Pinewood Derby

Our cub scouts had a pinewood derby fundraiser and anyone was eligible to race a car. I thought I'd get one for Tyson, but when we went to the scout shop to pick one up, Zach got excited too, so they each got their own. I did my best to shape something that kind of resembled cars out of the pine block, and they painted them on their own. They couldn't wait to race them tonight. It was fun seeing the excitement in their eyes as the cars raced down the track (even though their light cars were among the slowest).

DISNEYLAND!!

We are huge fans of Disneyland! A few weeks ago we suddenly decided it was time to go to Disneyland, but we wanted to go before the summer crowds and before I got too pregnant (yep, 14 weeks along). So we did some last-minute planning and everything actually worked out. Marlo (Paul's sister) & Brock came with us, and we it was so much fun being there with them. Here are some highlights:

We tried a hotel deal from Expedia's unpublished rates (which is kind of like Priceline, except they tell you the rates upfront instead of making you name your price, but you still don't know what hotel you're getting). We ended up getting a great rate, but our older hotel wasn't super impressive. Overall though, I think we got a good deal. It was 3 miles away from Disneyland, so we took their shuttle, which wasn't too bad, but not our favorite. Next time we want to try getting within walking distance.

Tyson just LOVES Kelsey (and all the Kirkhams)! They are some of his absolute favorite people.

No matter what you say, they will continually climb on things while waiting in line. Oh well, cause really, no matter what the "cast members" say, it's not going to hurt anything in most cases.

Zachary and Kate have so much fun together. They have very similar independant and fun-loving personalities.
I tried to get the boys to watch "A Bug's Life" on the trip down so they could get extra excited about A Bug's Land, but they had a hard time getting into it. The Backyardigans are just too hard to compete with.

I'm really not the parent who wants to buy my kids overpriced theme park propoganda. But after riding Buzz's Astro Blasters, Zach started playing with this light-up Buzz and Zurg. He had them talking and fighting, and he just couldn't pull himself away from them. Seeing his face aglo with such excitement was too much for me. But it was the best purchase ever - instant and lasting companionship for the whole trip!

Yay for Tyson's height! It was so fun being able to take him on all the bigger rides (with the exception of the Hollywood Tower which is terrifying. woops, I just remember it being fun). The crowning moment of this experience was seeing the sheer excitement on Tyson's face as we rode the river rapdis ride. He kept blurtng out hyped-up phrases, not all of which made sense. But we all understood.

The Toy Story ride is so dang fun.

Miscellaneous

At the church museum with cousins Lani & Cali

Tyson and his friend Seth at the downtown library

Free Zoo day (or should I say "freezing" zoo day,

actually it wasn't that cold and the reptile house was nice and warm)

We hang out with the twins a lot. Zach loves his cousins Luke & Lucy!

Discovery Gateway

We've had so much fun with the Discovery Gateway last year, and now our membership is about up. I think we'll find another cool place to get a membership this year. The zoo maybe? Open to suggestions!

The store is just as fun as the play areas.

Baby Anna liked it! She is getting cuter by the minute, if that's even possible, and she looks just like her dad & mom.

Cute picture of the Noall family!

What good aunts Natalie and Kellie are!

A self-proclaimed "Woody"

Lucy just gets me! I just can't take her unassuming beauty and sweetness.

CHRISTMAS!

Can we juuuuust go in now?

Some parents put bows on their kid's presents...

"What? I AM smiling!"

"Got what I need..."

Tyson got a few more pieces to add to the collection...

"All I need is your presence..."

(we didn't do gifts for each other this year,

but we're totally fine with that)

The Young brothers

I'm way behind...

Back in December we all went to Natalie's dance concert, "The Polar Express". Awesome job Natalie!

Addison is a pro picture-poser. Tyson -

still working on it.

At the Festival of Trees

Tyson loves his puzzles. He finished his new 100-piece Toy Story puzzle all by himself, and it was his first time ever doing it.

Boys love dress ups too...

Back in the fall... (what, we actually wanted to be outside?

... It seems like ages ago!)

I LOVE FREE STUFF!!

I started couponing a few months ago and I'm HOOKED! It's extremely entertaining to get screaming deals, AND I've taken a serious chunk out of our monthly grocery budget, at least 1/3 so far. I'm working on getting the budget down to 1/2 of what we've been spending for years AND we have more food and goods in our pantry than we have maybe ever AND we get to try all new kinds of foods and products. And it's only been a few months.

In fact, it's so entertaining that I wanted to take a picture of a bunch of free stuff I've scored lately.

Yes, ALL THIS STUFF WAS FREE!!

Here's another picture of free stuff I took a week or two ago...

And, yes. That's good stuff...like my favorite razors I determined I was too poor to buy.

This isn't even everything, of course, since we ate and used many items that never made it to the photo session.

It is work to get all the deals, but I just don't mind it cause it's fun, and I love free stuff.