A day for the girls

Let's be honest...every day is a day for these girls. But we especially had fun last weekend when we took them to see Cinderella! Originally I had planned to take the older two and make it a girls night out, but then we saw a special preview for it at Disneyland and Ben said he wanted to come too. This guy, he may be all Boy, but he will pretty much do anything for his three little girls! So the day came and we pulled out our Cinderella dresses, we picked hairstyles, and maybe put a little blush and lip gloss on and off we went! Our three Cinderellas! Honestly, aren't they kind of the cutest thing ever? We had a blast and the movie was great! Just perfect actually. Sometimes being a mom to just girls is just perfect!

St Paddy's day

We celebrated St Paddy's day this year like we do every Holiday...with a lot of magic. We don't do anything crazy and these girls are just so happy to take on a craft of any kind that it's pretty easy for me. I pulled out a roll of tinfoil, some tape, a few pieces of green paper and taught Hailey how to make Shamrocks. And that my friends was it. The girls set up their traps in hope of catching a leprechaun...but I think they really just wanted to cash in on some gold. Which by the way, that sneaky leprechaun raided my skittles stash! He also left them some Lucky Charms to eat for breakfast...which I'm always grateful for. Fill them with sugar then send them off to school; that's the kind of mom I am. If they eventually crash from that sugar high, well it's someone else's problem! But in all honesty, it's just a fun easy kind of day. The kind day you can get away with pancakes for dinner because they're green, or you can eat all your kids candy because the leprechaun said so. I'm happy to be part of that kind of day, that's for sure!

Random Marchness

March has been an interesting Month...it all started with our return from Disney Land and getting back into our routine. Which was honestly so much harder than I'd expected. A Doctors appointment later - and some blood work involved - I learned I was anemic. I was just slightly anemic when I  was pregnant with Cait...and significantly more so this time. Which would explain the extreme exhaustion I was feeling (sleeping 10 hours at night, waking up getting the kids off to school, napping for two hours while Cait watched netflix, then getting her lunch, napping again while she napped, then waking up just as the girls were getting home from school and STILL being exhausted. If I didn't have piano lessons everyday I'd nap again before dinner). So I started on some iron pills and I'm still waiting for them to kick in...but there's hope.

To add to that craziness, I also found out I was exposed to a pretty common (for the general population) yet very scary virus for pregnant mothers. I'd actually never heard of it...it's called CMV...google it, you'll see what I'm talking about. I feel ok. I'm sure I don't have it...but it's not confirmed. The day I found out about it my doctor had me come in immediately for some blood work. The results of the blood work were generally inconclusive, so I had some more blood work AND they're trying to track down some older blood work vials to test those as well. It feels a little weird to have so many doctors working on this. When I first called into my low risk maternity clinic they reacted instantly...which is sort of not common. Normally up here we take things slowly and only panic when panic is, well necessary. But in this case, it felt a little panicky. After that initial appointment I've spent a LOT of time on the phone with my doctors and in the office discussing things. They transferred my case to a blood specialist or something along those lines. So I technically - for the time being at least - get to stay at my clinic, but my file is being seen by a specialist too. Which is interesting. Whatever happens in the end though I just really really want this baby to be ok. So I'm taking my doctors' advice and avoiding certain people and situations.

In the midst of all that craziness, we've just been loving this beautiful March. We have had some amazing spring weather that had us completely forgetting about winter...and these Canadian daughters of mine had a few 'beach' parties on our front deck.

I finally gave in an renewed my library membership...which I hope works out this time. I just can NOT be trusted to return books on time...and in some cases at all. My late fees were as much as my membership...that's how bad I am!! But the girls are loving it...especially Hailey. She just loves Science and non fiction anything, so I was her hero when I came home with a book on Frogs! I don't know where she gets it from, because I have no desire to read about frogs. But I sure love this side of her! We bought a bunch of beginner reading books for Paige and she's doing pretty great at it. She's super determined and excited about reading!

Cait - well she's just a firecracker...and she's ALWAYS asking me to take her picture. Done 

We've been drinking a LOT of orange juice around here...it helps absorb the iron I guess. And the girls have turned into little juice making experts. This kind of stuff has me pretty excited about bringing home a new baby soon...real BIG sisters will be so helpful. Hailey will be almost 8 and Paige will be almost 6 - basically adults!! Honestly though, they will be so much more helpful than they were when we had Cait and they were 4 and 2...I'm liking this age gap already!

Anyway, March so far has been: Exhausting, Scary, Relaxing, Fun and just so full of normal Amazingness! I can't complain!

Dancing Queen

Cait is just the most entertaining kid ever...she LOVES clothes and shoes and making all sorts of great outfits. Like this little number for example...a backwards Zumba shirt, some panties and matching shoes. What could be better? Oh you know, just some Taylor Swift on repeat and 10 minutes straight of the best dance moves this world has seen. Thanks Cait for bring so much happiness and joy to our lives!

Disneyland

The girls have been begging FOREVER to go to Disney Land! They always say "But it's where ALL your dreams come true!!" when they're trying to convince us. I've been twice, as a teenager, and it really was so magical. So we planned and we saved and we thought a lot about how we would make this happen. However, there was another really important trip we wanted to make and that was to Phoenix to visit Rebecca and Randall. So we decided to combine the two. It made for an exhausting 8 days. Literally...so exhausting. But I'm glad we were able to squeeze it all in. The girls were in HEAVEN!! Here's a quick summary of the trip:

Day one - Explore
-Arrive in California
-Check into our fun hotel (with a kids room which included bunk beds and a pull out couch)
-Go shopping (the dollar sucks right now and California sales tax sucks too....so we weren't going crazy or anything)
-Buy new runners for the girls since it turns out no one had any that fit
-Head to downtown Disney (not actually in the parks...just beside)
-Check out all the stores and restaurants
-Eat some super delicious yet overpriced pizza
-Walk back to out hotel - one HUGE city block away
-Collapse into our beds and sleep all night long

 Day two - Disneyland
-Sleep in until 10:00am
-Breakfast at the ihop across the street
-Eventually make our way to Disneyland
-Cooperate for all pictures
-Find a million Princesses and get pictures taken with them - Rapunzel was THE best by far. Just so fun and adorable and super sweet to the girls
-Eat
-Go on a million rides - if you're Ben and Hailey and Paige
-Run around and get Fastpasses for the other three if you're Cait and Pregnant mom
-Watch parade
-Eat some more
-Cotton Candy, Dole whip (not as amazing as I'd expected)
-Walk one HUGE city block back to our Hotel
-Go to Target to get food and Disney supplies (uh hello...autograph books)
-Collapse into beds and sleep all night...or try to, upstairs neighbours are having a hard time with the time change, or something because they are up at 2:30 in the morning stomping around

Day Three - California Adventure

-Get there right as the park opens

-Still wait in line to get in

-Wait in more lines to get FastPass to see Elsa and Anna, AND get on Radiator Springs

-Wait in line to get Pager to see Olaf

-See Elsa and Anna

-See Olaf, play in snow...like it's some magical thing we don't get to see everyday

-Go on a million rides if you're Ben, Hailey or Paige

-Run around and get FastPasses if you're a pregnant mom or Cait

-See all the Disney characters that Cait knows and loves - California Adventure was a million times better than Disneyland for her

-Ice cream break

-More rides

-Head home early - after 8 hours of walking

-Walk one HUGE city block back to the hotel - Cait fell asleep

-Go swimming in the dark if you're the pregnant Mom, Hailey and Paige

-Hope Ben gets dinner

-He doesn't

-Eat tomorrows lunch instead

-Collapse into bed and try to sleep all night...wake up at 2:30 with our upstairs neihgbours

Day 4 - California Adventure
-Wake up early
-Eat at different ihop...still across the street
-Buy  Mickey ears
-Go to California Adventure to get our Radiator Hot springs Fast pass...return time to ride that ride is 5:20PM!!
-Leave the park with fast pass in hand and head to the mall to buy real shoes for mom and dad - seriously our feet were KILLING us by this point
-Head back to California adventure and ride the rides - if you're Ben Hailey and Paige
-Ride the easy rides if you're Cait or Pregnant mom
-Wait in longest line of life for ToyStory ride - it was ok, maybe not worth the 45 minute wait
-Radiator Springs!! Finally
-Decide to risk it and ride this one if you're the pregnant mom - which also got us a Stroller pass meaning the girls got to ride with me and then again with Ben without waiting again!
-Dinner
-Get split up from each other - make sure Ben has both phones so we can't contact each other
-Eventually find each other 20 minutes before park closes
-Go to the Frozen concert and watch as the girls minds are blown!
-Head to Downtown Disney to soak in our last day of Disney
-Eat yummy Beignets
-Walk one LONG city block back to the hotel and crash - Cait fell asleep of course
-Sleep not at all...it's a pregnancy thing

Day 5 - the Beach

-Wake up

-Pack

-Head out to Beach

-Forget to look up directions on how to get there

-Wing it

-Drive forever and don't actually find the beach you're looking for

-Follow Tourist Info Signs - end up at mall and NOT tourist info center

-Keep driving

-End up at different, but decent Beach

-Eat Breakfast at restaurant on the beach

-Go play in the waves

-FREEZE

-Run away from water as fast as your can

-Head back to Phoenix before rush hour hits

It really was just the most amazing Holiday ever...and still the most exhausting then too. Being 26 weeks pregnant definitely didn't help. Feeling the pressure to get it ALL done also didn't help. We learned from this trip that we're more of a relax and take it easy family. We could have used more time in California to really appreciate Disney. Maybe break the park days up with Beach days would have been better. But really in the end, it was all about the kids and it was honestly the best holiday they've probably ever been on. Seeing their faces as the took it all in was just pure magic for us. It was a pretty neat experience and I think we'll go back and do it again one day...but not for quite a few years. This baby needs to be at least 6 before we try again. Until then we'll stick to our usual Mexico or camping. And maybe we'll sneak in a Disney Cruise somewhere...that sounds nice hey??