Rayleigh's Birthday Week

Rayleigh is so special to me. She is my only daughter and the baby I struggled so much to bring into our family. I have treasured her existence from the moment I found out she was growing inside of me. She is probably super spoiled. But I don't care! Let them be little!

This week we wanted to have fun and do all of the activities that she loves most. So, on Monday we started the week off with a beach day with friends! It was SO hot! Rayleigh had a blast playing with her friends, climbing on the rocks, and running down the beach with Mia. Those 2 are either going to cause a lot of mischief when they grow older or achieve great feats! Let's hope it's the latter...

This is what happens when you are too brave and get crashed by a wave while exploring the rocks... Didn't phase her at all. She's my super surfer babe.

Running all the way down the beach with not a care in the world!

Katie and her cute kiddos

Parker was having a blast body surfing!!! Totally in his element!

Courtney is so beautiful even with funny faces

I had to haul the wagon across a mile of deep, soft sand with both babies sitting in it because the sand was too hot for them to walk on. It was a killer workout!

(These next few pictures are a little out of order...)

After the beach we decided to make a day in the OC and visit my mom! The kids LOVE going to my mom's house. Ray asks almost every single day to "Go to Nanny's house!" Sadly, most days we can't just swing on by. But I decided to skip naps and stay for the long haul and wait out traffic. We helped my mom get down her Halloween decorations from the attic and get a few things set up! It was so fun and the kids loved playing in her beautiful home. Jack did NOT take a nap and was started to look and sound and feel pretty sick. They are all passing around a little cough. I couldn't tell if Jack has a low grade fever or if he was just extremely hot from our triple digit day. At any rate, he wasn't being himself and I felt badly that he was skipping his nap and being forced to be out and about all day. After we spent a few hours with my mom we went to Robyn's house to swim for about an hour! She's just the best. It's so fun spending time with her chatting and getting caught up! And her back yard is gorgeous! On our way home that night I stopped by the house where Skylar is living currently (he's working in SoCal temporarily while his family is in Utah) and picked up some free leggings from his wife! Score! It was fun seeing him and chatting for a while! As you can see, Monday was a huge day for us!

One morning I was home alone with Jack and I walked out through the garage to throw a dirty diaper away. He followed me, as he always does,  but didn't make it through the door before it shut. In attempt to get it open he LOCKED it and I was locked out of the house! I tried so hard to get him to open it but he just couldn't figure it out and was crying so hard. Luckily the front door was open but the screen was locked. So I had to cut a hole in the screen to unlock it. Poor guy. We were both a little frustrated.

I love the evening light that pours in our front windows in the evening. I'm happy to snap a few pictures of the kids as we sit around the dining room table and eat dinner! Rayleigh is such a little ham! She's growing up and is such a little beauty!

After we helped my mom decorate for Halloween it got me in the spirit to decorate mine too! I love decorating for the holidays!

Swimming at Robyn's.... she gave the kids Popsicles and they made a huge mess. Ray looked like a clown! ha ha She is in a stripping phase so I had to try and crop out her naked bod.

The sunset was amazing that night. I'm ready for some rainy days!!!!! I can't remember the last time it rained!

My new leggings! Love!

We laid low on Tuesday because Jack wasn't feeling well. Ray had school in the morning and Parker went to swimming... but other than that! Tanner came home "early" around 5:30 and since Ray had taken a late nap I decided to have a Mommy/Daughter date with her at Disneyland! It was pretty crowded which was lame but we had fun together. She loves the tea cups! And she was amazing and stood in line for the rockets (per her request) she loves that ride now too!  ha ha Rayleigh has such an adventurous spirit and everyone is drawn to her bubbly personality!

She's been doing this move lately where she slaps her head like, "oh! Can you believe that?!?" It's so cute!

I love the one on one time I get to spend with each of my kids. It was obviously so easy with Parker but having 3 kids makes it more difficult. Especially when Ray and Jack are so close together. But it's so fun and I look forward to my special dates with each of them. 

The next morning we packed up and headed to Disneyland all together! It was a perfect morning (although it was sweltering hot) It wasn't too crowded and we decided to have a "spooky scary" day and do some fun Halloween rides. We, of course, went on the Tea Cups since it's Ray's favorite. But then we went on Snow White and Haunted Mansion and Pirates! Woo hoo! The kids were so brave and I think they actually liked it! Halloween time at Disneyland is so fun!

On Friday, while Ray was at school Parker got braces! He's been needing them for a while. His teeth can't come down because there's no room so he has a few phases to go before his teeth are all worked out. The appointment took 2 hours which is about 1 1/2 hours too long but Jack did great and Parker, as always, was perfect.

After the orthodontist, I picked up Audrey and had her stay with the boys while I took Ray and a couple of her friends to My Gym. They were so cute and had so much fun together! I love that Rayleigh has so many cute friends her age and that us mom's are good friends too! And the cool thing is that they all have siblings who are Parker's age too! So perfect! Ray was asleep when we pulled up and hopped right out of the car happy as can be and ready to play! Sweet thing...

Instead of going on a date Friday night we worked on getting things ready for Rayleigh's big dance party the next day! Talk about romantic! Tanner is always such a good sport to put up with all my ideas! ha ha It's been a fun week celebrating Rayleigh and having Parker out of school!!!!!