Mom's Vacation Week

Mom and dad came up last week and spent a whole week with us.  It was wonderful, fun and EXHAUSTING!!!  I'm barely feeling recovered two days after it is all over.  But I wouldn't trade the memories for the world.  Wednesday we just started slow by hanging out with mom at Jana and Rachel's apartment.  Thursday they came to my house and we let the kids play until time for our girls night at Cheesecake Factory!  It was fun getting away with the girls, and the FOOD was great too! ;)  We went back to Laura's with our ten pieces of cheesecake and everyone tried all of the kinds...yummy! 
Friday is when things got crazy!  Jay left Friday morning for a camp out and I packed up the kids and our swimming gear and headed to Jana's apartment.  We went swimming for the first time Friday night and it was apparent that I don't expose my kids to the water enough!!  Both Jayden and Ethan were most comfortable in a boat that Cari brought, with lots of supports in it.  So they took turns using it.  Kayleigh begrudgingly stayed in the water for a time, with various adults, but preferred to be out running around the perimeter of the pool.  She scared me to death several times!  I was certain she would slip and careen into the pool far away from where we were.  (needless to say, we started setting rules that she stay by the table or be in the water with an adult after that day)  I found out in the course of the evening that at some time I had driven over a road hazard that put a hole in BOTH of my passenger side tires.  Luckily, Laura had a compressor, so I pumped them up once that night to keep the rims off the ground.  We stayed up ridiculously late: after I pumped up my tires, we put the kids to bed, and then Mom and I went to walmart. We went in search of more boats and groceries needed for Saturday.  We found them, but thought they were smaller so we didn't buy them.  Returned home at 2 am and got a few hours sleep before getting up and starting on the business for the next day.  I woke up in time to pump up my tires again and have Dad take me to discount tire right when they opened.  We got back and visited the pool for the morning and it worked out well.  Most of the kids weren't there so Jayden borrowed one of the big kid floaties that seemed stable to him and swam around with that while Ethan enjoyed the boat.  They were having so much fun that the hours flew by!  Before long it was noon and we got out, bathed the kids and ourselves and got dressed.  Then mom and I went to costco for things for the Saturday reunion and Sunday birthday party.  By the time we returned we ate a few bites of lunch and then I made fondant while they raced to put together stuff for the Brown family reunion in Kaysville.  Even with everyone working we were an hour later than planned.  (I'm not sorry though, an hour longer at the park would have made me MORE tired!)  The kids watched the ducks and played around the pavillion until time to eat and then we went and played on the play ground.  I felt bad not getting to talk to the fam much, but I was alone with the kids and afraid of what might happen if they got away from me by the creek that runs through the park.  And they had a great time, especially once I finally let them go to the playground!  Jayden is pretty self sufficient, so he just went wherever all over the play ground.  There is one perfect slide for smaller kids on one side that I showed Kayleigh and Ethan after they were tired of digging in the wood chips.  It was the perfect size for them to go on even by themselves.  I showed them the path up the stairs and across the bridge to the slide and back to the stairs and they went around and around till time to go.  Kayleigh was particularly funny; she is so small, she would often plop right on her bum at the bottom of the slide because she couldn't catch herself with her feet.  But it didn't even phase her.  She'd just get back up and head for the stairs again.  When I reached my limit of exhaustion, I loaded up the kids trekked home to Jay who had returned from the campout while we were at the reunion.  I would have loved to go to bed, but instead I worked on the birthday party prep till after midnight.  (I got a second wind and its a good thing!  If you read my post about the birthday, I needed to stay up that late or something probably wouldn't have gotten done!)
I will leave out Sunday since I included that in another post, but it was another long, though incredibly wonderful and rewarding day.  Happy Birthday Jayden!!!
I stayed up pretty late Sunday again visiting and relaxing after the party.  I was planning to get to Jana's apartment to start preparing for Arin's shower by 8...(yup, ANOTHER event! :)  I couldn't make myself get up quite as early as planned and was pretty sore so my movements were slowing down.  I forgot to mention that Jana and Rachel live in a third floor apartment.  I am pretty out of shape, overweight, and six months pregnant, so after a few days of walking those stairs several times I was FEELING IT!  After dressing the kids and one more trip to walmart for shower necessities, I didn't get there till 11!  And then we wanted to let the kids swim again.  Mom went to walmart and ended up buying those boats we saw as well as a ton of other floaties and it was a great thing!  They weren't smaller like they appeared, they were the same, plus they had a sun shade.  So we had tons more for the kids to play with and they all had a wonderful day.  Maybe too wonderful.  We were there for hours and apparently didn't reapply sunblock frequently enough so many of us got burned at least in some places.  Luckily the burn didn't kick in for me that day.  Some of us went to Laura's to prepare for the shower while the rest went to buy stuff for it, and we got it put together in time.  I felt pretty good except for my stair weary legs! 
It was a great party.  We don't get to see that family very often and lots of them came, even from far distances.  It was nice visiting and just seeing everyone.  Teri brought some particularly beautiful and sentimental home decorations that brought tears to Arin's eyes and we all shared a special moment.  How exciting to watch Arin anticipate her special new life to come, an unforgettable evening because we shared it with so many amazing women.  After everyone left, I dragged myself home and plopped into bed.
Now by tuesday, I was pretty close to hitting the wall.  Ethan was up in the night suffering from his sunburn, and I didn't sleep so well myself.  During the night, I was convinced that we would not swim the next day.  I suppose the wiser thing to do would have been to stay home completely. However, I am so zealous about seeing my family when they come to town.  That, combined with my desire to give my kids every opportunity for fun and memories, made me drag myself out of bed and pack up again for Jana's.  Everyone was pretty exhausted by Tuesday, but the kids, even Ethan still wanted to swim.  So I went and got a couple more shaded boats for the kids who we wanted to keep out of the sun, and we put extra sunscreen and t shirts on them and headed back out to the pool.  I struggled even at the store, but didn't even think of asking just to stay in with Kayleigh.  She never really grew to love the water.  We forced her to be in there on the other days, and she tolerated it as long as their were lots of adults to keep passing her around.  (I think she was really just trying to find one to understand her pointing toward the edge of the pool where she wanted to be! )  She was happiest playing in the shade by the pool.  We went down at right about nap time for her.  She even tried to curl up and go to sleep on my lap and on a floaty on the ground under the table, but could find no rest and was getting very grumpy.  I also was progressively feeling worse even though all I was doing was sitting in a chair in the shade!  Luckily, Mom, Cari, and Candice suggested I go in.  I felt like I barely made it up the stairs and by the time I got there I was cramping so I started feeling anxious about the baby too.  Kayleigh and I laid under the table until it went away and then I got us out of our swimming clothes and laid down for a nap.  It was SO nice to just rest and I was thankful that Jayden and Ethan could still be out having fun.  I still felt miserable when they came up and I just wanted to go home.  So we said our goodbyes and I drove home.  Jay let me go right to bed and put the kids to bed.  (SUCH an AWESOME husband!  Especially since he had spent the day digging in the sun and was extremely weary himself.)  Now two days later, I feel almost completely back to myself and all the effort was worth it.  We had such a priceless week with Mom, Dad, and Cari's family.  We are so blessed to have such a large family with wonderful cousins to spend time with.

I only pulled out the camera one time all week.  Here's some of our swimming fun!

Our little sunbather

Reunion and Camping

I didn't get any pics of this last weekend, but wanted to post anyway about our one camping trip of the summer.  Jay ended up being on call and couldn't go to the Jensen reunion with us, but since I rested most of the week after mom left I decided to take the kids by myself and let them have a mini camping trip.  The fam was really helpful, Laura let us stay in her tent.  (Jayden remembered sleeping out a couple of summers ago in her tent and was really excited to repeat the experience.)  We left bright and early for the reunion and met the family at the camp ground.  It was only about a two hour drive, but Jayden kept asking if we were in Nevada yet.  He thought it was a pretty long drive.  My fam reserved a camp ground in Manti by the temple.  I haven't been back through Ephraim for years and enjoyed seeing it again.  The reunion was fun, but really hot and tiring!  Ethan completely wore himself out!  He had been playing forever on the playground and the swings and was looking pretty sick to me.  I was swinging him and kept asking him if he wanted to get down and get a drink and he was determined to keep swinging.  Finally, I insisted, and as he got off the swing he threw up EVERYWHERE!  I guess I should have insisted earlier!  Kids are so funny!  I can't imagine he was even enjoying himself with the way he looked, but he was so reluctant to shorten his fun that he just put up with it.  You'd think I never let him outside to play!!
Back at the campground we played on another more well shaded playground.  The kids got to enjoy roasting marshmallows for a minute...(At least I hope they enjoyed it.  My paranoia takes away from those kinds of experiences.)  Roasting marshmallows was the one thing Jayden looked forward to beside sleeping in a tent.  I think it's funny he likes to roast them, since he doesn't even like to eat them.  I guess it benefits me since I can eat them.  I was excited when someone pulled out the sparklers and drew them away from the fire :).  Jayden got burned and decided they weren't so fun, but we had tons, so the other kids played for a long time!  Kayleigh and Ethan even lit some.  Kayleigh wanted to touch the flame at first, but Heather showed her how much more fun it was to wave them.
We had a slow moving morning and then packed everything up and went home.  I don't feel like I did much, but I was so tired when I got home that Jay took care of the kids so I could take a nap!

The Big 5!!!

I am late posting, because of a REALLY busy week/month, but I wanted to take a few moments and talk about Jayden's landmark birthday!  On July nineteenth my big boy turned 5!  I can't believe the time has gone by so fast.  He was so excited and seemed to know what an important birthday it was.  He talked about how he was soon going to be five for weeks before. 
What a fun five years it has been for me!  Of course we were very excited for his arrival since we felt we had waited a long time for him and we have certainly never been dissapointed.  Our whole world revolved around our little Jayden man.  And he sure LOVED the attention!  He was a ham from the very start, always making faces and doing silly things that made everyone laugh.  He has also always been very active and rambunctious boy, I feel like I am correcting him constantly, and sometimes feel like I am talking to a brick wall!  And yet, he is very sensitive in many ways, wants to be good, TRIES to be good, and is way to hard on himself.  Just the other night he was crying because he felt like he wasn't a good boy...(talk about ripping a mother's heart out!  It confirmed that I am stealing his self esteem!)  It was nice to be able to talk to him about how much I and Heavenly Father and Jesus love him.  And that they just want us to try our best, because they know that will make us most happy.  But that none of us are perfect and we just have to let things go.  Not to mention that he IS a REALLY good boy and does so many wonderful things.  I know I probably lean too much toward laying down the law.  But I try really hard to let him know how AMAZING I think he is.
It is difficult to describe in words, but he is very sensitive, kind, and observant...the reason it is hard to describe is because it is hard to come up with examples.  But I see it almost every day, in what he says and watching his little mind work...it is one of my favorite things about him.  I really feel like it is a gift.  He seems very aware of others, and concerned for their well being.  We saw a homeless man, and he asked me about him and why he didn't have a home.  He asks me questions like that a lot, when he sees things on the news etc...  He seems so aware for his age and I am always surprised by what he observes and understands when we watch the news, or when Jay and I are talking.  And he wants to make connections and learn new things too.  He really keeps me on my toes with his questions.  Not to mention delighting me with his discoveries.
In less than two weeks I will have to put him in kindergarten for the first time...  I don't know if I am ready for it!  He can't wait and is always asking how close it is, so I am happy for him.  But I have loved having my kids all to myself, and I will miss those times.  In short, I have felt so blessed to have such a special, amazing little man come into my life.  He teaches me so much and enriches my life more than words can say.


I am going to include a few of his favorite things and then I'll talk about his birthday party!
Favorite color: Red
Favorite food:  chicken nuggets, mac and cheese
Favorite toy:  bumblebee, optimus prime, turtle puppet
Favorite tv show:  transformers, curious george
Favorite things to do:  playing, riding his bike
Favorite Restaurant:  Olive Garden and Burger King

We celebrated his birthday on Sunday, the 18th.  It followed several BUSY days so we were working all day preparing for the party not to mention being TIRED from an already crazy week!  All the preparations are worth it though, when everyone has a wonderful time.  Jayden wanted an Optimus prime truck cake.  I found a pretty fun looking cake online and looked forward to the opportunity to try it out.  I started making cakes and rice krispy treats in the days before, but hadn't finished as much as I had planned to when Sunday morning rolled around.  (You know, stacking, frosting, and covering the cake with fondant :)  Then when I started rolling the fondant that I had prepared the day before, I discovered that forgetting to put it somewhere cooler than my car the day before, had ruined it....  So luckily, I had bought extra fondant supplies and I rushed to make another batch.  With the help of Jay, my mom, and sisters we got the house ready, the food ready and the cake ready, just in the nick of time!!  (well we worked on the cake through the party, but it was done in time to sing and cut it up! :)  I spent the WHOLE day on the cake, the rest of the food was made by my mom and Jana. (not to mention, Rachel did all the painting on the cake and helped me the whole time with that.)   Thanks guys!  What a great day it was.  Jayden helped me remember the final touch I forgot: oreo sticks for smoke stacks. He seemed pretty happy with the cake after they were added.

Grandpa Turpin was one of the first ones there, he read to the boys while we finished preparing the party.

We had so many family and friends there to wish him a happy birthday.  Even my parents and Cari were in town.  As usual, I think Jay made the party for the kids.  We bought a bunch of squirt bottles for the kids.  He found a big squirt gun and ran around with him against all twenty of them.  A couple of times he tried to jump over the crocodile pool, slipped and fell in getting soaked from head to toe.  SO fun to watch him being a kid with all of them! 

This is just after he fell into the pool for the first time :).

Presents!

Cake!

After the cake and the presents we tried to calm things down with a little sidewalk chalk.  I wish I got a picture of the driveway before the rainstorm yesterday!  It was very cute.  A huge rainbow and tons of the kids names who were there with their drawings.  I love summer birthday parties, they require very little activity planning yet always end up a blast!  Happy Birthday Jayden!

Yet another vocabulary post...

I didn't get a good list of Kayleigh's favorite vocabulary words so here's a few more:
EEEoow-(meow)
sniffing sound- (oink)
CHEESE!- usually means cheese, but occasionally, just stands for food
Ice and Eyes-(she says both of these words perfectly :)  so cute)
Boo-(Book)
Ree-(read)
eese?- (please?)
She also says DON'T pretty clearly as well.  She is really good at letting people know what she does and DOESN'T want.
Yah! Yah!  This one is thanks to her brothers.  She says this when she is swinging a sword or other object at Jay.
App-o - Apple
tank oo - thank you.  She really says it well, but I usually have to remind her to say it.



One more fun conversation from today.  Jayden and I were looking through a name book and talking about names for the new baby. I put the book down and Kayleigh started looking at it. I asked her jokingly if she was going to help us find a name and she shook her head. Jayden said: “I don’t want her to pick the name. She might pick a name I don’t like, like Kip.”

A couple more words of wisdom...

We'll start with Ethan...  We all know he loves hats, particularly the underwear kind...  Usually when he wears them he is Megatron, or bumblebee, or assorted monsters or superheroes.  This past week or so, whenever he puts on his underwear hat he says:  "I'm a workin' man!"  in this tough little voice.  So adorable!

I forgot to write what an amazing sharer Ethan is.  (Jayden is usually pretty willing too, but with Ethan it's almost like second nature!)  A couple examples...  Ethan was in the middle of one of his many attempts to potty train.  If he went in the potty I gave him only 2 M&M's.  Kayleigh was around when I gave them to him and wanted one too of course.  I planned to pull out another, but before I could he handed over one of his!  Then yesterday, I gave Jayden and Ethan Creamies.  I hadn't given Kayleigh one yet and she went up to him and he took turns with her taking licks till it was gone.  It's funny, because he seems to love to torture her sometimes and she has often avoided him because of it.  But lately they are becoming little pals.  I often find the two of them playing together, or sitting together in a box, or whatever other game they come up with.  I love to watch my kids develop relationships.

Jayden has three that were just remembered or brought to my attention.  He watched Iron man a while back with his daddy at the theater.  Apparently it didn't hold his attention too well.  He was very polite when they got home and said he liked some parts, though he didn't sound too enthusiastic.  A few days later we were watching word girl and they defined the word lackadaisical.  As he often does, he asked me:  "What does lackadaisical mean?"  I proceeded to give him the definition they just gave on the show....bored or you don't care.  He said:  "That's how I felt when we watched Iron Man."

Today he told me that dogs have two names dog and doggie.  I was distracted and just gave a generic agreement.  He reiterated and said: "You know, just like hippopotomus."  (hippo, hippopotomus)  I love how his mind works!  (he is always trying to put together facts and tell me enlightening things he has learned.)

Now for my favorite, he was talking to Jay and said this:  "I feel bad for Darth Vader.  He is so sad because he made bad choices and lost his family.  And family is the most important thing to make you happy."

Just a couple little statements from our little language learner.  Today she was a chatter box as usual.  She said "boop"  and pointed to her diaper, signifying the need for a change.  tick-o tick-o (tickle tickle) is another favorite phrase.  She is amazing at NO and uses it frequently...Today we met Jay's brother David's new puppy.  Several times when Java would bite things (like the table runner on the coffee table)  Kayleigh would say "NO!" in an autoritative manner and try pull it out of her reach.  I hope I didn't already write these but just in case, here are a few other vocabulary words...  Mow=  "more", "I want that", "I'm hungry", "can I have one of those?"  Ba= "drink"  "I want my cup" etc...  uP (well enunciated P)  just what it sounds like; but it also means down. Tee too= thank you.  I think what is so amazing about her is her ability to communicate.  With gestures and pointing she makes it pretty clear what she wants, and has done for a long time now.  And I am particularly amused when I can tell she is enunciating carefully or making unmistakable movements with a piercing stare at me.  It is funny, like she is talking to a child who is not such a good listener to make sure they (I) hear and understand her.  She is very forbearing! :)

Love my kids!

Cute kids!

I started this months ago...here is what I can remember :)

I am doing another cute things the kids have said and done post.  But I wanted to start with something my friend posted on facebook today, I thought it was so cute.  Her son and my son Jayden are good buddies.  Here's the post:  Zack:"Mom, who can I marry? Can I marry Emily?" Me:"No zack, you can'y marry your cousin." Zack:"Can I marry you then, Mom?" Me:"No Zack, you can't marry someone in your family, it has to be someone who's a friend." Zack:"Can I marry Jayden then?" (Jayden is a neighbor boy, and Zack's BFF) Me:"No zack, it has to be a GIRL who's a friend." LOL!!! 
They are pretty close pals.  Zack is Jayden's favorite person to pray for.  And of course he never understands why Zack can't come over every day after school.  Zack missed preschool yesterday and Jayden told me about it a few times and seemed so dejected :).  Kids are too cute.  He loves to go to school, loves his friends, and can't wait for kindergarten.  He is constantly amazing me with the things he understands and his desire to do good.  A couple of times he said swear words and I told them what they were and he was SO upset.  I had to explain to him that he didn't know so it isn't bad...and that I am just trying to teach him so he'll know in the future.  He likes to tell me the things he knows too and lately when I try to tell him something he says "Mommy, I already knew that."  He is very mischievious and does get into trouble, especially when his friend Zack is around.  But I love that I can trust him to be honest with me.  He will tell me after church or school..."I was a little bad today, but I will try to be good."  I also think it is funny how early they learn social things, or at least have a desire to be cool.  Jay overheard him talking to another kid and he said.  "That's my mommy, but I call her mom."

Ethan is my little story teller.  Jay is always telling the kids stories, and he has always loved to hear them.  Now he likes to tell them too.  This is just one of many he has made up for me.  First of all he always says "once upon a time" to start...so adorable.   So here it is: "Once upon a time there was a transformer.  He stepped on a tree and got hurt, and he got a sick pop, and said 'I LOVE IT!'"  His current favorite word is DESTROY!  He frequently includes it in his stories, like, "I am going to destroy megatron!  Or "optimus prime said DESTROY!" or "the monster tried to destroy me!"  Lately he likes to tie it to Jesus and I had to talk to him about that.  He said "Jesus DESTROYS people"  I had to tell him that he is nice and wouldn't do that... So now he says "Jesus can destroy people, but he wouldn't do that."  (I guess it's a small improvement.) I wish I could record how he says it, I love it.  He always uses a lower more menacing tone.  (as if he could look menacing with that sweet baby face of his)  His favorite things are super heroes.  Earlier this year spider man was all he cared about, and his most current favorite is batman.  He really likes action figures.  It's funny how they have their own favorite things.  Jayden has loved transformers seemingly from birth.  He loves to transform them and always wants to be able to do it himself.  I thought it was just because that is what he was taught to like.  But Ethan proves that isn't necessarily so :).  He also loves hats and capes, etc.  When occasionally he chooses my lingerie, or a dirty pair of Jayden's underwear and I have to take them away, he is so upset.  "but I wanted to be megatron!"  He has about four hoodies and I had to try and make sure that there was always one clean because he only wanted to wear a "hat shirt" all through the winter.  This last couple of weeks I have had to explain several times that it is too hot for them and he wasn't too happy about that.  But he has settled for baseball caps most of the time. :)

Kayleigh is going to be trouble!! She knows exactly what she wants and is very good at communicating it. She is also already a little teenager in some ways, or maybe just a typical emotional girl. She is amazing at the cold shoulder and withering stare. And when we misread her request for something and give her the wrong thing, she just throws it with a total attitude. Like, "how dare you try to give me this!"  Even though I think some of those things are cute, she also does some really cute, and nice, things too!
 Lately she really wants to be friendly.  In primary she doesn't want to sit with me, she often finds another teacher or member of the primary presidency to sit with.  And she's the same with our families too.  She has just discovered waving and loves to wave to people.  Today at church, she kept waving to a man sitting by us, trying to get his attention.  She's the best cuddler too(I am lucky enough to have three cuddlers, I am just happy about it with her because when she was younger, she NEVER wanted to.  She saw it as an attempt to force to to sleep or contain her in some way.)  I love how she lays her head on your shoulder and then holds on tight to your shoulders to really cuddle in close.  She says a lot of things too.  Hi of course, and no are really clear.  She also points down and says "boop" when I am changing her stinky diapers...so funny.  Yesterday she was meowing when Jay showed her a cat in a book.  She is such a good mimicker, she can mimick what we say pretty clearly sometimes.  I forgot to tell another cute story from several months ago.  She crawled around the corner of my bed and saw Jay at the computer and said "ieee daaeee" (translation hi daddy).

As always, I am thankful to have them and to see how amazing and wonderful they are.  They are the greatest blessing I can imagine.

Disney Trip

This has been sitting two months waiting for pics too!  Someday it will have pics :)

We had a wonderful trip last week to California.  And though it was tiring in its own way, it was so wonderful to get away from my pigsty :).  I had hours in the morning that I didn't even know what to do with!  And we had so much fun!!

We started our drive Friday Morning.  Being the responsible and health conscious mom that I am (not to mention neat and clean...), I made sure to stop at Krispy Kreme as we drove through Orem.  Then I busted out the bag of super size cheetos that Jayden picked out a few days earlier.  Ethan liked the breakfast I chose, I couldn't get him to stop even long enough to take a picture.  I did pay for it later when I had to scrub smashed pink sprinkles, glaze, and cheese off of Ethan's pants later that day :).

We spent a laid back weekend with the family.  Basically, the only thing we did beside hanging out at mom's house, was make sure we fit in trips to our favorite Vegas restaurants! :)  (Again, health conscious...All my fun revolves around food!)  Our first day we went to Baja fresh for lunch as soon as we got into Henderson.  (Darn Utahns like cafe rio better, so all of the SL ones closed!) 
I loved this restaurant called ricardo's, and was so sad 10 years ago when it closed.  LITTLE DID I KNOW, there has been another location open all this time across town!  I happened upon this info a few months ago, and was determined to find time to go.  Mom was so kind and watched our kids for us so we could have a date on Saturday.  We hunted down a few toys r us's while we were over on the west side, went to Ricardo's and then visited my FAVORITE mall.  I don't know why, but I love it.  It has some of the most fun stores, and I just like the atmosphere.  I really enjoyed being in Vegas this trip.  Sometimes I miss it more than others, and this was one of those times.  I am totally happy in Utah and feel we are in the perfect, right place for us.  But I LOVE some things about Nevada.  I was feeling so nostalgic this weekend, and I totally enjoyed all of the familiar things that I always loved.  As well as the familiar people I saw at church.  It felt so good to see people who had an effect on my life as a teen.  It's nice to know that though years pass with little contact, the good feelings are still there.
Of course my favorite thing about going home is seeing all of the family.  I was probably a burden this weekend, because I didn't do much of anything.  I enjoyed the family, and had fun just talking and watching all of the action around me.  I love that my kids feel so welcomed and loved even though they don't see their Nevada cousins as frequently.  And the older kids take such good care of them, especially Kayleigh!!  Kayleigh loved the attention, but is such an independant little soul. She didn't let anyone hold her for long.  Meg was particularly helpful, she spent most every moment with her.  One night, mom was trying to sing Kayleigh to sleep, and a bunch of the kids gathered around to help her.  It was very entertaining.  And as you can see, Kayleigh liked it.
All of the cousins are very familiar with Disneyland and were telling us their favorite things and getting Jayden so excited about it!  I LOVE to watch kids talk.  I don't know why, but they say the cutest things, and sometimes I am suprised at the things they understand at their young ages.  And I love to watch the good feelings between cousins.  At least as far as I noticed, they all got along SO well.  It takes me back to my own childhood and all of the laughs we had with our cousins.
After all of the family fun, we woke monday morning and started toward Disneyland.    My dad sent us with his GPS and it was SUCH a blessing!!  We used it before we even left Vegas to find a restaurant to get breakfast at.  And then used it a million times to find stores and places we wanted to go.  We went to countless stores that we would not have attempted without it.  And got to see some places we wouldn't have otherwise.  It was AWESOME.  We decided to find costco in San diego, and before you know it, we were there.  And even when we misunderstood her directions and made a wrong turn, it would recalculate and send us to the right spot anyway.  Best. Invention. Ever.  THANKS DAD!!!
And disneyland was so confusing!!  Even with the GPS, it took us a few tries to actually find where we could park.  It is so big and the roads wind all over the place.  Finally we arrived, much to Jayden's excitement.  Ethan loved disneyland, but Jayden was the only one old enough to anticipate what was coming.  We got on the tram and they all thought that was a ride, we were getting off to a good start!  We spent the whole time at California adventures until it closed.  We got to see lightning and mater and then Jay and Jayden went on soarin and watched the bug movie, while Ethan, Kayleigh and I played in bug land.  Then went on Toy Story mania.  I liked that one, but it was the only substantial line we waited in the whole time we were there.  Just before it closed, Jayden took me on Soarin.  I loved the ride, it was amazing (in spite of my height fears :)  But the best part was Jayden.  He was so happy to be taking me on it for the first time.  He was telling me about some of the things we'd see like the snowy mtns.  Then when we saw the mountains on the ride, he was like "See, I told you about them!" and after "See, I told you it was fun."  He was so accomodating, and so proud to be the one showing me something.  I thought he was adorable.
In the two hours at disneyland, we rode buzz a couple of times (Ethan and I continued to ride while daddy and Jayden rode space mtn),  Ethan, me and Kayleigh rode the carousel several times while Jayden and daddy rode...  That turned out to be one of Ethan's favorites! After that we found pirates, splash mtn (this time we watched everyone splash while J and j went), and finally the haunted mansion.  It seemed we were running from place to place to get as many in before it closed.  We got there a couple hours after opening, but were still TIRED by the end of the day.  But it was so magical.  Even walking out down mainstreet was fun.  I LOVE the look of everything.  All the shops and the vendors.  What a place.
Tuesday followed a similar pattern.  We arrived bright and early for the magic morning.  At first we all rode a bunch of the fantasyland rides together.  Ethan only wanted to ride the carousel and was EXTREMELY reluctant to ride many of the others.(Okay, he pretty much cried on all of them, and through the lines.)  I started using the carousel as bribe and told him that every other ride he went on without crying, he would get to go once on the carousel.  That helped him get through Toad's wild ride, but he lost it on snow white and then it was only thanks to the ride operator giving him a flash light to hold that he survived pinochio...and it was touch and go.  I kept telling him to shine the light on the bad guys to "get them"  when his terror seemed to be overcoming him.  Jayden and daddy wanted to go on toad's again, but we gave ethan a break and let him ride the carousel.  He did find one other ride that he really liked.  The Dumbo elephants.  At first, he was not so keen on that ride either, as you can see by this face.  But once he realized he could move it up and down, he was hooked.  After that he wanted to trade back and forth between the carousel and dumbo :).
Another highlight for day two was the Jedi training camp.  Jayden was tired and rested in the stroller with Kayleigh.  But Ethan seemed very excited to see Darth Vader!!  We went on the Nemo subs and then Ethan fell asleep and Jayden was so tired he begged to go back to the hotel.  It was only 2! :)  We agreed to, but Jay wanted to go on one more ride first.  So he and Jayden walked over to big thunder mountain railroad,  and I parked by the exit with the kids.  That ride gave Jayden a second wind.  He LOVED it, and begged to go two more times.  Then they decided to go on soarin one more time and I ended up parking to watch the pixar parade.  Ethan slept FOREVER.  I tried to wake him several times before and during the parade, but he saw the first half through a fog of sleep and didn't really wake up till he saw buzz lightyear.  It worked out well though,  he did see his favorites there at the end.  Jay and Jayden had watched the parade too and then went to our agreed upon meeting spot.  Since I hadn't seen them, I decided to wait outside the hollywood back lot for them.  Long story short, we kept missing each other and it took us about 45 minutes to find each other.  Then we finally went back to our room.
Wednesday we drove down to Seaworld and it was the perfect relaxing day after all of the running around.  I loved the drive.  I'd never seen the ocean and it was fun to see the beach on the places the freeway got close to it.  Jayden was as excited as I was.  He had talked about going to the beach several times before we even left home for our trip.  I was navigating the map and got us lost right off the bat, but we got to the first show (the sesame street show) just in time to meet elmo and cookie monster before going in.  We didn't meet any characters at disneyland and the boys seemed really shy, but excited too.  Ethan was wearing a cookie monster hoodie and cookie monster came up from behind and hugged him as we were walking away.  I wish I got a picture of it.  So sweet.  They didn't love getting sprayed at that movie, but they survived :).  We went straight from there to the sea lion show and it was so cute!!  I loved the little sea otter, and the sea lions were so fun to watch, and cute when they would smile and show personality.  Then we mosied around looking at all of the aquariums before going to a pet show.  It was cute and the kids had fun.  They had mostly cats and dogs and a pig doing little tricks.  The pig hit a button that made water spray the audience.  Ethan said "That's a naughty pig"  We stopped and grabbed a little snack and then headed to Shamu.  We parked ourselved only a few rows back, right in the middle of the "soak" zone.  Jayden had talked about this several times before we left too, and he did NOT want to get splashed.  We wanted to be close enough to see them really well, but I will admit I was VERY concerned about how little our kids would like getting soaked with gallons of water...  Jayden could tell that we were in a wet place (maybe it was all of the people around us in ponchos... or my nervous comments :)  But he seemed to want to run away and was really close to crying.  We assured him it would be fun, but he didn't lighten up at all until the show started.  He calmed down really quickly when the show started.  It was awe inspiring seeing those whales and all they did with their trainers.  Jayden was mesmerized.  And he handled it well even when we did get splashed.  I tried my best to cover Ethan, but he wasn't so happy about it :).   Luckily, that first splash was our last and it wasn't even from Shamu.  (THOSE WERE THE WORST!!)  We were remarkably lucky.  Three of the five main front sections (of which we were in...)  got SOAKED!!!  For any who have not seen the show before, apparently Shamu likes to splash people.  And even when it is 60 degrees outside, his trainers and people in the audience do a sign that encourages him to splash people...Sounds pretty asinine to me! :)  We did not participate in encouraging Shamu if that is what kept him from stopping in front of us, I'M GLAD!  He takes his MONSTROUS tail and flips a wall of water over the people unfortunate enough to be in the path.  And he never did it just once, he did it three times to the hard hit sections.  It was amazing to watch how far it went, but I was thankful to just be a spectator.  After all his hesitation, Jayden was hooked.  We asked his favorite thing from the day, and he said Shamu, and even asked if we could go back the next day to see the whales again.  I don't know if Ethan was as sold, just because he HATES getting wet, but he still seemed to have fun.  We went to the kids area after that for a little while, and headed home before the park even closed.  So far the weather could not have been more perfect!  Sunny and warm, but not too warm during the day.  And a light jacket was plenty in the evening.  We took a long time getting home because we stopped at costco for dinner and some bottled water, and then stopped at the temple.  The kids were asleep around this time so we decided to see how many toysrus's we could find along the way.  It was pretty fun!
Thursday was Universal Studios day.  It wasn't really cold, but there were clouds that lingered most of the day.  We didn't do too much there either.  Jay went through the house of horrors and then he and Jayden went to the terminator show.  Ethan, Kayleigh and I watched the coke water fountains while we waited.  They were pretty cool!  At one point I let my curiousity get the better of me and went to see what looked like a control panel.  It had a bunch of buttons you could push to set off different water fountains.  The first few were pretty fun.  Unfortunately for me, I tried all of the buttons... and the last one actually turns on a fountain right below the buttons that soaks your pants!  Who ever came up with that has a sick sense of humor!  Tons of people walking around looking like they wet their pants!!  While I was sitting there I saw several other people victimized by the same button.  I tried to warn a couple of them, but I was too late.  It was a good place to sit for a laugh, I must admit :)  Another funny thing I noticed later was that there were actually two little "control stands" So one of the buttons actually turns on the other stands sprayer. I was showing Jayden the buttons and had him push that one and someone was standing by it. OOPS! MY BAD...
We saw their animal show after that.  (sorry seaworld, your pet show is no where near as cool as universal's)  They show a bunch of animals from the movies and show how they train them.  And the host was really funny.  My favorite part was when they released a big bird from Evan Almighty (sorry, I sound like an ignoramus because I'm not sure what kind of bird it was :)   They released it from a box behind the audience and it soared right over us!  Seemingly inches from our heads.  It was breathtaking seeing that huge wingspan up so close.  I liked that he would tell us which movie the animals were from too, that was kind of fun.  They had the little husky dog from the proposal.  He's so cute!
Next we saw sponge bob on the way to the shrek show.  They really liked him!  Jayden seemed particularly happy.
Ethan, Kayleigh and I wandered the simpson area while J and j caught the simpson ride.  Then for the highlight of the day GEORGE!!  In the george play area there is this awesome ball room.  There are tons of little machines that help you pick up or shoot the balls.  My favorite one was right in the middle.  You could dump tons of balls in there.  Then you hit a button and they all go flying everywhere.  So funny!  I think we planned to avoid the water part of the george play area but Jayden wanted to walk through it.  Then Ethan wanted to join him and daddy.  They tried a couple of things that they could just spray and stay relatively dry...  But before I knew it, they were running around getting SOAKED and having a blast!  I was so suprised because my boys don't generally love getting wet, particularly by water getting dumped over their head etc... But it was the coolest little water park ever!  Tons of levers to turn thing on and off and ropes that sent water pouring out, guns, faucets,  it was awesome!  In the summer I imagine you could stay there all day and never get tired of it.  We took a little break in the middle to go meet george.  I think this was one of the highlights for both of them.  For anyone who doesn't know....my boys absolutely adore curious george.  If I ever remind them it is on they drop EVERYTHING to watch it.  They love his movies, his books, toys, everything!  They both went up and got their picture taken with him.  Then ethan blew him a kiss and just couldn't leave.  So after a couple other kids stopped for pics, George came back over and gave him another hug and kiss.  Ethan seemed in HEAVEN.  Then I could tell Jayden wanted another hug, but he was a lot more bashful.  With a little encouragement, he ran back over there.  I loved how accessible the characters were!  I guess there weren't that many kids there, but we could have sat there as long as we wanted with him.  There wasn't that much competition for any character and we saw a lot of them around.  I really liked that. (Since we saw almost NO characters at Disneyland.)
They headed back over to get wet again!  At one point this monster bucket unloads over the middle of the play area.  There are lots of warnings and a count down and Jay tried to talk Jayden into leaving the ground Zero of the bucket, but as he sometimes chooses to do, he ignored Jay's instructions and Jay had to save him from the downpour.  I guess it was a pretty good lesson on obedience...  That was pretty much the end.  They were all soaked and it was clear they were getting too cold.  I was afraid they would get hypothermia or something.  We took off as much of the soaked stuff as we could.  Then we stopped to pick up a quick souvenir and left.  We went to the car, stripped them down and put them in the warm, dry jammies we had in the car.  (We were so happy we had them!)  Then they slept while we headed home.  We actually drove a little around hollywood with the assistance of the GPS and saw some amazing houses and some kind of scary areas too :).  We got back on the freeway and ended up stuck at practically a dead stop, because of a lane blockage or something.  When we first got on the freeway, it was an estimated 35 minute drive to our hotel.  It took us nearly two hours to go about 4 miles (that is NOT an exaggeration)  I wish I had noticed the little detour button on the gps sooner.  I finally did notice and we managed to shave a little time off of our commute.  Our car did have a little hiccup while we were at that dead stop.  It sounded like it was going to die, but then kept idling and had no more problem.  We chalked it up to the fact that we had been idling for two hours and didn't think too much more about it.
Friday there was steady rain pretty much all day.  I ran to walmart in the morning and picked up some ponchos.  We put them on the kids and Kayleigh was not happy about it.  We assumed she would get used to it and walked outside to wait for the bus to Disneyland.  There was a pretty good downpour out there and Kayliegh's objections got a much more forceful.  It was clear that it would not be a good thing for her, so she and I stayed at the hotel while the boys braved the rain.  Even in the couple minutes outside the stroller was very wet.
They didn't get back till after 2 and though they were extremely wet and tired, they seemed to have fun.  We tried to walk across the street to outback for my birthdy dinner, but the boys struggled to even go that far.  Ethan's pants were wet almost up to his diaper and he cried pitifully with each step so I finally picked him up and he laid on my shoulder.  To make matters worse, it was an hour before it opened when we got there.  We tried to wait a few minutes, but it was just to cold for our already frozen children.  So we took refuge in the red robin and played video games for a minute.  When Jay's two quarters ran out we crossed the street and walked through target till four.  The dinner at Outback was worth the wait...it was delicious.
We had been thinking of skipping our San diego Zoo and beach outing we had planned for Saturday because of the rain, but what happened next solidified that plan.  We went to our car so we could run to walmart.  But it was immediately driving so badly we were afraid we wouldn't make it.  We drove to the target and parked and called my amazing uncle who knows cars.  He told us it was likely a spark plug, a disconnected vacuum hose of some kind, or a plugged fuel line problem.  He helped us as best he could over the phone to find the spark plug or disconnected hose.  He eased our mind that at least we wouldn't destroy our car if we drove it and that it wasn't a MAJOR problem.  Since we couldn't find any problem, the only other thing we could think to do was put a fuel injection cleaner in it.  So Jay did and it seemed to improve things to the point that we felt it should make it to Vegas.  I was so thankful because I didn't want to be stranded in LA! 
We got up and out of the hotel as early as we could and started our trek back.We stopped frequently to top off so we weren't dredging up the dirty gas a the bottom of the tank and it drove pretty well.  At one point, we gave the boys baggies of gummy bears to eat.  Kayleigh loudly expressed her desire to have some too so I started breaking off pieces and passing them back to her.  She was so funny!  When she would want another one, she would yell  "na, na!" or "ba, ba!" and reach her hand up waiting for me to put another one in her little palm.  When I decided to cut her off of the gummy bears, I tried to give her cereal.  She knew I was trying to pull a fast one and she threw it!  She is such a stinker!  We made it back without any problems.  I was a little sad we had to miss the Zoo and the beach, but we were all so tired, it was probably for the best.  And it was nice to be back early enough to visit a little more with the fam.  We talked till pretty late, and then got up and left as early as we could.  (Jay had to be home in time for the super bowl)
We ended up having to stop in mesquite and find a Chevron to get more fuel injection cleaner because it started really acting up again.  That was our only problem.  We stopped in Cedar just to top off and then worked our way home.  Our kids were very travel weary that day, they were ready to be home!  I was so proud of how good they had been on the trip.  Especially with all of the driving we did.  I couldn't blame them for being a little ornery that last day.
Jay watched the super bowl and we both spent the evening trying to relax.  I think I am recovered now, but I still need to catch up on my house!  Monday it took half my day cleaning the car.  I had to pull out our shop vac to clean out the piles of cereal on the floor.  When we were driving, I gave the kids baggies of cereal or crackers to snack on.  Maybe that was a mistake, but it did keep them happy at the time.  It looked like more got into the car than their mouths :).  Though it ended a little rough, it was an amazing trip.  I just wish we could afford to do it every year.  I LOVED it, all the more because the kids loved it.  :)