Moms 50th Birthday!!!

 Joes folks watched the kids while Joe and I had a little vacation in AZ.  It was absolutely delightful.  I really needed a break from my little rug rats.  Joe and I being there for moms birthday was a complete surprise!! Rob picked us up from the air port and we showed up to surprise mom.  She was in a daze when she saw us because they had just moved into their new house and it was a bit of a mess.  It all worked out though and we had fun. On Saturday night, Rob told her that he was taking us (Summer and Cade as well) out to dinner but the restaurant was a surprise (the melting pot!!)  Little did she know 30 people were there waiting for her. The look on Moms face when she walked in was priceless!!! I am so glad we could be there! Thank you Rob for flying us out! Your awesome

At the airport

Mom holding up her b-day present from us! A custom made necklace with all four of us kids names on it.

Summy and I all dolled up before dinner

 The melting pot was incredible!!! The picture above was dessert! We dipped these goodies in melted chocolate! Hopefully will get to go to this fabulous place again! Maybe date night!

Halloween 2011 (better late than never ;o)

Halloween was so fun! I decided to make Nolans costume this year (last minute) His favorite part was the belt complete with purple samurai sward.  he wore his costume to his school and ward parties and trick or treating so we got great use out of it. Our ward had an amazing Halloween party this year! They had games and candy, super fun food and a trunk-or-treat after! I forgot my camera but got some good pictures before we left. He was the cutest Ninja I had ever seen!!! Sorry, no costume for Shyloh this year ;o) Next year will be fun though! I'm brainstorming already!

Summer came over and made Dracula apples,  mummy dogs and fingers.  Also she fried up the best taquitos I have ever feasted upon! Thanks for making our Halloween so fun Summer!

  We have a great neighborhood for trick-or-treating.  It was so fun seeing people from church and other neighbors.   There were so many kids and parents out.  Nolan and sky started fighting over who would ring the door bell first.  Sky was faster so Nolan would lay in the grass shrieking when he would get to the door second. He was loosing his voice so he sounded like a crotchety old lady. It was quite chili out so when we were done we came back to the house for some steaming hot chocolate and fresh baked oatmeal chocolate chip cookies! It was a perfect night.

We also had a hoot painting our pumpkins we got from the pumpkin patch

The babies had fun too :-)

Joe wore a ski mask, kids just stared at him including his own!

Mr. incredible Sky and Ninja Nolan

The Family

Rapunzel Kayala

Glove boy

The other day I was doing the dishes when I looked over to see this...... (that is my helmet by the way)

My friend the praying mantis

We were out in the yard the other day enjoying one of the last few days of summer when Nolan found a praying mantis.  I have been told that as a child I was not at all afraid of bugs and would often catch crickets and play with them..... looks like I pasted this lovely trait onto my son...  Last Summer he found a beetle and played with it for an hour (see post, My friend the beetle) This praying mantis was a good sport, clinging to his shirt and walking around on his hands.  Finally Nolan got bored with the mantis and mumbled something about squishing him so I encouraged him to put his new little friend on some bush leaves so he could find his family.   A few weeks ago he found a huge grasshopper.  The grasshopper jumped and landed on his shorts and would NOT come off.   I told him to go over and show daddy (Joe and his dad were working on the other side of the yard)  So Nolan walked very goofily over to the other sided of the yard with the cricket still holding fast.  After Dad had gotten a good look he began jumping with one leg in the air to get this hopper off.  It took a few minutes but finally the little guy was done with the ride and jumped off.  It was one of the funniest things I have seen in a while :-)

Nuggles

A few days ago Daddy stayed home sick.  Shyloh, being the tender sweet spirit she is, could tell that he was under the weather and needed some cheering up.  She decided to climb up and pay him a little visit.  She brought with her some old pretzels she found under the couch and gave him a drink from her sipper.  She also brought her pink snuggley blanket to help him stay warm.   Joe was very grateful for this wee bit of nourishment and company.  after making sure he was well fed and warm she laid her head on him and nuggled for a while. (much longer than most toddlers would snuggle at this age!) This was her way of saying "Daddy, I hope you fell better soon, I love you" Daddy laid there with her soaking in some Shyloh bliss, enjoying yet another sweet moment of parenthood. 

Pumpkin Patch 2011

We always have fun at the pumpkin patch! Last year Shyloh was just a little peanut bundled up in the baby carrier but this year she was big enough to play! We ran through the patch looking for that perfect pumpkin.  It was pretty picked over so we had to walk pretty far to find some good ones.  It was fun! They also had a hay stack maze and some animals to look at and pet including a Kangaroo! It was a super fun family night!!!

Nolan is 5!!!!

I still can't believe that my first born is 5! Where have the years gone?! This was a super fun Birthday.  We started with a little private party with just the four of us on Wednesday.   Nolan got to pick his  favorite foods, french toast for breakfast, Mac-n-cheese for lunch and quesadillas for dinner.  Then we sang happy birthday after dinner and ate cake! Most of Nolans preasants were from yard sales but he LOVED them all.  We even got him a mini measuring tape and a flash light so he would stop steeling daddys and Grandads. The fun continued on to Friday where we met much of the family at Planet Play.  This place was so amazing! They had mini bowling, go carts, bumper cars, a jungle gym, a little train and tons of games! Nolan won enough tickets to get a samurai sward, perfect for his Halloween costume! We had a blast! The food was delicious as well!  I still can't believe my little boy is five!  We love you Nolan

 

The Saturday after Nolans Birthday we went to Planet Play! SO SO FUN They had so many fun things there.  Race cars, mini bowling, glow in the dark put golf and tons of arcade games.  It was a blast! Nolans favorite was the bowling

Raspberry's

 Raspberry's and I have very fond memories together.... As a young child, my summers were spent in Othello Washington with my Grandma and Grandpa Smith.  This magical place was Paradise for a kid.  They had huge towering cherry trees, a large beautiful garden with all kinds of tasty veggies and their own orchard of trees including a walnut tree and some apple trees!  I also enjoyed nibbling at the gooseberry bushes from time to time. Amidst all this smorgasbord of deliciousness, my favorites were the raspberry bushes! They had rows upon rows of neatly pruned raspberry bushes.  Grandma would send us out with buckets to collect endless amounts of raspberry's. . We would come home, stomachs and buckets full.  She would make the most delicious raspberry freezer jam with her fresh raspberry's! I tell Joe often that if we are ever fortunate enough to have a home with a large back yard, I would definitely have some raspberry bushes! The more the better!

I am so thankful that Joes folks have a few raspberry bushes in thier back yard. I can relive my happy Othello days!  Nolan, Shyloh and I have had a lot of fun picking and eating raspberry's during our play dates!  Shyloh loves toddling up and pulling on anything that resembles a raspberry.  I am still teaching her to eat the red ones not the green ones.  
 

Clothing thief

Shyloh LOVES clothes.  If you show her a really cool toy or one of her shirts she will most likely pick the shirt.  We have actually been putting clothes in my bag for church along with her favorite toys to keep her occupied during sacrament.  She just loves clothes.  She is constantly finding various items whether its a lone mans sock, a pair of Nolans undies or one of my shirts she draping these various articles of clothing over her head and along her neck.  I have been trying to keep my garments out of reach, the last thing I need is her waltzing out whilst we have company and shes wearing my garment bottoms on her head like a turban.  She also enjoys wearing my flip flops on her arms like bracelets.   I think I may have a fashion diva on my hands! Thank heavens I have a few more years before she is a teen!

Shyloh is 1!!

My baby girl is one year old!!!! I can't believe a year ago today I gave birth to this little bean in our bathtub.   What a glorious year  this has been for us.  Shyloh is such a sweetheart and captures the heart of everyone she meets.  She smiles all the time and is more than willing to give hugs and kisses.   She now has four teeth and were expecting a fifth any time now.  For Shylohs birthday we had a little get together with a few of our closest friends.  Summer made a deliciuose whole wheat cake for our healthy little Shyloh.  We topped it with strawberrys and she gobbled it right up!,  As did everyone else.  As we sang happy birthday to Shyloh she just smiled so big and looked around at everyone.  How delighted she was with every body singing to her! She loved it.

   

Forever Family

 We did it! And what an amazing event it was! We are finally a forever family. It took us some time to get to this point in our lives but the wait was well worth it.   The SanDiego Temple was amazing as I knew it would be.  When they brought the kids in they were so adorable.  Nolan was in this super cute white jumper and Shyloh was in a beautiful white dress with a little white bow.  She started crying as soon as she saw me and when I was able to hold her she immediately grabbed my hair then all was well.  We had SO much family come.  Over 30 people I believe. What an amazing amount of love and joy we felt that day.  After we met at the beach club for some grub and playing on the beach.  It was an amazing day for our family Here are some pictures that were taken by the amazing Mrs. Shelley Dean...