Thanksgiving

This year for Thanksgiving everyone came to St. George. It was nice for us to not have to travel with the kids and I think I am discovering that I love being the hostess! Not that I do much other than provide a place to sleep, but I just love having everyone around. We had the actual Thanksgiving dinner at my grandparents house so luckily I wasn't in charge of the whole thing...just the thought of me doing the turkey by myself immediately stresses me out. We had so much fun staying up late, playing lots of games, eating lots of food, and doing lots of shopping. And whats great is that they will all be back in a few weeks for Christmas! Yay!

My mom really wanted to take a quick family picture. Bless her little heart for even trying...this is the best we got.

And I thought I would try to get one of my kids while they were all dressed at the same time (usually at least one seems to be naked) and of course it didn't work out:(

And just to remember what I have been thinking about this month:
While visiting teaching we talked about President Monson's talk on gratitude. I guess I must be complaining a lot about my kids lately because I have had so many people tell me to be grateful for this stage, because I will be so sad when it is over and really miss it. This of course is always coming from people whose kids are older and I think "you must not remember how hard this is!!!" I have three kids under the age of four, including a daughter who is a total diva, a son who is still being potty trained, and a newborn who I am up in the night with. So somedays it is really hard to be grateful and I find myself fantasizing about the day when they are all in school!! But then there are those moments that really do make it all worth it, as cheesy as that sounds. Evie is smiling now and it melts my heart, especially when we get her to full on laugh! When we hear Ella and Kash who sneak into each others room at night and we can hear them playing so dang cut together. And when Ella says something so smart or Kash says "I lub you mom" for no reason. So I realize that I really do need to be more grateful, and live in the moment and try to remember these sweet moments (as rare as they might seem some days). Who knows, maybe I will look back and smile at the thought of me cleaning poop out of batman underwear and hosing Kash down in the backyard? I just don't know.

Sleepy

Liked how this little girl fell asleep on my lap...

Neighbor Girls

We have some of the cutest neighbor girls around. I was worried when we first moved in realizing that there are not a ton of kids Ella and Kash's age. We are actually the youngest family in the neighborhood. Most families are done having kids and here we move in with 2 babies and now a newborn! We definitely stand out a bit. Anyways, these girls that live on our street come to our door almost daily. I love it because they entertain my kids! They are mostly around the age of 9, so it is nice to know they are capable of playing with them outside and can watch them for the most part. They love to ride wiggle cars, give rides on their scooters, play in our backyard, go in the playroom, etc. They are really cute with Ella and Kash and often want to come over to hold the baby. There have been days around 3pm when I am wondering if they are home from school so they can take my kids away and give me a break! I am hoping that the day they become "too cool" to come over and play never comes!
Carly, Lacy, Robin, and Ella came downstairs all dressed up. They walked around the neighborhood showing off their cute outfits!

Staheli Farm

This was our second year going to Staheli Farm. The kids always have a really good time, so this is a fun tradition for us. This year we went with the Harris family, they are our cute neighbors that live right across the street from us.

Here are all the kids, minus Evie who stayed nice and warm in her car seat the entire night! Macall, Olivia, Ella Kate, Ella Grace, and Kash

Here is Dave leading the kids to the corn maze.

Kash on the train ride.

The Ella's wanted to ride together of course!

Dave about to sit on Macall!

Climbing in the play house.

Riding the horse swing-I think this is always the favorite.

Sliding into the corn

This is where you pump the water and see who can get their duck to the other side the fastest.

We ended the night with the animals. Kash kept hugging all of them, and I kept telling Matt they would have to get a bath as soon as we got home!

Surprise!

Saturday night I was in the kitchen talking to a friend when the doorbell rang. The kids ran to get it as they always do, fighting over who gets to open the door. I knew it was the neighbor kids again so I kept chatting and eating. And then I hear this voice...could it be?? Are you serious? I threw my quesadilla on the counter and ran to the door. PAPA!! Ella and Kash were both jumping on my DAD! Surprise! I had NO idea he was coming. He said he got off work early and decided to come at the last minute. He has not seen little Evie yet so he has been dying! I was in shock and trying not to cry my eyes out! We were all enjoying the moment and a few minutes later the doorbell rang again. Now here come the neighbor girls. Then I hear, "NANA NANA!" And then there is my mom at the door, who had been hiding in the car haha. Of course I start tearing up again...:) Can't believe it. And a few minutes later the door bell rings AGAIN. And there is my littlest sister NIKKI!!! Now I am crying. The first thing she said was, Dad made me wear this!! I could tell she was so embarrassed as she stood there with her crown on her head and her Homecoming Queen sash on. The week before she was crowned Homecoming Queen and I was the ONLY sister not there to see her and I was so depressed about it. I guess Dad wanted me to see her in all her glory, much to her dismay!

This was the best surprise ever!! We were all so excited and had such a fun weekend together. Oh how I love my cute family! The proud Papa holding his newest grandchild.

One Month

I can't believe Evie is already one month old! She is actually just over 5 weeks now and time is going by so fast. I hate that she is already so much bigger, I want her to stay tiny forever! She is just so sweet. I could kiss her cheeks all day, and I do because she can't fight me! Ella and Kash don't cuddle with me very much so I am getting my fill with Evie before she has a say:)

Here she is at 1 month:

These pics are of her only a few days old, she looks so small in her crib and car seat.

People are always asking who I think she looks like, and I think she just has her own look. A lot have said Ella and Matt, but some even think she looks like Kash. What do you think?

A long day

This is my son at the end of Day 1 of Potty Training:

Bless his little heart! It has been a rough week, and this first day I think he was especially traumatized. He clung to his diaper for dear life, not wanting to part with it. Yesterday however he did not have a single accident! I am starting to think this potty training thing might just work after all! Although... he is not allowed to leave the kitchen so he is constantly right next to his little potty, so venturing out of the house or even upstairs for that matter is something else entirely. Baby steps right? I am just so excited to see some progress!

Halloween 2010

Ella and Kash were so excited for Halloween this year. They talked about their costumes for weeks and couldn't wait to go trick or treating. Even little Evie walked around with me in the sling before it got too dark. It was fun for us to go around our neighborhood together and talk to neighbors that we hadn't really met yet.

Here are my cute super heroes! Ella as Bat Girl and Kash as Spider Man.

Kash had no interest in wearing this costume when he got it for his birthday but luckily a few weeks later he was all for it! Matt ended up cutting the eye holes bigger because he kept running into things (the worst was when he ran full speed into our neighbors BMW...how do you not see a car??).

I had to try so hard to not laugh when I told Ella to strike a pose and she did this total bat man move!

Trick or treating

Oh how I love my bat, cat, and spider. I know you can't really tell that Evie is a cat-Matt insisted she was too young for face paint:(

Too bad she started crying right when I took this picture! Oh well, two out of three is pretty good I guess.