Weekend in San Diego

Gramma and Grampa Lamb were staying at a time share in San Diego one weekend so we went down to visit them and visited Sea World together while they were here.

It was fun to see all the Halloween decorations up everywhere, even if all the pumpkins looked like sea animals.

Ride 'em, Cowgirl!

We were joined by the OC Lambs which always makes life more fun for Sophie and Avery because they love their cousins!

I love that my girls aren't afraid to touch slimy, slippery, crawly things. I don't even know what exactly this was that they brought out for the kids to see, but it was some lizard/snake hybrid and Sophie pet it like she'd pet a dog.

William wanted to do everything the big kids were doing, including reaching into the tide pools to touch the starfish. He does not like being left behind.

Avery couldn't get enough of this place. She just had a hard time remembering to keep the poor starfish under water!

I wish we lived closer to Sea World because I think we'd have an annual pass every year. It's so much fun!

We took the kids to the play area and William loved this place with all the big, soft blocks to throw around.

We went on a day that was hardly busy at all so the girls didn't even have to wait in line to get a picture with Grover and Elmo. "I, Lovable, Furry Old Grover am the Monster at the end of the book!" One of our favorites.

Mom and Dad's condo was right on the beach so we checked that out later that same day. The water was cold but the sand was perfect!

And the view was awesome. William loved feeling the sand between his toes.

The girls loved building sand castles and digging holes.

Will could've chased these birds all day long.

The kids alternated between running from the waves and filling up their buckets with water for their sand castle moat.

Will is just starting to take steps and tries to do it on his own even though he really shouldn't.

What a fun day we had in San Diego! Let's do it again soon!

Frankenstein and other "Monsters"

We carved pumpkins for FHE the week before Halloween.

Will really got into pulling the guts out of them but the girls were more grossed out by the slimy insides this year than before. They designed the faces and mom did the cutting. Sophie nicknamed hers Frankenstein, and Avery called hers one of the crazy names she pulls out of thin air for all her dolls and stuffed animals (think "Ahktu" and "Keko" and things like that.)

The girls were told to wear costumes to gymnastics the week of Halloween, but I didn't think they'd fare very well in their costumes so we opted to wear our little Mexican senioritas dresses that Joseph and I got for them in Mazatlan instead.

In the middle of all the Halloween craziness Will cut his first two teeth. They only took (and I am not exaggerating) 6 months to come in. More miserable for baby or mom? It's a toss up (though I will claim it was worse for me. ALL his teeth have taken forever to come in. I can see them under the surface for months before they finally poke through, and he whines and cries about them often. Worst teether of my 3.)

Good thing he's cute! God must've known he'd need to be adorable so I wouldn't trade him in for a lower maintenance model. :)

Sophie was Pippi Longstocking for Halloween this year. We'd read the book a few months before and she thought that would be a fun costume to do with her naturally red hair. I used pipe cleaners to stick the braids out, and my friend lent me her daughter's striped tights and dress that I sewed patches on. Easy peasy. Sophie insisted on carrying her Pippi doll around with her everywhere as part of her costume.

Avery was a cute little Ladybug this year. Pipe cleaners for antennae, another borrowed costume, but the smile is 100% hers.

We hosted a Halloween party at our house for our moms group. So many cute kiddos in their cute costumes.

My favorite part about this picture is Avery's wink. Ever since she learned to wink she does it all the time, especially when she's pointing to something. She'll wink the eye of the arm she's using to point and it's so cute.

Here are the babies of the group. Will was a dragon along with his buddy, and then there was a Flounder as well.

We played a game where the kids had to try to eat a donut off a string, without using any hands. I didn't think eating just one would be hard enough so I tied two to each string, and that was way too hard for most of the kids. Sophie eventually got both off, but I think Avery had to cheat to eat it.

They were so funny to watch, and got chocolate all over their faces.

We all dressed up for the ward Halloween trunk or treat. Joseph and I reprised our Daphne & Shaggy costumes.

By the time we got to the actual day of Halloween the kids had worn their costumes so many times. But they didn't mind donning them once more for trick or treating with cousins. We only hit a few houses in Ladera Ranch, Peter and Abby's neighbors who especially wanted to see the kids all dressed up.

Gramma and Grampa Lamb were in town too which was extra fun!

We celebrated Peter's "special" birthday, 31 on the 31st, with a fun little party. These 6 cousins sure love each other!

BBQ on the Beach

We had been wanting to have a BBQ on the beach all summer and finally got to it in October. It was a little colder by then than we would've liked, but we haven't forgotten our Utah roots yet and grew a thicker skin.

We invited the Lambs to join us. The kids loved watching the dads build a fire, and then they loved roasting hot dogs and marshmallows and Starbursts over it. We all ate way too much junk and had a great time.

We watched a pretty sunset and the kids played on the play ground nearby. They've been begging to have another BBQ on the beach ever since, so hopefully we'll get back there again soon!

Sophie Turns 5!

Our oldest turned 5 in October!

Here's the birthday girl at school with her birthday crown and her birthday dress on.

We had a family celebration on her actual birthday, and then the next day she had her friend party.

I hadn't made her cake yet on her actual birthday, so she got to blow out candles on the leftover rice crispy treats that I'd taken to her class that morning.

Sophie wanted a Hello Kitty party which was a nice 'n easy theme to do. I ordered a bounce house because she had invited almost 20 kids (yeah, we'll never do that again!) so I figured the party would go a lot smoother if they spent most of their time playing on that. Of course the universe heard my plans and laughed and decided to send rain on the day of her party, even though it usually only rains maybe a dozen times out of the entire year here. I had them bring it and set it up anyway and just warned all the moms that we'd save it for the end, but we'd be getting wet! And then I had to scramble to figure out some games to play for the rest of the party.

(Cousin Nona in the balloons--so cute!) We played "Pass the Hello Kitty" and "Pin the Bow on Hello Kitty" and a few other games that were hard to do with us all crammed into our living room, but we did it. Then it was time for cake!

I loved making this Hello Kitty cake for Sophie. It was so easy and fun to do.

Aunt Abby did Sophie's hair for the party and it turned out so cute.

Here's the best picture I got of all Sophie's guests. Sophie invited a few friends from school, friends from our current ward and old ward at church, and friends from our play group, so it was a full house!

Once we finally got to the bounce house everyone was having a blast, despite it being cold and wet!

Here's cousin Gabe flashing a smile at the bottom of the slide.

Will liked it, too, as long as I was holding him.

I think the birthday girl had a fun time at her party and it was a success (phew!)

Here's one of the presents she got from her birthday after the girls assembled it together for the first time. They love, love, love, love their Disney princesses and pretend to be them all the time! I love my pretty princesses, too! Happy Birthday, Sophie Girl!

More Reunions

I got to take a trip in October to Utah for my 10-year mission reunion.

I have a hard time believing I've really been home for 10 years from Poland, but it's true. My Mission Presidents, the Toblers, some of the greatest people alive, hosted the reunion at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building (where I used to work in catering...the smell in that place alone brought back so many memories!) There were quite a few of us from the 3 years that the Toblers served in Poland who flew in from all over the country to attend.

It was wonderful to see so many old friends, especially the sisters. Only 2 of my companions were there, Sis. Truman (my trainer) and Sis. Merrill. We had so many adventures together and it was fun to reminisce a little bit. (Pictured above are Jody Richards , Karene Olsen Hansen, Suzy Truman Wirth, and Jen Yorgason Thatcher.)

While I was in Utah I also got together with my old roommates from Turnberry. We met up at Bev's cute home with all our kiddos, except that I had only brought Will while Joseph stayed home with Sophie and Avery. Between the 3 of us we have 9 children...not bad!

(Tobi, me, Bev, and Danna) It doesn't seem like it was 7 years ago that we were all living together. And of course we all still look the same as we did then! (right? right?!) Love you ladies!