A few of my favorite things about California . . .

Back in February, my mother in law gave me a card for my birthday that said she would pay for the kids and I to fly to California to visit my family. Well, A couple weeks ago I finally took her up on her offer and the kids and I went to California.

Disneyland: I love how Disneyland is decorated for the holidays. When I was younger I never realized this because we always went in the summer. They had some really neat Halloween decorations and shows.

My dad and Cade posing in front of the "Corn" :)

Even the characters were dressed up in fall/Halloween colors . . .Cade giving Minnie some love!

Cade couldn't have been happier when we realized they had a "Woody's Halloween Roundup" show!

I think that Cade would have been content to just watch this show over and over all day long and do nothing else. Here he is watching . . .

Guess who they called up to help with the show . . . Cade! This lady sang to him and then he got to stay on stage for a while. He loved every minute of it!

Ambree was sick, so just Cade, my dad, and I went. It was so relaxing without a kid under four! Later in the evening we did meet up with my brother Justin, and his family, and my brother Steven, which was fun too.

Cade already had a picture of himself with Buzz and Woody, so for his birthday he asked for a picture of himself with Jessie. My brother in law, Bryon, photo shopped one for him, but Cade knew it wasn't real. Now he has a real one . . . yay!

The Beach: I was surprised that the weather was nice enough for us to wear swimsuits and play in the water a little bit! My sister Jenny, cousin Brogan, and my Dad went with us. We didn't want to leave! :)

My mom bought each kid a kite, and my dad made a kite, so we had four kites up at once. Not to mention, a few flying away! Luckily some nice people rescued them for us. I guess that's what we get for letting a 2, 3, and 4 year old fly their own kites!

The kite my dad made . . . He is always creating something! YES on 8!!

My Family: Last but not least! We had a lot of fun visiting family. I just realized I didn't get any pictures with my mom. She must have been avoiding the camera . . . maybe next time!

Grandpa Dennis with his granddaughters . . .

Grandpa Dennis with all four of his grand kids . . . Cade, Ambree, Britlyn, and Brogan. I can't believe they are all actually looking at the camera!

Cousinly love . . . Cade and Brogan . . .

We had a great time and can't wait to visit again!

The Pumpkin Patch!

I've been a mom for 5 Halloweens now, and this is the first time I have ever taken one of my kids to the pumpkin patch! I always had intentions of going, but for whatever reason, it didn't happen. So, this year I really wanted to take them and made sure it happened! They loved it! They couldn't believe how many pumpkins there were . . . it was pumpkin heaven for them!

Here are 6 attempts at getting a cute shot of both the kids together . . . an almost impossible task! :) It is so hard to get both of them to hold still, look at the camera, and smile at the same time . . . Is that too much to ask for? I think the first one is probably the closest to my request. . . Not too bad.

Notice Ambree's little pumpkin that she claimed right when we got there. She loves her "baby" pumpkin!

She still has it in this picture, it's just kind of hidden.
Cade was more partial to the bigger ones, too bad they were to big for him to carry!

He settled for one that was a "little" bit smaller, but not as small as Ambree's, because he isn't a baby like she is . . . in his own words!
He was pretty disappointed, though, when his stem broke! He decided that he needed to choose another one that wasn't damaged, even though he did it. Is that dishonest to break the stem on a pumpkin and then to leave it there and buy another one that isn't damaged? I hope not!

King of the pumpkin tower!
The kids in the wheelbarrow, right before it tipped over with them in it . . . yeah, that was fun. Luckily they didn't get hurt too badly.
Of course they had to get up on the tractor, and of course I had to get a picture! Luckily they didn't fall of of this! It would have been a lot longer of a fall!
Now we have pumpkins to carve and paint and decorate with. Hopefully we'll get it done before Halloween!

Reason 101 that we don't have a dog and don't plan on ever getting one . . .

I love crocs for my kids in the summer time. They are so easy for them to put on themselves, they don't need socks with them, they can get dirty and we and you just clean them off . . . they are great! Well, Craig had just bought Cade a new pair because he pair from last year were giving him blisters because they were too small. After having them for a week or two they disappeared! I thought maybe he left them at grandma's house or something, but no. So, one day while I was outside and so was the neighbor boy I asked him if he had ever seen them in his sand box that Cade plays in quite often. The neighbor boy's eyes got big and he walked over to the side of the house, and brought me the shoes you see below. "Are these the shoes?" He asked. "I think my dog ate them." Uhhhh, ya think!? So, that was the end of Cade's crocs for this summer! Hopefully he learned his lesson about leaving stuff outside and will understand even more my many reasons for not wanting a dog!

Side note: they had jibbits and straps on the back that are completely gone now! I told Cade that technically they are still wearable, but he wouldn't put them on! Oh well, it's a good thing the weather is turning to tennis shoe weather anyway!

I love to see the temple . . .

A few weeks ago, Craig's cousin, Natalie, got married at the Mt. Timpanogas Temple. Craig's mom sent us these pics she took of the kids. I thought they turned out pretty cute!


Ambree looking at The Angel Moroni with Cameron (Craig's brother).
More fun with Cameron . . .
Cade is finally learning how to pose! Hooray! He even has a normal smile! :)
Muscle Man!