Mayne family

We had an ultrasound today, and things are looking fantastic. We are 13 weeks along, the baby was moving around like crazy. The Dr. did some 3D images for us and those were pretty neat! We got a really good facial shot, and we also got a really good look between the legs and it looks like we are having another boy! We are pretty excited. Of course it isn’t 100% but the Dr. told us to be planning on a boy so that sounds pretty definite to me. We are due Oct 15.

Today Eli turns 3 years old. I can’t believe how time flies. We celebrated his birthday on Sunday with a family party, and it turned out great! He got a lot presents that he loves, including a lego batman shirt, and quite a few motorcylces that are all his favorite.

This is Eli’s Batman Motorcycle cake that he had to have

Jackson, Eli, Maddy, and Kennedy

I decided for Eli’s birthday to write 25 things about Eli, hoping one day he will appreciate my doing this, and to help me remember things about him at this age.

1. He Loves Waffles
2. His favorite show is Little Einsteins. Would watch episodes all day straight if I would let him.
3. He loves motorcycles
4. He loves when he sees police cars, firetrucks, or ambulances. He can’t stop yelling and pointing at them
5. He has to be the one to pick out his shirt and socks daily. Usually a star wars shirt, and spiderman socks
6. He loves that he gets to play lego star wars with his dad and brother now
7. He gets so excited over things that he starts to jump up and down for minutes on end, and jumps all around the house
8. He gives the best hugs in the world, he wraps his arms around your neck so tight!
9. He has an obsession with temples. He gets incredibly excited to see them, loves to touch the doors when we visit one, and mentions being thankful for temples in every prayer that he says
10. He mimics everything his brother says
11. He can play with any toy by himself for hours.
12. He loves to race his dump truck around the house
13. Did I mention he loves waffles
14. When he gets excited to tell us something his words turn into a lot of gibberish followed by the word OK?
15. He loves to play sports, he is pretty good at throwing a ball!
16. He loves to play on the computer. His favorite websites include, playhouse disney, starfall, and pbs online.
17. He loves cookies! Any kind of cookies
18. He can count to 30 and only misses the number 15
19. He has been able to say the alphabet for over 6 months now, and loves to point out letters all around him
20. He is a fish, he has no fear of water, and loves to swim
21. He has to eat off a blue plate with a blue cup for every meal he eats
22. He has lately become obsessed with swinging. I push him on the swings for at least 1-2 hours a day when the weather cooperates
23. He has a soft spot for his mommy
24. He is the happiest, most enthusiastic little boy. Everything makes him happy. He has a constant smile on his face, and is usually bringing our family a lot of laughs.
25. Oh ya, and he loves waffles

Happy Birthday Eli! We love you so much and are so glad you are a part of our family!!!!

I realize I haven’t blogged in a while, which my hubby points out to me frequently, but I feel there hasn’t been anything too exciting to blog about. We have been spending more and more of our time outside now that the weather is warming up, although you wouldn’t guess that this week. We have gone to parks, and we put our trampoline back up. We even managed to get some color on our winter white skin! The boys have been sleeping wonderfully at night since they have played so hard outside during the days!

Over the weekend of the 13th, we did take a quick trip to Rexburg Idaho where my sister and her husband were sealed in the Rexburg temple. It was a great experience and we were happy to be there! We have had a few visits from my brother and his fiance, which makes the boys happy, they love seeing family.

Eli got sick over the weekend for the first time this whole winter. We almost made it a whole winter season without going to the Dr. That would have been fantastic, but oh well, maybe next winter!

Eli has starting really taking off with his vocabulary and his personality. He loves to stick his lips out in a pout when he wants to try to get his way, and he is stringing more and more words along. He sure cracks us up! Jackson has been saying the funniest things lately, he has recently pointed out that people call him Jack and he would like to be called Jackson (although we still call him Jack and he responds) he has been obsessed with learning about numbers, and the biggest number he can say. Both of the boys love to play the Xbox with their Dad and that is usually where the evenings find us for a while. Playing Xbox with Dad.

Overall things are great for us, and we are excited for spring and summer and the adventures that await us!

This is Jackson on St. Patrick’s Day with his leprechaun face he made at school

my family at my sister’s sealing in Rexburg

Eli’s “cheese” face. Paul bought letters and numbers for the boys to play with in the bath, they have been a huge hit

Paul and Eli being goofy.

So another wonderful thing happened on our trip to Disneyland, we were able to break Eli of his binky habit. He has only been using them at night, but I forgot to bring the binkies into our hotel in Vegas, and Eli sure seemed fine without them. So when we got home, we told him that we left the binkies in Disneyland for other babies to use, and we haven’t had a problem since!

Since we were unable to go to Lego Land (it was closed Tues, and Wed, and we had to be in L.A. Wed so we couldn’t fit it in),  we decided to spend three days at Disneyland instead, and boy were we glad we made that decision. Disneyland was so much fun. We arrived in Disneyland about 1 in the afternoon, and when we got into the park we immediately saw Mickey and his friends!

After we took some pictures, we didn’t take a lot because the lines got insanely long, and Jack didn’t care too much, and Eli refused to get his picture taken with any character, we headed into the park. We immediately started riding the rides in Fantasyland. I think we got to ride most of them without any waits.

Then we headed over to Tomorrowland, and Paul and Jackson went on the Star Tours ride. While they were on the ride, Eli and I discovered a show where the Jedi trained young Padawons.  Complete with Darth Vador and Darth Maul, and Storm Troopers. Eli was so excited to see Troopers, he loves them for some strange reason. So we told Paul and Jack about it, and decided to catch the next show. Well Jackson got picked along with about 16 other kids to be the young Padawons. Jackson was so excited. After learning to fight with a light saber, he got to try his skills out against Darth Maul. Talk about cool! After the show was done, he got a certificate saying he was officially a Jedi Padawon. Needless so say that will be going on the wall.

The rest of the night was spend riding rides, and seeing more characters including Tigger.

this is the closest Eli got to any of the characters.

Thursday we spend most of the day touring Disney California. It was a lot of fun. Jack and Paul got to go on some of the older, taller rides while Eli and I would go on the younger rides. We took the kids to see the Playhouse Disney Live show which they loved! Eli was especially excited to see the Little Einstein characters which are his favorite.

we saw some 3-D shows

That night we saw the water show Fantasmic, which was cool. They enjoyed seeing even more disney characters. Jack at one point said to Paul, ” Dad I thought the real Buzz would be bigger” So cute.

Friday we spent most of the time in Toon Town. Jackson especially loved Goofy’s house. At one point in the afternoon it started to rain, so we went back to the hotel for some downtime. We went back for the parade after the rain stopped, but found out they had canceled it due to the weather. So we rode our favorite rides a few more times, Pirates, It’s a Small World, we went on Autopia, and a few others. Then we decided we were done. It had been an action packed 3 days.

Saturday and Sunday we spent driving home. We had such a wonderful time, and can’t wait to go back in a few years!! I don’t think there were hardly any rides in the park we didn’t go on. It was the perfect time of the year to go. The boys loved it, and we did too!

for a few more photos check out: Photo set on Flickr

After we arrived in San Diego our plan was to go to Lego Land on Monday and Sea World on Tuesday. However, mother nature had other plans for us. Monday we had horrible weather. It was rainy with 40 mile an hour winds. Obviously we weren’t going to be able to make it to Lego Land. So we spent our time driving around San Diego, and when it did stop raining, we took the boys to see the ocean. After the ocean, we ate some yummy tacos, and then went swimming at the hotel.

yes it was a little chilly but worth it

Tuesday we woke up to a wonderful day! It was 65 and sunny and warm. We arrived at Sea World right as it was opening. We immediately took the boys to ride some of the kid rides that they had in the Sesame Street World part of the park.

Getting ready for rides at Sesame Street World

Jackson got his picture taken with Elmo and Abby

Paul was a trooper for going on this ride with the boys. Those rides make me sick!

After checking out the rides, we went and watched the dolphin show. We did sit in the soak zone, and sure enough Eli got splashed directly in the face. He was the only one of the 4 of us to really get wet, and probably the one person who cared the most to not get wet. But we sure enjoyed the dolphin show. We then checked out the Shamu show, which had Eli saying, “Shamu, Shamu” for the good next 20 minutes. Those whales are amazing. It was fun to see all of the sea life that they had in the park.

flamingos

the family at the end of the day. We left the park when it closed, and you can tell from Jack’s face, he was ready to be done

Paul and I decided last year that we wanted to take the boys to Disneyland while they were young and would enjoy the novelty of Disneyland. So these past 9 days we have done just that. It was a wonderful family vacation. We decided to break up the driving by spending a night in Vegas on the way there, and on the way back. We stayed in the Excalibur Hotel. The first night we were there, we took the kids over to Circus Circus and let them play games, games, and more games. They had loads of fun, and both managed to win some stuffed animals.

Playing games at Circus Circus

Sponge Bob and light sabers

The boys had some fun eating at Carls Junior on the drive to San Diego

This is what the boys looked like the majority of the time in the car.

These pictures show what we have been doing lately. Nothing special,  just playing the winter days away.

Posing for pictures

They are so cute! I am so lucky!

Playing a lot of Mario Kart. They both are getting quite good!

We made the most of a 42 degree sunny day

Playing Lego’s!

This past Saturday night, we were fortunate to be able to take our kids, and go with some family and friends, and tour the Draper Temple. Before a temple is dedicated, the LDS Church allows anyone to come and take a tour of the temple. After it is dedicated, only members of the LDS Church with a current temple recommend can go to the temple after that.

So Saturday night we went to the temple. It was fabulous. I loved being able to show our kids the inside of the temple. Like I mentioned in an earlier post, Eli has been obsessed with temples, and touching the door, so he sure was excited to be able to touch the temple door this time That was the first thing he did, with a huge smile on his face. All the rest of the tour he kept telling us, “hurry up, let’s go, I see the temple”. He was so cute. Jackson was quiet, but you could see him looking around taking in the pictures, the chandeliers, and the general spirit that was felt there. The temple is beautiful. I really love the colors they have chosen, and the chandeliers and light fixtures are gorgeous. It was wonderful to be able to go through the temple with Paul’s mom, and some of her friends and family. We also had my best friend’s family with us, and it was great to see her kids react to the temple also. After the tour Jackson told us he couldn’t wait to be baptized and go to the temple someday, and Eli said the temple was beautiful, which of course it was!