Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Halloween . . . and Before

We had a "spooky" Halloween. . .
and we went TRICK OR TREATING with our best friends!

My kiddo's all ready for the big night!

This one threw me for a loop when his month long plans for being a vampire came to a halt on Halloween night and he decided to be Indiana Jones. . .
not bad on 10 minutes notice if I do say so myself.

And I dressed up as a Disco Ball
(you can't see my earings but they are disco balls)
*I actually put this shirt on last Sunday to wear to church with a black skirt and I walked out of our room and Kyle started laughing. Laughing. He told me I looked liked a disco ball. I changed, but knew I had my halloween costume all lined up!

BUT,
Before we could go TRICK OR TREATING. . .
we had to go TRUNK OR TREATING at the ward party!


BUT,
Before we could go TRUNK OR TREATING. . .
we had to CARVE PUMPKINS!

BUT,
Before we could CARVE PUMPKINS . . .
we had to take our annual trip to the PUMPKIN PATCH to
PICK OUR PUMPKINS!
(I think Kyle might drop that pumpkin on my head????)

The famous tractor.
I might be sad that my kids are slightly outgrowing it.

The sunflower maze!

The train ride!

The funny turkeys!

And of course the petting zoo!

What a difference a year makes. . .
Remember this????
Goodbye October!

We blinked and you were GONE!

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Beach House Memories. . .

We made a decision as we were leaving the beach house that we would no longer be visiting the beach house in September. It was just too hard to take the kids out of school now that they are getting older. So we made the decision to be put on the waiting list for a week in the summer. The advantage to the summer is you get 3 extra days . . . the disadvantage is you only get to come every other year. . . but we made the decision and it paid off.
We made the cut and will now be visiting the beach house in JUNE!

So here's our last year at the beach house in September,
and like most things this summer we did it but it wasn't as well documented as in years past. See I was still sick at this point. Although the cool ocean breezes does wonder for morning sickness. They should just make the beach a doctors order for women suffering from pregnancy induced sickness!

Here's a recap of all the things we did!

The girls still made the "first day Costco run" to feed the whole crew for a week!


The kids still spent most of their days running to the beach and running back to the comfort of the Hot Tub!
Look at all those boys. . . and my one little girl with the pink floatie!

We still played some mean games of 13 card draw. . .
(I won this game!!!)

These two put on another fantastic year of "Christmas in September"!

The girls still went to town for their day of "thrift shopping" and found the best little cupcake shop!

Pretty sure my husband wouldn't mind watching the kids more often if this is how it could be every time!

The kids sure found time for the annual
SAND WAR with the Uncles!



This might be my favorite picture of the entire trip.
While all four dads are shoving seaweed down my oldest son's wetsuit
little Lucy is the only one of the 13 cousins to defend him!
Go Lucy!


And then the dad's got this crazy idea. . .

to emerge out of the ocean as sea monsters and scare everyone!

These two were inseparable!
Whether they were building sand castles. . .

Or playing frisbee with Aunt Sheena. . .

Or spending time with Grandma. . .

and Grandpa. . .
They were pretty much together everywhere they went!
(except the ocean for the first half of the week, it took Kara a good three days to get brave enough to get her feet wet)
He tried and mastered surfing again this year!

This one was bound and determined to do it too!
Next year buddy - bring on the big board!

Above everything,
the kids just lived in the ocean!



Grandpa even organized some boogie board races this year!


And the kids loved it when grandma would call for them to meet her on the wall to watch the sunset!

And. . .
because it was circus year!
It wouldn't be complete without a picture on the wall of all 13 little clowns!

Here's my boys saying goodbye to the beach one last time before we headed home!

See ya in 2 years Ventura!

Ahhh. . . I miss it already!

Saturday, October 1, 2011

Since it is October. . . and almost Halloween. . .


I thought I'd post about our
CIRCUS THEME NIGHT
at the Beach House this year!

Here you have the
Fierce Lion
and
Lion Tamer. . .
(you can't even begin to comprehend how much convincing went into putting on that lion costume)

My boys:

A Juggler
(please know how bad I wanted to put a monkey hat on Kris and give him some symbols with this jacket. . . but a juggler is what he wanted to be)

and

A Human Cannonball

Kale refused and I mean refused to be a clown this year like most of his cousins
and almost refused to dress up entirely this year. . .
So I was excited when he collaborated with Grandma and came up with this fun and easy idea!

And then there's the Husband. . .
Are there even words?

Clowns freak me out.

Here's the inlaws!
Gotta Love Em!

And in this family just because you're 90 doesn't give you a free pass to not dress up!

Here's the family!



And the evening couldn't have ended more perfectly. . .
Whacking a clown with a bat until his head broke open!

Doesn't this get you excited for HALLOWEEN??????

Saturday, September 24, 2011

Once again we say goodbye to Summer. . .

I was reminded/told/informed, however you want to put it, that yesterday was the last day of summer. . . so I thought it fitting that the next few posts will be focusing on what exactly we did this summer.

First of all most of this summer was spent just trying to survive.
I was sick. Really sick trying to grow this little one inside of me.

12 weeks along. . .
(I know. I know. I must have done a good job growing, cause it sure looks big for 12 weeks)
So while I did my best to give my kids some sort of summer they would remember or at least not hate. . .

We spent a lot of time at the pool.
It's not as well documented as in past summers, but we went.








At least I have these pictures to prove to my kids that for brief moments in the summer they actually had fun or did a really good job faking it!!!!!