When this boy finds something he likes, he embraces it with both arms wide open and loves "it" and ONLY "it"....until of course he finds something new. Needless to say, I took many trips to the grocery store, or target, or to pick up Makenna and Kellen from school alongside this awesome ninja turtle!

Our sweet Aunt Stephanie! She always gets these kids to cutest holiday goodies. These ornaments were one of the favorites among our gang this year. They came with dry erase pens and the kids could write what they wanted for christmas on them. They would write, and re-write and draw pictures....over and over and over. Love it!

Well, Conner survived his first soccer season. And by survived I very much mean survived. He hated going every saturday. He would do great during warm ups and drills. But then as soon as the game would start, he wanted to be done. Every game there were tears. Each game the tears were less and less. And if nothing else I think Conner learned the importance of finishing something and being part of a team. He is a good soccer player and its a shame he didn't really love it. But he is also just a little boy still. And in the end he got an ice cream cup and a medal that he was Soooooo proud of! 

Love that happy face!

Watching your little ones sleep. It just melts your heart.

The kids got invited to a birthday party at the Boardwalk for their buddy Brett. The place has been around since I was a kid (in fact, I had a birthday there when I was a kid!) But it is still pleasing the little kids! They had a blast and are begging to go back!

Right before Thanksgiving Conner was in the circle preschool "pow-wow". Since I was busy taking video, and Grammy was taking care of Carys, Makenna was left to take pictures. Which means I got about 1 that was not totally blurry (though I greatly appreciate her effort). You get the gist of how cute he is!

Grammy and the Con. So lucky to get to have her come and enjoy these special times with us. 

Back at Disney! This time (taking advantage of the fact that we have passes and can come back often) we left Carys with Grammy for the day and got to enjoy a day at Disney with the bigger kids. Though we missed our baby sister, it was also fun to get to move at a quicker pace and focus our time on the big kid stuff. 

This little cutie got to take me on a drive on the bumper cars. He took his job quite seriously!

I know it's cheesy, but it really is one of the happiest places!

At the end of November we were able to spend time with Brookie and Kipper and Rah Rah, who unfortunately had to come down due to a family tragedy with their Grandpa Robinson. The kids though soaked up the time together! 

I LOVE how protective Makenna is of Brooke, and how Brooke becomes so submissive with Makenna. It is a cute/funny relationship these girls have. 

I just LOVE this picture!

Kids crack me up! Makenna and Kellen were having battles making lists like this before Christmas time. Kellen would make his list and put Makenna on the bad list and vice versa. Silly kiddos.

At Chuck E Cheese enjoying their reward for filling up their "good behavior" jar with warm fuzzies!

Thats our little soccer player! Makenna played another season of soccer in the fall. I love watching her play. She is good at anticipating her moves and is a go getter. She loves playing goalie and has gotten better at it. She also makes a great forward because she is fast. She actually does well wherever she plays. And I don't think I am bias.

Cuties!

This boy and his school work! I LOVE it! So Kellen decided he wanted me to get him a notebook to keep in his backpack to hold all the papers he brings home from school. Then, once the notebook is full, he empties it out and puts on an "art show" in his room. Basically he tapes up all his favorite things all over his closet doors and then invites people in to show him his work and allows people to ask about his different papers. It is so cute and he always look so proud!

Now that this cute boy is learning to write on his own, I am starting to get love notes! And I LOVE it! I always knew this boy would be the type to love to leave notes and cards. And I was right. This was my very first card written by him all by himself and left for me on the counter when I came home from being on a date with Todd. Melts my heart every time!

These two cuties signed up to play tball at the sportsplex together. It was Kellen's first time playing tball. And I really think we have found good sport for Kellen. He really seems to enjoy it and does pretty well. He loves being with his best buddy and having the two of them play together. I have to say, having a son I always waited for that day that we would get our little boy a glove and teach him to play ball. It feels like one of those moments you always imagined playing out before your eyes. Always seems a little surreal!

I can't even tell you how much I love this little boy and how much I enjoy our time together while the other kids are at school. He is such a fun loving, exciting, happy little boy to be around. He makes me laugh and smile non stop. And though he keeps me on my toes, he is also a real lover and has such a huge heart and such a big cuddly side. I'm so glad we still have another year and a half until I have to think about losing him to school every day....

What a big girl she is becoming!

It didn't take little miss Carys very long to figure out how to climb once she has mastered walking. And for a long time this was her favorite place to be. She could get herself up on the stool but not down. And she would just stand there with a big, proud, happy smile on her face. 

But very quickly just climbing the bathroom stool was not enough. So she figure out how to climb up on the dining room chairs. And from there, she naturally learned how to get onto the dining room table. I had friends that had "climbers" and once I had Conner I thought I knew what a "climber" was. Well, Carys has taught me otherwise. 

So one day while Todd was at work the kids started talking about how hard daddy works and what a good job he does taking care of us. And they decided (all on their own) to do something special for dad. So they made him a cute poster which they hung up for him to see right when he came in the door. And then they each drew him a picture and had me take them to party city where we got him a small little lunch box that they filled with candy for him to take to work to have little treats while he was there. I was so touched by how thoughtful they were. I don't think kids are always the best at recognizing and realizing the hard work that goes into providing for a family. It was one of those "really proud of my kids" moments. We love our Daddy!!!

Really? Does it get any cuter than this? Gosh, this boy makes me melt!

Well, as soon as Halloween had come and gone, the kids quickly began their focus on Christmas. Letters to santa were in order VERY early on this year! They had both knows for awhile what they were going to ask for. And thanks to all the cute crafts that Aunt Stephanie always sends us, we were ready to go right away.

Our version of snowmen in San Diego.

The October Wars

Halloween!! It has definitely become one of my favorite holidays. It is SUCH a fun one with little kids. And this year I think the costumes they all chose fit them Soooo perfectly. First my little leprechaun. For a kid that lives from one holiday to the next, this could not have been more perfect for him. He was so excited about carrying around his pot of gold with him (though he wanted to carry a rainbow too, which I told him was going to be a bit too much). As soon as we got the pot in the mail he went through his room and found every yellow or gold colored toy/block/clothing he had and filled his pot with it. That kids makes me smile so much! Such a creative kid. Love the way he thinks.

The Con. This kid is the ham of all hams! And I love it! 

I was fully expecting Conner to want to be a superhero or power ranger or something along those lines for halloween. I even bought him a power ranger costume when I first saw them on sale without cleaning it with him because I figured "of course he wants to be a power ranger!" And then we were at Costco and walked past this costume and the boy practically flew out of his seat with excitement about it. I asked him probably 10 times if he was sure he wanted to be a swat officer. Well, this look right here can speak for itself! What a good looking officer!

P.S. In the end (on halloween night) he did end up wearing a superhero costume. So see....I do know my boy! 

And then there is this beauty! Cute as a bug! This is the costume Makenna wore when she was Carys' age for Halloween. It has always been one of my favorite Halloween costumes we had and I was so excited to get to use it again. And it also just suites her so perfectly. Sweet, cute and spunky. Such a perfect little lady...bug!

Well, my sweet Makenna always knows Exactly what she wants to be. And she always has the costume imagined perfectly in her mind, so the challenge becomes finding something (or grammy making something) that lives up to what she is imagining it being. This year she wanted to be a jaguar. And we were lucky enough to find the perfect costume for her. Grammy did have to make a slight modification and add a loop on the back for us to attach her tail (the tail after all was her favorite part of the costume). She looked great! Very Makenna-ish. The funnies part was that people kept calling her a cat and it was making her so annoyed, ha ha! "I am a JAGUAR, NOT a Cat!"

I think that the ward halloween party is one of the things I remember vividly from my childhood memories. Probably the reason that taking my kiddos to our ward party is always one of my favorite things to do!

Makenna and Kara. BFF's!