Thanksgiving

Oh how we LOVE LOVE LOVE having Eric, Laurie, Cameron, Luke and Adam come to our house for Thanksgiving. We spent a night up in Anaheim and had a great, though very crowded, day at Disneyland. We also did the beach, a movie, the park, and loved just hanging out and having fun together. Our kids adore each other and so do we! Thanks for coming guys!

Halloween

Brett told me Natalie didn't need a Halloween costume this year, she could just wear any of her church dresses and be some sort of princess. Silly, silly man. Instead he was sent downtown to Horton Plaza to get the last 6-12 month sparkle fairy flower from Gymboree. Thanks Brett, it was well worth it!

Like Mother, Like Daughter

Natalie is forming a love for her mothers favorite condiment at a young age. I think people assume I am over exaggerating when I say I go through an entire bottle of butter spray a week, thank goodness for the new larger bottle! I still remember when butter spray came into my life, I was a freshman in college, my sister and I bought a bottle and put it on just about everything we could imagine when we got it home. Rice, bread, cereal, pasta, veggies, we were hooked right away. I love the stuff!

Cousins at Disneyland

There is nothing better than cousins at Disneyland, so when our Arizona cousins got a week off and headed to Disneyland, we had no choice but to go too! Luckily all our California cousins met us there as well and a party was had by all.
The one down side of the day was Sam getting lost for nearly a half hour. He must have nine lives this year, first he almost drown and now this. I went on Screamin with Jacob and sent the three other kids with Brett to the animation drawing. AFTER the drawing session was over my niece asked Brett where Sam was and Brett realized he never brought him into the drawing session. A very unconcerned Brett went and asked where they take lost children, and sure enough found Sam waiting for him at the tortilla factory. I found all this out after Sam was found safe and sound. I was a little freaked, but Brett told me Disneyland is the safest place to loose a kid. I beg to differ Brett, but he is sticking with it. On the drive home we always ask the kids there favorite part of the day, Sam told us his worst part was when he couldn't find his daddy. Poor Sam!
We did have a fabulous time and love nothing more than spending time with our cousins, and when it includes Disneyland-even better!

My Day wih Sammy the Wimmer

Sunshine and I decided to take Jack and Sam to Disneyland for the day while the older kids were in school. There was a little backlash, mostly from Carter, but I explained that I got to do fun things with them all the time when they were little. I took Jacob and Carter to Sea World and the Zoo all the time when they were Sam's age and there were no older kids to worry about getting to school. It was Sam's turn, and Sam's day. I love spending time with this kid when he's nice and in a good mood. So my Sammy the Wimmer, as his best buddy Jack calls him, or Sammy the Sloth, Sammy the Snake or Sammy the Seal as we like to call him, thanks for a great day! Let's do it again sometime!

As a side note while we are talking about Sam, it still shocks me how sweet he is to Natalie. It's so opposite of his personality. Here is this person taking time and attention away from him without giving anything back to him, and he is absolutely crazy about her. He has never in her life said or done one unkind thing to her. In fact, it's the opposite. He kisses her and calls her his princess. He can't stand for her to be sad and he tries to make it better. Maybe there is hope for him after all!

Pumpkin Patch

Going to Bates Nut Farm with the Birds is one of our favorite fall traditions. It hasn't worked out for us the past two years due to fires and football, but this year we were determined to make it work. We found a Saturday when our games would end by noon and we headed up as soon as we got home. I love fall and even though it was hot and didn't feel very "fallish," we got in the spirit of fall being at our favorite pumpkin patch with some of our favorite people!

Game Ball!

Carter got the aggressive player game ball today for an important flag pull-good job Carter!

Jacob got the game ball two weeks ago for making a touchdown saving tackle-way to go Jacob!

Time to Celebrate!!

Some people celebrate getting a job, we celebrate quitting one. Brett and his business partner sold their business about five months ago, and Brett stayed on to work for the new owner. We were warned that the transition often proves too difficult, this turned out to be the case. Brett quit last week, and we headed to Disneyland for a day of family celebration. It was a wonderful day as always, oh how we love Disneyland!

My Tower of Terror buddy, no one, including Brett, will join me on Tower of Terror except for Jacob. Thank you Jacob! Now we just have to get him on Screamin!

We call it the Magical Thumb, and it really is.. I don't think Natalie cried all day long thanks to the Magical Thumb!

Sunday

I feel like I have a live doll. I never had this much fun dressing my boys for church-I love it!

Super Glue?

I knew it would happen eventually, I just thought she'd be a little older. Natalie has learned to pull her bow off. She figured out how to do it accidentally, now I think she's doing it on purpose. I don't like this game, she pulls it off, I put it back on, she pulls it off, I put it back on.....this can go on for quite some time. She likes to suck on it, I am not amused. Do you think it would be wrong to try super glue?

I do, however, like that she has learned to push herself on her swing. See how she has her foot on the bottom bar? She rocks herself back and forth, who needs batteries?

Bitter Sweet

It's the first day of school today

All the kids are on their way
with smiling faces, they're ready to go
It's the first day of school today!

This is the song we sing to the kids every year on the first day of school, they prefer the version where "first day" is replaced by "last day", but we sing it anyway. It's the best Brett can remember of a song his mom used to sing to them on the first day of school. Seeing as Brett's mom was in the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, and I am well known in my family to be tone deaf, I am sure it sounded mildly better when she sang it. My poor kids, I sing anyway!

Carter is in his second year of PEPP, a two year kindergarten program for fall birthdays. He was happy and comfortable as can be back in his same classroom, same teacher, same friends. It will be a great year for Carter!

Jacob was a little sad to start school, ok a lot sad. He doesn't do well with summer ending. The pain was made a little lighter by having two of his best friends in his third grade class this year. Bryce and Christian will make the year much brighter!

So I am a little late, just pretend I am writing this on August 20th. The first day of school is always a little bitter sweet for me. Summer is over, I no longer get to be fun mom, doing fun things with my kids everyday. My kids are now one grade older, one grade closer to leaving me. I love summer, I love hanging out with my kids all day long, I love being fun mom. Goodbye summer.

I am not saying there will not be bonuses to school starting. One in particular will be the start of preschool for my Sam August 26th. I love this kid dearly, but he drives my nerves crazy all day long. I cannot say it won't be good for us to have a few hours apart three days a week. I love you Sam, I will love you more by having a little break from you!

Sam was the most excited about the playground! Gotta love preschool!

It's Finally Here!

I cheered through basketball, soccer, T-ball and Rookie baseball....all waiting for this.....football season is finally here!! Jacob is in tackle this year, he has 2/12 hour practices every night in August, when games start he drops down to three practices a week. Carter finally gets to play flag, he has three practices a week for an hour and a half until games start and then he drops down to two practices. Brett is the head coach this year for Carter's flag team, the Poway Chargers. After countless hours of Pop Warner coach interviews, meetings and trainings he is happy to finally get on with the season. So this will be our lives for the next three and a half months, bring it on!! We love football!!

Natalie loves sitting through football practice, this girl will learn to know and love this game! Thank goodness for that thumb!

Sammy wants his own cleats and mouthgaurd, poor kid just wants to play football. Luckily he has Abby to help him enjoy practices, they can just play with their pretend baby and make pretend cookies!

Kiddie Kandids

The last picture shows how most of the Kiddie Kandids photo shoot went for Natalie. She was not a happy girl, we didn't get any pictures of her smiling, but I did get a nice shot of all four kids with Natalie in her blessing dress. I guess I accomplished my purpose. I have a total love/hate relationship with Kiddie Kandids. They are not the best photographers, but I can walk in and leave less than an hour later with pictures in hand for under $100. It is what it is.

The Paulsons

We love getting to go up to the Paulson's house! This was a great trip, as always, we love spending time with our Paulson cousins.

The kids had a great time at the beach, they found tons of crabs and called this area "Crab Kingdom". They caught several crabs and loved playing with them.

Snow cones on the beach made the day complete!

They have this great park with a man made river for the kids to play in. They had so much fun no one wanted to leave!

It's always hard when it's time to go home. Jacob gets teary each time we leave our cousins. Luckily our Paulson cousins live close enough to see often, we can't wait for next time! Thanks for the fun!

This post consists of totally random things, I don't even know what to title it, so I'll just leave it at that.
The Paulson's came for a short, but fun visit. I can't say enough how much I love having them live fairly close by. We had a great weekend going to the beach, pool, out to dinner and hanging out.

Sam really does love Natalie. After his nap today he lied down next to her and asked her if she wanted to rub the tag on his kiki. That is true love coming from Sam, only those he loves the most are welcome to rub his tag.

Look what Natalie found! About two and a half weeks ago I went into her room to wake her up and she was sucking away on her thumb. This girl sleeps from about 9:00 at night until I wake her up to feed her at 6:15. then she goes back to sleep until 9:30 or 10:00. It is a dream, I have never had a baby sleep like this before. I have also never had a thumb sucker. Jacob and Carter both took a binky, but a binky gets lost in the middle of the night and I have to stagger in their room and find it in the dark. A binky is hard to get into a babies mouth while driving, though I have attempted it many times, much more dangerous than talking on phone. I won't ever admit that I have tried talking on the phone AND putting a binky in a babies mouth while driving. A thumb is always there, easily accessible at all times day and night, while sleeping, riding in the car seat or playing at home. Let's face it, it's also extremely cute, until they are six and still sucking. I know I may hate it some day when we are trying to get her to quit, but for now I LOVE IT!

Three months old. It really does go by too fast. I love this baby!