this n that

Here are some happenings around our house (in no particular order)....



Seth had a little accident. He was chasing the neighbor girls around their yard, and ran right into a tree! Poor guy! He really got banged up. He also insisted on having a bandaid for each wound. (I particularly like the 'stache bandaid!)




We had a "pink" birthday party for Mia (can you tell?). She loved it! We decorated cupcakes, got dressed up, painted our fingernails, and played games. What more could 4 year old girls want?



Halloween...
getting ready to go trick or treating.


With cousin Bethany at Grandma's annual Halloween party.


Carving pumpkins





This little guy is now all over the place....I can hardly keep up with him.



Mia on her first day of preschool.



Angie, Seth and I after hiking the Y. Scott likes to hike the Y every year on the day of the first game.



Family hike up Big Cottonwood Canyon. The leaves were amazing. The pictures never quite do the colors justice.




Seth's first soccer season!



At Gardner Village with great friends!



Seth all geared up to cheer the cougars on to victory.


That is what has been going on in our lives over the last little while.

California Pictures

Sorry it has taken me so long to post these pictures. They are in no specific order. Maybe I'll organize them when I get a moment later...until then, here they are!

A little family time

Well, I thought I would post a few happenings in our lives lately.

First of all, we moved! We moved from a ward and dear friends that we have grown to LOVE. We miss them all dearly. They have truly touched our lives and made us want to be better people. I feel so blessed to have crossed paths with them. I know that is where we needed to be to first experience parenthood. We had such great examples to learn from and observe.

We look forward to meeting new people and developing new friendships in our new home. It is fun and exciting for our little family to have a new 'beginning' in our lives. We have already met so many kind people. It has truly made me appreciate people going out of their way to come over and introduce themselves. I know that it is often not easy to approach someone new and introduce yourself, but I have realized how unselfish and kind it is.

Well, we are currently on a family vacation in California. It has been WONDERFUL! It has been priceless to have time together as a family. Life has been so busy and chaotic with the move, I feel we have really missed out on quality time together. We have played and laughed and truly savored this time together. We have visited two different beaches, Disneyland, and Sea World. I will remember:

Seth LOVING the beach. His favorite thing was to collect all the seaweed that washed up on shore. He even had to bring two slimy pieces back to our condo with us. Gross! He is a boy, what do you expect?

Mia screaming through the entire mini rollercoaster in ToonTown. After she told me "screaming just means you really like it, mom!" Well, she sure fooled me!

Seth riding Star Tours as many times as he possibly could. He was also picked to be trained at the Jedi Training Camp. He had a grin from ear to ear as he stood up there and received his jedi robe. He was able to have a lightsaber fight with Darth Vader...honestly, a dream come true.

Grady taking his first solo steps in the condo from the coffee table to the couch!!!

Mia saying, "Really, Grad, really????" as he climbed all over her at the beach.

Mia saying "Brrrrd! Brrrrrd!" when she was cold at the beach.

Grad taking advantage of every moment out of the stroller to crawl around and find garbage with his little pinchers.

Those are just a few of our fun moments that I don't want to forget. Despite all the commercialism and possibly some overstimulation in Disney-mania (it is CRAZY!), it has been a great trip. It has just made me remember how truly precious this time is with the kids. Often I let SO many things getting in the way of just stopping and enjoying these precious little souls that I have the opportunity to love. I often wish that the kids were old enough to do this or that. But right now, I just want time to stop so I can cuddle them and nuzzle them while they will still let me.

A Birthday Party It Was

Here is the Star Wars Birthday Gang! We had a Star Wars birthday party for Seth today. It was great. The kids came all dressed up and had a great time. The weather even cooperated with us. We started out with a Jedi Training Camp in the backyard. They ran through the obstacle course several times. Then we came inside for Galactic Pizza and Yoda Sodas. We played some more games before presents. The big finale was 'Destroying the Death Star' pinata. I think the kids all had a good time. And we had one happy Jedi (see below!).

Since I haven't posted in FOREVER I decided to add some fun pictures I found today. Here is Mia's "excited" face. She does several faces...but I think this is my favorite. She is such a little ham!

Here is Grady enjoying his solids!

This boy LOVES the bathtub. It is so fun to watch him splashing all over!

This is when you know your kids got a hold of the camera!