More Nov. . . . .

Ava lost her first tooth and COULDN'T have been more excited. She has had friends losing teeth for a while and was impatiently waiting for her turn. She was so excited to put her tooth under her pillow and even wrote a fancy note to the tooth fairy. She was more than thrilled to get money the next morning and is keeping all of her tooth money together (she's now lost 2) in order to get something big with it later on. She's such a planner and so my girl.

We also had her soccer closing ceremonies where she got the CUTEST soccer trophy I've ever seen and got to be with her teammates for all of the festivities.  Ava and Kai are very good at pretend and on this particular day I had to take a picture of them in their cowboy gear (and jammies) because I knew it would make my dad and Grandpa proud.  The other pictures are of my kiddos cuddling on the couch.  Boston thinks he is such a big boy - he absolutely adores his siblings and the feeling is definitely mutal.

We got to celebrate Thanksgiving in Richfield this year.  Ava made all of the place mats and name cards while Grandma prepared a delicious meal for us.  We spent it with wonderful family.  My kids just LOVE Hailey and Myah and it was so good to catch up.  My kids were super disappointed there was no snow, but we managed to bundle up enough to go play at the park.  It is always a fun time at Grandma and Granpa's.

November . . . .

Grandma and Grandpa Cuff came to visit us in November and we had a blast! We made it out to Death Valley and it was really fun. It was so warm in November I can't even IMAGINE how unbearable it would be in the summer. We had a picnic, perused the visitors center, and went on a fun little hike. Ava was disappointed in the "little hike" we took to the scenic view so Randy took the kids on a much longer hike while Bos, Grandma, Grandpa and I looked on. We also happened to be there during some fun celebration so we got to see the cool "20 mule team." It was pretty amazing to see the wagon pulled by 20 mules and the kids LOVED it, but I have to admit, I was having visions of one mule going crazy, causing the other 19 to go crazy, and us running for our lives to get away from the stampede of mules. I know, dramatic much? We had a blast and had so much fun with Grandma and Grandpa with their visit to P-town.

 

We also celebrated Daddy's birthday in November.  I personally think he gets better and better every single year.  We love him and are so grateful for the amazing man he is.  My kids, especially Ava, LOVE birthdays.  Ava made a zillion little cards and papers and wrapped them all up for daddy.  She's a crafty and thoughtful little soul. 

 

Ava's elementary school, which is AWESOME, does a "turkey trot" every year.  It was so much fun.  I will take any little excuse to go to the school and see Ava in action so Kai, Bos and I went and celebrated with her.  Her principal dressed up like a turkey and read them all a book, then they did relay races, yoga, and a 1 mile walk.  It's put together to promote health during the holiday season. (And how about this November weather?? Gotta love it)  Ava even won the turkey trot coloring contest and she was SOOO excited.  I seriously love my kids. :)

Fall Happenings . . . . .

A little more Halloween - the kids were invited to a fun Halloween party and got to wear their cute Halloween shirts, eat lots of treats, and wrap up kid like mummies.

I turned the big 31!  I felt good about 30, but I feel even better about 31 - especially since I have this fabulous family to share my year with!

Smiles from little man and a fun package from Grandma Cuff for Halloween.

Daddy agreed to sleep on the trampoline with the kids.  They all got settled down to watch a movie on the ipad and by the time I got out there, Randy was fast asleep.  Ava made it for about an hour and then escaped to the comfort of her warm Tinkerbell bed, but Kai and Daddy braved it out until 5:30 in the morning!  Kai came in, crawled in bed with me to cuddle, and only then did I realize that he had "wet the tramp" in a manner of speaking.  He must have been cold enough that he didn't even realize! Ha Ha.  He was pretty proud of himself for staying outside so long.  They had a blast even if it did result in a bunch of laundry.  We also got out Boston's walker and he loves it!  Don't let his terrified look with Kai fool you - he loves for his brother to push him around.

My beauty on Picture Day.  Seriously.  I love her so much and she WON'T STOP GROWING! I tell her on a daily basis to take it down a notch, but she refuses. :)  Love this girl.

Halloween . . . . .

We had a great Halloween this year!  I had big plans for matching costumes, but my kids had their own ideas so we have a mismatch of costumes.  Ava was a witch (I feel that she's moving away from Princess things - she said she wanted to be something scary and Halloweenish this year - *tear* is it starting all ready?)  Kai was insistent on being The Hulk - which I LOVED - look at those muscles?  This is probably the buffest you'll see him.  Bos was a devil only because he looked cute and it was the least expensive baby costume.  Both kids, first of all, asked what a dibble was.  Try explaining the concept of devil to your 3 and 6 year old!  In hind sight, a devil may not have been the best choice.  I thought it was perfect because Boston is, in fact, the complete OPPOSITE of a devil. 

Both kids got to have school Halloween parties - Kai had his very first and was so excited to take a treat!  We also had a night of carving pumpkins and the ward trunk or treat.  We are never lacking for something to do!  We decided this year to save all of the pumpkin seeds so we could bake them as a treat.  Ava worked so hard to get all of the seeds out and clean.  Sad ending to this story is that I waited too long to bake them and they turned moldy so all of the seeds went in the garbage.  Luckily, Ava didn't notice or she would have been so upset after all of her hard work! 

I just couldn't pick from these next pics.  My kids, if I do say so myself, are hilarious.  I LOVE their scary faces.

Me and the Hubs - going all out for the Holiday and representing Richfield.  I love this man.

Just a few more pictures - because it's my blog and I have the cutest kids on the planet. :) 

 

The Happiest Place On Earth . . . . . .

We had SO SO SO much fun in Disneyland! We got a 3 Day Park Hopper and we went for three days straight from open to close including our magic morning pass. We were so tired at the end, but it was worth it! My entire family went and we made memories we will never forget. We have been counting down since last Christmas, so we were all very excited when it finally came, to say the least.

 

Here we all are ready to watch the Pixar Parade. The parades ended up being one of our favorite parts of the trip. I've gotta be honest, we loved the parades, and the parade people loved us. We had so much fun and we were the parade performers favorite fans! We danced, laughed, clapped and cheered the whole time and everybody else thought we were crazy. Whatevs - we love Disneyland and it loves us!

Our first day - Can you see the excitement on the kids faces?  Well, maybe not V's, but that's probably because she didn't completely understand the fun that was about to happen!  They all got new Disney shirts and we were thrilled to dress them up!  The one thing that I really screwed up on was that I forgot the double to my stroller, so we rented a Disney stroller for Kai every day.  He loved it and it really kept him going. 

We were lucky enough to run right into Minnie and Mickey the very first day RIGHT as we walked into the park.  Talk about luck!  We were so happy that we wouldn't have to wait in line to see them.  When we came three years ago, Ava was TERRIFIED of every single character.  As you'll see through this post, she overcame that fear big time.

My kids are obsessed with Lilo and Stitch, so Ava couldn't have been happier when we ran into him outside the Tower of Terror.  Funny story is that Ava went on the Tower of Terror 3 years ago and absolutely refused to go on it this year.  I don't blame her.  That's scary for a 3 year old!  Surprisingly, she absolutely LOVED California Screamin' and couldn't get enough of it.  Kai, on the other hand, ran onto the Tower of Terror no problem, but came out feeling very scared and said he didn't want to go again - UNTIL Uncle Robert promised him $2 if he went again - and he did.  It makes me nervous that the kid can be bribed that easily.  I'm actually shocked that my kids agreed to go on anything with us because the very first thing we did on the first day was throw them on Space Mountain.  I'm a bad parent.  I was shocked, but with the exception of the Tower, my kids pretty much went on every single thing they were tall enough for. 

Kai's very favorite ride was Pirates of the Caribbean (and the kids have since become obsessed with the movies) and Ava love loved the Cars Ride.  The new Cars Land was absolutely adorable and it made us all so happy!  We, of course, still spent a lot of time in A Bug's Land and Fantasy Land because they have so many rides for small kids.  My favorite ride is still Splash Mountain, Randy loves the Grizzly Rapids and Soarin' over California, and Toy Story Mania is an all-around family favorite.

Kai BARELY made the 40" cutoff.  He got checked so many times but made it every single time.  Anybody remember the TinkerBell Tragedy of 2009?  We waited in line for over an hour to meet TinkerBell only to find out that "she was out and about flying around" so we didn't get to meet her.  Well, no worries, this year we waited in line and met TinkerBell AND her sister Periwinkle.  Aren't they cute?

By the time we were headed out, Kai had just about had enough.

Boston pretty much took a snoozer anywhere.  He is such a good baby.  He is exactly the same age that Kai was 3 years ago when we went so it was so fun to compare pictures and see the similarities.  See that cute luggage for the grandkids?  My mom picked those out for the trip and I've never seen three kids more excited to pack it up!

A HUGE thank you to my mom and dad for taking care of a lot of the trip and making it all happen.  We love you so much and feel like the luckiest people in the world to be part of your family.  You'll also notice pretty much the best family picture ever of us - I love it.

These are two of my favorite moments on the trip - and they both involved water.  We went on the Grizzly Rapids and I seriously considered not going because I didn't want to get wet, but, thanks to some badgering from my family, I went.  Well, long story short, Ava and I (especially me) got SOAKED.  See how mad we were?? :)  The ride was SO MUCH FUN though.  We were all laughing and cracking up the entire time and even started some chants.  My favorite was "Ava got wet!" over and over and she was loving it.  We also dubbed Robert "The Loser" because he barely got wet and the nickname stuck around for a while. 

 

The other picture is a sweet family picture of us the very last night right before the World of Color show.  We heard it was fabulous so we decided to watch it as our grand finale our last night.  My dad waited in line and got us great seats where we "could get a little bit wet - but nothing major."  Well, it started and we were all super excited and then out of nowhere, seriously, we got PELTED with water.  It is no exaggeration that it was like a firehose was turned on us.  We were all panicking, trying to cover the babies and move out of the way.  It was insane.  I was hiding under an umbrella trying to keep my 4 month old from drowning while everybody else around us was literally standing under a waterfall.  I am laughing so hard writing this, but I was panicking at the moment.  Me, Alecia, my mom, Kai, Bos, and Vienna all made a mad dash to get out of there.  I noticed as we were heading out that our little area was the ONLY area to get hit like that.  It was completely dry 10 feet away from us in any direction.  Come to find out, a sprinkler had broken and essentially sprayed us like a fire hose in only that area.  Goodness - it was such a crazy thing and we went out with a bang!

We had a blast and I want to go back RIGHT NOW! I am so lucky to have such an amazing family and can't wait for the next adventure!