On The Third Day Of Christmas My True Love Gave To Me; Three Cold Sores, Two Princess Birthday's, And A Staple In My Sweet Carson's Head

So ya, I've been a blogging delinquent lately. But there is just SO MUCH going on and I can't seem to find a minute or 30 to sit down and document it all. My birthday passed (along with Thanksgiving). It was great as far as birthday's in your thirties go. Trevor took a whole day off the week prior to take me to the Happiest Place on Earth. Just us again. It was awesome. Rob and Ashley joined us and it was fun to play big kid style. I got a new camera bag from Trevor. I love it. I normally wouldn't write down my gifts but I was trying to remember what I got last year, and the year before and the Christmas's and Anniversaries in between. I couldn't. And I have a great memory. I've just misplaced it lately.





Thanksgiving was a quiet affair. Just us and Mimi and Papa. One great turkey, and an almost empty movie theater after, we deemed it a success. By the way, Tangled is all kinds of cuteness.





Black Friday brought the world 33 years of being graced with my presence. Trevor gave me the royal treatment and made me (or ordered me) breakfast in bed. Later in the day, he took me to Harry Potter and then out to Thai food. Perfection.

Monday brought me a new niece, in all sorts of dramatic style. It's not my place to give all the gorey details, but let's just say I'm so thankful that Chelsea is alive and baby Jillian is out of the NICU and home to a family that loves her. Yes, it was that dramatic. Too many blessings to count.



Friday night started out just dandy. We had a ward Christmas party and I love valid reasons not to have to cook dinner. We brought a non-member friend of Preston's who was spending the night at our house. We got home a little late, but I didn't want to be a fuddy-duddy mom so I let them play a little XBox. Evan and Luke were also over for a late nighter. Carson Walker was irritating Preston Scott a little too much (or a lot too much) which subsequently caused (or forced, in Preston's words) Preston to kick him hard enough to project him into the open door of the entertainment center. Now I'll skip the part where Trevor dang near burst a blood vessel screaming at Preston, the many, many, MANY tears on both Carson and Preston's part (Preston was devastated) and jump to the emergency room part. I only had to wait 90 minutes to see a doctor (a doctor straight out of Grey's Anatomy named Scott Walker...Carson loved that). 90 minutes of trying to calm a very nervous, very anxious, very injured Carson. I thought for sure he was going to give himself an ulcer over the anticipation of stitches. Stitches he didn't get. Evidently staples work best on scalps. One was all we needed, so there was no reason to numb him. The lidocain shot would be more painful and take longer than the actual stapling. He didn't cry but it hurt. Bad. So bad that I took him to get a Happy Meal at 2 o'clock in the morning. Trevor and William were up waiting for us...yes...at 2:30 am. Little stinker is teething again.

Saturday brought a visit from Santa. Carson passed his present request via me...chatting with Santa was just not in the cards this year. Normally I would have forced him to ask for the Remote Control Motorcycle himself but the boy had just been stapled back together and was running on very little sleep. I took pity on him. I was supposed to go to a photography workshop that afternoon, but napped instead. Good thing I did...

...because Sunday morning, William woke up at 3:00 am and partied until 5:00 am. He also demanded my audience at this party. Not all was lost, "The Prince and Me" was on some random network, and I got to crank out a chick flick while he tore apart the house. When I woke up at 7:00 am, my lips had been invaded by 3 massive cold sores. I'm not sure but I think it has something to do with stress and a lack of sleep. I'm looking into it.

Sunday was also my Princess's birthday. Abby is the big "Oh, four" now. I can't believe it either. I'm going to post about it all later because it has taken me 5 days to get this post done and it all still seems very overwhelming...plus my lip hurts and William just whacked Carson right on his stapled head.

Princess Paradise

I'm a little depressed writing this. Our Disney passes are about to expire. I know! More sad news has never been heard. There was one experience I wasn't about to miss out on though. Meeting the Disney Princesses. I've never got to meet them myself so maybe I was living vicariously through Abby but I'd like to pretend it was all for her benefit. She and I had the most perfect day. It was awesome. I loved seeing her that happy. It made me happy. We were both riding a Fantasyland driven high the rest of the day. I'll say it again. It was awesome...and worth the 30 minute wait to the front of the Princess Fantasy Faire line (I've heard it can be much worse).









I couldn't believe how sweet they all were. They were all so warm and cuddly and just so inviting to her. Rapunzel, Mulan and Ariel especially. Belle was a little stiff, but as Abby's favorite, I let it slide. Abby didn't notice. This was her face as she walked away from Belle.



Priceless.



She loved Tiana too, but told me later she didn't like her "guys". There was a jazz band playing behind her that she evidently didn't appreciate.



We also ran into Alice. She was super quirky which I totally can get on board with.



We also caught the Mary Poppin's show. And Abby got do dance with her and Bert. She kept trying to sit back down with me but I would just send her right back out again. Mary took her hand (and she felt so grand, I'm sure her heart was beating like a big brass band...sorry, I couldn't help myself) and helped her around their little circle. Super sweet.





It was such an awesome day with the sweetest, prettiest princess I know!

October In A Blogshell

My computer was being retarded (we can blame Trevor for downloading a dumb software that wouldn't let me go online) and as a result, I haven't blogged about the many many many many many things we did last month. Hang on tight, here's the review in photos...

In the early days of October, we went to the pumpkin patch with Preston's scout group. Abby loved the little "baby pumpkins" and William went from gourd to gourd trying to power lift them. He was even able to move a few of them...a couple of inches at a time.

The next several are all about Disneyland. We went 6 times in October. 5 of the trips in only 10 days. Carson's annual pass expired on his birthday and we did a few (or 6) marathon excursions.

I finally broke down and stood in line for a character picture. Notice that Carson is absent. He was hiding under his Indiana Jones hat.

The Buzz ride is always a favorite since it's cool and EVERYBODY gets to ride it. A win/win for mom and kids.

On the last trip, Daddy met us there and took Carson on the Indiana Jones ride. He's been begging for this for a year, but still wasn't tall enough. We fudged it this time and folded a pair of Daddy's socks and put them under Carson's heel to give him that extra "lift". He almost backed out. You can see the excited nervousness in his eyes. He claims to have loved it but declined a second go round.

We also braved Toon Town for the first time. We've heard rumors that it's filled with Characters. It is. But I told Carson that he'd have to deal with it so that his brothers and sister could enjoy it at least once. He grudgingly agreed. Or maybe he didn't really agree...just had no choice in the matter.

Carson did get a birthday breakfast. We broke from the traditional breakfast in bed. It wasn't on my account. He was up at 6:00am on a Saturday and I was sleeping off the Friday night Disneyland adventure. Chocolate chip pancakes in front of Saturday morning cartoons seem to be as good as it gets for this guy though.

We had a small get together with a couple of our closest family friends on his actual birthday and did cake and ice cream with the extended family on Sunday night (but I forgot my camera then).

Disneyland...The Bergholm Version

Finally! Here it is! I've procrastinated long enough. In fact, I've procrastinated so long that I have two more posts dying to be published right now. But I couldn't continue until I had finished this one.

~The Boys ages 10, 8, 7, 6, and 5. They're...energetic.~

Monday morning (2 weeks ago) dawned bright and early. "Bright" is an exaggeration as it was raining, "early" was not since this happened to be the night that I saw William every hour of the morning (12, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and we were up with him at 6am)! I didn't think I was going to make it a whole day without severely damaging my body or my mind. Fortunately, sanity is something I will gladly forfeit for a day at Disneyland. We dropped the two littles off with Auntie Chelsea (thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, THANK YOU) and headed out to meet my sister and her brood.

~Me and my older/little sister. I miss her.~

Can I just say that it is so awesome to take only half of my children to DLand at a time? We were able to go on just about everything and the boys loved spending the day with their boy cousins. It was so much better than going on all the baby rides, as Preston likes to say. Carson hung in there and braved everything except Splash Mountain. But by that time, it was late and getting cold so it didn't take much to convince his dad to stay behind. I have to admit that when I was freezing later that night, I was regretting voluntarily getting myself soaked. Oh, well, it's all about the experience, right?

~Carson on a ride he never whines about...Toy Story.~

~Brett and Trev, probably arguing over sports or why we should/shouldn't move back to Utah.~

~Brett and Trevor.~

The adrenaline of the "Happiest Place On Earth" kicked in and I didn't feel the effects of sleep deprivation until Tuesday (and it carried over to the next week or so).

~In line for Toy Story.~

~In line for Toy Story.~

I so enjoyed experiencing DLand with them. I've been there fairly recently with everyone but their family and Mom and Dad (hint, hint). We had the greatest time and are so ready to host them, or anyone else, again soon!

I'm So Tired

Seriously. So sleepy that my eyes are burning out of my skull. I wonder why that doesn't alarm me. Anyway, because of the aforementioned exhaustion, I'm going to quickly run through the past two weeks of my life. Call it speed blogging if you will.

Two weeks ago Holly called me and said, "Can we come over tomorrow?". That's not that strange when you're family lives close, but when your sister is roughly 643 miles away, it's freakin' awesome. She could only stay a day, but her 3 chitlin's got to spend 6 days with us including Easter.

Easter. That happened too. We colored eggs.



The Easter bunny came too. Will liked banging plastic eggs on his head and Abby fell asleep watching one of the movies the bunny brought. She fell asleep with her sunglasses on. We have no idea how long she was out. It took us a while to even realize it.





We had dinner at the Miles homestead. Good food. Good fun. Great family.



The kids found eggs there too.



The next Tuesday, we got 5 more occupants at "Hotel Miles". This trip was planned and we were so excited to show the Bergholms around our crib. Two days at the beach left some of us a little sun sick (i.e. Preston), but we powered through. There was NO WAY we were missing a day at Big D! Those pictures will come later, when I find the energy to hunt down my little crap camera that always accompanies me to Disneyland.



Despite the cramped quarters, we thoroughly enjoyed all the cousins and the late night/early mornings that came with it. The house has been empty for 3 days and I'm still recuperating. But it was so worth it and I'd do it again tomorrow if I could!

Disneyland...The Adult Version

~Waiting in line for Splash Mountain.~

So we've been making good use of our Disney passes. I've been the awesome mom hauling 4 kids solo on Friday afternoons to the park. Bless early release days. However, I wondered what Disneyland would be like sans kids. Peaceful? Probably not. Relaxing? Nope. A heck of a lot of fun? Absolutely.


~We got to see characters and no one had a melt down with fear. FYI it's enlarged because I love this shot. All the people smiling at the couple and the castle in the background.~

As a post anniversary celebration, Trev and I unloaded the kids on various relatives. Will went to Mimi and Papa's, Abby to Auntie Ashley's, and the big boys hung with Aunt Cindy. Then we drove our little (cough, cough) selves to the happiest place on earth and unleashed the party. We played so hard on Friday that we were trashed til...wait...I guess we still haven't recovered.


~My cutie patootie in line at Splash Mountain (see the splash?) and just looking generally hot.~

To say the least, it was a very different experience. I love, love, love taking the kids, but I have to admit, this was so much fun for me. Running from ride to ride with my best friend was awesome. I was able to take him on several rides that he has had yet to experience (Toy Story-it's incredible, Buzz Lightyear, Soarin' Over California). We were able to go through the trauma that is Tower of Terror for the first time together. I was shaking when it was over. Terror isn't an exaggeration. But, still, I liked it. Who doesn't love a little paralyzing adrenaline? As a side note, I had to call Becky after we got off. She called me stupid for riding it at all. She'll love the fact that after TofT we went straight to Soarin' over California. She hated that one too. I can't understand that. It's one of my favorites.


~Some teenagers taught us a new game. It helped the long lines (this one for Space Mountain) seem shorter. We got into it, what can I say?~

Anyway, we had a blast. We had dinner in the overpriced Naples. Lucky for us, the overpriced food was the bomb.


~Me at dinner. I've become so self conscious in front of the camera that I end up looking like a dork. I'm much happier behind the scenes.~

It was such a perfect day with my buddy. I've said it before and I'll say it again. I like him. A lot. I could hang out with him all day and still want more. Thanks to everyone who watched our spawn. We owe you! And a curse on Preston's coach who threw an 8:00am practice Saturday morning robbing us of the opportunity to sleep in without the kids. A plague on your house, sir. A plague on your house.