Disney World!!

The whole Gubler Gang, (and I mean the WHOLE Gubler Gang) packed our bags and went to Disney World in Orlando, Florida!  For eight glorious days we played from sun up to sun down (and might I add how wonderfully warm that sun was!).  Did you know the Palm Tree is my favorite kind of tree in the whole world?  You'll never see snow on a palm tree.  Ever.

 

First off, may we all shout out a HUGE thanks to Grandma and Grandpa Gubler for making this trip possible for everyone!  And for being the best baby-sitters to Preston, who wasn't always the easiest child to babysit.  And maybe a quick apology to Grandma for wearing her completely out.  Sorry about that :)

On to the parks...

Hollywood Studios

 Highlights:
* This was Caiden's favorite park due to the Tower of Tower ride and the Rockin Roller Coaster ride. 
* Paige was quite Brave all week riding roller coasters too, so it was only fitting that she have her own Brave doll.  I nicknamed her my "little Merida" all week.  She was SO excited and treated that doll like it was fine china.
* Preston is becoming fast friends with Uncle Jason and enjoys riding on his shoulders.  Which was helpful when he decided he was sick of his stroller.
* The perfect weather - not too hot, definitely not cold.  Paige kept asking me "Mom, is this as cold as it gets here?"  Yes!

 Animal Kingdom

* Of course, the Mount Everest ride.  Another of Caiden's favorites.  Even Paige went on this one - miss little Brave :)
* Giraffes, lions, gorillas, hippos, monkeys - we love the animals. 
* Dinoland
* I think this was the park that Preston was naughtiest in.  That explains why Casey is feeding him to a lion in the bottom left picture. 
* The beautiful warm sunny weather :)

Epcot

* See the 3 musketeers in front of the Planets there?  We all took a claustrophobic-G-force-simulated ride to space.  Once back on Earth, we realize we would all have made lousy astronauts.  Nauseated.  Nauseated. Nauseated. All except Caiden.  He loved it and wanted to go again, but no one was willing to go with him.
* I wish I could have gone into every country and eaten at every restaurant :)
* Sunshine
* Warmth
* Palm trees

Sea World

* Shamu!!  We all loved Shamu! The kids got little stuffed Shamu's from Gma and Gpa.
* Loved the dolphin show.  Very impressive!

* Caiden and Paige and Preston had the time of their lives at the "kid park".  There was a Shamu Roller Coaster ride that they rode repeatedly! Along with countless other kid-friendly rides.

* Preston discovered the trains and carousel.  And so did Papa :)

* Casey and I enjoyed the 2 roller coasters here.  I'm so glad he shares in my need to torture myself to go on every ridiculous roller coaster ride.  I love them and hate them at the same time.  The Manta was pretty unforgettable (top left).  Instead of sitting, you are laying flat against the rails with nothing buy sky in front of you!  Except for me; my eyes were shut the whole time! It was awesome.

* Warm, sunny weather :)

 Universal Studios

* Love Universal!
* Another crazy ridiculous roller coaster ride that we did (eyes shut).  On this one, there were speakers on the headrest and you could select what song to listen too while flying about.  Every time I hear the The Black Eyed Peas, I feel strangely anxious.
* There were lots of great shows here.  Caiden tried desparately to volunteer for every show.  He even tried to volunteer me once.  That kid!
* Have I mentioned the perfect weather?

Magic Kingdom

* Such a magical place :)

* How much did Paige love seeing all the Princesses and Mickey Mouse? A lot!

* Space Mountain

* Car ride - Caiden embraced his "inner-Peart" and took me on a crazy car ride.  

* Preston had the time of his life watching the cars go by.

Thank goodness for motorcycles and water!  Now, as you can imagine a Disney World trip is slightly harder with a 2 year old.  Really, he did pretty good.  He loves to be outside and run around.  It's just a little harder to chase him here.  If it weren't for the water features, and his trusty little motorcycle, and food, we would have been in a world of hurt.  My favorite was when he'd try to ride his tiny 3-inch motorcycle (top middle).  We love this kid.

Back at the hotel, there was all kinds of entertainment for the kids too.  A little playground with slides.  Preston was a big fan.  The pool. An arcade room.  Let 's talk about the arcade room.

Funny story.  So we are eating dinner late one night at the adjoining Applebee's Restaurant.  The kids are done eating and are not interested in waiting for the adults to finish, particularly Preston.  So Caiden and Paige offer to take him around the corner to the arcade room.  I agree after giving very strict instructions to watch him The.Whole.Time.  Do not take your eyes off him or your dead.  About 5 minutes later, Caiden comes running into the restaurant - ALONE.  Just as I'm opening my mouth to say "Why aren't you with your brother????!!!!!" he says to me "Mom! Preston fell down and there's a stranger holding him and he won't give him to me!"   WHAT?!?!?!?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So I RUN out there and this is what I see.  Preston is hysterically crying.  He is in the arms of a young guy.  The guy is holding an ice-cream sandwich to his head.  Beneath the ice-cream sandwich is an enormous goose egg on his forehead, growing right before our eyes. 

I take Preston from him, and I'm trying to calm him down and the guy is freaking out.  Freaking out.  "He's not OK!  You need to call the paramedics!  You need to call the paramedics now!  He needs an x-ray! Now!"  This isn't helping to calm Preston down, not to mention people are staring. At this point Casey is out there and I head for our room.  I hear him pestering Casey "You need to call the paramedics, man! He's not OK!!"

Now, if I had never seen a goose egg like this before (and the picture doesn't do it justice.  It looked like half an egg was protruding out of his head) I would have been freaking out too.  In fact, I did when Caiden got one when he was little.  As soon as I got up to the room, Preston had stopped crying and was happily driving his motorcycle while pointing to his head saying "I bonkie head!"

So once Caiden gets up to the room I say "WHAT.HAPPENED???" (fiercely whisper with me now).  And this is what happened:

"Preston was riding the car ride.  Then I helped him down.  But he tripped when he stood up and smacked his head on the edge.  Then this guy comes running over and takes him from me. And I'm like "Dude, give him to me!" and he's like "Dude no! He's not ok!"  And I'm like "Dude, I got this!" And he's like "Dude no! He needs help!" and I'm like "Dude, give him to me!  I got it! This happens ALL the time!"  and he's like "Dude, WHERE'S YOUR MOM?!" 

It took everything in me to not die laughing.  And if you could have seen Caiden.  It took everything in him to hold back his tears.  I was just happy to hear that he was actually watching and playing with Preston and that he when he realized crazy-man wasn't going to give him up, he immediately got me.  I think that man must have thought we were the most irresponsible parents on the face of the planet!

Anyway, it was a trip to remember, that's for sure!  We had so much fun and soon as we landed in Seattle, everyone did this....

Look who's 2!

My little man is two!  How the time flies :)  I can't remember his exact stats, but he's slightly bigger than Caiden was at this age (not that that is too hard :) but still a little guy overall.  Except for his head.  Definitely has the big Gubler head.  And I personally feel like he weighs a ton!

What can I say about this kid at two years old??  He's funny and cute and talking really great.  He's persistent and fiesty and has quite the temper.  He's FAST.  Seriously, I may have a future track runner on my hands.  He's cute, oh I said that already.  He loves his motorcycle (mo'cyc-er!) and airplanes.  Doesn't really like TV.  He LOVES to be outside.  He LOVES his brother and sister.  It's adorable.  Finally after 6 months of crying, he's attending nursery.  Oh my, the poor nursery leaders!  He's also very loud (happy or mad).  He gives great hugs. He's a good eater, but not very good at sitting still....at all.  Doesn't love long car rides, but who does?  Luckily we haven't had any issues thus far with his peanut allergy (yay!).  Currently, we are "discussing" potty training.  Just discussing, no action yet.  He doesn't like when I'm working on the computer (trying to push me out of the chair at this very moment :)  And he's cute.  I love his laugh and how warm his cheeks are when he wakes up from his nap (can't stop kissing them) and I especially love that he is back to taking naps and sleeping all night long.  REALLY love that.  I guess to sum it up, I just love him SO much!  Even when he makes me crazy, which is every day.

As you can see I pulled out my most crafty skills (also known as Pinterest) and made an Elmo cake.  Not bad, eh?

Happy Birthday to our wild child!

Grandma GG's

A while back Casey's grandmother passed away (lovingly known as "GG" to my kids).  We got to spend a little time with her back in September.  I'm glad we captured this picture.  She was a wonderful lady and is now reunited with her hubby!

The kids sure enjoyed this visit :)  Caiden fell in love with the 4-wheeler.  And I mean truly IN.LOVE.  We could not get him off it.  And Paige enjoyed riding it for about 5 minutes, up until she ran over her own foot. Yeah, you read that right.  From then on, she had the help of Casey or Papa riding behind. And Mr. Preston found himself a tractor, and like his big brother, he fell in love too.

Playing a little catch up: Preston Edition

Time for a little catch up....  Let's start with this stud muffin, shall we?

So I came across these pictures and forgot how much fun Preston had this past summer at the pool.  First off, no I don't know where he gets his beautiful golden brown tan.  Yes, he really did come from me and Casey.  Now that that's cleared up...

He particularly loved the sprinklers - namely drinking it and putting his head in it.  The pool, not so much.  Maybe next summer. 

And also watching the wave riders with friend Bryce.  I love his gorilla stance, ha!

And this was a while back too... I was in the kitchen one day and heard some crackling sounds, followed by some chompy-chomp sounds and then heavy breathing.  I know what that is!

Little monkey climbed up, got the Cap'N Crunch (great choice by the way) and went to town.  I opened the pantry door and he had an innocent "May I help you?" look. 

He really gets away with everything.

Family Pictures!

Fall Family Pictures!  Thanks to my sweet friend Michele for taking these!  There's so many I love, just had to post them all :)

Seattle Trip!

Back in August we took a little family vacay to Seattle - just us - and had SO much fun!  First stop was the Aquarium....

 The kids were slightly disappointed that there were no sharks (so was I), but they had fun anyhow.  Even convinced Caiden and Paige to touch the starfish.  Harder task than you might think.

The next day we went to the Pacific Science Center and this was a huge hit.  The kids definitely want to come back here and I highly recommend it.  There's so much hands-on entertainment for all ages.  I quite enjoyed it myself :)

And who knew a simple ramp could provide so much entertainment?  Forget the toys and experiments to play with, how bout a wheel chair ramp?!  Preston laughed and giggled himself silly.  I could really use one of these in the house.  He's such a cute monster.

 

Then for our last day there, we were headed to the Zoo - the main attraction :)  Have to save the best for last, you know.  How excited was Paige to see a zebra? VERY.  And Caiden, the bears - yes, please. . 

Unfortunately, for Preston this marked the third day of really no napping, and it showed.  Lots of stares from strangers - almost like he was his own exhibit, ha.  But once he crashed in the stroller for a bit, he was all smiles.  Like I said, a monster, but a cute one.  Just look at that face

 And I thought it was so funny that of all the animals in the zoo, Caiden was insistent that he see the cranes.  Who actually goes through the bird section?  We did, because "Mom, the crane's my favorite one on Kung Fu Panda".  So here they are with their best impersonations...

And almost as fun as all these events was the swimming pool at our 5 star hotel, not really.  I bid on a hotel through Priceline and we managed a 2 star Holiday Inn, which was actually okay except in was in Renton and that was a bit annoying.  Oh well, that's what you get when you go cheap :) The kids however, couldn't get enough of the pool.

 My other favorite part of the trip was Caiden's comments driving throughout downtown Seattle, aka the "city".  "Dad, don't you love driving in the CITY??" (No.) "Paige, which do you like better - the CITY or the country?"  Really, you'd think we lived in the middle of nowhere and never visit large cities....oh wait, that's slightly true....

School Conferences

Warning: I'm about to do some major bragging about my kids....

Parent/Teacher conferences were today, and it completely made my day.

Caiden:  Straight from his teachers mouth...
..."so, so, so nice!"....."a great listener"..."a great example"..."smiles all day long"..."has never annoyed me in the slightest (haha!)"..."a good friend"..."has a lot of friends"...."I just love him so much!" - and she repeated each thing at least twice.

And that's not including all the comments about how well he is doing academically. 

I feel extra special that he bottles up all of the "not listening" and "annoying behaviors" and saves them for when he gets home :)

Paige:
...."so, so, sweet"...."knows when to be studious"..."always volunteers"...."always listens"...."always outstanding behavior"..."I love talking to her!"  - that one is my favorite, I love talking to her too :)  And it's so good to know that she is coming out of her shell and not as terrifyingly shy as she used to be.  Academically, she is doing AWESOME.

That's it.  Just wanted to document.  I already know they're great, but it's nice when other people see it too. 

Note: Meanwhile, Preston ran around like a freakshow throwing away glue sticks, trying to topple over a stack of chairs, and demanding to play with our keys...loudly. Then topped it off with a tantrum upon leaving and proceeded to hit Casey and yell out for the "th-lide!!!"  Can't wait for his teacher conferences :)

Summer 2012: {Silverwood, Surfing, & Sand Dunes}

To go along with the "S" theme here, everyone is Sleeping again, so here is my very belated Summer recap :)

The kids earned their FREE tickets to Silverwood Theme Park again this year.  (I forgot my camera, but Casey got a few from his phone :)  We love Silverwood, yes we do!  We spent most of our time at the water park this year since we missed out last year.  The kids loved it!  Casey and I loved it!  Then over to the amusement park, where Paige fulfilled her dream of riding the ferris wheel just like Barbie does in her favorite book (don't have a picture of that - darn) but it was very cute seeing her and her dad go round and round.  And I couldn't leave without at least one adrenaline-pumping ride, so the Panic Plunge it was (mostly because it was the shortest line and Caiden and Paige wanted to see me do it - loved it!)

And, of course, lots of time was spent out on the lake.  Mostly the boys and papa getting reeeeeally good at surfing.  The big challenge was a 360 on the surf board, which both Casey and his brother achieved once each after about 300 million tries.  Jason was lucky enough to get his captured on video.

 

My mom and dad and niece also visited this summer.  Caiden, Leah, and PAIGE took a turn on the kneeboard. It was Paige's first time alone on the kneeboard, so a very big moment for her! 

Also played a bit at the sand dunes....I love these pics!!

More of our Summer adventures to come :)

Dear Blog....

It's me.

Kelley.

Just thought I'd inform you on why you are so neglected.  The past month I've been entirely too busy LOSING.MY.MIND.

Why???? 

Well, since you asked...It started about a month ago.  Preston, my very best sleeper EVER (at least 12 hrs a night, 3 hr naps in the day) and who lovingly would say "Ni-Ni" as I'd lay him down and walk out of the room, decided he just wasn't going to do that anymore.

So he quit.

Suddenly, he screamed bloody murder every time we'd try to put him to bed.  He'd throw his blanket out of the crib.  He'd throw his binky out of the crib.  He'd cry until he'd literally lose his voice.  He'd cry until I'd finally cry too.

We did not know what happened to our child!!  No teething.  Not sick.  ......?????.....  Seriously, just decided one day he hated his bed.  No sleep - just cry.  (My theory is a a serious night terror - read about it online).

After a few days of this, I contemplated putting him up for sale.  (I should probably insert a "just kidding" right about here, but I'm not.)

LOOOONG story short, we finally get him to go to bed if we sit in a chair next to the crib playing lullaby's from our phones until he falls asleep.  Annoying, but still better than hearing his terrible, sad yet SHRIEKING cry.

Enter stomach flu.

First, Paige starts throwing up.  Every half hour for SEVEN hours.  Poor thing dry heaved herself to death.
The next day, it hits me.  Same thing.  Two days later, it hits Caiden (in the middle of the night).  And just for fun, he never once got it in the bowl. Next to it, down the side, up and over it, but never IN THE BOWL.

Finally get rid of the stomach flu.

Finally get Preston to not be terrified of his bed. 

Then, guess who starts waking up in the night FREAKING OUT that we are not in the chair next to his bed playing lullaby's like we were when he fell asleep????  Honestly felt like I had a newborn all over again.  Up and up again numerous times in the night trying to get Preston to go BACK to sleep and STAY asleep.  Couldn't let him cry it out because then he'd wake Paige in the next room who needs to go to school.  We're so friggin tired at this point that either Casey or I end up sleeping in the bed in his room.  But not really sleeping as he'd still wake up and not calm down until he heard our voice and knew we were there.  As soon as he heard us he'd lay right down and go to sleep.  This went on for days until we contemplated the idea of putting him up for sale again.  (And again, not really joking.)

Meanwhile, Paige starts barfing in the night.  But not like the stomach flu.  Once a night (a few hours after she'd go to bed) she'd barf.  Every.Single.Night.  And the throw up itself was different - not liquidy, just chunks and chunks of food - TMI, sorry.  She's not at all feeling sick.  No stomach ache.  No fever.  Totally fine.  (Other than the nightly barfing, that is).  Did I mention that every time she'd barf and come to get me Preston would wake up? Oh the INSANITY!!!!!  I just wanted to scream EVERYBODY GO TO SLEEP, STAY ASLEEP, AND QUIT BARFING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So, I call the doctor and they say it sounds like Paige has acid reflux and to elevate her mattress and give her tums.  This helps, but not always.  She would still occasionally barf in the night, followed by Preston waking up. Followed by me walking around like a sleep-deprived zombie who does nothing but wash barfy sheets and blankets all the living long day.

Next up - Caiden.gets.the.stomach.flu.  AGAIN!!  Double the barfy sheets and blankets, triple the sleep deprivation.

Casey and I are dying, literally DYING here people!!!!

Finally Caiden gets better.

Paige only barfs occasionally.

But we've totally created a monster by staying in the room until Preston falls asleep (though, in our defense, it was the ONLY thing that worked - and trust me we tried EVERYTHING!) and now we have to break him of this habit.  But can't really let him cry it out......unlessssssss.....he's in the bedroom on the other side of the house where no one can hear him.  Don't judge me.  If you had my dark under-eye circles, you'd do it too.

So the bedroom switching begins.  Along with a sound machine, all-night long baby lullaby machine, and 2 night-lights.  And lo and behold, the boy is SLEEPING!!!!  And NAPPING!!!

AND, Paige is on medication for her reflux.  No more barfing!!!!

Glory be Hallelujah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
Let's all pray it will last longer than the next two weeks....