The Most Wonderful Time of the Year!!

I don't think it is any secret that I love Disneyland and so does my family but I REALLY LOVE DISNEYLAND at Christmas!!  It is all so magical!  I am hoping to make a Christmas trip to Disneyland a yearly tradition...I just need Disneyland to STOP raising the price of tickets so we can afford this tradition! :)  As a little side note, it rained pretty much the whole time we were there so our hair is all a little crazy!!  I had plans to get a cute family Christmas picture with our hair all looking perfect but I forgot the hairspray and then it rained so there wasn't any point to even doing the hair!!

HUGE Christmas Tree in Disneyland...I want one!

Family Photo by Disneyland Christmas Tree

We found Red!

The boys on the Mater Ride.  Ben actually liked it!

The girls on the Mater Ride in their matching outfits!

While killing time in the rain waiting for the other half of our family to get tired of riding Splash Mountain, we found some friendly creatures!  Tigger tried to give Ben five and shake his hand...I don't think I have ever seen Ben's eyes get so big!

We found Santa at Disneyland.  We were sad his reindeer didn't make it this year.

Ben's favorite ride was the carousel!  All my kids have LOVED this ride at that age.

October

Killing time while waiting for the girls to get out of school!

We had a day to kill at BYU recently so we found some dinosaurs!

Sammy getting ready to chop her hair

Locks of Love donation

Sammy getting recognized at school for her locks of love donation.

Wedding Rapunzel (Andrea worked hard and saved money for this costume).

Mickey Mouse

Cowgirl

Optimus Prime was unavailable for pictures...maybe next week we can catch him!!

No More Lazy Days

My slow paced life came to an end this week! I have loved having nowhere to go and nothing that has to get done by a certain time (other than picking the girls up from school)! Jeff takes the girls to school every morning because they start at 8:00 AM. It has been so nice to just hang out with my boys every morning and play! Josh is always wanting to have someone to play with him so most mornings were spent going on rescue missions with his Rescue Bots.

This week our lives got a little more scheduled! I love the activities my kids are in and especially love that Josh got in to preschool with his best friend but sometimes I miss lazy days!

Samantha is the busiest with gymnastics, piano lessons, Activity Days, and she is in a Children's Choir with our church. Andrea has gymnastics and piano lessons. Josh has preschool twice a week and playgroup at the park twice a week. Ben just gets to go wherever I am :)!! I also trade off volunteering and babysitting with a friend from church. Our girls are in the same class this year so we share a volunteering time. I am so happy to be back in the classroom helping out again! Then you add all the homework on top of that and you see why our lazy days are over!

I love every minute of my life and love watching my kids try new things. I am so thankful that we have the ability to put our kids in different activities to strengthen and build upon their talents.

Family

We had my cousin snap a few pictures of just our family at Chris and Jennifer's Wedding in May. I am trying to figure out which one to blow up. I think I am going to do the one of us sitting down.

New Toys

I cleaned up the playhouse and slide and brought them inside this weekend.  Ben is always wanting to go out and play with them but it is too hot for him to be out there on the patio.  He is in heaven and loves to go in his house every morning when we come downstairs.

 

First Day of School

Sammy and Andrea are at the same school this year!!!  Life has been great!  The first day of school, I was ready to make dinner at 3:30...last year we would get home from picking up Sammy at 4:00 and we get home by about 2:25 this year!  It is so nice, I can't even explain to you how much easier my life is this year over last year.

Both girls ready to go to school!

Andrea's first day of 1st Grade!!

Samantha's first day at KW and 3rd Grade!

Andrea waiting to walk in with her class.  Sammy went too fast so I couldn't get one of her with her class!!

8 is GREAT!!

Sammy made the choice to be baptized a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints when she turned eight.  We believe that children become accountable for their actions at the age of eight and are given the opportunity to be baptized at that point.  We had a fun day filled with family and friends and we are very thankful for those that were able to travel to Vegas to be with us and we missed those that couldn't come.

When I told Sammy we were going to take a picture in her baptism clothes she told me she didn't want a picture "in this"!  I just laughed...apparently it wasn't girly enough.

Our family

She finally got her own scriptures!  She has been asking for them for over a year!

Sammy turns 8

A week after Ben's birthday, Sammy had her turn.  We had a movie party with her friends and got to celebrate with family on her birthday!

Eating pizza with friends

Dancing during the movie

Sammy and her candy barrel cake.

Opening presents!!

Happy Birthday Sammy...We Love You!

Ben turns 1

Ben turned one the end of July.  It has been a long year and it was full of ups and downs but his cute little smile made it all worth it!!  We LOVE you Ben!

Ben getting checked out in the NICU

This picture makes me tear up.  This is how Ben looked the first time I got to go see him.  He had was breathing really fast so they had to put him in the NICU for eight days.  It was the longest and hardest eight days of my life.  It is hard to be in the hospital recovering from having a baby and not being able to take care of the baby...and then to have to go home from the hospital without your baby...makes you feel horrible to have to leave your baby!

Ben LOVES water so we got him a water table.  He loved it!

I think this picture says it all!!  He is the first one of my kids to LOVE his cake on his first birthday!

A Visit to the Zoo

No trip to Utah is complete without a visit to Hogle Zoo.  This year they have a new exhibit called Rocky Shores.  We loved seeing the new animals up close!

This Polar Bear LOVES to swim right up to the window and pop up.  I have heard lots of people say they have seen the bear do this.  The kids LOVED it!  I think the bear likes to hear the kids all scream!!

Andrea needed a picture with the wolves because that is her school mascot.

I took this picture a little too soon so you can't see everyone.  It did get Josh and his buddy Joey!  Josh loves going to visit his boy cousins in Utah...he talks about Isaac and Joey all the time.

We LOVE playing at Grandma and Grandpa's House!!!

Lazy Summer Days

I miss being able to relax outside in the evenings and sitting in a backyard full of grass, trees, and other green things!! This is why I took the kids and escaped Las Vegas to spend a few weeks at my parents house!

Who needs Sprinklers?

My kids were going to run in the sprinklers today...Mother Nature decided to provide the sprinklers for us!!