Kamrin, Ashley, Jaydan, Madyson, Kamdyn and Brynlee: November 2009

Sunday, November 29, 2009

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Looking so handsome on Thanksgiving!

Looking so cute on Thanksgiving!

I am so thankful for moments like this!!

I love Thanksgiving and this time of the year for many reasons. I love being around loved ones, the YUMMY food and I love sitting back and thinking of all the things I have to be thankful for. Life gets so busy and hectic sometimes that you forget to just sit back and think of all your blessings and all the great things you have. Its especially hard to think of the blessings when you are going through hard times and trials. This passed year has been pretty crazy at times but no matter how bad things might have gotten I really am truly blessed. I am so thankful for SO MANY things!! I am so blessed to have so many amazing people in my life!! I am thankful for all my family and friends!! Even if we have not all see eye to eye all the time they have all had a part in who I am today! I am so thankful for my parents, siblings, in laws, nieces and nephews, grandparents, aunts and uncles, cousins etc! I am so lucky to have so many people who love me and on my side!! I am so thankful for my husbands family also! They have took me into their family with open arms and showed me so much love!! I am so thankful for my husband and the 2 AMAZING children we have together!! Talking about my children brings tears to my eyes. They are so precious and perfect to me!! Dont get me wrong they have their naughty moments but I still love them with all my heart and soul :-) Sometimes I just sit and watch them and cry because they are so handsome/beautiful and perfect in my eyes (Yes, Im a cry baby) I dont know how I got so lucky to be these 2 angels mom but I will forever be thankful for the chance I have to have them. I am also so thankful to my wonderful husband who works his tail off so that I can stay home and raise them. It hasnt always been easy and things have gotten pretty bad sometimes but I am also thankful for those moments because they only make us stronger. The last few months Kamrin and I have been able to become so close as husband and wife and I am so thankful for that. Having a child before being married sometimes brings challenges that you dont have when you dont have children before marriage. You never get that alone time as newlyweds and dont get that chance to work on you and relationship without trying to juggle parenthood at the same time. You dont get the chance to just focus on each other and learn more about each other. These last few months we have been able to do that now that our kids are getting a bit older and a bit more independent and I am so thankful for that and it has really been amazing!! I love him and the family we have created together!! I cant wait to see what the future holds for us!! Anyways I am so very thankful for too many things to name and I hope you all had a chance to really think about everything wonderful in your life.

Our Thanksgiving this year was a very busy one. I got up and went shopping at 6:30am for some great sales! When I got home I made a banana cream pie and got the kids ready and went to our first meal. Our first stop was to Kamrins parents house. We started eating around 12:30pm there. After eating, visiting and going through black Friday ads we headed to my brother Shawns house to spend time with my family. We did eat again too :-) I went easy at his parents so I would have room to eat at my brothers also. Kamrin on the other hand he can EAT, EAT and EAT some more!! After eating we visited and some started playing games while others watched the movie Up. Around 6:15pm we went outside and watched the space shuttle move across the sky!! The sun was hitting it perfect that we could see it from outer space for almost 5 minutes! It was SO awesome to see!! After my brothers we came home and out the kids right to bed. They didnt get real naps all day so it was way passed time for bed!! It was a very fun day. I love being with my family and in laws!! I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!!!

Field Trip to Maceys

Jaydans November field trip was to the grocery store Maceys. They went to go on a tour and see how the store runs day to day. Some of the things they showed them was the deli, bakery. meat department, the COLD fridge, produce and customer service. When we went to the bakery the girl showed them how to make a rose out of frosting and gave them all cookies. One of my relatives works at the meat department there and Jaydan is related to 3 of the kids in his class so it was exciting for those 4 to see Larry working at the store! We got to walk into the fridge where they keep all the dairy stuff and man was it COLD!!! After the tour she took us back to customer service and she gave them a balloon, book and card for a free ice cream cone. They all had fun there!

Learning about the deli

Learning how to make a frosting rose

Eating his cookie from the bakery

Balloons galore

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Halloween 2009

Halloween is so much fun being a mom! I love looking for adorable costumes for my kids! This year Jay wanted to be Mater from Cars. That was a very hard costume to find! Luckily I found one on Ksl.com for only $9 and it was still new with tags on and everything! It was a $30 costume! I love Ksl!! For Maddie her favorite characters are Little Mermaid and Tinkerbell and I couldnt find a Little Mermaid that I liked so I got her an adorable Tinkerbell one at Toys R Us. She loved putting it on!! Every time she would see it she would yell "Bell Bell" Thats what she calls her.

The night before Halloween we went to my sister Stephs to decorate Halloween cupcakes. It was so much fun! I forgot my camera at home though :-) The kids decorated a few then ran off to play so us adults started decorating. Kamrins cupcakes were so awesome and detailed!! We really had a blast! Thanks Steph!!

Halloween we woke up and had Count Dracula cereal for breakfast! We did a little Halloween art project that turned into a joke because we had ran out of elmers glue :-( Kamrins sister and her hubby came and hung out for a while. Shaless and I tried to help the kids make Halloween candy necklaces that also turned into a joke! Then it was time for the real fun! We got them in their costumes and headed out to trick or treat at relatives houses. This is the order we went it...
Bill and Stephs
Jared and Shaless'
My grandmas
Kims
My dads
The ward I grew up in had a trunk or treat we went to
Kamrins grandmas
Kamrins parents
Back to my grandmas to grab some sloppy joes :-)
Our final stop of the night was Shawn and Suzannes.
We had so much fun that night and my kids got SO MUCH CANDY!!!!
Both of them loved the whole trick or treating thing and they both looked SO DANG CUTE!!!

My little tinkerbell!

Back view

My little Mater

It even had a little hook on the back!

Kamrin fixed it so it was more 3D so this was the second rounds of pics and he was not too happy about it.

Happy Halloween!!!

Preschool Halloween Party

The Wednesday before Halloween Jaydan had his preschool Halloween party. I got to stay and help out. It was so much fun and Lorraine had planned such fun stuff for the kids to do! First we did pics of each of them in their costumes by themselves and then a group pic which of course has everyone but Jay because he had to be right at my hip little stinker. After the pics we took them out of their costumes so they wouldnt get dirty. they got to color a Halloween pic. After that they made spiders cupcakes which were so cute. Had lunch and then got to have cupcakes because it was one of the little girls bdays that day. Then they got to pass out the treats they brought for everyone. They were all so nice and not only gave Jay the treats but Maddie and Morgan got one of each of them too! I came home with a whole grocery bag full of goodies!! I love how cute and fun Lorraine makes everything for all the little kids. I know Jaydan loves it all so much!

Jaydan as Mater

His class minus him of course

Maddie with Lonnies witch hat on

Coloring his Halloween pic

Making the cute spider cupcakes!

Eating a yummy lunch

Even Morgan and Maddie got to join in the fun!!!

October Field Trip

The Monday after we got back from Disneyland Jaydan had his October preschool field trip. I was really excited for this one because they were going to a pumpkin patch! I love that I am able to go with them on all the field trips they do. We went to a little patch on Redwood Rd and about 4900 South. It was such a cute little place! When we got there we went into a teepee they have and sat down and Lorraine read the kids a Halloween story and then they had cupcakes and punch. After that we walked around the patch seeing all the decorations and such then they all got to pick a pumpkin to take home! They all had so much fun!!

Jaydan enjoying his cupcake :-)

Listening to the Halloween story in the awesome teepee!

I love Jays face in this one!

Jay in the teepee at the pumpkin patch!!

Getting ready to pick a pumpkin to take home!

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Final Day of Disneyland

The last day of our trip we split up and did whatever we wanted to do. We went last minute souvenir shopping and we worked really really hard on eating as much as possible so our food vouchers didnt go to waste. We pretty much had a full day at Disneyland because we didnt fly out til later that night. I was sad our trip was coming to an end because we all had so much fun but at the same time I was so ready to be home! You dont know how excited I was to give my kids a real nap!! Plus having 13 people all together for that long was enough. I was ready for it to be just us 4 again. That day we did do a few things as the group but for the most part we split up and did our own thing. We headed to the airport around 530pm. We were all so excited to go home and of course our flight was late! After landing, getting our luggage, going on the shuttle to our car and dropping people off to Kamrins parents house then headed home we didnt get home til midnight! Luckily my kids slept in GREAT and napped so good for a week after we got back :-) Disneyland was such a great experience!! I would love to go back in a few years when the kids are old enough to really enjoy it and understand how amazing that place really is!! Im not sure if Gran reads my blog anymore but I just wanted to publicly thank her for such an amazing vacation!! We all had the time of our lives and I will hold the memories for years to come!! Thank you Gran! We love you!!!!!

All cuddled up in the stroller to take a nap in Disneyland!

She had enough of Disneyland at this moment

What a 3 year old looks like after a few days of non stop fun with no real nap

What a almost 2 year old looks like after 4 days in Disneyland :-)

The best soft pretzel and hand dipped corn dog I have had in my life!!!!!

Dinsneyland Day 3

The 3rd day we started at Disneyland just til California Adventure opened and when we first got there Mickey, Minnie and Donald were greeting people wearing their Halloween costumes. Jay was so excited to go get his picture taken with Donald. We all went and drove the little cars they have there and Jaydan really loved those. Then we headed to California Adventure and first went on Screamin. Wow what a rush that was! Then we rode as many of the rides we could. We did it in 2 groups so 1 group stayed with the kids and did things with them and the rest did the adult things. We then went off in a few different groups til we met to have dinner with Ariel and all the other princesses!!! Kamrin and I took our kids to Bugs Life rides and Gran joined us there. Then was time to eat at Ariels Grotto! I was SO SO SO SO excited for this because Maddies favorite character is Ariel. Every time she sees her on anything she lights up and yells"MERMAID!" I was excited to see how she reacted to her since she had been so terrified of all the characters so with Ariel being her favorite it was going to be interesting. As we headed down the stairs there was Ariel posing for pics with everyone as they went in. I looked at Maddie and asked with excitement "Maddie, who is that??" She lit up and said "Mermaid!!" As we got closer to her Maddies reaction turned from smiles to tears. Same reaction to her as the rest she cried when Ariel looked at her and when they got close. She was screaming when the guy taking pics said "Say cheese" and Maddie instantly flipped towards him, stopped crying and yelled out "Cheese!!" We all started laughing SO hard!! Even Ariel covered her mouth and started laughing!! As we were walking away to go eat Ariel whispered to the camera guy "That was the cutest thing I have ever seen!" It really was quite adorable and hilarious if I must say so myself!! As we were eating that very YUMMY food they would bring out 1 princess at a time and she would go from table to table taking pics with everyone! It really was so much fun and a great experience!! They had Ariel, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Belle and Cinderella there!! After dinner we finished the night in Disneyland because California Adventures closed early.

Jay and Donald Duck!!

Maddie and daddy

Jay driving mommy

He LOVED driving these cars!

The group that went before us on Screamin

Kamrin and I with his parents on Screamin!!

Their eyes even moved!

MATER!!!

Jay after standing by McQueen and Mater

He is my favorite from Bugs Life and this roller coaster was so cute!

The scariest ferris wheel I have ever been on!!

Maddie enjoying herself

My little family on the ferris wheel before it got scary!

Maddie with her favorite princess Ariel!!!

The kids with Belle!

Love the look Maddie is giving Belle :-)

Sunday, November 1, 2009

Disneyland Day 2 (The Pumpkin Family)

Day 2 of Disneyland was probably my favorite day! We started the day off pretty hectic though! We had reservations at Goofys Kitchen for breakfast at 9am and we made the mistake of not finding out where it was the day before. By the time we got to the park we went into Disneyland and Shaless and Pashell ran ahead and went to the far end of the park just to find out it wasnt there. Then we all were off to run to find it. We ran to the entrance of Downtown Disney and they said it was in California Adventure so we went to the gate and the park wasnt even opened so Pashell ran to the side to see if anyone would let us in and FINALLY we figured out it was in the Disneyland Hotel which was at the very end of Downtown Disney! So off we all ran like crazy! By the time we all made it to breakfast we all were exhausted, sweaty and thirsty as can be!! As we went in to our table we got to take a picture with Pluto. We were all matching that day wearing our orange family reunion shirts and as we stepped up to get our pics my mother in law pulled out Mickey ear hats for us all to wear. We all looked very festive :-) We basically got our own little room to eat in. It was a buffet and it was SO YUMMY!! As you eat there are characters that go to each table and take pics with whoever wants to!! It was so awesome and Jay thought it was the coolest thing ever!! Maddie on the other hand was TERRIFIED of the characters!
every half hour or so you hear an announcement for the kids to go to the center of the restaurant and Goofy either dances with the kids or they "make a cake" with him!! When "making the cake" with him they give the kids a big shaker with sprinkles you shake along with the song then they turn the bowl upside down and "wash" it with rags. When the song is over Goofy pulls the bowl off and there appears a play cake! Jay thought it was so awesome!! We had 5 characters visit us while we were there. Goofy, Chip & Dale, Jasmine and Baloo (or however you spell it) When any character even looked in Maddies direction she would scram and cling to the nearest adult. After breakfast we went back to Disneyland and the adults went on Splash Mountain with Gran stayed off with the kids. After we were all soaked we saw Pooh Bear, Eeyore and Tigger were at Pooh Corner so we ran and got the kids and went to get Jays pics done with them all. After we rode the Pooh ride. Then we went on more rides for the kids! Jay was so excited to go on Dumbo!! We went and walked through Toon Town which I LOVED!! We walked through Mickeys house and at the end there he was!! We also walked through Minnies but she was not home :-( Their houses were so awesome!! At the end of the night we rode the famous tea cups and that wasnt a great idea for most of us. I whacked my head AGAIN in the same spot I cracked my skull the week before, it made Kamrin sick and it made Kamrins brother in law REALLY sick. The kids laughed and giggled the whole time so it was worth it!! After that we were all so exhausted so it was time to call it a night.