sit and wait by Frontierland and wait for it to open.  The plan was to run and get on Thunder Mountain while Scott ran and got fast passes to Splash Mountain.  It was a good plan.  SO we waited.

Look at this crowd!!!

When 10:00 finally hit we RAN and fought the crowd to Big Thunder only to find out it's closed!  So we run and get in line at Splash Mountain and while we are there we hear that it's also closed!  So we decide to take the kids on Winnie the Pooh and it ALSO CLOSED!   Oh man, this was the most frustrating trip to Disneyland I've ever taken!  It was really windy that day, and I guess it caused the power to go out in Frontierland.   We figured it was going to be nuts everywhere else in the park so we just hung around until the power was back on, and once it was the rest of the day went a lot smoother.

I made all of Kate's outfits for the trip, but this day I had made everyone a matching outfit.  Unfortunately Jack blew out of his before I could get a picture of it, and Max's had buttons but he tore those off right away.  At least the girls looked cute!

Once while some of us were riding Radiator Springs, Sherice took the boys to play in the splash pad at Bugs Land.  They made the boys wear their shirts and their shoes (what kind of splash pad rule is that?) so that is why Max is naked in some of these pictures.  All his clothes were drying in the sun.  He even took off running from me like that at one point.  He thought it was so hilarious to be running around Disneyland naked.

 

Kate rode Splash Mountain this day!  Afterwards she told us she didn't like it very much, but she still made a funny face for the picture!  That's more than I can do, I just scream every time!

 Unfortunately this is the day that I started to really get sick.  I woke up with a sore throat that morning, was super dizzy throughout the day, and by the time we got back to the hotel I had a fever and chills.  So a lot of this day I missed out on because all I wanted to do was sit down.  Worst time to get sick ever!

We also did the "disney junior dot com live on stage" show that day.  If you ask Kate this is one of the favorite things that we did.  It's a really fun interactive show for the kids with parts of all their favorite Disney Junior shows!  Princess Sofia, Dr McStuffins, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Jake and the Neverland Pirates.  My kids got so into this, it was a blast!

 After the show it was time for the Pixar parade!  Max was so excited about every character that would come around that corner!  Buzz Lightyear, Mr Incredible, Lightning McQueen!  He was loving every minute.

We finally got to spend a little time in Fantasyland that evening while everyone else was at the Disneyland parade. We did Peter Pans flight and Dumbo before it got to be too crowded again. 

Next time I go to Disneyland I am definitely going in January, February, or September.   Even with the crowds though we really worked the whole fast pass/stroller pass system, but that doesn't apply in Fantasyland.

Is there anything more magical than the castle lit up at night?

Disneyland! (Day One)

We traveled to California on the 27th. The kids were so excited that night, and it was quite the task getting them to go to sleep!

 

The next morning was the 28th. Kate's Birthday!  I let her open her first gift in the hotel room.  I made her an Elsa dress.  She of course decided she wanted to wear it to Disneyland, so we got her dressed in it and I did her hair in an "Elsa braid".   We went downstairs to meet everyone for breakfast, where Kate got an autograph book and a gift card to spend at Disneyland!  Grandma Watson got her some clothes, and she also got her a giftcard for Disneyland.  Kate could buy just about whatever she wanted for her birthday! 

We all got packed up and made the drive to Disneyland.  And, so disappointingly, the park was so crowded.  I did so much research to try and come at a time when the park would be dead.  This site http://www.isitpacked.com/disneyland-crowd-forecast-predictor-calendar/
even went as far as to say it would be a Ghost Town.  In fact it's still saying the days we went were not crowded but it totally was.  Part of the problem may be that a lot of the rides were closed so that made for longer lines at the good rides.  We waited 50 minutes for the Jungle Cruise that day.  The JUNGLE CRUISE!  Yeah, that should put it into perspective a little bit.

Kate's first big rollercoaster she rode was Space Mountain.  I was nervous for that one to be the first, but she was really brave and went on it.   The whole ride I was so worried about how she was reacting, but of course you can't see anything on that ride!  When it was finally over I looked back at her and she exclaimed, "That was FUN!" She loved it so much that she rode it twice.

After Space Mountain we took a trip over to the Innoventions center.  This is a place I think I've been in once in all my Disneyland trips, but now they've got all this cool Marvel stuff!  First stop was the Iron Man suits.  Max was amazed by all of these!  He didn't want to leave!

After we stared at the Iron Man suits for a good long time, we got in line to meet Max's favorite super hero, CAPTAIN AMERICA!!

This guy was awesome!  He looked at Max and said, "Let's Hero Up!" and then he took a lot of pictures with my little guy.  Max was so starstruck!

For lunch we stopped at the cart on mainstreet and got the best corndogs ever! Seriously, they were so good.  While we were eating, Cruella DeVille came out to say hello.  We made Kate take a picture, but I think this might be the only Disney movie Kate has never seen because she had no idea who she was!  This might be my favorite character we saw though, she was so hilarious! 

For a special treat for Kate's birthday we did Ariels Grotto.  It's a restaurant in California Adventure that let's you dine with the princesses!  I really wanted to do this this time because I didn't want to wait in line for princesses, I'd rather eat and have the princesses come to me!  It's expensive of course, but it was so worth it!  I made a reservation the Friday before our trip for the whole fam damily.  haha.  The men probably didn't enjoy it as much as the girls did but it was so much fun to see Kate and Emma's faces!  Plus the food was really good.  We descended the spiral staircase and the first princess we saw was Ariel!

Not long after we took our seats we were royally introduced to the first guest, Princess Aurora!  Kate loved putting her autograph book to use.

When she came around the table she saw Max sleeping on the floor. She said, "Is that a sleeping Prince? I love sleeping Princes!" And she bent down and gave him a kiss right on his forehead.  Layton got a kiss too!


Then we got visited by Tiana, Belle and Princess Minnie Mouse!

 

We all got a three course meal, salad, main course and dessert!  The dessert was so good, I'm still dreaming about it.  It was creme brulee, chocolate dipped strawberries, and this reimagined smore thing.  So good.  The birthday girl got a cupcake!  We all sang to her.  I'm pretty sure she had just about the best birthday ever!

We finished out the day in Cars Land.  Last time I went to Disneyland this was being built so I had not seen it yet and it is amazing!!  It's like you walked right into Radiator Springs.  Max was in heaven.  He got to meet his other hero Lightning McQueen!  You can't tell from the picture, but they have someone remotely operating that car because it interacts with the kids!  It talked to Max a little bit and flashed his lights at him.

It was a very full first day at Disney!