On the agenda for today...

BYU game, of course. And the girls are feeling the cougar spirit. Mind you, this is all on their own-no encouragement from us. This is what I found them doing after they were dressed and ready for the day. And yes, it ends in tears, as all videos of children do eventually, right??

I'm in Heaven

Look at this sweet little teddy bear that I got to baby-sit. She was so perfect and cuddly and fell asleep right in my arms. I could hold her all day! *sigh* Thanks for sharing your girls Kari :)

Our last month in California

A little out of order, but a lot happened in October!

We finally gave in and got Emma her Jessie doll...and you know that scene in the movie where the little girl is swinging Jessie around holding her hands? Yes, Emma does that.

Everyone needs a little shoot-em-up :) This is one of the girls' favorite rides!

LOVE LOVE LOVE this picture. Bree is really planting one on her!

I love this picture too-it totally captured the excitement the girls were feeling :) And it just might possibly remind me of...me.

After 5 trips to Disneyland, we finally ventured into Sleeping Beauty's castle, and I was reminded of why we never went in there to begin with-not much happening.

LOL-This was AWESOME! We went on the ferris wheel in California Adventure. Now, I am deathly afraid of heights and would never get on any ferris wheel with kids, with the exception of this one-fully caged in. But Emma would NOT enjoy it. She was scowling and looking everywhere to make sure there was no way we would fall out. We laughed. She got mad at us for laughing.

Emma kills me with her poses. This should be an advertisement for Disneyland.

Getting ready for Toy Story Midway Mania, the BEST RIDE EVER! I almost beat Dave's score. It didn't help that I had to keep stopping my shooting to help Bree put her glasses back on. You'd think that at a kids amusement park they'd make kid-sized 3-D glasses. But nope. (And I also have an issue with all the kids 3-D movies coming out-no kid sized glasses for those either! they won't stay on a kid's head if they sit back-try it, you'll see what I'm talking about!)

Saying good-bye to friends in CA

This one broke my heart. Emma started crying when Tommy gave her a hug.

Bree and sweet little Ellie

Hay fight in the kid maze. How is it that kids know exactly what they should do with hay?

The goats all waiting for their snack. Good thing we didn't lose any fingers!

Inside the maze...a tad bit claustrophobic. For the big people anyways.

Proof that I CAN take a good picture sometimes.

Saying goodbye to friends at school. The boy on the right is sweet Brice, who we carpooled with. He had 3 adorable little sisters and the funnest mom!

Girls discussing the mud pit

Please take note of how much shorter Emma is than all the other kids. I knew she was small, but it didn't hit me until I looked at these pictures.

Bree and Ellie at one last FHE bbq.

And making cookies in our jammies. We do that frequently.

Halloween

I know, it's a little late for this, but I've been a little busy. For some reason blogger won't let me change things around, so the pics are first-yay for you. Of course, we need one of Dave's involvement :) Bree's little tiara kept falling off when she ran, so Dave toted it around. Stunning, right? And all the good pictures are on Grandpa Al's camera. So this is all I've got-for some reason the rest of the pictures are all blurry. I don't know if it's b/c the camera was on some weird setting or if it's b/c the kids were so excited and wouldn't sit still for a second. Emma was quite the poser all night-she LOVED her dress and wig (that was one awesome wig). And Bree looked so adorable in her get-up. She loves being fancy, and going as Fancy Nancy couldn't have been more perfect for her.

a wedding

Here's the happy couple-aren't they CUTE?


The siblings...what you don't see is Von lifting his pants to show off his legs. ALMOST as sexy as ours...almost.
The sisters...aren't WE cute? hehe.

This picture is VERY indicative of our family. I'm just sayin'...

And then all the grandkids. Once again, notice MY children? They always ruin extended family pictures. Bree has this knack for looking away from the camera the second she sees one. And Emma just whines when we're trying to take family pictures. Just like her daddy.


And for those who care, here's the wedding I cake I did for my sister. I can see the imperfections, but I'm not going to point them out :)



Halloween pictures to come soon! I'm still a little overwhelmed from the effort of last year's costumes, and with the move I decided not to go overboard this year. But Emma's wig and Bree's costume DO look stinkin' cute.

Happy Halloween!

It's the Devil's Work!!

So we were coming home from a BBQ with some friends the other night. We were happy, feeling content with life, and unprepared to meet the Spawn of Satan in our drive way. Emma was the first unfortunate soul to gaze upon the horrible creature. As I was walking into the garage I heard her scream with the voice of a million dieing angels. A piece of my heart died at the sound.

As I turned to her I saw her pale face illuminated by the moon, pointing at the beast. By this time Bree was passed out on the ground from the terror being emitted by the vile creature from below. Loralee was in convulsions and levitating in the air, speaking in demonic tounges. Luckily for the women folk I was able to keep my wits about me and attack.

It was a fierce battle. The ground shook, trees were felled, and blood was shed. When the dust settled I stood over my foe knowing that all that seperated me from being dragged down to the firey depths was the beach bucket I was able to capture him with. If not for the pink plastic mold of a castle I would now be blogging from a sulfur pit of dispair.

I will now include a picture of my adversary in the hopes that all may be warned. Do not tread lightly with the evil known as the POTATO BUG!!! (Not to be confused with a Rollie Pollie. Those are cute adorable bugs that come into existence every time a puppy chases his tail for the first time)

If you look closely you can see the houses being crushed by the beast. They average about 20 feet in height, or at least they seem to when you see them for the first time. For further information about how to protect yourself from the emotional trauma suffered by too many innocent people please consult the following web site: http://www.potatobugs.com/faq/index.html My prayers are with everyone that we may stand strong against the adversaries forces. Stand strong everyone, stand strong.

It can't get better than this!

Many of you know we moved here without a job, big leap of faith and all that. We had a couple months of savings to take care of us while we tried to find a job, and we got one JUST as we were about to be all out of money. And now, as we're making another leap of faith, we've been blessed again. Dave found out today that he got the job we've been praying for.

I don't think I've ever doubted Heavenly Father's plan for our family, but it sure was nail-biting to be making another move without a job. And once again, He pulled through. I know that this isn't always the outcome for others who make similar leaps of faith, and sometimes I question why this continues to be a successful situation for us when it doesn't work for others. Don't get me wrong, I'm extremely grateful! Just curious. It makes me wonder which "lessons" I need to be learning from this experience.

But one thing that really struck me in this last General Conference was the talk Elder Scott gave about listening to the Spirit's promptings, acting upon them, then waiting, and asking "what else?" I felt so strongly that we should move to Utah, and we followed that prompting. I'm not saying I'm a wonderful person b/c I followed that prompting-I only wish I was better at always following the promptings of the Spirit. But now I feel like the next step is "What else?" What else should I be learning from this? What else do I need to know? I think I've already had a few "epiphanies" about changes I need to make in my life. And I'm excited for what those changes can mean for our family's growth.

I know Heavenly Father is watching over our family. I know He is aware of our needs. I know He provides us with certain experiences so we can grow and learn to become more like Him. I know He can change our hearts if we really want it. He can help us have the desire to be better and try harder if we just express the tiniest desire to Him. I know He loves us!

Familial Confusion

Sweet little Emma. Tonight I was talking to her about learning to spell her last name. I spelled out my name and showed her our last name and asked her to tell me the letters. I thought I was being such a good parent and told her how the "th" makes a different sound than just a t and h separately. So then I asked her to write her last name. She looks at me and asks "what is it?" I kind of laugh at her and say, what do you think?? She eyes me carefully and says, "sleeping beauty?"

Nice. I laughed and she retorts, "What's wrong with having sleeping beauty as my last name??!"

Good question. What IS wrong with having sleeping beauty as your last name?

Trip to Utah & Disneyland!

No pictures of Kimmy's wedding yet, but here's what I got:

Kimmy's bridal shower with just the family!

Some pics Dave took of us setting up for the reception-we worked HARD! Can't wait to see what the final pictures look like. I didn't even get my own picture of the cake I made!

Let me tell you, we spent the week before the reception baking 400 mini cupcakes, 150 sandwich cookies, 4 batches of Russian tea cakes, MANY batches of frosting and fondant, lemon filling for the cupcakes, chocolate covered popcorn, wedding cake (top layer-the rest was fake), buying apothecary jars and TONS of yellow candy to go in them, sewing dresses and fabric panels for decor, getting plants, hanging lights and lanterns, setting up tables, having a bridal shower, putting together a "meet the family" dinner, dealing with a crazy neighbor lady, trying to find a house to rent (for our family) and SO MUCH MORE! But only the Packards can do this! (with help from Garrett's family, whom we LOVE LOVE LOVE!).

The day after the reception we were able to breathe. AM/Collins and family and Dave and the girls went on a hike to Stewart Falls in the morning. I could tell the Emma wasn't feeling too well, but I thought she was just tired from having fun all week. Well, they get back, we put Bree down for a nap and Emma was playing with the cousins and Dave and I headed over to look at a house in Cedar Hills. We got caught in game day traffic on the way back so I called the house. Just as I was talking to my sister, my brother walked into the house with Emma, coming back from playing at the park, and she threw up right then! GROSS!! I felt so bad that I couldn't even get there to help clean it up. It took us an hour to get home b/c of the traffic. When we got back my mom shoo'd us out the door to get to the BYU game. SWEET WOMAN-she stayed home and watched Emma so we could all go to the game. I felt so sad that Emma was missing out-she LOVES BYU and was bummed that she couldn't go. But Bree had a blast. It's not often that we get time with just one child, so while we missed Emma, we totally had a great time with Bree. It was a good game-lots of back and forth scoring, with BYU obviously winning :) We were in the sun and HOT, but all the cousins had a fun time and we loved being with everyone for something like this.

yes, Bree looks like a boy in these pictures. But she's wearing a disney princess hat, so that makes up for it!

Luckily Emma was mostly over the sickness the next day for the drive home-still a fever but no throwing up. But lucky us, we got caught in traffic out of Vegas. Note to self-do NOT drive south on the 15 on a Sunday EVER AGAIN. I should've known there would be traffic there. So a 9 hour trip ended up being about 12 1/2 hours. But we made it to our awesome hotel down the street from Disneyland! Allan and Kris were supposed to be joining up with us and Patti, but Kris got pneumonia and couldn't make the trip. We were so bummed-we were really looking forward to the girls getting to go to Disneyland with Grandma and Grandpa, and it's never good when Kris gets sick. But we still had a blast with Patti, Alan, Ryan, Mari and Becca!

Emma got the meet the princesses that she didn't meet last time. We met Cinderella in March after a small show they do at California Adventure, and it was the same girl this time. She looked at Emma walking up, then looked at me and said, "I think we've met before-am I right?" She totally remembered us!! I thought that was so cute.

We got to go on more rides this time and us parents utilized the fast pass and switched off-way fun. The kids had so much fun and weren't too whiny, which always makes for a nice day. We ended a little early and headed over to Downtown Disney-Emma was begging the whole time to go to Wetzels Pretzels-we did it both times before and that's what she remembered! And here's a pic of our sweet little Mari-she's SOOOOO cute. And so ITTY! I've never seen someone this little walking before (no joke, Adrienne, she's a month older than Eden and even SMALLER than her!).

All in all, a great trip. We're heading back to Disneyland before getting to Utah, just to utilize our annual pass a little more. I like having the pass b/c you don't feel like you have to jam everything into one day.

K-I'm done. Dave says I'm too chatty when I blog. But oh well. This is my blog and I'll be chatty if I want to. :)