Halloween

I think Halloween gets longer and longer every year! This year they dressed up 3 times- I wouldn't mind, except for the fact that I had to wash their costumes after every they wore them! This year we wanted the kids to dress up in a 'Star Wars' theme, so when the Star Wars movies came out on blue-ray, we started watching them to get them to want to dress up like Luke and Leiah. For a while Clark wanted to be Darth Vader, but we kept telling him that that was Ryan's costume, so he was content with being Luke.
Our festivities started on Friday afternoon, they had a halloween birthday party, then Saturday my mom had her annual Halloween party and our ward Trunk or Treat. Today they wore their costumes all day. We went down to Ryan's jobsite to deliver Halloween cookies, they celebrated Halloween at preschool and then trick or treating around the neighborhood. Here's pics of them all dressed up!

My friend Ellen and I made up this "Jabba the Hut" costume.  We really wanted to do the Star Wars theme because of Charly. She is so chubby we wanted to do Jabba for her. 

Here's some of the cousins at my Mom's house. Clark, Kate, Charly, Daphne, Jovi, Jack and Nolan

Ryan and I wanted to something cute for Charly- not just Jabba the Hut, and since we both love squeezing her fat and teasing that we are gonna eat her up, we thought a candy corn was fitting!

Happy Halloween!

8 Months

What a cute baby! Don't let her smile fool you, while she can be happy and super sweet, she has recently learned how to throw a fit! She's figured out that when she fusses I'll pick her up- so I guess that one is my fault. She is also a very moody eater. One day she'll love something and then next she won't have anything to do with it! I've know that from the time she was first born, she likes what she likes and wants what she wants when she wants it! But other than that- she is such a good baby. I really do love her so much. She loves the bathtub, but is still learning that it's not so fun when she dunks her face in the water. She loves to play with Kate and Clark, and loves her Daddy. If he is home, she watches him, and he loves to make her squeal. Happy 8 months Charly!

Kate and Clark are 5!

Happy Birthday Kate and Clark! Saturday we celebrated Kate and Clark's 5th birthday. Last year I did a really big birthday party for them, so this year I wanted to do something more simple, but realize now that there really is no simple way to throw 2 parties at once. I wanted them to feel like they had their own party, so I let them pick the theme of their party and invite who they wanted to. Kate chose Rapunzel and Clark chose Cars. I didn't want to have to plan activities for the party- so we decided to get a bounce house and have that be the party!

 My friend Cyndi is a cake decorator and helped me with the cakes. I borrowed her Lightening McQueen pan, and last week we got together as a practice run and she showed me how to pipe on all the frosting. It is quite the ordeal. So to get ready for the party Saturday, I was up until 1:30am putting the frosting on both cakes.

Here's the cake with Rapunzel in it.

Blowing out candles

Ryan dishing out the boys cake

Me giving out the girls cake

Paige, Kate , Ella and Felicity

Peyton, Kennedy, Cosette, Haylee and Sara

The girls' table

Cousin Sara

Levi, Cohen, Wrigley, Jake and Hayden

Clark and cousin Jake

Here's the bounce house. We got a great deal on the rental. My sister's neighbor rents them out and when I called to confirm our reservation, he had sold the small one we wanted, so he gave us this big one for the same price! Not too shabby! Thanks Nana for having a big backyard and letting me use it for the birthday party.

Paige

Their birthday was actually Sunday the 23rd, so we waited till Sunday to give them our presents.  Grandpa Johnson came over to give them presents also. Clark got a remote control Jeep and Kate got a doll from Grandma and Grandpa.

Ryan and I went to Home Depot for Clarks present. We got him a real tool pouch and put all kinds of goodies in it.  Flash light, head lamp, wrenches, tape measure, mini clamps and bungee cords! He loved it!

We got Kate a dog in a purse- her kinda toy!

7 Months

I am a little behind, again, so I've got to get this up on the blog before Charly turns 8 months. Just this last week Charly really started moving. I wouldn't call it crawling- more like army crawling- but she definitely gets around. She also had her first tooth break through, no wonder she was drooling like a fountain. She is my little buddy. Kate and Clark went to the cabin with my parents for a few days and it was so nice to just have one baby! Poor Charly had to go run errands with me the whole time! Just last night my niece came over and when I tried to give Charly to her, she kept turning back to me and wouldn't go to Hannah. That was the first time she didn't want me to give her to someone else. That made me feel loved. She is just a happy baby- and so chubby. I get comments about how cute she is all the time- and it's funny how some people are hesitant to say they think she is cute because of how chubby she is; like they are going to offend me. I LOVE her chub. I squeeze it all the time. Here's some pics-

Visitor's Center

At the beginning of the school year I started watching my 'sister's daughter Paige. Misty is my Navajo sister- she lived with my family while she was in high school and at the beginning of the summer their family moved to east Mesa. Paige comes to our house before and after school and is pretty much a part of the family now! Her older brother Brandon encouraged their family to go to church when they moved, and he started taking lessons from the Missionaries. Two weeks ago Brandon met the missionaries at the Visitor's Center to watch a video about Joseph Smith. I took Brandon and Paige down there where they met up with their mom. But of course our trip wasn't complete with the kids getting a picture in front of the Christus statue. Although I thought it was kinda silly at the time and I only had my phone to take the picture with- I love the picture now. Of all the times I've been to the visitors center- I have never taken a picture of the Christus. I'm glad we have one now.

Catching Up- Charly 6 Months

 This is my chubby baby! I am just loving this age that she is at right now. She is becoming a little bit more independent- but she is not moving yet! I love that she still stays relatively in the same place when I put her down. She is starting to rock on her hand and knees, but isn't crawling just yet. She is such a happy baby. The only time she fusses is when she is hungry or tired.
When we went to Dr. Hayden for her 6 month check up, he walked in and said, "Well it doesn't look like we have failure to thrive here." HA! She now weighs 20lbs and is in the 97th percentile for weight and 90th for height. Although it looks like she eats everything- she is quite picky about what she eats. She loves carbs- breads, crackers ect- and is very picky about fruits and veggies. She is just totally different from Kate and Clark.  They would eat just about everything and I went through baby food like water. I made baby food for Charly and she won't touch it. She wants what we are eating and won't eat pureed food. Figures. It is a good thing she is so dang cute. She loves to play with her Daddy and he loves to make her laugh and squeal.

Catching Up- Cabin Trip

I know I have about a million posts about going to the cabin- but we just love it up there. This time we took  our friends, the Neely's. It was a beautiful weekend out of the heat. It rained Saturday afternoon and I don't think the temperature got above 75 the whole time. Another bonus was that the kids just played ALL day together!

Clark, Wrigley and Kate

Feeding the fish worms with bare hands

Even the Dad's had to get into the action of feeding the fish worms.

Everyone loves the swing!