THE WILD WHITTS & DISNEYLAND

Clearly, I should have posted this in March when we actually went to Disneyland, but this way we can drag out the magic of Disney!  I also realize that this post would have been best seperated into days, but let's be honest, we're lucky that I'm even blogging!

This vacation started out as talk during a family dinner at Dustin's parent's house.  Soon enough, though, Dustin's sister had it all planned (she's a serious planer), and us "fly-be-the-seat-your-pants" kind of people were tagging along. 

Before we get to far into this story, let me point out that from the months of October to March, the Lawn Ranger family is bound by weather, more specifically snow.  So after packing up the van and programming the van's GPS (Dustin calls her Martha), we were set.  Or so I thought.  Snow fell that night and Dustin was stuck in Cedar plowing that darn white stuff while I tackeled the challenge of driving myself, my boys, and Aunt Shelley to Anaheim, California. 

By the sheer hand of Heavenly Father (and some serious help from my co-pilot), we made it safely.  I had booked a flight for both Dustin and Spencer so that they could sleep all the way to California after staying up all night plowing.  But their plane got stuck in Salt Lake, and they ended up driving and arriving the next day. 

Now that we're all in Anaheim, let's play!

 Hooray, dad made it!  I'm not sure who needed him more...the boys or mom!

 Jax enjoying a turkey leg.  He pretty much ate the whole thing by himself. 

 The wonderful thing about Tiggers are Tiggers are wonderful things :)  Especially to the Wild Whitt boys!

 Enjoying some playground time while the big kids ride the Grizzly Rapids.

 Which one is not like the others...

 You can do it, Jaybird

 Okay, maybe Jax can do it...

We talked the boys out of buying a souvenir at every store at the end of every ride by bribing them with these cars.  It was a store called Ridemakerz in Downtown Disney.  Finally, someone got smart and created the equivalent of Build-A-Bear for "boys" :)

 I think Dustin enjoyed customizing these remote control cars as much as Jase & Jax!

 This is Jax concentrating.  The wheels had to be just so, and the tongue definitely helps with concentration.

Okay, we're ready to go home.  Can you believe my kids actually said they were tired of Disneyland and ready for their own house?  Well, they did.  We packed up the van, the boys clutched their new cars, and Dad drove us home.  Oh, how I love the passenger seat!

THE JAZZ GAME :)

Dustin has been talking about taking the boys to the Jazz game for over a year, and this mom finally got sick of the talking.  After a little research and listening to Dustin whine about not wanting nose bleeder seats, I booked us some tickets about 16 rows back from the center court.  The boys LOVED it!  And when I say boys, I mean all three :)  They were spoiled at the Jazz store, ordering custom jerseys and stylin' hats.  They were spoiled with treats galore.  And they were spoiled with all the up- close and personal attention from the Jazz Bear.  But seriously, when you are as cute as the Wild Whitt boys, you deserve to be a little spoiled! 

PS--This game was back in January of 2011.  I've had some serious commitment issues with blogging....but I'm ba-ack!

Letters from K

Miss Kendra is pretty much our little girl. In fact, we should just call her Kendra Marle Whittaker :) She snuggles Uncle Dusty and always includes me in her prayers. The little sassy pants loves to come to our house, and she LOVES the Wild Whitt boys. In fact, she wrote Jase and Jaxon letters the other day. Her sheer honesty warrants that I record them on the blog!

Dear Jase,

You are just going to play with me, okay!
You are my big cousin...No, big brother.
You can babysit me and Jaxon if you want.

Love,

Kendra

Dear Jaxon,

Sorry you were being mean to me.
Your playroom looks beautiful with all that stuff in it.
Your hair is handsome and your eyes are pretty.

Love,

Kendra

Well, you can imagine Jase rolling his eyes (pretending to be too big to enjoy the letter) and Jax giggling a little at the pretty eyes part; but what they were realling thinking was,

We LOVE our Kendra!

JAYBIRD, OUR GENIUS

We haven't actually tested Jase for his IQ, but I'm pretty sure he is genius material. Three Peaks Elementary just hosted a Math-A-Thon for all the grades, K to 6th. All the students collected pledges for the amount of questions they scored correctly during the Math-A-Thon. I sent his package with him to school and picked him up at day's end. As usual, he jumps in the van and goes through his backpack, but on that day he informed me that he won the Math-A-Thon.

Well (trying to be a good and fair mother), I gently reminded him that there probably wasn't a winner and told him I was sure he did an awesome job. A few days later, he shows up in the van with a free pass to the aquatic center. I asked him if they had a drawing or something. I mean, why would Three Peaks give my child a free swim pass. It certainly wasn't for winning the Math-A-Thon?

My readers are probably assuming about now that my genius of a boy did not gain his intellect from his mother as I should have clearly listened to the handsome and excited boy that jumped in my van a week ago to tell me that he won the Math-A-Thon.

Oh, but not me. I filled out the paperwork for the free pass, and sent it back to Kindergarten. We certainly weren't turning it down. I just assumed that Jase won it from some sort of raffle. He is our lucky duck, you know.

Another week passes, and we get our monthly newsletter from the school. I look through the events and notice the name Jase W. in the Math-A-Thon section. I looked at it, looked at it some more, and finally realized that all this time my Jaybird was right. He did win the Math-A-Thon. And he didn't just win his Kindergarten class but every Kindergarten class in Three Peaks Elementary :)

I ran into his teacher a little later and told her the story. She informed me that I should probably listen to Jase. After all, he is usually always right.

BREAST CANCER BUNCOS

So, I'm spreading the word to as many people as I know. Don't miss the Kristen Branin Bunco Tournament and help her fight breast cancer! The prizes are amazing, the food is delicious, and the conversation will be fabulous :) Get a car of your favorite gals or guys together and head on over to Milford.

Saturday, April 2, 2011
Milford High School Small Gym
We roll the dice @ 1:30pm
Ages 16 & Older (leave the kiddos and germs at home)
$20 per ticket

We are talking Lagoon tickets, Tuacahn tickets, jewelry, purses, Rada cutlery, Scentsy, gift cards to Pastry Pub, Sizzler, Applebees, the Timberline, handmade quilts, photography sessions, and much, much more!

We also have four amazing raffle packages. Check out Kristen's blog for her story and more information @ http://www.breastcancerbuncos.blogspot.com/

THE VALENTINES BOX

When Jase brought his note home from Kindergarten asking that we send a Valentine's box any time from the 9th to the 14th, I felt chills of excitement run up and down my spine :) I absolutely loved that time of year in elementary school, and my mom was pretty much the bomb at making the best boxes. We're talking TVs, barbie cars, robots...whatever we could dream up! So, yes, I had big shoes to fill, but when Jase asked for a monster, I grabbed an old shoe box in the closet, and we got straight to work.

He was so excited as we pulled out our supplies and so nervous when he realized we were down to our last hot glue stick at the end of the project. And when I pulled out two wooden kitchen utensils to use for the monster's arms, his mouth practically dropped. He couldn't believe I had made such a sacrifice for "the box." I'm pretty sure it brought a tear to his eye :) Okay, that could have been an exaggeration, but the box turned out fantastic, and my Jaybird deemed it the best box in his class. The best part, though, was the perma-smile as we drove to Kindergarten, and the way he puffed out his chest a little as he walked into the classroom with his Valentine's LOVE monster.

Oh, but don't tell him I called it the love monster. That's officially embarassing to a five year old!