New Slide Show!!!

Festivities

Well it's not even Halloween yet, but the kids have already been in costume 4 times! We've been to the mall, the rec center, the museum where they even won a costume contest :), and most recently a Halloween party with cousins! It was so much fun, we drove down just for 1 night to mesquite. It was great fun for the kids. We played Halloween games courtesy of Uncle Matt and Aunt Sarah and even had a candy run, which was hilarious! The 'adult men' (I use this term loosely) set up on one end of the room with nerf guns, and the kids run from one end of the room to the other trying to reach the candy before they get shot. It is entertainment for all ages :) Its fun to shoot at your kids with them giggling the entire time, and the kids cannot get enough of it! Oh it was so funny :) It's become a holiday get together tradition! Thanks Nate and Sarah for being a part of the weekend, we loved it, here's a pic of Kai and his cousins :)

The Princess...

I finally finished Meili's princess 'locked in the castle with dragon' look for Halloween. It turned out super cute and since bribing her with candy to wear it, she now loves it and wore it all afternoon yesterday! Yey me! She even likes wearing the hat, couldn't ask for more. She loves the wand and calls it her 'poof'. She walks around hitting people with it saying, 'poof you a frog', 'say ribbit!' So happy that my little rough and tough girl can be girly! Here are a few pics :)

Oh and on a side note, a big one, Grandma and Grandpa came down over the weekend and we had a great time with them, we even got a visit from Uncle Matt and Sarah. The weekend was complete with swimming, pumpkin carving, ice blocking, and a visit to the pumpkin patch! Here's a few pics... And last but not least I am now 16 wks prego and Rich did an ultra sound yesterday, as he's working with an OB right now, and we're about 75% sure we will be adding some more testosterone to our bunch :) It's a bit early, but we'll see if that still holds true in a month when I have my other ultrasound. We're excited! Here's a pic of me at 12 wks, I'm looking a bit rounder now though :)

pumpkin paintings

We always let the kids paint pumpkins as well as carve them, we havn't carved yet this year, but we let them paint last night. Sadly, the only good colors I had were black, white, and blue. So Kai's ended up almost a dark grey cause he just mixed and colored the entire pumpkin. I was worried I only had a few colors on hand, but it never ceases to amaze me that most of the time, kids just don't care! They were just happy to be painting and didn't really care what color it was :) Here's a couple of pics

New Slide Show!!!

Life is Good :)

Well Rich had a long weekend and you know we will up and take a vacation if given the time! One of our favorite places ever was calling our names :) We headed to Zions. The weekend was full of beautiful family togetherness! It was peaceful, and slow, and relaxing. I love it when the whole family is taken away from everything and there is nothing else to do but enjoy each other. There were so many times when Rich and I looked at each other, smiled, and realized how blessed we were to have these sweet babies in our lives. Here's a bit of what we spent our time doing... This is Meili before she's about to sink like a rock... She's an animal and she loves to swim 'all by myselffff!' In turn, she requires 1 on 1 hands on attention, good think Kai knows how to swim!We went apple picking again like last year and the kids just love it! Kai had a huge bag full, but still wanted to keep picking. He was an expert ladder climber and Meili just loved reaching to the bottom of the tree and yanking on any free apple. She is so happy when she does things by herself :)
After picking Meili was sleepy, she loves rubs, she says (actually, demands) "rub us" She refers to herself as, "us"... Her many personalities I suppose :)We did 3 hikes, emerald pools trail, riverside walk, and weeping rock. Kai hiked all of them. He was such a big hiker! Emerald pools was about 1 1/2 miles total and he hoofed the whole thing. He complained only slightly, but as long as we kept talking about wildlife and how he was being a wilderness explorer, he was just fine. He held 2 frogs on that hike and we saw so many deer that we were withing feet from it was ridiculous! We got to the end of the river walk and the kids played for about a half an hour in the water and mud, then it started downpouring! We tried to wait it out, but after 30 min of waiting I put Meili in the backpack and ran a mile out with her in the pooring rain, while Rich ran Kai out on his shoulders. It was pretty crazy, we were soaked, and had our own little MAN vs WILD moment :) It was invigorating, I was huffing and puffing and Meili kept asking me, 'you ok mom?' Meili... so happy to be playing in the mud...Sliding down the big rock :)Hunkering down waiting for the rain to subside, the trees didn't cut it, we had to relocate to under a big rock overhang, before the mad dash out!Pretty sure my kids have one of the coolest Dads EVER! How many men do you know that can catch minows with their bare hands? 4 of them to be exact :) Oh, and not to mention, lizards as well. What the boy wants, the boy gets. Kai seriously spent his time in the water 'fishing' for minows. Meili, spent some more time in the mud...Our last night there, we got to stay in our favorite place, Desert Pearl, This was our riverside view. It was complete with plenty of lizards to catch as well :)Sorry! I just realized what a huge post this was! It was so much fun we didn't want to come back to reality. Oh, and no living creatures were hurt during this vacation :)