Halloween (hey at least its before Thanksgiving!)

So my goal was to get Halloween posted before THanksgiving...and here it is! And I have no good reason for not putting pics up sooner; its not like I edit my photos or do anything fancy...I just haven't done it. So we had days of Halloween fun and I never actually got any pictures of anything outside of the house. But Friday night we went to a trunk-or-treat and chili feed with Esther and her family at her ward. That was really fun. Aspen especially LOVED it! She is so social and loves talking to people. She's ask all the kids around about their costumes and was just so fun. Mia was being shy and didn't say one word the whole evening, just clung to my leg. And Isaac, well he is such a joy. He spent half the time smiling and the other half sleeping. And it was really fun to hang out with Esther and her family. We love that they live close to us now. :)

Then Saturday we went with Esther's family to their neighborhood party and Malo and Jeremy took the kids trick or treating in their neighborhood and Ess and I stayed at her house passing out candy with Isaac. Then we hung out and watched Ghost Busters II. Fun stuff.

Then Halloween Malo took the girls trick or treating just in our neighborhood while Isaac and I passed out candy. Holy smokes did we ever have a lot of trick or treaters! Once the girls came home, Aspen passed out candy to all the trick or treaters and I tell you, that girl is so funny! I love her. She had more fun doing that than anything else! She was so cute; she was SO excited every time someone knocked on the door and she'd give out handfuls of candy; I finally had to tell her not to give more than 3 pieces to each person and she said "but i like to give candies!" Sweet girl! She talked to EVERYONE about their costumes, about if they were having fun. She is just so fun. The best thing was when older kids came to the door, she would NOT give them candy until they said "trick or treat." and she'd tell them to say it. And if they didn't say thank you, she'd say "ok, say thank you!" It was just so stinking cute. And after about an hour, Mia started getting involved and excited. Gosh, I love my kids. They are so much fun and get SO excited about things; I love it. I love them so much and it was such a fun few days of Halloween fun with them. :)

And here are some pictures of Aspen, Tinkerbell. And Mia Monkey. And Isaac was a pumpkin one night and Tigger the next two nights. Both outfits were too small for him, but he pulled it off with his big blue eyes and giant smile. Love these kids.













Mia wanted so badly to wear Isaac's costume, so here she is wearing his. She is so funny; she has a mind of her own and wants what she wants. She has such a big personality in a little package and she makes us laugh daily. All these kiddos do. Each in their own way, they all contribute SO much to our family and they all have such fun personalities. Malo and I just are so blessed to have such wonderful, albeit often naughty, kids. Not sure what we ever did to deserve these sweet little munchkins, but we couldn't be happier! Happy Halloween!

Isaac's in trouble!

He's trying so hard to take steps and balance on his own....I've grounded him for life if he does it! ;) This boy cracks me up, he is so determined. His face cracks me up; its his concentrating face.

:)

This kid just makes me smile.

These girls can be so sweet!



I will get Halloween pics up before Thanksgiving. :) I promise.

wrestling

Mia likes to wrestle Isaac,but now he's starting to be able to get her! :)

Gratitude

General Conference was last weekend, and I one sentence struck a cord with me more than anything else, these words from President Monson: "Regardless of our circumstances, each of us has much for which to be grateful if we will but pause and contemplate our blessings." I can be a complainer. I get feeling sorry for myself because things don't go the way **I** think they should all the time, or I get my feelings hurt and then the whole world is out to get me (ok, slight exaggeration, but you get my point), or I get frustrated that I don't have the nicest things, or that we can't afford to fly to Hawaii every weekend (or ever!ha.) But bottom line, if I "pause to contemplate my blessings," I have everything I have ever wanted. I have a testimony that my Savior lives and loves me, I have a husband who works hard everyday to provide for the children that Heavenly Father has blessed us with, I have a home to live in, food to eat, I have amazing extended family and friends that are just as close as family. I have cheese in my refrigerator-seriously what more can one ask for!?!??! ;) I am going to make a special effort to show my gratitude for the great blessings that I have. :)
Aspen:She is such a great little girl. She's got an amazing imagination and is SO friendly. She loves to talk to people and is SUPER outgoing. She is incredibly affectionate and loving. Not one day ever goes by that she doesn't tell me she loves me. Love love LOVE her. :)
Mia:
This little girl has more energy than I ever knew was possible. She keeps me on my toes for sure. She is also so so so sweet and snuggly and loves to be held. She is also affectionate, but is more reserved about it than Aspen. She gives the biggest and best and rowdiest hugs on earth. Love her to pieces. :)
Isaac: Isaac, my sweet baby boy, is so mellow and happy. One smile from him is all it takes to cheer anyone up. He makes me happy. He is my snuggle buddy. Love him so much. :)
Smalo: Malo is my best friend and the cutest boy I know! He is the greatest husband and works so hard for our family. Our kiddos absolutely adore him and that makes me fall more and more in love with him. Watching him be a daddy has been one of the greatest blessings of my life. I love him so much. :)

I hope that we can all take a few minutes out of each day and think about the things that we are the most grateful for. And take the time to let the people in our lives who have helped us, who have touched our lives and made life better or easier, or just plain more fun ~ tell them you appreciate them! And take some time each day to thank our Heavenly Father for our blessings, because everything we have is from Him. I'm certainly going to try to be better at this. Because I do have a lot to be grateful for.

Sweet boy

This kid is awesome.

Washougal

So me and the kiddos took a trip out to Washougal for a little over a week. It was fun, but as always, there is never enough time to do everything and see everyone we want to.

Isaac and I did the Race for the Cure in Portland on "Tonya's Team," to support our friend, Tonya, who was recently diagnosed with breast cancer. She is an amazing inspiration to me. It was great to be part of her team and spend some time with wonderful friends....yay Keila & Jon and Shayla and Tonya and her family and Anne-Elissa (her kiddo, Anderson is super tall for his age and we're hoping he and Mia get married so they can have "normal" sized kids.) hehe.

We also spent some time with Melanie and Damen as well as Allysia and Belen & Camden, who all were in town at the same time as us. It was nice to hang out with old friends. We got to also see Stephanie and her sweet baby boy, Braden. And Isaac and I spend a good time with Aeranee, too.

The kids got to see all of their uncles, Uncle Randy, Uncle Leif & Eric, as well as all their cousins except for two, which was a bummer we didn't get to see Lurlyn & the kids. And of course spent time with Aunt Teresa and Grandma and Grandma Vi. :)

Among the fun stuff we did was this: Throw up (just me and Mia, thankfully), ride bikes with boys at the Suggs house, dinner with friends, trip to the zoo, trip to the beach (and of course the Tillamook cheese factory!), shopping (hello IKEA!), soccer games, watched Randy finish a trail run, played with cousins, swang on a tire swing at Grandma Vi's, ate a lot, ate yummy grilled cheese deluxe sandwiches with super homemade tomato soup, Aunt Teresa took the girls to story time, shopping with Aeranee, pie at Shari's, caught up with old friends and stayed up way too late...oh and did I mention throwing up, too? Yuck.

All in all, it was a fun, but very busy time and the kids did not get nearly enough sleep! Oh and I got a ticket coming home. That was fun. :/