Tubby Time

Bathtime has gotten much easier and quicker now that these two squirts can take a bath together, and they absolutely love it. Raylee does get a little annoyed that Jackson always ends up scooting across the tub and squishing her against one end of the tub, and Jackson should get annoyed that Raylee always takes the toys away from him, but he doesn't. He just entertains himself with some splashing.

Nothing like two clean kiddo's right out of the tub, one of the best smells there is! Too bad this can't be a scratch and sniff post!

Picnic in the Park

My family decided to get together for one last hoorah before Leslie left for BYU-I and so we decided to have a picnic at the park. We had just got our new camera and were having fun taking some pictures, although I am ashamed to say that I didn't get one of Leslie! There were a couple of really cute pictures, so I thought I would post them, although we are still trying to figure out the ins and outs of the camera. The picnic was lots of fun and gave us all one last Tweety fix to hold us over for the next couple months until we get to see her again!

One Year Older and Wiser too!

On August 27, my baby girl turned three! It seems like I just blinked my eyes and she went from a little baby to a 3 year old!

A few things about Raylee right now:

• She is teeny tiny. She only weighs like 24 lbs, and is a lot shorter than other kids her age.


• She is really shy. She is really quiet around people she doesn't know, and she still won't go to nursery by herself.


• Her favorite toys right now are her baby dolls, princess figurines, snap'n style dolls, and mega blocks. She also loves reading books, doing puzzles, and coloring.


• Her favorite TV shows are Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, and Dora. Her favorite movies are Cinderella, and the Letter Factory.


• She loves the alphabet and is always making me spell everybody's names.


• We always sing her a couple songs when we put her to bed, and a few of her favorites are I am a Child of God, I love to See the Temple, Jesus wants me for a Sunbeam, If you Chance to Meet a Frown, Part of your World(Little Mermaid), Itsy Bitsy Spider, Mean Old Witch, and Santa Claus is Coming to Town.


• Her drink of choice is strawberry milk, and her favorite food isn't really anything, unless you can count candy or junk food.


• She absolutely loves her little brother, and plays with him all the time!

Raylee was so excited for her birthday this year. For like the whole week before she would ask if it was her happy birthday yet and on her actual birthday she told me a few times throughout the day to tell her Happy Birthday.

Corey had to go into work for a couple of hours, but we let her open her presents as soon as he got home from work.

She absolutely loved her Cinderella dress up, and wore it all day long.

That night we went up to Coreys parents house and had a little party for her.

Then we went to the county fair! We go every year and it worked out that it happened to be over Raylee's birthday. She definitely didn't mind!


Jackson got to hang out in the stroller, while Raylee wasa going on all her rides!

Then we had a birthday party with my family for Raylee and Hailey a couple days later. Raylee thought it was pretty cool she got to share a cake with her cousin!

Bowling

This year for the Bird family reunion we just stayed around the Salt Lake Area and did a bunch of fun things, but the only activity I remembered to take any pictures at was the bowling. It was Raylee's first time bowling, and she had fun but I think she had just as much fun playing around with Ashlyn while the rest of us bowled!

My Grandma was nice enough to hold Jackson the whole time so I could bowl and help Raylee bowl.

Pioneer Day

For Pioneer Day we headed up to Bear Lake with some of Corey's fam! I loved the beach we went to, although everybody else seemed to love it too because it was packed! I have never seen so many people packed in to a beach before, but luckily we found a place to set up for the day! After we got set up, the guys left us to go golfing, and we just stayed on the beach and played! Raylee loved it because the water was so shallow for such a long ways out, so she could go for quite a ways before it got to deep for her.

I brought this little pool that my mom had given me, and it worked perfect for Jackson. I just filled it up with water and while I was sitting in a chair reading, he still got to splash in the water. I did take him out in the lake, but he wasn't such a fan of the waves hitting him!

We ended the night watching fireworks after getting back from Bear Lake.

St. George 2010

For the fourth of July we headed down to St. George with Corey's family for 6 days of fun, fun, fun! We ended up renting a house instead of doing hotels or condos, which turned out to be so much fun! All the kids got to play together, so Raylee was able to get some quality cousin time!

I was also able to get a 4 generation picture with Jackson in it!

The house that we stayed in had a swimming pool at the house, which was tons of fun! We were able to go swimming as much as we wanted, whenever we wanted, and didn't have to deal with others in the pool! It definitely made me want to get a pool in my backyard!

Jackson absolutely loved the pool after the initial shock of cool water. I think he fell asleep in his little floatie every time he got in.

Corey was able to go golfing 4 times, and when he wasn't out golfing he was playing Tiger Woods golf on the wii! I got to do tons of shopping, swimming, and reading just about every day, and we of course got to spend some time with Corey's grandma! It was such a fun, relaxing, vacation, and I still wish I was floating in the pool soaking up the rays!

The Drive-In

Corey and I both love drive-ins, but for some reason we usually only make it to one each summer. Where else can you see two movies for the price of one (if you can stay awake through the second one!), bring your own treats, not have to worry about how loud your kids are, wear your pj's, and cuddle up on an air mattress! I was pretty excited when we ended up going to one so early in the summer so hopefully we could make it to another one. We went with some of my family to see Toy Story 3 and Prince of Persia. It was tons of fun, as always!

Baylen ended up with the reclining chair, so Corey decided to pretend he had one as well.

Behind all those kids, is my mom, and unfortunately for her she ended up having to watch the movie with at least two kids on her lap the whole time, and sometimes three!

Corey loves to rock out to the awesome elevator music that was playing on the station before the movie started!

Fun Times!!!

Disneyland!!!

On May 14th we headed down to California for a week of fun with my family. Everyone was able to go which made it even better! We all drove down on Friday the 14th, and we ended up renting a van and carpooled with Emily, Dave, and Bailey. We stopped in St. George for a little b-day party for Ashlyn, and then drove a little further to Prim, Nevada where we stayed the night at Whiskey Petes. We had a hard time finding our way to our rooms, and so we kept circling around the casino, until finally a worker asked if we needed help. We got quite the looks from people in the casino. I guess they don't often have large families staying in a casino, or maybe they just thought it was funny that we were lost. Who knows, but I still laugh at what we must have looked like wandering around in there.

On Saturday we drove the rest of the way to Anaheim and we ended up getting there a little earlier than we could check in to our hotel, so we decided to go to downtown Disney for awhile. Raylee loved the big Disney store there and was in heaven looking around at all the Disney things.

After we got checked in to our hotel, the guys and Leslie left and went to an Angels game and we just stayed back at the hotel, had pizza and went swimming in the pool. That night we went up to the roof (or firework viewing deck) of our hotel and watched the fireworks from Disneyland.

We stayed in a suite in the hotel which had two separate rooms and a little common room that connected the two rooms. Since we had two queen beds in our room Raylee got to be bed buddies with Leslie.

The guys brought a playstation and set it up in the little common area. They could be found here playing any spare second that they had.

On Sunday we went to the beach! The weather was definitely not the best, but it was still a ton of fun. Raylee was a chicken when it came to the water and this was as close as she got although she loved the sand and would have been content to play in it all day long.

I spent the whole time on the blanket holding Jackson while he slept.

Dave made a big hole so that he could bury one of the kids, but none of them wanted to so my dad decided he would be buried. He looks like a member of the lollipop gang :)

After the beach we went to the flea market near by which was absolutley huge! We spent hours in there and never ended up seeing it all.

Monday was our first day at Disneyland. I can't even tell you how excited I was to take Raylee there and I definitely wasn't disappointed! We of course had to get a picture in front of the castle. I was handing the camera to my mom to take the picture and I dropped it before she had grabbed it. It ended up cracking the case of the lens and started taking fuzzy pictures. I couldn't believe that I had broken our camera the first hour we were in Disneyland, but luckily Corey was able to fix it enough that the pictures weren't blurry.

The first character we saw was Buzz Lightyear and Raylee was definitely not to sure about him. She hadn't ever seen Toy Story so she had no idea who he was. The only way she would go up to him is if someone carried her. I was hoping she would be better with the other characters that she actually knew, but she never did get much braver.

Our first princess spotting was Princess Tiana. Raylee loves Princess and the Frog and loved seeing her although we never got to get her autograph. She talked about "Princess Tinana" for hours after that!

The rest of these pictures are just from Monday and Tuesday at Disneyland. Just a bunch of character and ride pictures! I only brought 1 hoodie and 1 pair of pants for all of us because for some reason I thought California would be warm, so that is why we are in the same clothes in every picture!

Raylee was attached to my moms side the entire trip! She didn't want to go on any ride with me or Corey if Grandma was available to go with! She wouldn't even let us push her stroller and would throw a fit if we tried! If she wasn't a grandma's girl before this trip, then she definitely is now!

There were a couple of rides that Raylee couldn't go on because she wasn't quite tall enough. She was pretty sad on a few of them since most of her other cousins were tall enough to go.

Probably my favorite moment of Disneyland was the Playhouse Disney Play. Raylee was so cute to watch during this play since she knew most of the characters in it. She was dancing and singing along, and really getting into it! For lunch one day, instead of going out of the park to eat we decided to get one of these turkey legs to share. It was huge and delicious!

Raylee loved seeing the princesses, especially her favorite princess Cinderella.

My mom and dad were nice enough to take all the kids back to the hotel on Tuesday night and let all of us go on some of the grown up rides.

On Wednesday we took a break from Disneyland and had another day at the beach. We started at a beach that had some tide pools which were really cool. Everyone had fun looking in them and seeing what creatures they could find including crabs and hermit crabs!

Then we went to another beach to swim and play in the sand. It was still a little chilly that day but we still had a blast!

The best moment at the beach was when we Jared and Baylen were in the ocean and we saw a seal right by Jared, so we were all yelling and pointing at them so they would look over at it, but they thought we were telling them there was a shark in the water, so they got out of the water as fast as they could!

The guys and Leslie had lots of fun playing on the boogie boards in the ocean.

I once again spent the time holding a sleeping Jackson. I guess there was something about the sound of the waves that lulled him into a deep, deep sleep!

On Thursday since it was our last day there we woke up early enough to get there for the opening which is when all the main characters come out to the entrance.

While were standing in line for Mickey, Raylee was waving to him and saying hi, but as soon as it was our turn she got super shy and wouldn't even look at him. The mickey was so cute and was playing peek a boo with her until she warmed up to him a little.

Then as we were leaving after our picture, he stopped me and started playing with Jackson, and then he gave him a kiss with his nose. So cute, although Jackson doesn't looked to thrilled about it!

We sent Raylee up to see Pluto with Ashlyn which she didn't appreciate. She went to stand by him for his picture and he put his paw on the top of her head and as soon as he did that she booked it out there as fast as she could. So we only got a picture of her on the run!

When Corey and I went to Disneyland 5 1/2 years ago we had some green cotton candy that we loved, and so we were on the lookout for it this time. Jared ended up finding it for us in downtown disney and it was as good as I remembered!

Since it was the last day we went back to the princesses hopin there would be different ones but the only one that was different was Jasmine.

And of course we had to get a picture by our letters!

I think Raylee was the perfect age to go to Disneyland for the first time and was so much fun to watch with the characters and rides! Raylee said her favorite ride was the Dumbo ride and the Hunny ride (Pooh Bear). She liked all the rides except for pirates of the carribean, and did a lot better than I thought she would. Jackson was an angel the entire time, and would only get sad when he was hungry. I kind of felt bad for him since he spent so much time in the stroller, but he did so good!

This trip was SO much fun, and went by WAY too quickly, but I loved every second of it!!!