Pumpkin Patch

 

Here is a family picture of us at our annual Pumpkin Patch visit:

First Trip to Disneyland

 

Here are some pictures of Madie’s first trip to Disneyland:

 

Halloween Baking

 

Reagan decided over conference weekend that everything we did was going to be Halloween.  We came up with a Halloween idea for lunch—Pumpkin Quesadillas:

Caden

 

In October we went to Las Vegas for the baby blessing of my newest nephew—Caden.  Here are some family pictures of us all together:

My brother Adam and his fam:

My brother Austin and his fam:

The little honoree, caden:

My brother AD and his family:

Here we are:

 

The grandkids tickling aunt weeze (my sister, Ashley):

The Grandparents with some of the grandkids:

Pictures from Ray’s Birthday

 

In a previous post I talked about Ray’s fun birthday at down town Disney.  Here are the pictures to go with:

Doheny Camping

 

In September (I am really far behind) we went camping with some good friends.  It was a fun time!  We spent the whole day on the beach while our kids played together.  It was a crazy trip—when we drove down there the power was out in all of south Orange County and San Diego—crazy time getting there!  On Saturday there was a huge hail storm!  Here are some pics:

 

We tried to get there early enough for good picture taking light—but the power outage dashed all those hopes.  Here are some pictures, you can see the sun going down in them. By the way, not sure what Madie is doing in that first picture—but we are never sure what Madie is doing ….

Madie and her little friend.

Here we are playing in the waves.

Jackson—isn’t he getting so tall?

Walking!

 

Bubba (Lincoln) took his first 3 steps, without help, yesterday.  Sunday, November 20th.  He walked from me to Madie.  He is 10 months—my earliest walker!  I can’t believe my baby is growing up so fast—

Big Shoes to Fill…

 

When Jackson started walking at 1 year, we bought him a pair of shoes.  They were size 6 double extra wide! They were ugly then, and still ugly now, but the only shoes wide enough. Crazy!  I saved them for Lincoln—however, they are two sizes too big.  Lincoln will now be getting walking shoes for Christmas.  Size 4 1/2 wide (hopefully they will be wide enough).  It is insane to me how chubby and long my babies feet always are!  I guess if you are going to be 7 foot tall (that is what doctors and their crazy formulas are saying!) your feet have to be large (and when you have a dad that wears size 14, there is no getting away from it).  Jackson is now 7 years old, comes to my shoulder (I am 5’6”) and wears size 4 shoe.  It is a full time job to keep my kids in clothes that fit them!

Stay tuned!  My kids are off track and we have been traveling Southern California—don’t have a ton of pictures, but plenty of stories to come!

The Angrier Bird

 

So, for our 9 year Anniversary, I gave Matt a stuffed Angry bird.  For many reasons, really, but we won’t get into any of that (I know, cheap anniversary gift—but another long story…). 

Anyways…if I thought that bird was angry before, imagine how it must have felt when I found him drowning in the toilet, being scrubbed with soap, by our third child.  When I caught her (she was also sopping wet with toilet water), she handed me that soaking wet angrier bird and said…All Clean!  All of this five minutes after she pulled down my curtains…rod and all… 

Disneyland

 

So we have been saving for three years to take our kids back to Disneyland.  The last time we went, Ray was a baby.  So, yesterday we finally found a day to go buy our passes and take the kids for 1/2 a day.  It was a perfect day—not too hot or cold and every ride was only a 15 minute wait.  Madie’s face was lit up the entire time.  We went on Snow White, the Carousel, Haunted Mansion (we had three kids crying at once there—not our best idea), Thunder Mountain (Jackson, Ray, and me), and Buzz Light Year twice (bubbas favorite—he loved the gun).  Matt and I were exhausted at the end of it (we were all in bed by 8:45)—but it was so worth it to spend the evening together at the happiest place on earth .  Pictures to follow…

Out of Hundreds…

 

We found 3 we liked! Notice we could never get all four kids to look at the camera.  Matt thinks our chances are worse than winning the lottery in getting all four kids happy, smiling, looking at the camera, and not fighting…  Here are a few:

Baby Birds

So everyone has the picture of the mama bird coming back with the worm to her nest and all the little baby birds sitting there with wide mouths going crazy to eat.  Almost every single time I sit down to eat something, I am immediately surrounded by at least two children, if not four.  It is so funny!  It doesn’t matter that they were given the same thing 10 minutes ago, by me, and they didn’t eat it.  It also doesn’t matter what it is—I could be gnawing on a huge piece of raw broccolli and they would all surround me and beg for some.  Crazy, huh, although I haven’t had my full meal in 6 years, I don’t really mind--I love that my kids surround me and that I can finally get them to eat something—.

Happy Birthday Reagan!

 

Our sweet little ray-ray had her birthday on Wednesday!  She is five years old!!  It has been a week’s worth of celebrations!  She started out by spending friday night with her grandparents.  They went to color me mine and she made a beautiful princess crown bank.  She also got to go out to dinner and did a ton of other things were her grandma and grandpa sage.  On Tuesday she got to see Spy Kids 4 and have dinner with her Grandma Burnett (she loves spy kids!).    On Wed at school she got to be the Star of the Day!  She has been waiting for two months and comes home every day, disappointed that it wasn’t her.  She had a doughnut in her backpack for snack and she passed out treat bags to all her school friends. 

  She has been telling us for months that all she wanted to do was go to Downtown Disney and get a lollipop—so last minute we were able to take her there.  We had so much fun!!  We went to the rainforest café for dinner (a small fortune and almost as much as throwing a birthday party for her, but well worth their excited faces!).  She had fairy dust sprinkled in her hair and then got her lollipop.  She danced around that place with her lollipop, badge announcing her birthday, fairy dust, and a smile on her face so big that everyone kept asking her how old she was turning. We hope you had a wonderful birthday ray and we sure love your fiery spirit and creative take on life!

Grateful

The other day my kids and I had a discussion on being grateful for the things Heavenly Father has given us.  We talked about how there are many children that don’t have toys or food or a house to live in. They seemed really upset by the idea that there were children out there that didn’t have any toys (I guess food and housing is not as big of a deal to a 5 yr old and 7 yr old).  I used this to get them to pack up the toys they don’t use to give to little boys and girls out there who need toys (D.I. here we come).  Reagan was the most excited and brought me some of her best toys. 

Then, in Jackson’s prayer last night he started praying for “all the kids that don’t have toys or food that someone rich would come and give it to them.” Love the humble, sincere prayers of a little child.

I love it when an important life lesson actually sticks to my kids’ brains longer than one day…

and I am grateful to a father in heaven who loaned me these four sweet little souls to humble me and to teach me about what it  really means to be grateful…

Three More Years…

 

Conversation last night with Jackson at bedtime:

Jackson: “Mom, you don’t need to tuck me into bed at night any more.  I am seven and should be able to tuck myself in” (he said this all very sweetly, so as not to hurt my feelings).

Mom:  “How about I tuck you in for just awhile longer.”

Jackson:  “Three weeks?”

Mom:  “How about three years.”

Jackson:  “Ok.  When I am ten you can stop, that should be good.”

This conversation made me sad to think how fast my little boy is growing up.  Next year he will be baptized. It also made me think on how I need to cherish these little moments, for they only last so long, but luckily I have three more years ….

Swinging

So, I think this little guy is one of the most adorable babies, ever.  Not biased at all, and I said that about his brother and sisters, but just take a look… Here he is in his first swing ride (at least the first documented with pictures ). 

So cute…

 

Everything….

 

goes in this kid’s mouth!!  It is that crazy stage where I either have to keep him in his exersaucer or chase him all around the house pulling all sorts of things out of his mouth—the lastest was a magnet!  I know what you are all thinking…just vaccuum your floor…but, I can’t decide which is more exhausting…chasing him around or cleaning my house…hmmm…  Here are some cute pictures: