The most magical place on earth...

Why is Disneyland the most magical place on earth? If you really think about it, I think for adults its mostly nostalgia, our longing to be a kid again. It helps us transcend, somewhat reach through our kids and enjoy the looks on their faces. But what about the kids? Well, they watch all the movies, so thats exciting to see it all in action and on rides! Heres the funny thing though, we had disneyland passes and went all the time when Jake was really little. We only stopped the passes because one day when Jake was about 4 he said, "nah I dont want to go to Disneyland". Where we going to much? Was he burnt out? I dont know... but either way, I wanted him to enjoy it darnit! Fast forward to today... We've only gone 1 time in the past 3 years, and now the kids talk about Disneyland all the time!! Seriously, both Jake and Lily have written several journals, and talked about it on "spotlight" days that Disneyland is their favorite place. I dont get it, but finally this week. Lily wrote yet another journal about wanting to go to disneyland, so as a reward for much improvement in school and at home we took them to Disneyland.

(The only picture with Nephi in it :)

My kids, as most of you may know, are pretty sensitive, Jake DOES NOT like to try new things, he cries at even the thought of a roller coaster. Lily gets a stomach ache just going down the hill to the library. Cody, is just Cody, and loves anything his Dad loves. Basically though, another reason we have always put off Disneyland, is that I'm pretty sure they really dont like it! They dont really like rides, we are NOT about to stand in an hour line to see all the characters, and we hate eating and buying things there! But at the end of the day, through tears, a little bit of tough love, and extreme tiredness... you know what they said? "I cant wait to go back!" "Mom, can we go to Disneyland tomorrow?" "I love Disneyland!". So again, I ask why do kids REALLY like Disneyland? Maybe I should ask why do my kids?

A little Christmas, a new sunbeam, twins day and more!

First, I'd like to say Thanks to everyone who responded to my call for help! I really appreciate it, it helped calm my nerves a little to know people out there would support me if it came to that, but we found our last runner, and I think we are set for RAGNAR! Yeah, look out April 15th, there will be a major blog about that!
So I figured I would try and finish the updating! Starting off with Twins day at the kids school. I dont actually like to support these kind of things, because I think it makes some kids feel left out if they dont come up with a close friend, so on that note, I never mention it, remind them, or bring it up to the kids, because either way it just wasnt a big deal! But this year, they both had good friends that they arranged things with. Jake apparently could have given me a weeks notice, but instead his friends dad had to let me know a couple days before, and then Lily sweetly let me know the NIGHT before! So we didnt come up with anything really great but it was a lot of fun for the kids to have a "twin"! Even funnier, Jakes friends name is Jacob, so they even matched names they said!

Here is CODY the SUNBEAM!! Another reminder that my baby isnt a baby anymore. I was so excited for this day and super nervous! He has actually had a rough time with me being in nursery. I never had any problems with him until I started as the nursery leader. Anyways, he was not looking forward to the idea of leaving me and being in a new class, so I made it this big fun deal, had a little graduation for all 10 of the leaving sunbeams, gave them candy, sunglasses. The parents loved it, some kids liked it. By the time they walked into the primary room though, several kids were crying, including Cody. He wouldnt let me leave his side. He is still having a rough time, and Nephi is constantly called back to helping out a little. Sad, huh? Oh well though, because neither Jake nor Lily ever cared that I was around. At least this shows he loves me :) Doesnt he look like he is up to some trouble though in this pic?

Okay, and here are some Christmas pics, of course we made gingerbread houses... or graham cracker houses I mean... well graham cracker creations... apparently my family was in a little bit of a funny mood, because there were all sorts of creations that night! Everyones favorite though, was Nephis AT-AT walker... complete with gummy bear Luke hanging from a rope underneath.

We had houses, a nativity scene, forts, castles, modern art, an AT-AT walker, but mostly we had lots of fun! Cant wait to see what we all come up with next year! We should make this a competition.. that way the Alders can still compete with pics!

One more post...

Okay, I'm getting to the point of desperation... As you know I'm doing Ragnar... and we are still short one runner, anyone out there crazy enough to run to San Diego overnight? We do need someone that is a serious runner, but we might just be able to improvise if need be... but seriously before I pull my hair out let me know :)

Dont be fooled!... I'm not going to get any better at blogging!!

But since I actually have a couple of minutes I thought I'd update a little. Lets see... Holidays were great, my sis came into town with her family and we of course promptly got everyone sick, but had a ton of fun nonetheless! I wish I had all the pics to prove it, but most pictures were taken with Nephis camera, and for some mysterious reason, he cant get them on our computer... But eventually you may see some of the fun! Anyways, the only pics I had to share were our almost christmas card pictures. We were SOO busy that we didnt have the time to actually make any cards, but we at least attempted! Here is my cute family!

Since these pictures were taken Lily chopped off ten inches of her hair and donated it to locks of love (her own decision-it wasnt just because I was tired of fighting with her about her hair). Cody has also recently gotten a major haircut. Both kids look adorable, I'm hoping that even sooner I will get their more recent looks up someday. Seriously though, Lily looks so cute with her hair short!

Jake is doing well in school he missed a whole week because he was sick, but he is so smart and caught up on everything quick! He is about to start soccer again and is really excited.

Nephi and I have started school again, I have 2 classes and he has 1. Mine are really hard, and he LOVES his! I'm taking College Algebra, and cultural anthropology, and he is taking another photography class. School has been hitting us really hard so far this semester because it just makes us more busy.

We finally SOLD THE BUSINESS! Thus, our biggest reason for being extra busy this year.

Big news right? We just sold it a few weeks ago, and now we are tottally preoccupied with finding another more permanent occupation for Nephi. It was a huge decision for us, to part with the business. We have had it for 7 1/2 years! But, it was time, and we are happy with our decision and the outcome of it.

Lastly, in our busy lives right now... I've decided to do the RAGNAR relay race. I know, I'm crazy, I keep reminding myself of it. For those of you that dont know, it is a relay race that involves a group of 12 tag teaming it from huntington beach to Coronado Island. Approximately 202.2 miles. I know crazy, right? AND I'm the leader of the group!

So in case you havent figured out yet, we are EXTREMELY busy so please forgive me as you have in the past for not blogging as I should and wish I could... but wish us luck for all the craziness we have recently found ourselves in :)

October

We love October in the Saline family. For lots of reasons, mostly because of Halloween... but we all get excited at the beginning of October because we really do a lot of fun stuff! Of course, Codys birthday happened in the middle of all of this, but I wanted to wait until it was all over to put up all about the last crazy month of October. First we went to the pumpkin patch at Cal Poly. We LOVE this pumpkin patch, first of all any size pumpkin is $5! but second the field is enormous and COVERED with pumpkins, so it looks really cool for pictures.

On our way in!
These 2 were pretty cooperative for taking pictures,
even if they werent cooperating they took cute pictures!

This one however was a stinker! For some reason he wanted nothing

to do with smiling.

Another activity this month, that I had to include for memorys sake was

Jake and lily decided they wanted to earn some money.... So they started a lemonade stand! On the coldest day! It was freezing and it was actually kinda late when they

started it all, so I was surprised they got any business at all! At first Jake

wanted to charge $1 for every cup, because he figured he would make a lot more money

faster, but when the first customers came and looked at him funny, he took my advice and

changed the sign to 25 cents... I feel like laughing just writing this! It was so funny and fun!

Then Lily had scarecrow day(in lieu of Halloween)! Only the kindergartners do this at the school, they dress up like scarecrows and parade in front of the whole school, then they do tons of

crafts and games for the rest of the day. When Jacob did this I think I was still too confused

and new at it to really appreciate it, but this year we were all ready and had a ton of fun!

Doesnt Lily look like an adorable scarecrow?

Then it was the ward halloween party! You'd think I would have been able to get a picture of them all together but I didnt sorry! Lily was Snow White.

Cody was a piyate (yes, I know I spelled it wrong, but this is how he said it all month long!) He looked like a little capt. Hook, minus the hook half the time!

Jake was a ninja! and his friend Jacob was also a ninja! We invited Jake's friend to come to halloween party and he and his mom showed up, its always a crazy night, but who can turn down an extra night of halloween candy? It ended up being our only halloween candy night, but I dont think the kids really minded. We tried to not make a big deal and then the night was over... Next year will make up for it!

We also had a little shindig with some friends and required dressing up, some people came looking so AWESOME!! but Nephi and I have to coordinate our pictures and then I will post! Wish me luck to get it done before Christmas!

My baby is 3 years old!!

Its true! Cody is 3 years old! So I thought I'd take a moment to update you on all the wonderful 3 year old things he is up to:
-He LOVES: dinosaurs, cars, trains, anything with buttons, legos (when his brother is playing with them), balls, and baseball!
-He talks a ton! we dont always understand him quite yet, but when we do, he say's full sentences, no more baby talk for him anymore! He clearly states, "Mom, Lily said 'Get out of here' to me" or "I love you too, Mom".
- He can keep up on pretty much any game that his brother and sister play, his favorites are Hide 'n' seek and tag.
-Cody knows over half the letter sounds as well as names them! (Thank you letter factory!) This surprises me, because neither Jacob or Lily had them down at 2 yrs, but Cody has loved watching that show and learning letters since he was real little, plus it helps that his bro and sis were working on this kind of stuff and he was also listening in :)
-HE is potty trained!! Yeah! my first kid to have it completely down BEFORE they are 3! and he has been at it since summertime!
-He HATES taking pictures! Which is why sadly I dont have a really good one of him on his birthday! I tried, but he is very stubborn when he has his mind set, and taking pictures is definitely one of those things!
Overall, he is a sweet, wonderful, loving kid that we sure LOVE to have around!

I thought I'd add in this cool picture Nephi got of the kids. We walked out of Lily's kindergarten performance and there it was! a double arc, and the first time we have ever seen a complete rainbow on both ends here in CA!

And of course, I had to show off what a pretty kitten Lily made for her kindergarten performance of The 3 little kittens!

Recent happenings...

So first and foremost, Lily broke her ARM! It is not a great story nothing fantastic... she was playing at chickfila, and was running away from a game of tag, she ran up a little 2in. high ramp for babies and stepped too far on the edge, slipped and hit her elbow in just the right way. It is a really small break, couldnt even see the break on the x-ray, but the evidence of a break was there, so the dr.'s still insisted that she needed a cast but only for 2 weeks, and I think it is mostly for pain issues and for protecting the healing from the normal kid things that happen day to day. Which I am very glad for because she has already fallen down face first sooo many times since she got her cast that I couldnt imagine what the last week and a half would have been like without the cast! Anyways, she loved it at first, hates it now, says "MOM, I CANT LIVE WITH THIS CAST ANYMORE!!!" almost every night. She had all her class at school sign the cast, and has been very popular because of the whole event. Actually that has been my favorite part, because this whole time her brother and all the boys in her class were all very tender with her. The boys in the class at first were helping her up anytime she was sitting down or going outside, or doing anything!! Writing, coloring.. you name it they were all there to help her!! She loved it! Until a few days later when she came home and said "no one even helps me anymore, no one even notices except for Kailee!" She obviously was very spoiled due to the whole thing, but she has gotten really good at drawing and writing with her left hand! Thank goodness it comes off this wednesday! I will have new pics this next weekend of a very happy little girl showing off her arm!
I ran a 5k again with my friend Holly and her mom Donette. It was the same one I did last year, and both times it happened to be the HOTTEST day of September! and of course the race didnt start until 9:00! It was in upland, and the course is the worst, well maybe not the worst, but it has a gigantic hill for the first mile, and in the heat it looked almost impossible both times! but this year was a lot better than last, I didnt want to die afterwards, actually I felt pretty good at the end. It helps that they had a few houses with hoses out to spray all of us crazy runners going by! That and the water stops saved the day! I shaved 3 minutes off my time from last year, and was pretty proud of that since I didnt expect much since it was crazy Hot. It wasnt as good as Holly at 27 minutes!! WAY to go HOLLY!! but it wasnt bad! cant wait to do more later this year and next! Thanks Holly and Donette! Ready for a 10k or a half-marathon yet?

Last but not least Nephi's cousin came down to visit California and we are always lucky enough to be included in their plans! They are so great, they have great kids that are older than mine, but they are so sweet and they all play well together. We love seeing them, especially since it always means a guaranteed beach trip! Thanks guys for the fun! Sorry we had to cut it so short! Love you!