Christmas in California

I spent almost two weeks at my parent's house during Christmas, and it was so much fun! Matt has been out of town a lot lately for work so I took the kids down early and he met us there about a week later. The weather was so nice! Some of the days we were in short sleeves and I swear we could have gotten a tan. I am not one for the cold, so Christmas in California was just about perfect for me. It was a lot of fun having everyone together.

All the girls, including my mom, got matching pajamas to wear on Christmas morning.

Kash sitting in "time out."

Ella just being Ella.

We were so lucky to have both sets of grandparents for Christmas! These are my dad's parents and then my mom's parents.

For Christmas Matt and I got tickets to see Wicked! We went the day after Christmas and it was SO good! Now that its playing in California I recommend seeing it if you can.

We all went to support Nikki in her basketball tournament, they ended up going to the championship! So fun!

This is Kash opening his present all by himself.

I couldn't resist posting this picture of my parents because my dad is actually smiling! What a cute couple!

I love my sisters, we always have so much fun together. We still all sleep together in the same room on Christmas Eve! Nikki, Karlee, Lindsay, Whitney, Mandy.

Happy Birthday Matt!

Today was Matt's birthday and he turned 28! I can't believe he is coming up on 30, what an old man! A bunch of us went to Red Lobster for dinner because this was the one day he could drag me there seeing that I HATE seafood. I really feel sick as soon as I walk in the door and that nasty smell hits me. I suffered through it though, and he loved every minute of that 1 1/2 lbs. of crab legs. Afterwards we went to our house and had cake and ice cream and opened presents.

Of course I forgot the birthday candles, so we had to make due with these.

I don't know if anyone has heard of the movie "Tron" but it is totally eighty's so I bought it just to be funny (even though I know he really likes it!)

This tennis racket was the big surprise. It's one that he really wanted but I didn't want him to buy it because its really expensive and he is known for breaking rackets in the midst of his rage. He better not be throwing this one across the court!

Random

These are all really random pictures but I thought they were kind of fun so I decided to post them.

Ready to go!

I love my friends! My birthday was on Friday and Ashley, Becky, and Corinne were there to celebrate it with me.

Matt always makes my birthday really special and this year was no exception.

Ella LOVES to play in the pantry so sometimes I just let her go at it.

Touchdown! Matt and Kash watching football together.

Thanksgiving/Blessing

We decided to bless Kash on Thanksgiving day because all of my family was in town. We had a big dinner at my grandparent's house and then later that night we had the blessing. I really loved having it at their house because it was such an intimate setting. We had a short program that was really beautiful and I thought everything turned out really well.

This is the outfit that Matt was blessed in, and the blanket he is on was made by my great grandma for my Dad's blessing.

We thought it would be really special to be able to tell Kash that his great-grandpa blessed him, so we asked Bob to do it. It was perfect.

My mom and sisters.

Isn't he cute?

Bath Time!

Matt LOVES giving the kids baths, so I gladly let him be in charge. But this was the first time he had Ella and Kash in the bath together! I thought it was cute so I had to take a few pictures.

This is Ella "washing" her brother.

She wanted a turn in the baby tub.

This poor little guy has it rough!

Happy Halloween!

We had a Halloween party at Becky's house on Saturday and we all carved pumpkins. Ella had so much fun making a mess! She loved playing with all of the slimy stuff--she had it everywhere in no time (sorry Beck!).



On Halloween we went up to Cedar City to my Aunt and Uncle's house. Ella LOVED trick or treating! She was running around like crazy and keeping up with her cousins was no problem.

Ella was a lady bug and Kash was a puppy.

She would run up to those houses as fast as she could...and sometimes walk right in!

I thought that she might not understand, but once again she proved me wrong.

Tennis

Matt likes to take Ella with him when he goes and plays tennis. It gives her a chance to run around and it gives me a little break! It works out great for everyone! Cody thought this would keep her out of their game for a few minutes...

Ella and Kash

Well Ella went from not wanting anything to do with her little brother, to loving him a little too much! She is constantly giving him kisses on the top of his head, so all that hair of his always has slobber in it! Matt swears Kash tenses up whenever he hears her coming, but he'll just have to learn to be tough real fast with her around. She is a good big sister though.

She always tries to comfort him when he's crying.

We do everything in "two's" now.

So far he has survived.

Halloween Cookies

We went over to Great Grandma "Dobo's" to decorate Halloween cookies. Ella and her cousins Lauren and Sydney had a lot of fun-Ella of course spent most of the time eating the cookie dough and licking the frosting! This girl LOVES sweets!

She is concentrating so her tongue is out...anyone who knows her dad knows where she gets that from.

Grandma is helping her decorate.

She can't even stop eating to pose for a picture!

Kash Matthew

On September 19, 2007 Kash Matthew McLaws was born. He weighed 6 lbs 15 oz and was 19 1/2 inches long. I was in labor for about five hours and everything went really well. Ella still doesn't know what she thinks about her new little brother...we are definitely still adjusting!

Thankfully my mom is staying with us which is a HUGE help. I don't know what I'm going to do when she leaves.

Labor Day

On Labor Day we went to a barbecue out in Washington. I didn't know there would be water, so I didn't have a swimsuit for Ella. As soon as she saw it she went running, and I didn't even try to stop her. She went crazy and was soaked in no time!

She had all of the boys running....she's a little intimidating when she's excited.

Can you tell she's having a good time?

It was a long day, so she cuddled up to her little brother. Try not to stare at my 3 chins...