Three Years Old!!!

WHAT!
Yes Bradley is officially 3!

After our visit from the Grandparents, Bradley was under the impression that his birthday was coming very soon. So for a few weeks we had to continually tell Brad, first Halloween and then it is your birthday. Somewhere along the way he also decided his "burday party" was going to be awesome. I figured I should actually throw him a birthday party in order for his day to be awesome.

We had a pirate pipa party! 

Complete with a treasure hunt and gold doubloons!

We shook "cannon balls" and walked the plank to find the pieces of the treasure map that led to the treasure!

Later that night we opened family presents and had cake and ice cream. 

 Clearly a pirate-tatsic birthday party kinda day.
I'm so proud of you Bradley! You are the cutest and sweetest three year old I have ever met! And a pretty good big brother too. (Brad requested that he and Luke both wear their pirate puppies shirts. See, such a sweet big bro.)

Halloween!

This year our family costumes were based on Jake and the Neverland Pirates! Brad was Jake, mom was Izzy, dad was Cubby and Luke was the Tic Toc Croc! We attended two parties in our costumes. But by the time Halloween was actually here we were a little tired, and cold, in our costumes.

 Cubby (a pirate from Jake and the Neverland Pirates) and the Tic Toc Croc!

But Luke and Brad still wore their costumes for Trick or Treating!

Trick or Treating with Mama cat.

 Brad was very proud to be Jake. I think he just really wanted a sword with his costume.

Other fun weekend activities...

We had so much fun with the kiddos last week! We did pumpkins, made cupcakes, painted, and played till the boys tuckered out and fell asleep. Luke thought that it was so exciting he decided to stay awake after the big boys fell asleep. He just wanted to spend some extra time with his Aunt and Grandma!

 After our Disney excursion we blessed Luke! We didn't do it in church because it was conference weekend- which is one of the only weekends Bishops get off! so my dad could come! I was pretty worried that Brian was going to add an extra middle name like chewbacca, or Skywalker, or Boba Fett. But no such names were included. Just normal Luke George Saponas!

 We love you Lukey Loo!

Disney trip

Last week my parents and sister and her son visited! So of course we had to take a trip to Disney!
I think going to Disneyland is pretty much my family's fave thing to do. Ever. We talk about it weeks before the trip, we talk about it weeks after the trip. We continually reminisce about past trips and our fave parts of the parks. We- especially heidi - obsess over the new developments in the parks. Pretty much ever since I was 12 Disneyland has been my family's preferred vacation spot.

I love it.

Yes, yes, we are disney geeks. We have a disney room for Luke, we have a fair amount of disney art, we have many many stuffed animals, and now that we live in California we visit disney 1-2 times a month. So if you are ever in Cali and want some company on your disney trip... we are here! ... just don't tell Bradley until we are ready to leave, otherwise he'll beg to go for days. I don't blame him, it is greatest place on earth.

Confessions of my day

Mom Confession
Today I did not change out of my jammies. I figured yoga pants and a shirt with some buttons seemed "dressed up" enough for today. My visiting teachers even came over. Today I just don't care to be dressed. I could lie and say I had more important things to do, but really... I just don't want to put on jeans and remind myself how my hips don't really fit anymore.

I also ate the end of a bag of chips for a pre-lunch snack. mmm it was great.
Then it took me 30 min to decide to heat up left over chicken for my lunch. Brad ate yogurt and deli meat and strawberries. I don't like cooking. Cooking = preparing food. I like eating food. If I wasn't married to Brian we would have lots of eat out nights or frozen pizza nights. The only reason we didn't have a frozen pizza day is that I'm not eating dairy for a while. Otherwise that would have been an equally good lunch.

For some glorious reason Luke took a 3 hour nap this morning... And I chose to make a curtain for my bathroom window instead of playing with Brad. I put on Toy Story 2 and let him veg. That too was great.

Yea, it is just one of those days. But I'm pretty okay with that. It seemed like a good one to me. Any day spent in yoga pants (where you do not work out) is pretty good in my book.

Farewell Endeavour

When Bradley was just 6 months old we took a road trip down to Flordia to watch the Space Shuttle Atlantis take off. It was the second to last space shuttle, from the NASA program, ever to launch. A historic event. Today we watched the Space Shuttle Endeavour, riding on a 747, take its final flight - which is the final final flight for all NASA space shuttles. It will land in LAX and then ride to a museum where it will be displayed. All this sadly signifys the end of the NASA Space program. No further human space explorations are scheduled or even planned for. -Correct me if I'm wrong-

 

 

It just so happened that Tim and Lou Saponas, my in laws, are visiting us. So you can see everyone watching as the Endeavour comes over the Sierra Mountains and into the Antelope Valley.

 

 

 

If flew rather close to us! Palmdale happens to be the actual birth place of the Endeavour. It was litterally built here. There is a road named after it for goodness sake! So naturally it had to do one last fly over in omage to its first home.

 

 

I had to zoom out it was so close! What a great shot if I do say so myself! You can freaking see the heat tiles on the bottom!

 

 

 

 Bradley thought it was very cool and proceeded to tell me for the rest of the morning, Mommy that Cool!! That airplane COOL!!

 

 Um this is where I live. If you questioned what the "desert" looks like, well this is it. Although apparently these Joshua trees are endangered and only grow here. It is actually illegal to cut one down if you have one in your yard. You have to wait till it falls down to remove it.

 

 

Our little family. I had Luke with me while I took photos and watched. I'm really happy that we were able to be here to say goodbye to such a world changing program. I really do hope we will start human space exploration again someday. It is just that cool.

Crazy, I know

We couldn't take it any longer. We had to take a Disney trip. Yes, with our 7 week old Luke and 2.5 yr Brad. So far it is a good but hot day.

Brads first ride of the day... Buzz.
Luke's first ride ever... Peter Pan!

Bradley Too

So yes, I've had lots of posts on Luke and hardly a mention of Bradley. Don't worry, he's still here too. Bradley has been, well, adjusting I guess, to the baby. I can see the frustration on Bradley's face when he wants so badly to touch the baby, but has chosen the wrong moment (like Luke is nearly asleep or feeding). Then mom says no and Brad throws a fit, or well throws anything in his arm's reach. Hard, but just a fact of life. We're all getting better at balancing Luke time and Bradley time, and Bradley Luke combo time. (Clearly Bradley is out with dad right now, and the baby is sleeping otherwise there would be no posting because Mommy time is nonexistent!)

In other Bradley news, we had the fortune of getting Brad's arm x-rayed again... yay. After a stealthy "sneak away and climb the shelves to get Brandon Roy's shoe" move, Brad ended up on the ground with a bin of toys on top of him and shrieking. Five minutes later the Missionaries arrived at our door for dinner. So we had a nice, calm dinner with a inconsolable toddler holding his arm and repeatedly yelling "ow ow ow ow ow ow." Was he liking the attention...? I think so. But the Missionaries were good sports and helped distract him so he wasn't focusing on his arm so much.

No break. Just a soft tissue deal.

He's better now, although any fit ends in him holding his arm and yelling "ow ow ow ow ow." So this should be fun for the next few months. I automatically feel horribly guilty when he does this because there is a good chance something does hurt but I can't help! The pic above is day two of "broken arm" time. A blanket, band aid and grapes makes everything better. Maybe a little Jake and the Neverland Pirates helps too.

Today has been a good Bradley day. I managed to not horribly upset Bradley when I was holding Luke and so Brad has been in a good mood all day. (I won't count the 10 minute fit on the way out of Target. That was more a product of late lunch and not getting what he wanted.) Hey at least we got out of the house today!

For the Grandmas

And Heidi.
I figure it has been a while since my family has seen Luke in action. Here he is at one month old! What a little kicker!

This is a pretty typical post diaper change experience. He likes being naked for a bit and moving his limbs around. Any grunting you hear, well that is just how he communicates these days.

Antelope Valley Fair

I know. We are crazy. But I'm going crazy staying home all week long! So we went out today. Of course we chose the most clean and germ free place to take our family this weekend... The fair!

Five years ago Brian was interning at Lockheed here in Palmdale. So we went to the local fair to kill some time. Who knew years later we would come full circle and bring our family of four to the same fair! Life is funny. Completely aggravating at times, but funny.

Anyways, we had a blast. It turns out toddlers LOVE carnival games, rides, and food. We let ourselves spoil Brad a bit by giving in and just having some fun despite some of the ridiculous carnie prices.

Brian took Brad in the googly mirror funhouse and the pirate adventure fun house. With some convincing, I took brad on the giant slide! (Brian had to convince me!) So much fun! I don't think Brian had as much fun in the fun houses as I did on the slide.

Then of course we had to visit the animals, booths, and arts and crafts area. This is such a cute, small town fair. Complete with quilt, collection, and table scape contests. They were judging a cheesecake contest while we were there. So small town and sweet.

We had planned on getting dinner buuut then we got dessert instead. Funnel cake! I've never had a funnel cake before. Brian didn't disappoint, he got "the works" which included strawberries, apples, pudding or cream, chocolate chips, and whipped cream. It was an epic sugar experience. Brad got an ice cream cone. We came home very sticky and full of sugar.

Luke didn't enjoy the experience as much as the rest of us and told us the whole way home. Oh well. We all lived.

Screaming, car driving, baby torture

I made it. That's almost all I can say. I survived my first kid dr appointment with both kiddos. Luke had a three week check up today. Yesterday Brian told me that he wanted to attend something at work and could I do both kids on my own.

Now or never I figured.

So the morning went great. The night was great too- which I now see was a tender mercy of the Lord. We were all up, fed, dressed, and ready to go by 8:30. We even arrived on time and the baby was asleep. I thought, "this isn't sooo bad. I can totally do this. " then we were called in and things started getting more complicated.

The act of getting Luke naked kinda put him in a bad mood. Which made brad crave a bit more attention too. After a quick weigh and measurement Luke was mad and Brad wad madly driving his car everywhere. Soon the doctor came in and began his examination.

I found it increasingly hard to hear the doc as Luke got more agitated and Brad drove his car on the chairs. But things still were pretty okay. Brad wasn't jumping off the chairs or throwing them, or trying to ride the doctor's spiny chair. So I can't complain.

Then the doc tells me he needs to fix part of Luke's circumcision. Hmm. I guess that is fine as long as I don't have to see it. I hate watching them give my babies vaccine shots let alone watching a knife go to my baby! I know. I'm the baby!

The doc leaves and I am able to calm Luke for a bit. Brad really isn't being bad. It is just really loud when he drives his car on certain surfaces in that office. So I compliment him on his good listening and patience even when the baby is sad. This makes him smile.

The doc and nurse come back with a bunch of pads and supplies in their hands and begin to instruct me on how and where to put the baby on the examination table. Then they start laying the pads down and swabbing Luke. I knew this was going to be complicated.

The doc reassures me that he doesn't need to cut anything, but I need to hold the baby's arms. This puts my back to Brad. As the baby got louder so did Brad driving his car everywhere. I swear it took all my strength not to break down when he started fixing Luke- which really was nothing. Just loosening some skin. Still. I thought my head was going to burst from all the noise and trying to talk over it and hear through it. I'm sure I missed some valuable instructions but it was the best I could do.

After the torture I fed Luke and sat brad down with some iPhone Blues Clues on Netflix. Luke fell asleep and Brad was chipper and held my hand to the car. At least they seemed okay after all that.

Thank goodness I had pain meds in the car. My head was pounding as we left. But we all made it.

Then I figured we'd go to the store while Luke was sleeping. This turned out to be an excellent plan and I bought a boatload of groceries. Even though I had lots of people go to the store for me there are just some things I never remembered to tell them and so I've been without mandarin oranges and hot dog buns for weeks now!

We even picked up lunch on the way home. Not too horrible of a morning I guess.

No no room

We have one room Brad cannot be in by himself. Of course it is the only room that he wants to play in and it is right next to his room.
We keep all our computer/ office stuff in there, plus all my craft stuff. ( I didn't realize how much craft stuff I had till it was moved into this small room.
At first Brad wasn't allowed in because of the sheer volume of wall to wall piles of books and crap. ( the unpackers really didn't do us any favors in this room.)
Never the less he escaped in there a few time.. Which ended in disaster. Over the last few weeks Brad found, opened, and emptied a bottle of diamond glaze, a bottle of sealant, a bottle of purple sparkle nail polish ( poured on my office chair) and a trial package of liquid fabric softener.
That room smells so weird right now!
I was quite frustrated each time I found brad with these products spread across his legs and the carpet.
Two days ago he squirted the fabric softener on the floor and I decided that was it. I've spent the last two days organizing and kid proofing the room
I found brad spreading crinkle paper around today. Grrrrr. At least I didn't need water and carpet cleaner to fix it. Just a vacuum.

Labor

I love reading my friends' labor stories, so I'll post mine because I know they have an equal love of labor stories. Sorry boys, it is just a girl thing.

Tuesday morning Brian asked me if there was any "action" before he left for work - he was anticipating a very busy day with the type of meetings where if he entered he would have to be there the entire time. So I said no and he went to work. Ten or so minutes later I started having tiny cramps or mini contractions.

I just had a feeling things were going to happen. So I made sure to take a nice shower, shave my legs, wear a cute outfit, and put on makeup. (all things I hadn't done for days because when you are ginormously pregnant you don't want to move) Then I decided to get stuff done.
Around 9 am I started having slightly stronger contractions. Nothing big. I figured if you could walk through it, it isn't that big, and doesn't count as real labor. So we went shopping for a few of my last minute wants before the baby came.

Brian called around lunch time and I told him there was a little action but not a ton. He came home 20 min later. I don't think he was looking forward to his afternoon meetings. ;)

That afternoon we were all business. Putting up curtains, mounting the foam mickey heads on the baby's room wall, packing a few last minute things, cleaning and general prep for the chaos soon to ensue.

Brian kept giving me looks like, shouldn't you be resting? No. The answer is no. Laying there waiting for the next contraction to come and timing it is the most boring, slow afternoon I can think of. My `afternoon contractions where the kind you have to pause, but when they are over you can keep going no problem. They were only 30 sec long and between 4 and 8 minutes apart. The doctor told us don't go till you are 1 min long, 5 min apart for 1 hour. I never really followed this pattern.

Around 5pm I decided to lay down for a while, and Brian decided to make some dinner. As soon as I stopped moving and laid down my contractions got real. Within 20 min they were starting to get big, longer, and closer together. But I really wanted to eat before we went to the hospital and I really really wanted Brian to eat since they don't provide the hubby any food.
This meant waiting another 20 min or so.
With a few pot stickers in my tummy we left for the hospital.

Of course we went the long way. Of course we hit every light possible.

We were admitted to a very busy triage and waited. Meanwhile I'm was now having very very long, very painful contractions. Well past where I had an epidural last time. I know that they were very busy that night, I know they had lots of preggo girls to take care of, but I swore we waited there forever before anyone even came in to start the process. We had to keep waiting between every little step. I was pretty worried that I would miss the time frame to get an epidural. Finally someone said well lets check you! Oh you are a 6-7!  ... liar I was a 7. Suddenly things picked up.

Guess what, those curtains they use as walls aren't sound proof. So next I could hear the nurses calling my doctor and telling each other I had a small shot of getting the anesthesiologist between his two c-sections. THEY HADN'T CALLED MY DOCTOR! NO EPIDURAL???!!

I was "gently" wheeled into the labor room. The nurse started pushing my iv fluids and madly preparing the room. LUCKILY the anesthesiologist walked in and graciously gave me an epidural between his two surgeries. He was so nice! He sat in the room for a while to monitor me and continued to tell us stories of crazy, inconsolable women who would not sit still for their epidurals.

I could still feel some pressure in my right hip. And over the next three contractions it got more painful instead of duller. The anesthesiologist smiled and said, well then that probably won't go away and I could be fully dilated, and left. Hmm.

The nurse said well let's just check you.

Here eyes got very big and she stuttered, well you're fully dilated!! Let me go get your doctor. DON'T DO ANYTHING!
Hmm.

Another minute later she began wheeling in other equipment and busily preparing. The doctor staggered in- you could tell they just woke him up even though it was only 10 pm. As soon as they were ready, 3 or so contractions later, we began pushing! Two contractions and he was out! Woohoo!!

Not a bad experience, but if there is a next time I don't think I'll cut it so close. Although I'm not sure when would have been a good time to go in. Oh well.

Luke is currently a sweet chill boy. After we were out of the hospital we figured out breastfeeding pretty well, so he is a good eater and a good sleeper. Slowly, I re-realize that he won't always be this way. In fact, next week he could turn into a monster and my mostly calm world will go away. So I'm trying my hardest to be equally chill and not stress and worry about every little thing.

Bradley LOVES his new little bro. Mostly because now he is a big brother, and I think he likes that title. Mommy isn't always his fave person- which is hard and sad when it happens. But we are working on the mommy bradley time so he doesn't feel so left out or ignored. He still has his toddler moments, but really, I think he is adjusting well. Thank goodness we'll have grandparents to help us out for the first three weeks. That fourth week is going to be a challenge, but I have my two little boys, and I couldn't be happier.

Luke

First Night Home

We welcomed Luke George Saponas to the world a few nights ago on July 24. He is so sweet. I'm still awed at the moment I went from one child to two. ...two is way better than one. Not easier, but so joyful I can't imagine life any other way.

I'll update more on our birth story later. But I wanted to post a few pics- especially for those photo hungry aunts out there ;)

One Hour of Affirmation

In my chaotic world I choose not to dwell on things that I can't control. One of those things I choose not to think about is what it will be like to have a newborn again. Can I do it? With two?

For those that knew me after I had Bradley, you probably know that I didn't have the easiest time with him in an infant state. Between healing "the hard way" from labor (ask if you want and I'll tell), a fussy but technically not colicy baby, and postpartum depression; I had a really rough go for a few months. Thank goodness I had Kyli's couch to sit on when I was so lonely. For those reasons, I really really choose not to think about the impending future of post birth.

Beyond the physical ailments, I also choose not to think about how I will be able to care for him. (For all my denial, I do think a lot about how the new baby will impact Bradley-I have lots of plans for this.) I am not a baby person. I do not have "baby instincts" or "baby skills." I've always awed at mothers who will claim to know things like, "oh he's just gassy, he just needs to be burped," "oh he's just hungry," "oh he is over stimulated and cranky," "he has a gassy belly" "he is teething" "he just needs a little rocking." What? I promise you the only reason my life had any semblance of order was because I did things on a schedule and had a mental of list of things to go through when Bradley was crying for an hour or so.. I guess I would rather just take what comes, when it comes with this new baby rather than worry about how potentially hard it will be - especially with two.

Today I had to pull out the mommy skills though. I was late into Relief Society and took the end seat on the back row only to find out that the next two seats were occupied by the woman who has two, young, foster kids in her care and a friend. Each woman had a child on her lap, then one began to fuss and the other began to run. So the mom set both kids with the friend lady across the way and ran to get a bottle and a toy. Naturally this poor lady could not handle both a toddler and crying infant at the same time, so I took the infant. Suddenly there was a bottle in my hand and the ladies were gone. hmm.

The only true mom skill I developed with Bradley was the bounce/rock. It was the only action that soothed Bradley for a nap. So after the bottle was gone I popped that binki in and started to bounce. The little boy instantly calmed. What? Did I do that?

Then the mom sat down beside me and whispered that this poor boy was abandoned and she only had him for a few days before he was moving on. Suddenly I couldn't let him go, I held him tight hoping he would know that for at least an hour he was loved. Instantly he was asleep and stayed that way the rest of time while I cradled and rocked him in my seat and cried in my mind for him.

By the end of the hour I knew that I could do it again. I knew that no matter what this new baby threw at me, even if I didn't know every second what my baby was feeling and how to fix it, I would always love him. And love him more than any other person in the world. No matter what hard things I must overcome in those early months, I would never give up. Ya never know, I may be lucky enough to have a more chill second child and all my angst is for naught.

Don't worry, this little boy will have a happy ending. An infertile couple is adopting him, and has even already adopted his older sister. He will have more than the one hour of snuggles we had, he will have a loving family to grow up in.

As for me it was a very revealing hour.

One

Today the ob told me the baby was low and I was 1 cm dilated. YES!

By the time I arrived at home I had re-written the word to "One Singular Sensation" in my head.
I think it would be an over-share to post them.
Still. YES!

My lunch was better than yours

Well, better than Brian's at least. It isn't like he comes home and brags about his awesome lunches out with coworkers. Only when it is new or really bad will he enlighten me on his lunch excursions. He figured out long ago I would just be jealous about all his yummy meals. Still, I know his average is way better than my best Mac n cheese or peanut butter sandwich day.

Today is different. I'm pretty sure my lunch was way yummier than his today.

After we moved to Palmdale Brian's old boss's wife corralled me into her playgroup. Since I hadn't talked to another mom in three months I eagerly attended their weekly play dates and have made friends with some of the other moms. At the beginning of the week one of the moms wanted to come play at the Valencia Westfield Mall (which is over the hills in Santa Clarita/Valencia). Oddly enough I checked out a book on tape for Brian from the Valencia Library when we were staying over that way. I've been renewing it online for the last few months and once again it is due, today. So I jumped on the bandwagon and drove the 45 min up to this epicly cool mall.

Yes we drove 45 minutes to take our kids to a mall, so they could ride a train, play in the play area, and ride the carousel. We are rockin cool moms. Then we figured we should eat some food before our kids melted down on stimulation overload.

This mall is extra cool because it has a Five Guys. Palmdale does not. As a pregnant person I have been deprived of Five Guys for the last few months/weeks I can't tell. Bradley feels equally deprived.

We drove up to the mall and he started shouting "Ive Guys!" For some reason the other ladies I was with have never had a Five Guys burger. So I felt the need to share the goodness!

Sorry no picture. My little bacon cheese burger was instantly inhaled.

The other ladies have two kids each, a 3 year old and a baby age baby. (I am very impressed and inspired that outings with two kids can be done!) They skedaddled after lunch- I done blame them. So Brad and I opted for some dessert! Of course he chose the cupcake with colored sprinkles despite my best efforts to convince him of a chocolate one. Oh well, it was delicious.

So at the end of the day. I'm pretty sure my Five Guys lunch could beat anything Brian could find to eat in Palmdale. Except sushi.

Keys almost in hand

We officially purchased a house yesterday! We've been keeping it on the dl because well, we really weren't sure it would happen. The whole process was soo slow compared to last time we purchased a house. I'm not really sure if the sellers were the cause or their less than helpful agent or if things just are slow here in california. Oh well. We made it. almost.

The sellers requested an extra 14 days to get out of the house after closing... so. now we are waiting for 14 days. We should get keys, etc, on July 4th!

 okay okay onto the photos!

https://plus.google.com/photos/105029818198756907003/albums/5743663384712317201?authkey=CJyyyKGVxJTo1gE

ta da.

There are captions that help explain the photos on the upper right of the screen - which is not the most logical place for a caption.

We are pretty excited, and I for one am very anxious to just get in this house! Can anyone guess why???? We will be in there 3.5 weeks before I'm due... yay. At least we will hopefully make it before my due date! The completely selfish side of me is frustrated that the sellers are taking so much extra time. We've met, they are such a nice family, they've seen me and my very pregnant self. Surely they must understand how much I want to get in and start making home? grrr. I'm sure they feel the same about us; We've seen their family, they have 5 teenagers, surely we should understand how much time it takes to pack up 7 adults and their past 10 years worth stuff.

Mickey Nursery

Brian told me it was okay to do new themes for the kids' rooms in our new house. I'm SO excited.
(We signed half the house docs on Tuesday, and will close next week!!)

As I am now in my 8th month of pregnancy and have not had any place to "nest" for the last three months, all I can do is think about what I will do when we move in. Those that know me well understand I have a NEED to create things. As a professional graphic designer this need was fulfilled on a daily basis. But as a professional mom I need to find other outlets. Luckily you can hand make tons of stuff for kids. (I have not had access to any "kid stuff making supplies" for months and I am going crazy. This little boy needs some home crafted mama lovin too!)

I've had a good example of a creative problem solving, my mom. So my creativity was cultured as a small child. I would hear my mom say, "we should have a cottage for the bazaar!" The bazaar was her business, if you are curious check out her blog www.forgetmenotdreams.blogspot.com. She doesn't do bazaars any more, but you will get the picture from her current business pics. Anyways,  months later I would watch a gaggle of adults put together the facade of a cottage... thatched-ish roof and all. Later she would declare they needed other things like a life size santa, a general store, and various winter wonderlands. You should see what she does with weddings now! My wedding was just the start!

So I like to "think big" occasionally. And themed kids rooms (while I still can) are the perfect opportunity to be creative in a big way. FOUR BLANK WALLS! What am I going to do with those four walls for my newest little boy... Micky Mouse Nursery! duh

I gave Brian a few options and he liked the big mickey head on the wall the best.

I don't know the room dimensions at all, so I'm hoping everything will fit in the space. I do have a few pics I took for reference, so I'm not too far off. I think it should be a good project to work on for a while. The walls are already yellow the only new pieces I would need to buy are the shelves and curtains. The rest I can make! I may make the curtains if I can't find them. (No the baby's name is not Camden, that is just a cute craft I saw on Pintrist and am totally going to copy.)

Over the top? Slightly obsessive?? I don't really care. I haven't had any real "space" or "home" to picture for months, nor any way to make progress towards preparing our home or myself for a new baby. I now feel slightly accomplished.

I currently have a car seat, baby clothes, and a nursery plan. 

What more could you need for a new baby?

Don't worry, in a few weeks we will have all our stuff back and moved into a new house. Why the Lord thought it would be best to cut things so close I will never know. But indeed; Things will work out.

Cars Land Preview!

We entered in the a lottery to preview Cars Land a few days early... We had four people enter and I won! But you could select up to six people to come with (if they had season passes) so we all got to go anyways!

We were allotted the 1-5pm time slot, so we hung in Disney for the first half of the day, and went over to Disney California for the second half. After a bit of confusion we realized they had put the wrong color wristbands on us (how were we supposed to know blue was morning and green was afternoon? We had to go get things straightened out, but we were able to get in line before our time slot.

They had us enter in the area between the restaurants in the Pacific Warf area (the food area with the Mexican restaurant, the Asian restaurant, and the bread-bowl place- side note they have added a Ghirardelli Chocolate store in this area!) As far as "entering Cars Land" this will be a side entrance, but it is an awesome way to go! Here are pics as you walk through this area:

I mean wow. Not only does it perfectly mimic the movie, but this desert area is so expansive it feel like you just stepped into the movie and can't even see the rest of Disney. It was quite the entrance!

We walked up and right there was Luigi's Tires! I think that some of the stores along the main road are in a different order than the movie, but everything looks so authentic you don't notice. Luigi's happens to look exactly like the movie. It is also one of the three new rides in Cars Land. It is a bumper car ride with a twist. It is a hover tire ride. Picture a tire shaped hockey puck on an air hockey table. Then throw in 3.5 ft beach balls. Right. Everyone starts out with a beach ball in their hands, and then when the cars start hovering you can throw your beach ball. (I keep typing breach ball.. labor on the mind i guess :)
  

No I didn't go on that ride.
Let me explain.

We went with Jeff and Shelly from Brian's work. They are some of our new hang out buddies and have a love/obsession with Disney that is equal to ours. This is our second trip to Disneyland together.
Jeff, Shelly and Brian wanted to make sure they got to ride the Radiator Springs Racers ride. There was only a 30 min wait when we got in, so they ran off (and took the camera with them) to go do that before exploring the rest of the land.

 Then the ride broke down. (Which is of course why they have preview days.)

But they stuck it out (nearly 2 hours) and were practically first on the ride after that! Preggo girls are not allowed, neither are short little boys, so Brad and I didn't go. But Brian raves that I will LOVE this ride! If I have time I'll post his movie later. But the cars inside are lifelike to the movie- with moving mouths, expressive eyes, and those unique cartoon "car movements" they have. It is similar to Test Track in Disney World, but this one ends with a race through the desert. Brian's car won.

In the mean time, Brad and I explored the rest of the land. But I only had my cell phone. So a toddler, a stroller and one hand to take pics didn't work out well. So I only have a few.

There are a variety of treats at the Cozy Cone, including drinks that come in "cone cups." The actual ones are cooler, with a built in handle and Cars Land sticker. It may be a $10 pop, but you will have a lifelong desk ornament boasting the awesomeness of Cars Land!

Other fun features were the Cars themselves! Mater and Lightning McQueen take turns driving out in front of the Cozy Cone for visits! They don't have the fully animitronic mouths, but their eyes move, they have hydraulics that make them bounce up and down, and they talk to you. Mostly they say funny lines from the movie, they don't say stuff like, "Hi giant pregnant girl in purple." Just, "Howdy there!" so yea. Brad LOVED meeting them.
We met Lightning first, there was no one around and we just walked up. But then Lightning started revving his engine and going up and down so Brad was a bit nervous at first. Hence no pic. But as soon as Lightning start talked Brad thought he was awesome and since no one was around he walked up and could touch him and take some pics with the disney pass. I'll have to find those pics sometime.

Then we went on Mater's junkyard jamboree, which is a souped up spinney ride.

The tractors are static, but the wagons swing around as the ride circles. It is a bit unique in that you don't actually go in a circle. You go along the outer edge of three circles and your wagon swings around as you exchange circles and change direction. Complicated mechanics, but really fun.

This was the first ride ever Brad was really nervous to go on. But as soon as we starting swaying around he was squealing with delight at every turn. The bonus about this ride is that it can hold A TON of people at once. We walked on this ride. After grand opening I bet all the rides will be crazy, so this line will move the quickest out of all three rides. It is worth going on a few times, for kids, it is pretty thrilling! It is pretty thrilling for highly preggo girls too and the older ladies across from us. It really swings your around!

After that we just walked around and visited each store. Eventually we gave up on ever eating with the rest of our party and went to Flo's V8 Cafe. I got a milkshake- very tasty.

 Brad got the kid's mac n cheese meal... pretty much cafeteria quality. Not really a surprise from Disney. Brian later reported his meal was of equal quality. But really, none of Disney's food is super great. Don't get me wrong, it is better than other amusement park foods, but still, not super great.

After our time was up we went to visit the new entrance to California Disney- Buena Vista Street!

It is very nice! Good shopping - finally- lockers, a trolley, and a breakfast/lunch place with a Starbucks and ice cream!


Lovin the new additions to California Disney!