Arizona, California and Disneyland

This year we knew that we wanted to go somewhere fun, all sorts of ideas started popping up, Disneyworld, Florida, Cruises, California, Arizona we were really up for anywhere! we finally decided we wanted to take the boys to Disneyland! We have gone twice before once for our honeymoon and again two years later with our good friends Remy and Brittany. So it's safe to say we love Disney and want our boys to as well. We started all the planning and during the middle of it, we decided we wanted to spend some time in Arizona seeing my family, then we thought why just visit with them for a few days, so we invited my mom, my brother, his daughter and girlfriend. they all agreed to come along! Then Logan got super excited and started inviting all the Bliss family! In the end we had a group of 28 people! We would all be traveling separately we were flying out early to Arizona to spend some one on one with my family. Logan's parents would be leaving a few days later from Missouri, his sister and her family would leave the day after. Logan's brother Kevin and his family were flying our from New Jersey, and his brother Jared and his family would be driving from Arizona. Our little family decided to stay in a hotel with my mama and my brother Erik's family, since my mom gets a killer discount!
I started preparing for our trip a month before we were to leave. I was making shirts and planing outfits so we could coordinate. ;) I had pinned everything Disneyland  related, I had to find all the kid and pregnant mama appropriate rides. I also wanted to make autograph books. Which turned out great! I found trading pins online and lanyards that were shortened for little kid length so they would not be tripping over them the whole time. When it was time to start packing, everything went really well, it was still stressful but what vacation isn't?

The Boys love to fly and have become really good travelers when flying is involved. We arrived at the airport super early, I would always prefer being to early then running to the gate because your running late and there is a super long line at security, because that is horrible and know from experience. We grabbed a quick breakfast at the airport and waited for our plane.





When we arrived in Arizona it was HOT! We were all wearing jackets since airplanes are cold and I had read that California gets cold at night and packing jackets in a suitcase takes up precious space. Arizona was wonderful, I have been craving yummy food from my wonderful state for so long! I knew I had to stop at In-n-out, Oreganos and Jack in the Box. We were all able to go out to Oregano's one night while my brother Ian watched all the kids, and it was DELICIOUS!! I have never had such a craving fulfilled as I did then. I also was able to stop at In n out and enjoy a cheeseburger and fries.


James and Boston had so much fun with Keanna, my niece. They were always found together laughing and playing it was such a joy to seem them all together! Before leaving to California, Mina invited my mom and I to one of her OB appointments so we could see my little niece via an ultrasound! It was so fun to see another little baby.




We spent three days in Arizona and then we all drove to California to meet up with the rest of the family. Our drive was long but thankfully we all slept except Erik and Logan our drivers. :) California traffic is definitely different than anything we have in MO, we finally arrived in Anaheim and settled into our hotel, we all shared a suite and it was perfect. The Hotel provided breakfast so we filled up each morning we made all our lunches and packed them up for the park, and decided we would eat dinner in the park. I also brought plenty of snacks that we could snack on at anytime!



We spent the first two days in Disneyland and the last day in California Adventure. Our large group split up and saw what each family wanted to, which worked out great since there was a group who could ride any ride without height restrictions while ours had three littles and two pregnant mamas. Luckily I could ride any ride Boston could so we stuck together while everyone else enjoyed rides.














































After three days in Disney it was time to drive back to Arizona, but before leaving we had to stop by the beach so the boys could see the ocean. James and Keanna loved the water, running away from the waves was more fun than actually playing in the cold water. Boston was not a fan of the sand or water so he stayed on the play mat.


We spent the night our last night with my family in Arizona so we could fly out from the airport the next morning. Our trip was so fun, we enjoyed seeing so much family at once and visiting the "Happiest Place on Earth". I cannot wait until our next vacation.

Easter

We love Easter! This year we spent Easter with Family in Dadeville this year! We had a delicious Easter dinner, flew kites (a Bliss family tradition) and had an Egg hunt.






It was a perfect day for flying kites, the boys loved every bit of it! Once Boston's kite was up I sat on the grass with him while he held it, the wind was pretty helpful in cooperating.

The egg hunt was just as fun, while the boys were busy watching Logan climb the roof to rescue runaway kites while I hid some eggs. We continued this year with including lollipops in our hunt, however we didn't scatter any jelly beans like last year we just told the boys that the Easter bunny scattered lollipops because he knows how good they were.

















I am so thankful for having family so close. I love getting together with them!

Girl names

Tonight while at dinner we were thinking of girl names. Logan named a few, I shared some I liked , and Reagan was there so he was throwing out some of his favorites. I mentioned how I asked James what we should name the baby girl the day before and shared our conversation, James said, "what's the girl from Ninja Turtles?" I said "April" and he replied, "oh ya April O'niel, we should name our baby girl April O'niel!" I said "Well that's a good one but maybe we will keep looking". First off James is obsessed with Ninja Turtles again and loves everything about them, and second I love how he always refers to the baby as our baby girl! 😍 He is so sweet and so excited to meet little miss! So at dinner I asked him again what should we name the baby and his answer.... Tigress. 😂 Well James we might not use that name either but thanks for sharing the excitement of naming her.

We're soon to be FIVE!

We are so excited to announce that baby number 3 is on its way! We have tried to keep it a secret as long as possible but because of our last baby scare we wanted to make sure both mama and baby were safe before the word was out. Early on I had a Subchorionic Hemorrhage that was a bit of a scare. But today we paid to see our baby's sex! This past Saturday was my birthday and while planning on what we could do, Logan mentioned that we could go to an ultrasound place and we could find out what we were having a couple weeks early. I said I could wait, but Logan was too excited and was on the phone with all the ultrasound locations in town. All were booked and the next opening anyone had was Monday morning. Logan scheduled our appointment and then called his boss to make sure he could miss and hour during the morning, he gave the okay. The next few days were a waiting game. Finally Monday morning came and we were all up and ready to go. As we drove over I tried not to get my hopes up, I have wanted a girl since little number one, and lost hope after little number two. So naturally I was thinking a little boy was on his way. I had only been thinking of little guy names since I found out I was pregnant. 

As we walked into the ultrasound place, the boys were excited to see the baby but were instantly distracted once they saw all the toys. Logan and I waited while the tech checked all the routine things. Logan insisted he saw that it was a boy, but the tech checked and didn't say a thing. And then finally asked if we were ready and we both agreed. It's a Girl!! Logan had her check again and again to make sure it really was a girl and it was. All angles showed there was no "bowling pin". We were so excited a baby girl was on her way. Once we walked out we both started calling our parents to announce the wonderful news. They were all hoping for a girl too! We sent Logan to work and we were off to our regular schedule. 

Little Miss Bliss is due on July 21, but if she is like her brothers and follows the pattern, she should be with us around July 14. 

Be kind, rewind

Since I have two very active boys who love to play we are trying to be kind, so it is often repeated in our house! And of course Logan had to always repeat Be Kind, Rewind. So naturally I have caught James saying be kind, rewind. It is so sweet to hear him remind himself or Boston to be kind and rewind. Just last night Logan tried to explain what rewind means and unfortunately a four year old is just not interested in what a vhs tape is or that it you had to rewind it before returning it to a store. I kindly reminded Logan that James doesn't even know what a dvd is, how would he know what a vhs tape was. He laughed and agreed. I sure do love my sweet James he is such a fun kiddo and loves to make us laugh, we are all so lucky to have him.