Halloween

I had to get our Halloween pictures posted before Thanksgiving! This blog is becoming like my scrapbooks...constantly behind. Anyway, if I remember right :), we had a great Halloween. I loved that it was on Friday so that we didn't have to worry about school the next day. We had our friends, the Langfords, over for dinner and witches brew (root beer with dry ice). Our kids were enthralled with the brew. After dinner we sent the troops out. They only lasted about 45 minutes, but brought back PLENTY of candy!


Here is Parker before heading out. I would like to say that he is just really playing up the "lion" role, but for those of you that really know him, you can appreciate that he is in true character here. He only lasted 2 houses.


Chase & Ciera decided to both go with the Star Wars theme. I don't really know how either of them decided that since they have never seen any of the movies. Ciera was quite upset that she didn't have a black gun to carry around. She told me that Princess Leia was never without her gun. How would she know?


us and the Langfords


Cael the pirate. Aaarrr, matey!

Ambitious...YES, Realistic...NO

What in the world was I thinking! Like I was really going to post 10 days in a row. It sure sounded great at the time, but totally unrealistic for someone who is lucky to post once a month. So, since Hawaii now seems like a distant memory, I will end with this last post showing some of our favorite things.



Loved being on the cruise ship. Good food. Great game nights. More food. More entertainment. It was just so much fun to be with Travis. Great time.



Road trip to Hana. Absolutely beautiful.



Swimming by the waterfalls. Personally, I never got in the waterfall pools. The water was always WAY to cold for this Vegas girl.



Loved the beaches.




Snorkeling was great. We tried snuba and loved it. Now we have the bug to try scuba.


Nothing could beat the helicopter ride over Kauai. It was spectacular.


Hiking through a volcano crater.

I can't thank enough my amazing friend, Andrea, and my wonderful parents that took care of our kids and made this trip possible. Thanks a million!!!

DAY 3

We did a session at the temple in the morning and then a quick drive through tour of the BYU Hawaii campus. It took all of 1 minute. I didn't realize what a small campus it is. What a beautiful place to go to school!!



We also took our first walk on the beach. Can you believe that it took us three days in Hawaii to walk along the beach? Crazy! Although, we did walk from our car to the ocean to get to our surf lessons. Does that count as a walk on the beach?



That evening we boarded the cruise ship. After learning all the safety evacuation rules we immediately started eating and really didn't stop until we rolled off the ship 7 days later. We loved touring the islands by ship. We would recommend it to anyone and would do it again in a heartbeat.

HAWAII - DAY 2

We kicked day two off with surfing lessons. What a blast! It wasn't as hard as I thought it was going to be. Maybe that is because the boards are nice and wide-- very beginner friendly. We do have some pictures of surfing, but they are on a CD that cracked in my suitcase. I am working on getting a replacement. I'll post pictures later.

In the afternoon we went on a horse ride. The view was beautiful. Over the next few days my behind was a reminder that I have no idea how to ride a horse. Next time I might think about getting a few more pointers.


After getting cleaned up, we ended up arriving fairly late at the Polynesian Cultural Center. Unfortunately, we didn't get to spend much time visiting the villages, but we did enjoy the luau and the night show. If I ever get to Hawaii again, I would definitely spend more time at the PCC, especially if I have my kids with me.

HAWAII - DAY 1

So, many of you know that Travis & I just got back from a trip to Hawaii to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary. We had such a great time. It was a lot of fun. I have so many pictures that I want to share, so I thought I would give you a daily itinerary of what we did. By day three most of you will probably be saying, "Enough is enough!" But, humor me OR stop reading my blog for the next few days because it is all going to be Hawaii. Come November I will get back to reality and post some Halloween pictures. I also need to get back to reality and stop looking at our pictures from our trip everyday. For some reason, it just makes me think I am back in Hawaii, even if it is only for three minutes. Anyway, here is what we did on day 1:
Pearl Harbor

I loved visiting Pearl Harbor. I have always been fascinated with history, especially WWII. It was a really sacred place where you couldn't help pay respect to the thousands of young men and women that lost their lives while serving our country.

On our way to our hotel we stopped by the Dole Plantation. The ice cream was delicious!! We couldn't pass up these photo opportunities! I've always wondered what I would look like as a pineapple!

We took a train ride around the pineapple fields and learned all about the history of the pineapple and the Dole name. It was really fun and interesting!

Sorry about my picture placement...I'm still not so great at that and I am too lazy to figure out how to do it right. Laura, I need your blogging help!

Birthday Boy!

Parker's birthday started with breakfast cake (coffee cake). He wasn't a huge fan and so after downing my own, I helped him finish up his piece. YUM!


Next, we opened presents...well, I should say he opened a present. He only had one present that was sent by my parents. His other grandparents sent money which I deposited in his bank account and his dead beat parents didn't buy him anything! At first I felt really bad about it, but then I talked myself into feeling better with the reasoning that 1) he is turning one and will never remember this birthday anyway and 2)we already have too many toys that we don't know what to do with, so why buy more?

We finished all the celebrations with birthday cake. As you can tell, Parker made a smooth transition from baby food to solids.

SURPRISE!

In September we took the kids to the circus as a surprise night out. It was really fun. They have never been to the circus before and so it was a great surprise. Ciera really was this animated. It was great!


Chase, our animal lover, was enthralled with the tigers & elephants. Ciera loved all the lights and action. She has a little more Vegas flare to her. Cael thought it was all great, but a little long. And Parker, sweet Parker, was great for the first half and then not so much fun for the last half. I spent most of the second half walking around looking at all the over priced food and souvenirs.

So, the circus has changed since I last went. I remember the circus being more about animal shows and trapeze artists. This was much more "over the top" than I remember. Lots of lights, dancers, and action. It was all very entertaining.

A first and possibly a last

Okay, it wasn't actually that bad, but it was a reaffirmation that I am not the best camper. Two weeks ago we went with our ward on a campout. On the way up I told Travis that it was the first time since we have been married that we have ever been camping together. Travis always goes on the Father/Son camp outs, but I have never been on a Mother/Daughter camp out. Not that I would be jumping in line to go if they had one, but why isn't there a Mother/Daughter spa day or something like that?

Anyway, we all had a really great time until bedtime arrived. Parker did not keep any of the sleeping rules. He wouldn't stay in his port a crib and he didn't sleep through the night! He actually woke up regularly all through the night. Finally at about 6a.m. Travis took him to the car and I was able to get a nice 2 hour block of sleep. I felt like I had a newborn again. But, as tired as I was the next day, I couldn't be mad at him. Who could be mad at this face?


The kids had a great time playing on the rafts. They spent most of the afternoon and all of the next morning playing in the FREEZING water. Travis couldn't resist joining them. I would have, but the water was definitely below 85 degrees...and as you know, I am allergic to cold water.






Travis throwing things out of balance.

I know it has almost been three weeks, but...

Here they are! Finally I am getting around to posting first day of school pictures!




Chase was "kind of" excited to start school again, but Ciera was "super" excited for 1st grade. She was really excited to be able to ride her bike to school with Chase.



As you can tell, Chase does a great job taking care of her.

So far, everybody likes their teachers. Ciera is in a 1st/2nd combo class. I haven't really decided how I feel about that yet... anyway, this week I went and helped in both of their classrooms. I really enjoyed it. It makes me miss teaching and always gets me excited for that far off day when I will hopefully return to the profession.

Cael also had his first day at preschool. He has been asking to go to preschool for about 2 years now. The morning of his first day he must have asked me about 20 times if it was time to go yet. He continues to love it. I love that they do all the "messy projects" there that I am never brave enough to do at home.

first steps

It is official. Parker is off, not really running, but learning to walk for sure. We are all VERY entertained by him and his recent milestone. He is quite pleased with himself too. Today he took about eight consecutive steps which set a new record.

Cael and Ciera have been equally amusing as they act like Parker walking is the most amazing thing in the world. They think he should be on Ripley's Believe it or Not. I'll wait and see what other amazing things he does before signing him up.

Summer Fun

Last week we returned home from a family beach reunion with Travis's family. It was so much fun. We went to Gulf Shores, AL. (I know, who knew anyone would go on a vacation there) It was really fabulous! The accommodations were wonderful (thanks Ron & Diane!), the water was warm and the beach was full of soft sand perfect for making sandcastles. Chase wants me to mention that there were lots of jelly fish too. That just made it all the more fun.:)

We were quite the crew with Travis's five siblings and their families. I think our total number was 36 people!! Above is a picture of my kids and all their cousins.

Parker loved the sand. He also loved eating the sand! Chase, Ciera and Cael spent most of each day going between the beach, the ocean, and the pool. They had a great time playing with their cousins and Travis and I really enjoyed the late night chats with his parents and siblings.

Travis came home looking very tan. Somehow he clocked a lot more sun hours than me...or maybe it is just a minor difference in our skin tones.

Finally, a life again...

So, baseball/tball ended about three weeks ago, but since then there hasn't been a day that goes by that I don't think how glad I am that it is over. It really consumed our life. For the last 2 1/2 months we spent most of our evenings at the ball park. Chase and Ciera really enjoyed it and will probably want to play again next year. I need to start thinking of a good excuse now so that we won't have to sign up again! As much fun as it was :) I am so glad to have my family and routine back again. It is great not to have to rush my evenings away. Now, we are on to tennis rushing our mornings away... will I ever learn!!!

Here we are trying to get a family picture on Easter. This is the one and only that we were able to get. I took a few of the kids prior to this and by the time this photo rolled around I was really the only willing participant. We had a quiet Easter with just our family. As much as we love living in Sacramento, we sure miss being close to family.
We also celebrated Ciera's birthday. It was the day before Easter. The whole weekend was full of celebrations. This picture is of Ciera with her long awaited American Girl doll "Samantha". She combined her birthday money from her grandparents to purchase her. Ciera helped make and decorate her cake. We used some of the Easter candy since we had SOOO much. I must say that she is by far the cutest, sweetest and most wonderful daughter that we have!!

To end this post I just have to put in a picture of
Parker. He is all over the place lately. He is hitting all of his milestones way to early for me and I am so sad to watch him leave the baby stage so quickly. He is crawling and pulling himself up on everything. He is also cruising along on the furniture. Most of the time you can find him with a bruise on some part of his face because he is also always falling down from all of the furniture too. Love this little boy!

What?? A new post??

Just thought I would post some photos from the last few months. If this is easy than I just might start actually posting things to this blog. So the last few months have been really busy and fun. The highlight of February was visits from both Grandparents and Uncle Tim & Aunt Brittny for Chase's baptism. We had such a great time visiting with everyone. We couldn't be more proud of Chase. He is such a great big brother and a great example to Travis and I. We love having him as part of our family!