Monday, July 9th - Disneyland!!! Part One

Before I begin I would like to explain WHY we went to Disneyland minus the usual reasons people would go. No, it wasn't so we could examine the experience from a spiritual perspective (although I think we did some of that in the van on the way back to the tent).  For us, we did go for alot of the usual reasons - I went when I was a kid and have always wanted to go back.  Who wouldn't?  It's the happiest place on earth!!!

Will didn't mind going because he has never been, however I don't think it would have been his first choice.

Aleana did NOT want to come along but we made her and insisted that she would have fun.  From the pictures you can see that we were right.  The boys were excited about the whole thing once I showed them pictures on the computer - otherwise they had no clue what "Disney" was.

When Will started school 8 years ago he promised the kids he would take them somewhere hot when he was finished.  Talk about a guilt offering.  For that reason I started a special fund to save for that special trip.

Well......alot can happen in 7 years and slowly that fund stopped growing and then it even started to dwindle. We had BCIT tuition to pay for, we bought a second vehicle, we had two more little blessings to love, we went to Brazil, the kids got bigger (which means lots more eating and clothing!!) and the children started school as well. 

Eventually, we gave up on the idea of doing a trip to celebrate Will's graduation.  We decided we would have to discuss the meaning of sacrifice with the kids and come up with a really awesome day trip.

Then...we had a large enough tax return last year PLUS our BIL needed truck drivers to bring some trucks down to Sacramento - it seemed like the perfect opportunity.  After all it's only an 8 hour drive from Sacramento to Anaheim :).  Me and my big ideas!! 

So there they all are - ready for a day of fun!!  37 degree fun that is!!!

As soon as you enter you will be greeted by pleasant music that will immediately

elevate your mood.

Our first order of business was to take the train around the park to see everything. 

It was busy but overall the line ups weren't too bad.

I may just like it here!!

Standing in line to take a picture with these guys was just dumb to me so here are some nice people posing with Goofy and Mickey. 

I've always loved this castle. It seemed sooooo much bigger when I was 5 years old.

I took this picture because this was the name of the colors that Will used to paint Nadia's room.

Same pink and purple.

Don't they look excited?

"Okay Ethan, don't get to close to me!"

My favorite ride as a child. 

It's a Small World After All.

Reliving my childhood.

The best part of this ride was the air conditioning!!!

So that's it for now.

Good memories!!!

WIPS and Cuteness

These cute little 2 1/2 " squares are going into Button's quilt. 

For the first time ever I will need to set up a Design Board OR use a table cloth and roll it up and away every time.  I am leaning towards the fuzzy tablecloth option because of tiny two year old hands that like to get into everything!! So that will be 428 squares to cut - gulp!!!  I have about 80 so far.

This is my first ever jelly roll I splurged on.  I try to use what I have on hand and it usually works as people do give me lots of scraps. However, for some things you need to buy to make it work or finish it off.

I WAS going to use these in the 2 1/2 " square baby quilt but failed to realize they are all batiks - they just shouted "we are pretty!!".

I don't know about you but I am under the impression that batiks need to stay with batiks.

I already have an idea for them but I want it to be a surprise and at the rate I get to things you will have forgetten about it by the time I blog about it again anyway!!

This is a peek at the fabrics that will go into the baby quilt.  I found some more the other day so hopefully

I'll just have to buy a backing for it and I did buy some white for a border the other day at Joann's.

More cuteness.

I found these two snuggling like this this morning. Peter was rubbing her hair and singing "Go to sleep little baby, go to sleep."  See how he has his arm around her body so she won't fall? 

In the middle of a hair rub.

These fleeces are for Peter.  Peter has been asking for a WARM quilt for awhile.  Matthew's baby quilt is super warm and Peter's is super light (and I've never been happy with it).  I was at Joann's on Tuesday and got all this for $10 - my design is simple - just need to find something to back it with. 

Next on the list will be another quilt for Matthew - because really is it really fair if I have done two for him and only one for Matthew?  In his eyes - NO!! 

Here's a little story about our States trip.  I went through the border to go home just after 1:30 pm on Tuesday.  About a half an hour later a female border guard was shot in the neck two kiosks down from where I went through.  I usually listen to the radio while I make dinner and at 5pm I heard that the entire border was shut down and everyone that was there at the time were being held because they were witnesses.  I felt this overwhelming sense of God's grace and love towards my family for the rest of the evening.  I kept praying for the border guard and her family - I even prayed for the shooter's family.

I am thankful that Peter did not have to witness this - that I did not have to witness this - that we did not have to be stuck there for 2-4 hours - that the rest of the family didn't have to worry about where I was and the list just goes on.  Thank you LORD!!!  The good news is that the guard is recovering well.

This is the flannel I bought for the crib sheets I am making for the baby.  Our old ones were already third downs when Aleana was born and they barely made it through Nadia - this project should only take a couple of hours.  I wanted monkeys because Will and I lovingly call our children "our little monkeys". 

More squares...

Throw pillows I sewed up in the summer.  This square was made by Aleana when she was 6!!!

I kept it for something special and the time had come.

Here's the back overlap because I have not sewn in a zipper since Home Ec in junior high.

I was very happy with these and the reason I am showing them is because I need to make two more.

The pillows are just sitting in my closet.

This is my Pink box.  They are random blocks that I will put together some day.

There are more but they are not ironed and are not show worthy (yet!).

Not sure where this is going but that's what random is all about.

This is part of the KING size bed quilt that continually hangs over my head.

Just need to sew these babies together and the top will be done. 

This one is not high priority as all the baby/children stuff needs to get done in oh about 17 weeks now.

I'm blogging all of this to motivate myself and I am hoping to do an up-date every week so you can see what I've done.  Okay, time to get to work - have a great week!!!

Sunday July 8th

Here is the church we went to on Sunday.  It's almost 40 years old.

The First United Reformed Church of Chino, CA.

My best memory is that of the toilet in the middle of the service. 

It's always a blessing when people clean their toilets :).

Doing the ol' bath in the dish tub camping trick.

Since it was 37 degrees out we didn't have to use warm water that's for sure!!  

Playing UNO with the kids.  Fun part of camping is all the card playing you don't always get to do.

I posted this picture because someone is peeking from in the tent but you can't really see it.

You can see how super hot Aleana looks.

Really good memories - thank you LORD!!!