My Kids Say I'm Silly

Christmas Morning 2011

2012-01-05T15:03:00.000-06:00

We had a wonderful Christmas morning here at home. The kids had lots of smiles and surprised faces. Lots of "whoa!"s which is what Mommy & Daddy enjoy most:) Aubrey's big gift was an Ipod nano-her first Ipod ever:) She also got a wristband to wear it like a watch-its pretty awesome! Ella's was a basketball hoop(she just started basketball which I'll post about soon!) Whats funny is that it took her minutes to even notice it was in the room. Joey and I were laughing. And Cali's big item was a "kid tough" camera. She has been taking hilarious pictures non-stop. Ammon's I guess "big" thing was a soft "Cars" chair to chill in and read books/watch tv/whatever he wants. He prefers to just stand on and climb all over it though. And Zac seems to think its his too...they get in arguments over it...:) The kids also received a G-Slate which is a tablet where they can take turns playing games, working on homework, watch movies etc. Its already been really useful, especially on our car trip to Corpus recently. Favorite memories of the day were Joey and Ammon playing with a lightsaber together(Joey is so happy to have a boy to enjoy Star Wars stuff with:), Joey plugging in the Ipod and Aubrey's face so excited as it turned on, Ella completing her stuffed animal family with a "daddy tiger" as she requested and Cali trying to take pictures of "Zac's butt." Such a lady. So it looks like the kids were pretty good this year...Santa didn't leave coal. I was surprised he didn't with one of our kids...who will remain nameless :) hehe. Enjoy the pictures...

Christmas fun

2012-01-02T09:57:00.018-06:00

There are so many fun Christmasy things to do with your family in December! I love the excitement the kids have for each thing we do. We always drink tons of hot cocoa(with Biscotti, yum!), watch lots of Christmas movies, decorate a gingerbread house, and this year the kids even painted ornaments. Christmas Eve was spent making and decorating sugar cookies for the big man, watching a movie, and having our annual family Christmas Eve "party" where we made lots of yummy party foods: meatballs, pigs in a blanket, pizza bites, chicken wings, chips and different delicious dips, and the kids favorite sprite/sherbet punch. The kids were really big helpers! We also did our family gift exchange that night. Each year we draw a name and get to purchase a gift for that family member. You'll see in the last picture that Ammon loved the gift Joey bought him:) And we always end the night reading from Luke and having the kids act out the parts with our toy nativity set. It was a wonderful Christmas Eve! Sad all the Christmas fun is already over :(

Cali's Christmas Program

2011-12-31T09:48:00.022-06:00

I love it when I have a kid in preschool. They do the cutest most fun things ever! I love all of the programs and "special" days and parties. Its just such a fun age and a fun time for kids and parents. About a week or so before Christmas, Cali's preschool held their annual Christmas program. All the kids were dressed up in their finest Christmas attire and sang to us beautiful Christmas songs(yes actual Christmas songs, not just "holiday" songs. Thats the great thing about private schools...) Cali sang her heart out and wasn't shy one bit. She was beautiful in her Christmas dress. And she even seemed to know all the words despite missing a week of school for Disneyworld. I also love that she even waved to us on her way off stage:) It was a really fun night watching our littlest girl shine!

Great to be 8!

2011-12-26T15:21:00.015-06:00

Ella turned the big "8" on December 22. This is a huge milestone for an LDS child as this is the age that they can choose to be baptized so this was much anticipated. And Ella was also very excited because this is a "kid party" year where she was able to have a big birthday bash with lots of friends. She chose to have an iceskating party at the local rink with 10 of her friends and it was really fun! A perfect indoor activity for this time of year. Of course I just watched with Ammon because 1. I have never iceskated and will never 2. Someone had to take care of the baby :) 3. Someone had to take pictures :) At the party the kids also got to eat pizza, drink soda, and eat cupcakes(It was actually a Phineas & Ferb cupcake cake-it was so cute). Super healthy stuff! It was the perfect party and they all had a great time. One thing I wish though is that I had taken a group picture of all the kids-darnit.

Ella we love you and are glad you had such an awesome time at your party! We can't believe its been 8 years since you entered our family. You have always had the biggest smile and the sweetest disposition. You have added so much joy to all of our lives. And we can't believe you are getting baptized very soon! Wowsas. Time has flown! Happy Birthday sweetie.

Disneyworld: Day 6(Last day!)

2011-12-21T20:19:00.000-06:00

When I woke up the morning of our last day at the Disney parks, I felt so sad. It seemed like just yesterday we had surprised the kids with the news(which we did back in August) I need to post that video because it was CLASSIC :) Squeals and screams of delight! We had them do a treasure hunt and at the end was a suitcase and when they opened it ballons flew out and the tickets and a note were inside. They couldnt' believe it. And its been so fun planning it and talking about it ever since. So to realize it was the last day of a much anticipated vacation was a bummer. But we knew we just had to relish every second!

We spent our very last day at Hollywood Studios. We did the backlot tour where the kids thought it was awesome to see lots of movie props and to get near-drenched in a movie simulator geyser thingamajig. Ella and Aubrey were stoked to see the painted farmhouse from the Hannah Montana movie:) We also stumbled upon some favorite characters from Pixar movies and to the kids sheer excitement: Phineas & Ferb. This is their favorite show these days. Cali was especially enamored by them. With their souvenir money from Nana & Tata, we bought them super cute sweatshirts and toys. Cali's choice was a small stuffed Perry the Platypus from the show. Phineas & Ferb passed him around and were so funny. They were the most fun characters we encountered the whole trip. They were playing around with the kids and making Cali giggle. It was so so cute! We also were able to watch Beauty & the Beast-the musical and be part of the American Idol Experience. That was one of my favorite shows! I loved being able to vote on a keypad:) And the girl I voted for won! (which is actually real-the people that win each day get a ticket to the front of the line at the actual American Idol auditions)

Another highlight of the day for Cali was seeing Winnie the Pooh. You might think, well, didn't you guys just have dinner with them? Well, at dinner, she wouldn't get too close to him. But when she saw him at Hollywood Studios, she decided that she wanted more than ANYTHING to hug him. And luckily there was no line, so she got her own one on one time with Pooh. And was the happiest kid ever :) The kids favorite ride of the day was Star Tours. All three girls rode it(we were proud of Cali) and Cali said at the end of our trip that "Star Burst" was her favorite ride :)

We ended the day watching the best show ever, Fantasmic. And then headed over to the Osborne Family Spectacle of Lights and were truly wowed by it. I have NEVER seen so many Christmas lights in my life. And they were synched to music. It was the perfect way to end the day at the parks. There was Christmas music and fake snow. We danced and had a fun time together. And then sadly, we left :(

But the night wasn't over, we still had dinner planned with Cinderella, Prince Charming & crew at the Grand Floridian. And did we get a special treat...sitting at the table right next to us were Bella Thorne and Zendaya from the hit Disney show- Shake it Up! Aubrey almost passed out :) She was very shy and didn't want to go up to them but Joey and I talked her into it and she got their autograph and picture with them! Ella wouldn't do it(and is kicking herself now). We printed out the picture so Aubrey could take it to school the following week:) She was beyond thrilled. And the kids at school were wowed since these are the two biggest Disney stars right now on TV. And you'll see in the last picture, two very excited faces. Well, Aubrey & Ella are sitting in their chairs after they left...lol.

And thats a wrap!

Disneyworld: Day 5

2011-12-20T23:21:00.001-06:00

We spent a second day at the Magic Kingdom riding lots and lots of rides. Favorites of the day were Thunder Mountain Railroad(Aubrey & Ella both loved it. Well, Ella said her wrist was hurting afterwards from holding on so tight:), Pirates of the Carribean, Jungle Cruise and the Magic Carpets of Aladdin. Cali was very excited to ride the "beds" as she kept calling them:) The kids also thought the Swiss Family Robinson treehouse was really neat(but they've never seen the movie, I guess we should watch it! Well, with the older two...the pirates and shooting might freak out Cali) I always look forward to Pirates-its one of my personal favorites:) One of my favorite memories of the day was enjoying a Dole Whip pineapple orange frozen yogurt in the afternoon. It was deeelightful. And another favorite memory was watching the kids try and cross this rickety bridge on Tom Sawyer island-hahaha. I especially loved watching Aubrey who is our cautious child:) It was funny. The weather today was another gorgeous day-we really lucked out with the weather on most of the trip. One rainy day and one cold night out of six days total isn't bad!

We ate an early dinner at the Crystal Palace with Pooh & Friends. We had a great server(who complimented how good our kids were at the end of the meal-even after I had already paid:) so he got two thumbs up:) He just couldn't believe we had 4 kids that sat down and ate food and weren't running around like crazy. Its always nice to get a compliment on your kids:) Cali would not get near Eeyore or too close to Pooh but was soooo excited to meet Piglet. You'll see in one picture she didn't mind getting close to him at all and even decided to rub his costume...hahaha. She even warmed up to Tigger. We never knew with her who was going to freak her out and who she was going to love. We had a great time there meeting everyone from the hundred acre woods. And the girls also had a great time making rings out of ice, which also made for two awesome pictures:)

And we ended the night watching the famous Main Street Electrical Parade. You can't visit Disneyworld and not go to this parade! We were really sad on this day to leave the Magic Kingdom for good. Its definitely our favorite place!

Disneyworld: Day 4

2011-12-20T20:39:00.001-06:00

We spent day 4 at Disney's Animal Kingdom park. I would say out of all the parks, this one has the least to do(for our family anyways). Its still a really fun place, but my kids even liked Epcot more which was surprising. A lot of this place is "zoo-ish" which is fun but when I'm at Disney I want to do more Disney things so animal exhibits didn't really appeal to me as much. Ya know? I can take my kids to the zoo any time. But this place definitely has the Disney feel and has lots and lots to do.

We started off our day on a "safari." The most memorable part of that adventure was Ella's face when the giraffe right beside us started to pee. Her eyes were so huge and she couldn't stop saying, "I can't believe that giraffe just peed right beside us!!!" It was hilarious. And I'm so glad we went in the morning when the animals were awake and active. Some of them were even eating breakfast. It was awesome! Our favorite show at this park was the Finding Nemo musical. It was amazing! Hands down the best show we saw. The people involved were sooo talented because not only did they have to sing, but they had to maneuver the characters with their hands(their mouths and their tails) and know the speaking parts as well. And the scenery, costuming and props were incredible. I was really wowed by this show! The Festival of the Lion King was also very good. We got there early and got a seat toward the front and I had all the kids in their "ears" looking all cute. One of the workers came up to them and talked about how cute they were and asked if they would help her with something. They then had the job of helping her get the crowd going before the show. Cali chickened out but Aubrey and Ella were introduced to the crowds and helped the worker get the crowd going by demonstrating the hand jive. They were really excited to get picked, though a little bit shy at first :) Afterwards, the lady gave them certificates from "Camp Mickey" and "First time to Disneyworld" pins. They felt very special! I know they won't forget that.
We also had fun exploring the area around the Tree of Life and just staring at the tree trying to see how many different animals we could find. The kids also enjoyed the spinning dinosaur ride and the "boneyard" which is basically just a play area. We let Joey be a man and go on Expedition Everest and Dinosaur. He was the only one brave enough to go on those:) Lucky for me, the play area wasn't too far from those rides. The girls had a lot of fun burning off some energy while we waited. And the weather on this day was perfection. 70 degrees and sunny. We also had fun watching the Jingle Jungle Parade. You'll have to see the pics below because I captured a wonderful shot of this woman screaming beside my girls-it is hilarious. I guess she was reeeeally into it:) The park closed early that day(it closes earlier than the other parks-5pm) and then we went to our hotel for a break before "Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party" at the Magic Kingdom which I had purchased separate tickets to.

The Christmas party is an event where they hold special holiday shows and parades, serve unlimited hot cocoa and cookies, special nighttime spectacular, special character meet n greets, dance parties, etc. We decided to splurge and buy tickets for it since this is probably the only time ever we would be at Disneyworld during Christmas time. It was a really fun night despite the fact that this was of course the chilliest windiest night of our visit to Florida. That was a bummer. But the kids survived:) Joey captured a picture of Ella holding my hand whistling a tune even. So, though they were pretty cold(thank goodness I packed coats, gloves and hats!) we still had a blast. Aubrey says that was one of her best memories: freezing and huddled together waiting for the Christmas parade to start with our hot cocoa:) The parade itself made it worth the tickets for me. It was such a magical Christmas parade. I loved it! It really made me feel the Christmas spirit! Such a neat way to kick off the Christmas season for our family this year. Oh, and I can't forget, the kids got to go to a "dance party" with the characters from Toy Story. They jammed all night with Woody and Jessie-it was fun.Woody had some pretty rockin dance moves.

Disneyworld: Day 3

2011-12-19T22:16:00.015-06:00

We spent our third day at Epcot. Surprisingly, Epcot held two of our kids favorite rides: Test Track(which was the #1 ride in Aubrey and Ella's book) and the Spaceship Earth I mentioned a couple of posts ago(thats the ride inside the big Epcot golfball:) Another favorite here was the Finding Nemo ride-its pretty cute. And we also had a fun experience at "Turtle Talk with Crush." Ella was one of two kids chosen out of the audience and Crush talked to her. It was so cute-she was so shy but did a great job answering his questions and felt ultra cool for getting chosen. And then Crush asked where her parents were and Joey and I got spotlighted too!(and Joey had to answer some questions but not me-hehe:)

We started off our day with Test Track and Soarin(which is one of my personal favorites). While I did Soarin with the older two, Joey did a cute little photo shoot with our Snow White aka Cali and Mr. Ammon. Those are the first two pics below-they are sooo cute! After we did parent swap with those rides, we went and had brunch in Norway at the Akershus Princess character meal. This was another favorite. The girls got to meet and get autographs from five princesses! They thought that was awesome. Ella and Cali(thanks to the Stromness' for letting us borrow these) even wore princess dresses. So cute! Cali was so funny. She freaked out about something but then everything was right again when she ran up to the front of the "princess parade" thus cutting in front of a bunch of kids and walked alongside Princess Aurora for the parade. She forced her way as the "line leader." hahaha. Who does that kid belong to? Little booger :) You'll see in the pictures below.

The older girls had a lot of fun with the "Kim Possible" experience. Its sorta an undercover mission kind of thing where they were given a "communicator"(looked like a cell phone..Aubrey loved that since she is dying to have one) and had to complete a mission by finding clues around Epcot. When they would find the clue, whatever they found did something. It was pretty cool. It definitely made exploring the countries of Epcot more fun for them. And then at the end of their mission this crazy looking robot called a "killer bebe" popped out of nowhere in this souvenir shop with red crazy eyes and smoke. Well, to be funny I said something like, "Oh no, run everyone!" And well, Cali thought I was serious and I guess I traumatized her for life. We all ran out jokingly, but she ran for her life. I really felt bad!After that she said to me, "I never want to go to Disneyworld again because that killer baby freaked me out!!" It was so funny. But she still talks about it...and dreams about it. Oopsie.

Oh, and I had a hard time squirting out sunscreen. Joey was a gem and took a picture of that...I'm weak yall.

And we happened to walk by Daisy when no one had found her yet. No line! We just walked right up to her and got her autograph and picture. It was who Aubrey wanted to meet the most so she was really happy :) That made her day.

We ended the day at Chef Mickey's. It was fun to see all the main characters dressed in chef attire and since we had such a late meal there were barely any people there. We had lots of interaction and fun with all the characters! Pluto and Goofy were especially playful and funny. Made for a lot of laughs for the kids. Surprisingly there was a lot of fun to be had at our day at Epcot, even with 4 young children!

Disneyworld: Day 2

2011-12-18T22:08:00.000-06:00

The second day we spent at the Magic Kingdom(which of course is our favorite park!) We woke up bright and early for our character breakfast at Ohana at the Polynesian Resort. That was one of our favorite character meals! A fun atmosphere-that hotel is beautiful! Maybe if we are rich someday, we can stay there next time:) I also loved that the dining was family style instead of buffet. When you are doing a character meal that is a buffet, you always have the worry that you'll miss one of the characters while you are up getting your food. So, its nice when you have all the food at your table and a server that just keeps filling it all up.

After a delicious meal and fun with Lilo & Stitch, we took the monorail over to the Magic Kingdom for a wonderful day. I think the kids favorite rides of the day were Peter Pan, It's a Small World and the teacups. We had a "fun" experience on the Haunted Mansion. I took Aubrey and Ella(Ella was scared but decided she wanted to go for it). She was doing so good until the ride came to a complete stop during the scariest part-the graveyard where scary skeleton heads pop up sporadically from behind tombstones. We sat there for minutes before it started moving again while every minute a head would pop up and scream at us. Poor girl! She did not like that, but luckily I was hugging her the whole time(as workers even ran by us from outta nowhere-that kinda freaked me out!) Another "not so favorite" for Ella was Space Mountain. She swore she wanted to go on that ride and well, it scared the crap outta her. We felt so bad! But she is brave, we'll give her that! Her and Aubrey both went on it for the first time. And thankfully it didn't scar her for life enough not to go on any other coasters(she still went on Thunder Mountain railroad a couple of days later-that was more her pace:). And even though it was a bit fast for Aubrey, she still went on it again with Joey so that he didn't have to go alone(she is so thoughtful like that). We were really proud of the older two for conquering all 3 mountains this year(they did Splash Mountain with Joey). Cali loved the carousel, which is what I took her on while Joey took the older two to Splash Mountain. It was fun to do something together with just me and the littles. But I think Cali's all time favorite ride of the day was the people mover. She just loved that ride! We rode on it in the evening and it was the perfect ride for her(and for all of us-its pretty long and a nice break for your feet:)

On this day, we also bought the kids personalized mickey ears/hats. Aubrey picked out Goofy ears, Ella picked out brightly colored Mickey ears, Cali picked out Princess Minnie ears and we picked out the classic black Mickey ears for Ammon. He was ADORABLE in his little ears!! They were all super cute.

One of the neatest things about visiting Disneyworld at Christmas time is the Cinderella castle at night. They have it lit with thousands and thousands of lights. Its seriously breathtaking! We took a couple of pics but it was all rainy and so the pictures don't do it justice(and thank goodness this was the only day it rained!)

After checking out the castle and watching fireworks, we visited the candyshop on the way out. Pretty much the perfect ending to the day(in Cali's eyes especially...)

Disneyworld: Day 1

2011-12-17T21:50:00.011-06:00

Wow, going through the Disneyworld pictures and trying to pick which ones to share is really tough! I think thats part of the reason why I haven't been blogging lately. Everytime I thought about it, I felt sooo overwhelmed! Disneyworld is just SO HUGE. We took 728 pictures! I'm surprised we held back and didn't take more(yes, thats holding back for us!) It was a wonderful(and exhausting) trip! We made so many memories and feel so blessed we were able to make this trip this year. When we decided not to sell our house last year, we had some extra money that we realized we might not have again. We also realized this would be the perfect time because we finally had a couple of kids old enough to ride some of the bigger rides and I would be just finished with nursing Ammon and not pregnant(well, that we knew of....) And we had always wanted to visit Disney at Christmas-time. So the timing was perfect! It was my dream come true(not just the kids!:) We went the week after Thanksgiving to avoid crazy crowds. I was surprised how many people were actually still there. It wasn't crazy, but it was crowded in certain areas(I guess other people are bad like us and bust their kids outta school too:). But we never had to wait for a ride more than 15 minutes so that was great. Thank goodness for fastpasses! We were able to get a free dining plan(free food, whats better than that?) That was the best. Included with that were character meals so back in July when I started planning this trip, I booked a character meal for every day of our trip. That was one of the highlights of our trip for the kids, meeting tons of characters and getting their autographs in the little books we bought them. Their little eyes just lit up! They had never done that before when we had visited Disneyland in California. They loved looking through their books and comparing the different signatures each eday. We had a great trip. Cali was a whiner the whole time, I'm not gonna lie, this kid can whine!! Weird thing is, Joey and I just don't get why she was so crabby the whole time. We were at the happiest place on Earth, didn't she get that memo? :) She just doesn't like being out of routine and not in her own bed I guess. But we still had a blast. It was unforgettable. But aye, that Cali girl. There were some moments...

Day 1 at Disney was just a half a day. We drove(Yes, we are crazy. The kids did great though. Thank goodness for mp3 players and dvds!) about 21 hours from Dallas to Orlando in two days and arrived at our hotel-the Port Orleans: Riverside around 3pm.The kids were wowed by the hotel and loved the towel folded like Mickey on our bed upon arrival. Its a very lovely hotel-the grounds were beautiful. Our room was teeny though. But we got a great deal and we figured we wouldn't be spending lots of time there anyways, so it wasn't a big deal. For the price, its a decent hotel. After check in and unloading the car,we excitedly took our first bus ride to Epcot where we rode Finding Nemo, Spaceship Earth(which surprisingly was one of the girls favorite rides, especially since it takes your picture during it and then does funny stuff in a cartoon with it later), and had dinner at the Garden Grill with Mickey, Pluto, Chip and Dale. Then we ended the night watching a fireworks/laser show. It was a really fun evening and a great way to start our vacation! The kids were so cute with the characters. Cali wouldn't take a picture with Mickey or Pluto but surprised us when she approved of the chipmunks:) And Ammon absolutely did not like Mickey! It was so funny. And sad :) He screamed and held on to me for dear life every time he saw him. But he did like to eat the Mickey Mouse dessert at the end. I guess he was getting his revenge...hehe.

Here are the pics...no captions..you can just figure it all out from my description above :)

Thanksgiving 2011

2011-12-13T21:57:00.004-06:00

Gosh, I'm so behind!! I don't think I've taken this long of a blog break in a long, long time. I blame traveling(still have to blog our Disneyworld trip! We only took close to 1000 pictures..) and issues with carpal tunnel syndrome. Its hard to type for long periods of time right now. Sucky. Super sucky. Anyways, here is a recap of our Thanksgiving. The Friday before, Joey and I(and Ammon) were able to attend Cali's Thanksgiving Feast and music program at her school. It was the cutest thing ever! Cali was totally into it. She sang her heart out, threw us a few waves and "Hi Mom!"s and beat her drum like a true Indian. As you can see in the pictures below, she has a golden smile. I love it. She was very happy that day!

Thanksgiving Day we spent with our good friends, the Stromness Family. We were heading to Disneyworld just a couple of days later so we were so appreciative they invited us to their home for Thanksgiving. I did not have the time or energy to do a whole lot with all the packing and planning being done for the trip. They provided the turkey and lots of yummy extras- we brought over other sides and desserts. It was a big delicious feast! A great day with friends. Thanks yall! I am so grateful for so much, most importantly: our Savior & my family. And good friends too! I hope you and your family had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday!

Just look at this happy little Indian and her drum.

Chicken nuggets and tots! A true Thanksgiving feast :)

Joey and I and our littles

Cali and her wonderful teacher, Ms. Ellen. Cali adores her. She is going to be so sad when this year is over. I pray every year that my girls get the best teachers for them. And every year they have been truly blessed with amazing teachers. I'm so thankful.

The whole gang at Thanksgiving.

Sheri made some mean desserts. And her homemade rolls are to die for.

Alyssa, Ella, Courtney & Aubrey enjoying dessert

Sometimes I like to take pictures of myself. Being silly.

Samantha & Cali. If only these two were born the same year, then they could hang out more:) Our other two daughters match up in ages almost perfectly. But they have an older daughter and we have a younger. Darn. Oh well...she is going to be our new babysitter and they only live down the street. So, we scored :)

This is what we do with Ammon when we don't want him to get into things. Just stick him in a box.

The End.

Ella's Big Race!

2011-12-10T15:43:00.002-06:00

A friend of mine told me about a local one mile race that I thought would be perfect for our little Ella. Ever since I saw her run her first Tigerthon at school, I knew she was a born runner! She just doesn't get tired(wish I had that problem! :) SO, we signed her up and her Daddy went along with her. I was so sad I couldn't go but we had a sick baby boy at home. Thankfully Joey took pictures for us so we could all see what fun they had together. Before the race there were some fun family activities that Ella enjoyed-her favorite was the little petting zoo. Then the kids all did fun silly warm-up exercises. And then they were off! Joey ran with her and about half way through, he told her just to go for it(he was trying to help her pace in the beginning). And he said, bam, she flew off and left him in the dust :) Thats my girl!! lol. She was the third female to cross the finish line and the first female child. So, first in "girls" in my book! And Joey thinks there were at least 30 girls running. Awesome! We are so proud of you Ella! I know you have lots of races in your future!

Here she is after the race, pink cheeked and adorable. She was also very excited she got a shirt and a water bottle for "free" as she put it:)

This is my job people...

2011-12-03T15:09:00.000-06:00

Aubrey's Volleyball Tournament

2011-11-27T07:57:00.004-06:00

Aubrey's volleyball season ended in a tournament that was a lot of fun to watch. Their team did so great! So much improvement over the season. We were so proud of her and her teammates. Out of 12 teams, they placed 5th overall, so in the top half! WOOHOO! :) They went into the tournament placed 8th or 9th so they moved up! After the final game, the team went to Brahms for lunch and icecream. Their sweet coach, Julia, made awards for each player specific to them. Aubrey received the "Determination Award" for "focusing on playing her best and determined to succeed. She is a very consistent server and passer who makes smart decisions about every play."I thought that was so awesome of the coach to write something about each of them. It made Aubrey feel really good:) And I have to agree 100% with what the coach said-Aubrey tried so hard and improved so much. She was definitely a determined player. Aubrey has fallen in love with the sport of volleyball and can't wait for the next season to begin!

I love her "ready" stance. She rocks it:)

Awards "ceremony"

Aubrey and both of her coaches. She loved them!

Just a typical morning at our house...

2011-11-20T07:44:00.002-06:00

Ella's First Piano Recital aka Recital 2011

2011-11-17T07:52:00.005-06:00

Ella started taking piano lessons this past July and is a great little student. She is soooo good at making sure she practices lots and gets me to sign off her practice sheet each time. She is learning quick and loving it! She takes from the same teacher Aubrey goes to and I've been really happy with their experiences in piano so far! She and Aubrey participated in the annual piano recital a couple of weeks ago(I'm a little behind in my bloggage...) and they did fantastic. It takes courage to do anything in front of a crowd and I am always so proud when they do it. I love that the teacher has them stand and introduce their pieces before they play. And after they play, they take a bow :) Its so cute. And great practice for public speaking and getting up in front of a big crowd(and this crowd is a good size!) I think its so important for kids to learn young to play an instrument(so great for their little minds! And I know I'm grateful my parents had me take lessons!) and to get experiences with things like public speaking, talking on the phone, ordering at a restaurant, etc. Then, hopefully, they won't be as awkward/afraid later on in life! They are naturally a little bit shy so things like this are awesome experience for them. Anyways, here are pictures from the day and I'm also going to try and post videos next of their pieces. You'll notice while Ella plays she is standing...she didn't even realize it. It was so cute. She forgot to sit until half way through her performance:) And the picture of her holding soap with pure excitement is because thats what she bidded on at the piano auction and won(she is totally obsessed with these lately! ha!) And you'll also notice that Aubrey is wearing a volleyball uniform in the last picture and is missing from the piano students/teacher group shot. Basically this was one of the craziest Saturdays EVER...piano recital...volleyball tournament for half the day(future post)...all scheduled at the same time...and then in the evening was the fall festival...which I was even in charge of a booth for. I guess the more kids you have, the busier you get...and we plan on having MORE! I guess we better hold on tight...and just enjoy the crazy ride:) This is only the beginning...

These girls are so lucky to have this handsome dude as their Daddy.

Preschool Fun

2011-11-12T21:09:00.005-06:00

Cali LOOOOOVES preschool. She wishes it was every day! I love that. And I know its because she goes to the best school around, Little Saints School. I have to give them a shout out here because they are so wonderful. The best ladies work here! They love these kids, love their jobs and you feel it. Cali loves her teacher, Ms. Ellen, and we do too! And the director of the school, Jill, is amazing. They have such great programs and lots of fun! I am picky when it comes to just about everything(we have switched dentists I don't know how many times...and obgyns...don't even get me started:) I have no complaints here and this is our second child to attend. So theres my Little Saints plug(and no, this isn't a paid advertisement:) We love Little Saints!

Last month they had a "fun walk/run" fundraiser. It was the cutest thing to watch these kids run their little hearts out! The staff played fun music and the teachers and director ran with them. Cali had a blast! She actually fell and scraped her chin on the concrete but that didn't stop her one bit. No tears, no nothin. She just kept going! It was a pretty bad scrape too! Poor kid, but she was totally fine. Thats my girl :) Shes our toughie. Here she is walking with Ms. Jill, taking water breaks, getting her laps marked, taking a break to hug Ammon & a pic of her smiling when she was all done. Look at that big proud smile!

And then for Halloween, they had a costume parade(so cute) and a party where they were able to smack the crud outta a pinata, eat pizza & enjoy cookies. Cali was so so excited for this party. She woke up that morning while I was downstairs and I heard a shout. I thought someone wasn't happy/fighting and when I went upstairs Aubrey told me that as Cali was waking up she shouted, "Todays my preschool parttyyyy!!!" while half asleep(but quite awake enough to know exactly what day it was!). That made us all laugh:) She had so much fun. I'm so happy she is loving life in preschool! And we are so proud of how well she is doing. She is a great student and a good friend to others. And she is the friendliest kiddo. She always hugs her teacher goodbye and greets her with a big "Hi Ms. Ellen!" and a smile. I've never had a child so outgoing. She is funny about who she is outgoing with- she is selectively outgoing, sometimes shy:) I've heard her teacher call her "my sweet Cali." That makes me happy. Its so true how we find some of the biggest joys in life through our kiddos-when they are happy, it makes us so happy too.

Give myskoop some love...

2011-11-11T07:28:00.000-06:00

I did my first product review for a super fun new product called, Eraselets, on mysKoop. They are bracelets that erase! They come in all colors and designs. My girls LOVE theirs! Go check it out and enter to win a pack! They are gonna be the next big thang yall. Fo reelz.

Can you say perfect stocking stuffers?

And what the what? Today is 11/11/11! Cool.

Halloween 2011

2011-11-04T16:27:00.000-05:00

I think this was one of the BEST Halloweens ever! The kids were so cute in their costumes this year. Aubrey was a super cute cheerleader, Ella was a stylish witch, Cali was a beautiful princess Aurora and Ammon was the most adorable lion I've ever seen. He loved wearing his costume. As soon as Joey put it on, he was all smiles(you'll see in the pics below). He loved how soft it was and clapping his hands together(and growling like a lion too:) We had so much fun this year doing lots and lots of fun family stuffaroo. We decorated Halloween sugar cookies, had dinner in a pumpkin one night, went to a Trunk or Treat/Fall festival at our church, carved a Mickey Mouse pumpkin(In honor of our upcoming trip of course! Did you notice my new cheesy countdown below the banner? :) had a mummified dinner Halloween night complete with dry ice and of course went trick or treating around the block. I love this time of year! The weather has been amazing: 60s-70s. There is excitement in the air. Leaves are changing colors. I've been baking everything pumpkin imaginable. And there are approximately one million pieces of candy at my fingertips now...ahh, the holidays are lovely. Up next: Thanksgiving(more yummy food!!!!) Oh, and thankfulness too... :)

The State Fair of Texas

2011-10-30T08:16:00.008-05:00

I'm a Texan. Born and raised. I've lived here my whole life. So you would think I would have visited the State Fair of Texas before recently, right?! Wrong. We've even lived in the city where its held for the past five years and it took us this long. We could never time it right. It seemed I either had a new baby or the weather was too hot or every Saturday was too jam packed during that time of year.

Anyways, we finally went! And we had so much fun! I must say though that this place is SO EXPENSIVE so if you plan on going next year and you've never been, be prepared to spend your life savings.... :) We had discount coupons that made two of the kids free, but still just to get in was so expensive...and then you have to pay for parking and then each ride costs plus theme park priced food. For our family to ride the ferris wheel(which is the biggest in North America), we had to pay $30. CRAZY. But we figured it was a once in a lifetime thing for us so we splurged and did it. Everytime we have driven through downtown Dallas we have seen that huge ferris wheel and I always thought it'd be cool to be able to say we rode it. Well, we did it(and I have to admit I had a mini panic attack on the way up the first time! I totally freaked. I have a little fear of heights, but I really wanted to do this. I laugh about it now...but I wasn't laughing then! I'm lame. Aubrey was seriously like my mom comforting me the whole way:) And that was the only ride we did...seeing as that to ride any other ride we would shell out close to that much again...and we wanted to eat at some point.

We did enjoy lots of free stuff though: a cool bird show, bmx show, pig races(cute!!), a little pretend farm(Cali & Ella especially loved this-they actually "worked" the play farm and then at the end they earned money and were able to spend it on a real food item-all three thought that part was awesome!), petting zoo area, checking out Big Tex, watching The Bangles perform, checking out the car show, watching the parade, and watching the fireworks/lazer show at the end. We had the state fair corny dogs for dinner that were pretty darn good. Also, the State Fair is known for selling all kinds of crazy fried stuff. We decided to try the fried lemonade and the fried ding dongs. The fried lemonade was SO GOOD. Ding dongs were okay-wouldn't recommend trying that. We were there from 1pm till almost 10pm, thats how much stuff there is to do there. We were beat by the end of the day. This was a good test run for Disneyworld coming up! Wait, I've never even posted about that. We're going! In 25 days! WOOHOO! I need to add one of those cute countdowns to my sidebar:) I have been busy busy planning every detail of our trip and we can't wait to go.

Anyways, enjoy pics of family fun at the fair! Now we can say we are true Texans :)

Pumpkin Patch Pics

2011-10-29T07:56:00.009-05:00

A couple of weekends ago we made our annual trek out to Flower Mound to visit the pumpkin patch. As always, we took a bazillion pictures because, well, our kids are cute :) And mix cute faces with orange pumpkins and you get the most adorable pictures ever! Enjoy the pics! You'll find 4 cute kids, a cute baby next to a pumpkin almost as big as he is, bounce house fun, hayride & mini train ride pics, two rebel boys, kids that won't stop growing, a baby sliding off a pile of pumpkins(daddy did it, haha:) & 3 beautiful flowers.

And can you believe I just had to purchase more storage for my web album? I've been blogging 5 1/2 years and I finally hit my 1 MB limit! Crazy.

Star of the Week: Ella!

2011-10-23T13:44:00.002-05:00

Ella was so excited to be her class' Star of the Week last week. She was supposed to bring a posterboard with pictures and captions of things that would tell the class all about her. We had the idea to make a border on her posterboard out of duck tape and it turned out pretty cool! We also had fun selecting pictures to show to her class of trips, family pics, hobbies, pics of her when she was leetle :) Going through the pictures reminded me of what a cutie this girl was and still is. Ella has always been a sweetheart with a beautiful smile and golden heart. She is a wonderful daughter and an outstanding student at school. We just had parent teacher conferences and her teacher said to me, "I wish I could have a class full of Ellas!" That made me smile and when I told Ella later it made her smile too:) Ella captioned all the pictures and selected the "style" and color of her name-purple and fancy-two of her favorite things. When she brought home her poster on Friday, she also came home with notes from all the kids in her class complimenting her. She went through each one and read them outloud to me with the biggest smile(She also read them each outloud to Joey when he got home-she loves to read outloud and wanted to read them over and over. Didn't hurt that everything she was reading were awesome things about her! :) She really enjoyed being a STAR! We love you Ella bean and are proud of you!

Behind the scenes: luau week

2011-10-20T09:20:00.006-05:00

I'm going to try and sum up ALL of these pics right here, right now:) Amidst the hard work of the week, we found time to have fun together with both sides of the family. Below are a mix of pictures from: Nana & Tata taking work breaks to play, bbqing with Tata, cutting veggies, sewing with Nana, big sisters helping, Ammon playing, late nights(I was obviously very tired the night of the milk gallon nipple topper...that was a good laugh), dinner with everyone at Gloria's for Nana's birthday, Tara gettin crazy at Gloria's(shes gonna love me for posting this picture!), cute group grandkids/grandma/grandpa shot, Ammon opening his gobs and gobs of presents, we crammed a WHOLE lot into just a few short days! And pulled off a fantastic party too. Cuz we know how to rock yo.

Ammon's 1st Birthday Luau

2011-10-17T20:42:00.012-05:00

Last Saturday, October 8th, was Ammon's BIG first birthday luau! We are all still recovering :) It was a huge success and an amazing time! As most of you know, Joey's family is from the Pacific Island of Guam. Its been a tradition for Joey's parents to throw the grandkids an authentic luau for their very first birthday. The amount of time, work and money they put into this is wow. I still can't believe how many of these his parents have done-they are such awesome and generous people! Thank you again for everything!

So, we decided instead of having the luau in Corpus like we have in the past, to have it here in the DFW area this time around. We feel like this is definitely home now:) I'm so glad we did, it was so so so fun to share it with our friends here! And I truly appreciate the family that came up just for this event. We had probably around 175 people we figured by the end of the night. Massive. And awesome. Ammon had lots of fun getting lots of attention. We had tons of delicious food & great hula dancers. We had the famous roasted pig that everyone got a kick out of. Can't have a real luau without the pig! We also had yummy shaved ice, candy leis, and lavalavas handmade by Joey's mom. And of course we couldn't end the night without the traditional biba money throw-its always fun to watch the kids scramble for some dough:)

We had a miracle occur that night-it didn't rain. Towards the end of the evening, storm clouds rolled in. The radar showed we were about to get hammered with rain and storms, but nothing. We ended the luau with not a drop and it didn't start to rain until literally Joey and his dad were bringing the very last thing to the car hours later. Our prayers were answered:) I really feel like it didn't rain just for us! We were very grateful. So much work was put into this and I would've been crushed for us to have been rained out!

I will not forget the help given from family and friends to help pull this event off. So many people were so generous to help-my parents and sibs helped lots-friends came over late nights and even into the day. But most of all I won't forget the countless hours Joey's parents put into this. They were on their feet from sunup to sundown (and much much longer) for days.

My wonderful friend, Susan, took pictures while she was there. I'm so glad she did because we were just so busy with everything. It was really nice not to have to worry about taking pictures this time! And she did a fantastic job. Thanks Susan!

So, its been really hard for me to narrow down the ones I want to post here! (for more, check out my facebook wall:) but here are a some of my favorites...

And this picture just makes me laugh :)

"Thank you Nana & Tata" Love, Ammon

Introducing Aubrey: Official Student Councilwoman

2011-10-11T19:44:00.002-05:00

Aubrey decided to run for her class' room representative this year and WON the job!! We are so proud of her! There are five 4th grade classes and each class selects a representative from their class to attend the student council meetings (the 5th graders make up the actual leadership positions:pres/vp/sec/treasure/etc. I definitely think she has a chance of winning one of the positions next year too!) For her campaign she had to write a speech and was allowed to make two posters to place anywhere in the school. I think the ideas we came up with together were pretty cute & funny. The kids at school thought they were funny too. The little speech bubble on the pink poster says, "Vote for Aub! She'll do the job!" And then the speech bubble next to her baby picture says "Yeah baby." And then the blue poster says, "Vote 4 Aubrey! Because what you need is a SUPERHERO!" and we again used an old funny picture from when she was little and had tied a blanket around her neck pretending to be supergirl or something:)

Aubrey is such a great kid and totally a born leader. I know the kids at school look up to her as an example, a smart kid and someone who is trustworthy and responsible. But most of all kind to everyone! We love you Aubrey and are very proud of your accomplishments! You are going to do great things in your life!