Quick Update

I've taken a major blogging break, but hopefully I'm back. I'm committed to doing better - not that you care, but I want to do better for my sake!!!

My FAVORITE November family tradition is going to the AZ State Fair. So glad the Mortensens and Roundys decided to brave the crowds with us and fully partake of a total WT event! Everyone had a BLAST.


The real reason that we go every year - demolition derby. Yes we know we're totally WT!

My cute kiddos at the Mesa Veterans day parade. Ashley said it best, "it's totally suck awesome!" Gotta love Joslyn's michelin arms.

We did a can food drive with some families from the ward for FHE. We wound up collecting almost 500 pounds of food. The first night when we were putting the bags and fliers on the doors, Tate smiled and said, "Mom this is just as fun as trick or treating".

We had our Thanksgiving dinner with the McDowells the Friday before Thanksgiving. As always great food, great fun, and lots to be thankful for.



We went to the mall the weekend before Thanksgiving and Santa was there - with no line!!! We knew this was a golden opportunity so we took it, but were of course too cheap to actually buy the pictures.

We spent the actual Thanksgiving at the sand dunes. Our fellow campers (family and friends) dubbed me the trailer mom since I had brought several different crafts and activities to keep the kids entertained. We of course had to make gumdrop turkeys. We also made indian headbands and beads.


Dad's idea of fun, because he's not the one doing the laundry.

They loved decorating sugar cookies in the trailer.


And this picture only Sara will appreciate.

Halloween and Stuff

Halloween was way good times! We went as the Peter Pan crew with John as Smee, Marie as Wendy, Tate as Captain Hook, Jack as Peter Pan and Joslyn as Tinkerbell. We all looked pretty fabulous if I do say so myself. Please be very impressed that I made mine and Joslyn's costumes ALL BY MYSELF!!! This is the first time in my life that I have every sewn anything completely by myself. I'm so proud of myself, and was doubly glad that I could use it for my Young Women in Excellence project that I needed to get done!



Joslyn got her helmet last week. We are glad that this will fix her crooked little head so that she will be PERFECT;-)! It stared out plain white, but her daddy jazzed it up quite nicely with stickers and of course some bling. He wouldn't let me help - I guess I don't have the decorating skills!?




A couple weeks ago Joslyn was supposed to be taking a nap but I heard her in there messing around for quite a while. She was happy for a while and then she started screaming. I went in to check and found this. I guess that's why they say bumper pads are dangerous. So of course I took the bumper pad off. Within a few minutes she had her leg stuck between the slats! So I guess our options are: strangulation by bumper or broken leg from bed slats!?


This is just a cute pic of her bouncing on her horse and her cutely painted bedroom wall in the back ground - we were afraid of using too much color - ha, ha!

A Few Firsts

Tate's first Skateboard lesson. Ramps on the first day was pretty intense! He has a love-hate opinion of the whole idea.


Joslyn's first piggytail. With all her hair I'm sure we could have done it much sooner, I just never thought about it - still not used to the idea of having a girl!

Joslyn's first silly face - she does this a lot lately.

Jack's first fieldtrip. We went to Schnepf farms with his preschool and had a great time.

SanDiego

We waited til the summer was over to take our family vacation so we could beat the heat and the crowds. It was PERFECT!!! We parked our trailer in a lovely trailer park(a first for us - but won't be the last) that was only a couple hundred yards from the beach. We met up with our friends the Mortensens and the Echols and we all had a wonderful time!

Chillin in the trailer park


Our first day we spent at Legoland. It was so fun. The boys were old enough and tall enough for almost all of the rides. They were brave and even went on the scary ones. They have an awesome water area that the kids played in for almost two hours. Mini lego land was so cool and all of the dinos, animals, people, etc built out of legos were amazing!










We spent the second day at Sea World. The kids loved looking at all of the animals, so did I. I love the polar bears and am completely amazed at the whales in the Shamu show. I really want to swim with a killer whale - so cool. The boys liked feeding the sting rays even though they felt slimy. Tate LOVED the Atlantis ride and we went on it at least five times - it was a blast! Joslyn was such a good girl at Legoland and Seaworld and was happy as can be just sitting in the stroller or hitchin a ride in the carrier.










Our last day we bummed on the beach - some of us showed our bum! Jack loved the sand and hated the water. Tate got pretty brave and decided to try boogie boarding. He decided it wasn't for him once he got salt water and sand in his eyes. John made friends with a squirrel and Jos took a nice nap under the umbrella.

All in all a FABULOUS time!