It's that time of year again . . .

The time of year where the two biggest college rivals that I have ever encountered duke it out on the football field! In honor of the big BYU vs. U of U football game . . .


My best attempt at a "Y" in Ambree's hair . . .
And, my kiddos sporting their BYU shirts . . .gotta teach them when they are young! :)

Go Cougars!!!

How sweet it was . ..

When Ambree sucked her thumb and therefore went down for bed and her naps with no problems, went to bed and woke up in the morning at a reasonable hour, and slept through the night just fine from an early age. People always commented about her sucking her thumb like it was a bad thing . . . "oh, you better get her out of the habit of that now, maybe you could put some bitter tasting oil on her thumb so she won't do that, oh, she is going to need braces, etc, etc." Are you kidding me, she was such a good baby because of it! Why would I ruin a good thing?!


Fast forward to the present:

Yes it is three o clock in the morning and yes I am awake because Ambree has decided that after almost 1 1/2 years of sleeping through the night she doesn't want to anymore! For the last two months or so, she has been waking up a couple times a night crying and wanting to be held or wanting food, or wanting her diaper changed, etc. She has a hard time going to bed and doesn't usually go until like 9:00 or 10:00pm. She usually wakes up around 6:00am. We have tried letting her just cry and she will stand in her crib yelling and crying for like 30 minutes until we get her, and by this time she has usually woken up Cade! The reason she is like this is because she was sick about two months ago and couldn't breath out of her nose for like a week, therefore she was unable to suck her thumb! She must have gotten out of the habit because of that, and now she doesn't suck her thumb at all and doesn't seem to be able to soothe herself to sleep when she wakes up or is going to bed! I knew I had good reason for not minding that she sucked her thumb! I would rather have her suck her thumb until she was 10 and have to get her braces, rather than deal with this! I have read all kinds of books for training a baby to sleep through the night, but not a toddler. Does anyone have any ideas? Maybe I just need to go to the library and get some books on this topic, because it is driving us crazy!

Oh Yeah . . . Halloween!

Introducing . . . Peter Pan and Tinker Bell . . . Cade really wanted to be Peter Pan this year (are you surprised he didn't want to be a Toy Story character)? I was! But he was Buzz last year, so I guess he wanted something different. My wonderful, talented mother in law made his costume and he loved it! Since he wanted to be Peter Pan, I suggested Tinker Bell to Ambree, and she gladly accepted the offer!

I love that he is at the age where he will actually hold still and pose for a picture . . . most of the time! :) Gotta love a "man" in tights! :)
My mother in law heard about a Plant Nursery that went all out for Halloween with decorations so we decided to go and get some pics of the kids in their costumes. It was really cool. There were lots of pumpkins, neat decorations, and hay maze, and toy train, a ship, Halloween characters, etc.

My mother in law, Carol, cousin Jacob, Cade, Aunt Bethany, Ambree . . .

Wagon Ride . . . I'm not sure what they are looking at, but obviously something interesting.

The kids on the pirate ship . . .

Watch out Captain Hook, here comes Captain Peter!

Cade wasn't sure what to think of the drinking skeleton Pirate . . . neither was I!

Ooooh, SCARY! This is Cade's "Scared Face" . . .

The little Fairy Princess . . . I got Ambree's costume on E-bay and was actually pretty disappointed with it. It was too big, and not as cute in real life as I had thought it would be, but after some altering, it turned out OK. She thought it was great, so I guess that's all that matters, right?

Yeah, she is going through the cheesy smile stage! :)

She had to give the pumpkins "love" . . .

We had a fun Halloween in St. George this year with my cousin Lyndi and her family. The kids, of course loved trick or treating! Ambree didn't quite understand that you get more candy in the long run if you go quickly from house to house instead of sitting in every yard to try to eat the candy you just got! Oh well, she was enjoying the moment!

I voted . . . thank you very much!

Craig is subbing for an optometrist in St. George for two weeks. We didn't want to be apart for two weeks, but I didn't want to be there for two weeks with the kids in a condo with no "kid stuff" either, so our conclusion was to drive up later in the week with the kids and my awesome sister in law (to help with kids and to keep me company), stay through the weekend! So, I have been in St. George since Thurs. and was planning on coming back today to vote, but due to bad weather, enjoying vacation too much, etc. I thought about not coming back until tomorrow, but then my conscious got to me and I knew I had to practice my "right" to vote! So, it may not have been until almost 6:00pm on my way home from St. George, and I may not have known much information about all the local candidates, but I voted! Thank you very much! :)

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!