Halloween Disney Adventures

Disneyland is one of my favorite places ever! We got to go on Halloween, which was perfect because we got to dress up, see others in there costumes, and there wasn't very many people there. We mostly had just a 5 minute waiting time in the lines and the weather was perfect! We didn't stay for the trick or treating there, which would have been fun, but the kids were tired and it does cost a lot! But here are some of our adventures at Disneyland and California...

The kids got to sleep in the walk in closet

Kids watching the fountain at the mall in Irvine

They swam for hours at Steve Silverstein's house, while we were there for a BBQ. Thomas can now swim a short distance under water without floaties! :)

The kids with Steve, a family friend of Soozi's

We took the kids to the beach. The water was pretty chilly to actually swim, but they loved getting dirty in the sand!

Disneyland!

One of Thomas's favorites was the Haunted Mansion because it was all decorated like "The Nightmare Before Christmas." Keira was pretty scared of that ride but was super brave for all our taking her on some bigger rides. She did at one point say, "I'm scared of everything." Poor girl.

Abbi - 5 (I think)

We always have to see Mickey!

Tyler - almost 2

The parade! The kids really enjoyed this! Keira was even dancing up a storm by the end. It was so cute!

We had a wonderful time! We hope you all had a fun Halloween too!

Birthday Boy!

I can't believe it was 7 years ago that I was blessed with this adorable baby boy! It was a horrible idea to have been induced because Thomas did not want to come out and it was really rough. But once I was finally able to hold him, everything was so worth it! It has been a fun and adventurous 7 years with Thomas.

This year Thomas got to spend some time in Las Vegas on his birthday. He got to go swimming, went shopping for presents, got taken to McDonald's to play, and got to play with family from Vegas. He got a lot of things he wanted and needed. One of which was this Knuckles hat (Knuckles from the Sonic video game). He was even saving some of his tooth fairy money and what he had for this hat.:) Good for him! He only had to wait till his birthday though. He was so happy! And this is what he wants to be for Halloween!

We went to Grandma Malone's for a little party. And poor Thomas couldn't get to his present with Chris's wrapping job. He went crazy with the tape. It was pretty funny, though.:)

He was thrilled to get a magic set...and with a hat! Thomas has been fooling us with his tricks endlessly.:)

I love this little girl! She and I have created a little bond now. It was a happy day for me when she would actually let me hold her and be happy about it...which was a few months ago. But I just love how smiley she is now!

Cupcakes say TJ...Happy Birthday, Thomas Jones!

Thomas wanted to have a little friend party, so we did a few traditional games...this one was hilarious...no hands allowed:)

Present time

More cupcakes! We sure had a lot of sweets that day!

Thomas is 7 now! Crazy! He is in school all day and is losing teeth like crazy recently. Oh, he's growing too fast. A little about our 7 year old:

~ He loves playing the wii (Sonic in particular at the moment, but don't worry, we do limit his time on it)

~He still loves "being" different characters

~He is doing amazingly well in reading and even more amazingly well in learning and understanding Chinese

~He claims girls have crushes on him and he has crushes on girls, but his girlfriend is still Sierra (Mike's 15? year old cousin) Ha!

~He wants to work at Sonic when he grows up and wear the roller skates

~Loves playing with his best friend who lives behind us

~Like to sing the bad guy songs off of movies. I don't know if he thinks it is more fun but I keep trying to get him to like the heroes more. Maybe some day :)

~And of course, has his moments of not wanting to play or share with Keira and talking back. But he is overall a well behaved boy and we are so proud of him!

Happy Birthday Thomas!

Catching Up

I know, I know. It's been a while. We are still alive and adjusting to life with the first child in school all day (and doing a super job at learning Chinese already, I might add), and our baby gone twice a week in the mornings for preschool. Oh, they are growing so fast! And Thomas just lost 2 teeth, 1 day apart from each other. Ha! Thomas kept the tooth fairy busy. :)

Thomas and Keira - now both kids are in school. It's a bittersweet thing.

We've been having fun with Becky here. We've gone out to eat, had play dates, Becky helped me can some of my peaches, and we've done fun things with the family like going to Teara's "Up" party and seeing the witches at Gardner Village. I love seeing Becky and getting to play with my niece and nephew!

Teara worked hard on putting together an "UP" party, which we truly appreciated her efforts and had a great time with them. We had yummy pizza, snacked on "balloon" cupcakes, blow-pops, and blue jello with "clouds" in it. Teara and Matt took us to the "UP" house that looked like the one in the movie...how fun is that! Thomas thought that was great! Then I believe they finished up watching the movie, but I was unable to stay that long. Thanks again, Teara and Matt!

Thomas liked feeding the horse there while we waited for people to show up

Thomas digging in on the feast

The kids are there on the porch...hanging on for dear life:)

Last Saturday, we took a little trip up to West Jordan to tour around Gardner Village. This was my first time going. I loved it! Lots of expensive shopping, but some really fun stores to look at. We spent the majority of the time doing a witch scavenger hunt so we can get cookies for really cheap. The things we do for a snack. :) There were some very creative witch ideas. I think Thomas

really enjoyed helping us find them and wanted a goofy picture with every one of them. He was really quite the character! It was also a fun time with Mom, Natalie, Charissa, and Teara!

The kids enjoyed pony rides while we waited for the others

And now we are getting ready for Fall, going to the pumpkin patch to get our pumpkins and play in the corn pit and haystack mazes. And we are very excited about seeing everyone in Vegas for Becca's wedding!

Kid Pics

It was time for me to try and get more cute pictures of Thomas and Keira so we went to the duck pond in Springville, let them feed the ducks and took some pictures. The lighting was not so fun to work with as all the good spots either left shadows or them blinded by the sun. And for some reason Keira had a hard time giving her big pretty smile on impromptu. But here are a few of what I got:

I am sure they are sick of my picture taking but aren't they the cutest!