I am thankful for....

My FAMILY that is coming into town tonight. I am so excited to have everyone together. In fact, we are even taking Craft Family pictures because we will actually have everyone in one place! Wish us luck...
Am I allowed to also be thankful that they are coming to ME this year? We usually travel to California, but this year they are coming to us! Yay, no 5 hour drive with the kids! This will make traveling for Christmas so much better. Can't wait. Games, golfing, shooting, shopping, EATING, late night talks, all the sisters in my bed....we have too much fun. Happy Thanksgiving!

The good life

Am I not the best Mom? Letting my kids watch a movie in MY bed with sippy cups and marshmallows and NO pants! What could be better than that? Actually there was a selfish reason behind this.....the adults were trying to play some games in the other room! Whatever works right? And it is pretty awesome to crawl into bed at night and find marshmallows in your sheets. Ahh the life I have.

Funny girl

"Just going to a meeting, Mom." This is what Ella said to me when I noticed her walking around in my boots.

Fort McLaws

I came home from a meeting one night and walked into a giant fort. Matt is always doing fun things for the kids (they are bored to death when I am home) and forts are a favorite. A time before this I found all three of them in a fort, lights out, and Matt had a flashlight and was reading them "Good Night Moon" because he thinks that book is really creepy!haha But anyways here are some pictures of all of us playing in the fort....except Matt who had his shirt off and I didn't think that was appropriate for the blog!(building forts is hard work I guess).

I don't know why Ella is making this face in all of the pictures...

I thought the next 2 pics were funny because you can see the size difference in Ella and Kash...one of them takes up much more tunnel!

They sure have a pretty fun dad! We are pretty lucky.

ALL BOY

Kash is a little obsessed with cars. (and trains and airplanes and bikes and motorcycles....:)) It is so funny to me how he is seriously ALL boy. I don't teach him to like these things, he just does. We will be driving in the car and he will absolutely freak out when he sees a bus, or a diesel truck, etc. People are always asking me if there is a difference with having a boy and a girl, and there definitely is! Ella will want me to hold her while Kash will growl at me and jump on my head. Ella will sit and color while Kash will throw his cars at the tv. And of course Kash is physically enormous while Ella is very petite. And boys arent nearly as dramatic as girls, although Kash does love to sit and pout with his big bottom lip hanging out! One similarity with my kids though is they like to take their favorite toys to bed with them. Ella will be buried in stuffed animals and Kash will not lay down until he has a car in each hand. So this is how I found Kash when I went to check on him during the night:

And as I walked down the hallway I stopped when I saw this:

I am so glad I've had the chance to have a boy and a girl! I feel pretty lucky!

Introducing...

Pebbles and Bam Bam

Here is a full body shot:
My dear friend Corinne made their darling outfits. Are they not the cutest? She did everything, all I had to do was accessorize them! How lucky am I? Originally Ella insisted that she wanted to be a butterfly, but I couldnt pass up the opportunity for them to be pebbles and bam bam. They just fit the part perfectly this year! Kash with his club was hilarious! Maybe next year I will actually let THEM pick out their outifits...maybe. :) Anyways sweet Corinne sewed a secret butterfly on the inside of Ella's costume to make her feel special. (Ella ended up loving her outfit but I still can't believe Corinne thought to do that!)

We had a lot of Halloween activities this year. Ella had to dress up for her preschool party, and for dance class, we had our ward party with the trunk or treat, another party and actual Halloween. This collage is of Alek and Corinne's 2nd annual Halloween party. Check out the festive food and especially the cupcakes that we had so much fun decorating. Kash and Ella LOVED painting thier pumpkins, Ella literally painted hers the entire time.

Also my mom and sisters came into town! The best was that they totally surprised me and dressed up like Safari girls to match Kash and Ella's outits. I didn't want to be left out so I attempted to throw an outifit together but ended up looking like a weird cowgirl! But we had so much fun and I just love that they did this.

We went trick or treating with Mike and Gina's fam and us girls had just as much fun as the kids! We couldn't stop laughing and striking poses. Embarrassing, I know. Both Ella and Kash really got into trick or treating, they were all for that candy! After every house we went to Ella would say, "can we go to the next house?" It got pretty old. :) And it was all we could do to keep Kash from grabbing ALL of the candy, not just one piece! Afterward we headed to my grandparents house for potato soup and apple cider. It was such a fun week.