It's a...

Bishop! Yes, Warren has been called to be the Bishop of our new ward. We have been here just under six months, so it's a little crazy, but we feel the blessings of heaven and the love and support of the members of the ward.
This is a post I've been waiting two weeks to write. It's been an unreal two weeks, with very little sleep. We were blessed to be able to have some family members come down to be part of the experience and are grateful for all of their help.
It will be an interesting chapter of our lives. I'm also one of the ward organists. The person giving the closing prayer prayed that the members of the ward would help me with the kids so that "she will hopefully continue to be one of our organists." It was sweet. I did feel very loved and supported by the ward.
I will let you know how the adjustment goes.
After I get some sleep!

The family in attendance

Bishop Williams and Bishop Thompson

Warren and President Marco (Stake President)

The new Bishopric

Family Night taught by Rebecca

At seven in the evening last night as I was looking for something to do for family night Rebecca chimed in.

Rebecca: "I want to teach the family home evening lesson tonight."
Mom: "Sounds good to me!"

She proceeded to pull out three pictures from the gospel art kit.

I had no idea what she was going to talk about, but we started family night and she did her own little lesson:

R (holding up a picture of four men lifting a chair into a moving van): "Tonight the lesson is on people being happy. Here is a picture of people helping somebody move. They are doing TEAMWORK."

R (holding up a picture of a mom, dad and four kids): "Here is a picture of a family. They are SHARING."

R (holding a picture of a girl reading the scriptures): "Here is a picture of a girl reading the scriptures. She has a pencil to circle words she likes. That is my lesson."

It was PERFECT. We sang a closing song (a bunch of times because once is never enough for Joseph) and that was that. I love family night. So far we've had lots of good times and it hasn't been stressful. We'll see how long that lasts...

For the Beauty of the Earth...

Even I can be spontaneous!

What do you do when your 5 year old comes home from Kindgergarten crying because of a bad day with mean friends? You say, let's go to Disneyland and play in the water park! So we did! My little Mermaid had a blast, my little guy took longer to warm up to the water, but had fun in the end. I actually got a big kick out of the water park this time because it is a leaky hose faucet and we've been dealing with that since we moved into our new house. We've been using hand-me-down hoses that keep bursting and leaking so we probably just need to get a new one.

Rock-a-bye Baby

Today was dress like a rock star day at school. I did my best to create something on the spur of the moment that would at least make Rebecca feel like she was dressed like a rock star. (Notice the silver hair)

Tonight I had a hard time getting the kids to bed. Warren wasn't home. Joseph finally fell asleep. Rebecca kept finding things to talk to me about. I finally said: "You need to get to sleep or you'll be grumpy tomorrow morning like you were tonight." Rebecca replied: "But daddy said if I'm awake when he gets home he'll rock me." That kind of melted my heart.

You see, she's been complaining a lot lately that we only ever rock Joseph in the glider and never her. And that I only take care of Joseph and not her. It's pretty hard being the big 5 year old when you have a little 2 year old brother who needs a lot more help than you do, but you still need just as much love. I get frustrated because I need her help, I need her to be good, I need her to act perfectly ALL the time! Yes, I'm sure my expectations are sometimes unfairly high. But when you have one kid that you can communicate with and one who is just learning to communicate, it's natural to expect more from the first one, I suppose.

Anyway, when she said she was waiting for daddy to rock her I asked if she would like me to rock her. She said, "sure, just for one minute." So I held my little girl on my lap, and rocked my grown up rock star. I held her tight and loved her and let the tears roll down my cheeks. I held her till she was almost asleep and put her gently into bed. All the frustrations melted away. All I felt was love. Maybe I need to rock her more often. Because someday she won't ask to be rocked anymore.

Child Labor

A pre-mother's day present, or preparation for the future or "why didn't I think of this sooner?"

They actually did a good job. I was impressed.

Ooops, forgot the bows

The Princess Collection Homemade Dolls

Based on an idea I found here Rebecca and I made our own set of clothespin dolls and titled it "The Princess Collection." We had a lot of fun doing it together. She helped me paint and even did a couple of the faces. Can you tell which ones?
From left to right: Ariel, Jasmine, Snow White, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty and Belle.

Just me and my gal

I love you Rebecca. Thanks for coming to our family and for turning me into a mom. Thanks for your patience as I make mistakes and learn how to be a better mom. You're wonderful.

Marriage Counseling from my 5 year old

Rebecca: "You don't kiss daddy very much."

Mom dejected-: "Ohhh."

R: "Only once in the morning and once at night."

Mom: "What should I do about it?"

R: "I don't know. Daddy's at work all day long."

pause

R:"I know. On Saturdays you can kiss Daddy all day long from morning till night. Like this: (repeated kissing sounds)."

Thanks for the advice daughter dear. I'm sure daddy will be thrilled.

Disney mania and some tips and tricks

In todays post:
-Disney visits with Grandma Julie
-a few not entirely too well known secrets for a successful Disneyland visit with little ones

This was a big Disneyland week for us. Three times in one week. That is probably a first ever for me. Once we met up with some old friends of ours, and twice we went with my mom who was in town. You see, it suddenly occurred to us that this year is Disney's "Free on your birthday year" and it was my mom's birthday. And they also have their "Two-fer" deal going on right now for Southern California residents so she got a free pass for California Adventure, too. And since she had never been there before we took advantage of the free tickets and took her.

Happy Birthday MOM! We were lucky to have you here for your birthday and had fun sharing some time at Disneyland with you.

So: in case you (faithful readers) didn't get the message yet:

YOU CAN GO TO DISNEYLAND FOR FREE ON YOUR BIRTHDAY THIS YEAR!!!

Just sign up at disney.com and then join the birthday club. It's easy and free. If you have an annual pass already you get a gift card in the value of the entrance price ($69 for adults) to spend in stores or on dining. I'm surprised how many people I keep talking to who haven't heard about it, so I just wanted to spread the word.

And as far as my other tips and tricks go: the biggest ones for going with little children are the use of "child swap passes" if you have little kids that can't go on some of the adult rides. You go up to the cast member at the fast pass return line and ask for a child swap pass. Then one person has to stand in the regular line (or if you got fast passes in the fast pass line) and then when that person comes out the person with the baby swap pass can go in the fast pass line, too, or in the case of Space mountain you get to go up the exit (that is really fun to do.) So, the best way to make use of the baby swap passes is if you have a few adults and a few kids, because that way no one has to ride alone. You can actually take two people on the ride with a child swap pass. So if it's just Warren and me and the kids wanting to go on Soarin' over California one of us goes on with Rebecca while the other one waits with Joseph and then we trade.

The other trick is USE THE SINGLE RIDER LINE for Soarin' and for Splash Mountain and for California Screamin' if the lines are long. We saw them take all the single line people together anyway for Soarin' and they hardly had to wait at all. I've stood in line for Splash Mountain in the single rider line and got on with my friend who was waiting with me anyway!

More tips and tricks. Get a Disney Chase Visa. Even if it you don't plan on using it as a visa card it is worth having if you plan on going to D-land because you get two free stroller rentals. Then you don't have to worry about your stroller getting stolen or about waiting in line for the tram with all the other stroller users. Additionally you get 10% off at dining places. (addendum: it is no longer free, but half price on the stroller rentals as of September 2009)

Finally, last but not least, eating dinner with kids at Disneyland. Do not buy the kids meals. They are tiny, a waste of money and there is no guarantee your kid will like it anyway. For us the best deal around is the pasta dinner at Pizza place in Tomorrow land or at the Pizza place in CA adventure. The pasta meals are $8.99 and Rebecca and I can share one and get full (unless we haven't eaten anything all day long.) Plus, BOTH of my kids like the pasta. So for under $20 we can feed our family of four a dinner that we like at Disneyland.

Oh, just one more thing. If you're going to be here on a hot day, bring swim suits or a change of clothes for the kids because there are fun little water places to play in CA adventure. The kids have to wear a shirt and shoes, but bathing suits for girls seem to count.

I'm sure I could come up with more things (like the cookie baking experience for people that have passes-wouldn't want to spend time on it if I didn't, but with a pass it's worth it...), but that's good enough for now. And in case you hadn't figured it out...WE HAVE PASSES for Disneyland this year. And we would love to see you if you're down this way. We're super close, I mean super close and could just spend a little time with you. So, please let us know if you're ever in the neighborhood. Everyone comes sooner or later, right? And we wouldn't want to miss you.