How Sweet It Is...

Joseph and I celebrated our 7th anniversary on December 29th!  We celebrated with a 14 mile run, an afternoon at a small theme park called Castles & Coasters - where we road the rides and played miniature golf, and dinner at a fancy seafood restaurant - where we sampled alligator tail, learned we like lobster more than crab, and discovered that flounder is delicious. Unfortunately we did not take any pictures.  So, here's one from that happy day 7 years ago.  How sweet it is to be loved!

Christmas

 December always seems to be a busy month.  This year was even busier as we decided to have a "Christmas with the Morin Family" only 5 days before our trip to Portland to have "Christmas with the Wilde Family."  My parents came out and stayed with us, and my sister, her husband and daughter came up to our house after church that Sunday.  We had a little Christmas Family Home Evening, where Joseph told the kids the Story of Christmas using the Little People Nativity.  It was adorable.  (I was certain we took pictures of this, but I couldn't find them, so if I do I'll just add them to the post later I guess.)  Starting Monday it was time for me to get the house in order and to start packing.  Our trip to Portland was great.  Austin and Kaylee both did really well on the plane rides.  We stayed with Joseph's sister, Angelina, and her husband, Wayne, where we enjoyed some space for the kids to run around, wonderful food, and the smell of a real Christmas Tree. :)  (We used an artificial tree this year since we were going to be out of town the whole week of Christmas.)  Austin and Kaylee loved playing with their cousins and everything about Christmas.  We had a wonderful time!

Austin watching The Polar Express on the plane ride to Portland.

Kaylee & Austin all dressed for church the Sunday before Christmas.

Christmas morning stockings.  They were very patient.

Story time with Grandma Ann and cousins.

Kaylee LOVES her pillow pet!

A picture I made for Joseph.  It says, "A father is his son's first hero and his daughter's first love."

Austin LOVES his trains!

Don't let this picture deceive you, Austin does NOT love his pillow pet.  He said he didn't like it's trunk.  We got him a Winnie the Pooh one when we got back to Phoenix and now Austin loves his pillow pet too. :)  Thank goodness.

This is a book from the Wilde Grandparents called How Animal Mommies Love their Babies.  Kaylee was hugging every page. It was adorable!

November was fun!

We had our annual photo shoot at the beginning of the month.  The kids are growing up so fast! 

Just a few highlights of our day-to-day activities:

The kids LOVE to play with their sandbox! Although they are still learning not to dump sand all over the back yard as they play.  It's a work in progress, but they sure do have fun!

I think Austin wants to be a runner when he grows up.  :)

Austin and Kaylee with their Great Grandparents (my dad's parents).

The picture of Austin and Kaylee with their Great Grandparents was actually taken Thanksgiving Day.  We were all at my mom's parent's house that day and unfortunately we didn't get pictures with anyone else. It was really wonderful to be with so much family that day, and for reasons that will be addressed in a future post, I think it is a day I will never forget.

Birthday Girls & the Pumpkin Patch

Okay, so this blog needs some serious updating.  Since it's super late at night and I want to go to bed, we'll start with October.  Kaylee and I share "birthday week" together.  It's fun to have our birthdays close, it's almost like a week long party.   

Austin helped me blow out my candles.  Yes, those are making the numbers 2 and 9.  It's the last year of my twenties and it's going to be amazing!

Kaylee's lady bug cake.

Kaylee's lady bug smash cake & full cake.  It was fun to make!

The birthday girl loves cake!

She really dug in!

Her cousin wasn't quite as into the cake as Kaylee was, but it's the birthday girl's prerogative to eat as much cake as she wishes.  Spice cake and cream cheese frosting were apparently a good choice.

Kaylee sitting in her rocking chair reading a lady bug book, all birthday gifts.  She loved getting presents and still loves to play with, sit in, and read them.

Hanging out with my girl at the pumpkin patch.

Austin loved this "train" pulled by a tractor.  It was his favorite ride by far.

Austin & daddy went down the "noisy slide."  It turned out Austin wasn't much of a fan.

Austin rode a pony!

We picked a pumpkin fresh off the vine.

Austin sitting in a bunch of corn where he dug for small toys.  He loved it, but I guess he wasn't too fond of feeling corn between his toes.

Of course, Austin had to have one last ride on the train.  I think he rode it 3 times that day.

At the end of the month Austin helped us carve the pumpkin.

He liked to watch it glow in the dark.

We were Goldie Locks and the Three Bears
(Although we sort of looked like mice... maybe Goldie Locks and the Three Teddy Bears?)

Kaylee trying on her wig... made from tying thick yarn through the holes of a woven headband.  It was awesome! 
Too bad she didn't really keep it on.

My sis and her baby came to our ward Halloween party as Winnie the Pooh and a bumble bee.

Here's our Austin Bear all ready to go trick-or-treating!