October

October was a very fun and busy month full of field trips at school, pumpkin carving and fairies.

(My pictures are not in order and I didn't feel like messing around with it. You will get the idea of what we did.)

These are pictures of us carving pumpkins. This year LeOra wanted to carve her own pumpkin and even got most of the seeds out herself. (If you remember last year this was a feat.) Anyway one funny story about the pumpkins has to do with LeOra. RJ carved a pumpkin that had fiery looking eyes and mouth. It looked very scary (not really but as scary as it gets in this house) Anyway the next night after RJ and I had put the girls to bed we noticed an addition to his pumpkin, a heart crown had been drawn on. When asked who added this lovely crown, LeOra responded, "I did. I thought it looked pretty." Only in this house full of girls would that happen!

Mackinsie and Kirstin got to draw on their pumpkin while daddy and LeOra carved theirs.

Yes that is fuzzy mold growing on our pumpkin. I forgot to take a finished product picture until yesterday. Oops!

Halloween Night

LeOra is Silvermist. She is one of Tinkerbell's fairy friends for those of you who have not seen the Tinkerbell movie. We also met her when we were in Disneyland. (I know I haven't posted about that yet. FYI, it was a lot of fun.)

Mackinsie is Elena from the Barbie Fairytopia movies.
Kirstin is Rosetta who is another one of Tinkerbell's fairy friends.



This is the group of cousins who gathered at the gift shop for some trick-or-treating in the village.

Kirstin in awe over the fact that someone put candy in her bag. Believe me, she caught on quick to the whole trick-or-treating thing and was leading the way.



Enjoying the fruits of their labor.



After the village we went to Aunt DeAnne's house for a yummy chili dinner then more trick-or-treating fun by her house. ( They give better candy up there!)

At the beginning of month LeOra's school class went on a field trip to Avila barn and I was able to go with her. It was lots of fun. They went on a hayride, ate apples off the tree, picked their own pumpkins from the pumpkin patch and then fed the animals.

A few weeks later I took Mackinsie and Kirstin to Avila barn as well so that they could have fun there too! We went with some of our friends from church. I think it was the first time Kirstin fed the animals and she thought it was so much fun. She just kept giggling every time they would take the food out of her hand.

Dance Recital

As you can see the girls had a dance recital a few weekends ago. They are so cute in their pink tu-tus and sparkle crowns. I love it. I am sorry the pictures are a little fuzzy. My real camera wasn't working so I had to use my phone. I also videoed my favorite dance, Monkey's Uncle, but don't know how to upload it yet. You will just have to come visit us for a private showing! In their class they do some ballet and some tap. They really enjoy dressing up and being beautiful ballerinas.

My Little Girl is in Kindergarten

Last week my LeOra started kindergarten. Prior to her starting I was very sad to leave this chapter of our family, the one where they are all mine all the time, but she was so excited to start school that I couldn't help but get excited too. We bought school clothes earlier in the summer and she would look at them almost every day and get so excited to wear her new clothes and shoes. Then came the purchase of the backpack. I bought her an Aurora (Sleeping Beauty for those of you who don't keep up on the Disney Princesses) backpack and had her name monogrammed on it. She loves it and I love how the backpack is almost as big as her. She goes to afternoon kindergarten and her teacher is Mrs. Winters. LeOra really loves her teacher and talks about all her new friends everyday. On the first day I asked her what her favorite thing that she did in school was and she told me recess. That's my girl!

She seems so much older already. After two weeks I am discovering that the transition was not so bad and that it is kind of fun. Now I get to go on field trips and volunteer in her classroom. I volunteered last week and when I told her that I was going to be at school with her she gave me a discussed, are-you-serious kind of look. I told her that is was going to be so fun and she still didn't seem that thrilled. Then I told her I was going to go anyway and I wouldn't talk to her while I was there and I would just help the teacher. She was fine with that. She is already to big for her mom to be around all the time. LeOra has always been my independent child. So I went the next day and I think secretly she was glad that I was there. She gave me a smile from across the room and a hive five as she left the room for recess when we were all done.

Here are some pictures from the first day. She is definitely the biggest girl in her class. Shocking, I know!

I am special!!

I accidentally erased my blog list and therefore lost all of your blog addresses. I know I am very special. ;0) Would you be so kind to write a comment and put your blog address in it so that I can make a new one. I hope I won't erase this one. Thank you.

What to do on my 30th Birthday?!

Saturday was my 30th birthday and what is a girl to do to embrace this new decade? Well...how about a triathlon. I know, I am crazy. In about January my friend, Tiana, was telling us about the Tri-for-fun that the YMCA puts on here in town. She told me that it was on April 25th. I thought, "Hey that's my birthday. Wouldn't it be funny to tell people that I did a triathlon on my 30th birthday." Well the idea stuck and I started training. The tri-for-fun was a really good triathlon to start with. It is a sprint meaning that you swim 1/4 of a mile or 9 laps, bike 12.5 mile or 17.5 miles (I did 12.5) and then run a 5K. The race is very relaxed and I actually felt very prepared. The hardest part for me was the bike portion. I am such a novice at the bike that I know nothing about gears and what to do on those hill. There were several times that that information would have been handy. On one of the steepest hills I thought, "I could get out and walk my bike up faster." But in the end I actually enjoyed it and would like to do another one. I guess I caught the triathlon bug! The best part was that my wonderful husband and girls were there the whole time to cheer me on during each transition and the finish line.

After the triathlon, we all ran (and I mean literally run) to the Strawberry festival. LeOra and Mackinsie's ballet class was performing on the center stage. I was running through the crowd like a crazy women weaving in and out of the people with my stroller while to little girls in pink leotards and Tu-Tu's were running behind me. We barely got there in time! RJ said I should have run faster in my triathlon. Anyway, the girls did a wonderful job and were such beautiful ballerinas. Then we played at the festival and rode on a few kiddie rides and ate some yummy strawberries until there was no more fun to be had there. Then we came home and everyone took a shower so that the girls could go to Aunt Eimile's while RJ and I went out to dinner. It was a very busy day but a lot of fun. There was one down side to all of this, I forgot my camera! That explains why there are no pictures on this post. I was very sad. I am going to try and get some pictures from some of the other mom's in their ballet class and we will probably have to buy the way over priced pictures that they take as you cross the finish line. When we get those I will have to post them but for now, you will have to picture all of this in your head!

Happy Easter

I hope you all had a beautiful Easter, as we did. We did the morning traditions of finding Easter Baskets and opening things from the Easter Bunny. Then we put on our new Easter Dresses and went to church. That was my favorite part. We focused on what the true meaning of Easter is; the fact that the Savior died for our sins and that He now lives so that we can live again also with Him. I am so greatful for my Savior and I am glad to be able to seek Him in prayer and use that Atonement in my life to repent and become clean again. May you all have a fabulous Easter filled with eggs and the spirit of Christ. I just watched this movie that the church put on you-tube and it is beautiful. Here is the link. (I hope it works I have never done this before.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpFhS0dAduc

And yes, I will post the pictures later. I promise!

Happy Birthday LeOra!!

On April 7th my baby girl turned 5 and I don't like it one bit. It has gone so fast and I am not excited to put her in school. It is the end of this chapter in our little family where they are all mine all the time and I am sad to see it go. At the same time I am excited to see her grow and do more things. Being a parent has it's bitter sweet moments. She, however, is so excited. She cannot wait to go to kindergarten and I know she will love it and do so well. I have to brag for just a minute. She is such a good girl. I love her to pieces. I am so glad that she starts out our family because of her wonderful example and kindness she shows her sisters. Truly just this last week she has seemed more grown up and mature. She listens and obeys and is such a good helper. She is outgoing, friendly and confident in herself which is probably what I love about her the most and hope that she never looses. I hope she keeps going in the great direction she has started.

Well, enough of that mushy stuff and onto to the celebration. She had quite the birthday weekend. RJ was out of town for her actual birthday so we did somethings to celebrate with him before he left. After the Easter Egg hunt (see next post) we went to Toys R Us where we are a member of the Birthday Club. They give the birthday girl a balloon, crown, gift card and announce their name and birthday over their PA system! She got to go through the store and pick out 2 toys while everyone stopped up to say "Happy Birthday!"

Then we went to McDonald's to have lunch. RJ turns his nose up at McDonald's just as Kirstin does in the below picture so we don't go there very often. However, the girls love to go and play in the play place. This is a real treat and a real sacrifice from their Dad!

Then on Sunday she had her Birthday party with all of her cousins. She wanted an Aurora Birthday party with an Aurora cake that had "white cake with strawberries in the middle and raspberry frosting." I have no idea where she came up with that but it sounded good so that is what we made. She also insisted on having a pinata at her birthday and we found this one that was a girl and a pink dress and looked just like Aurora (sort of). Every one got a whack at it and Chandler finished the deal for the kids!

LeOra

Mackinsie

Ashleigh

Ava

Ethan

Kayla

And Chandler! Poor Megan. She said pinatas never get to her anymore. Next was cake time.

That is the look of pure happiness and excitement. I love it!

Next came present time! I already have enough pictures on this post so I just put up the ones where she was actually looking at the camera. She got lots of cute things and she is very excited about it all.

Then on her actual birthday day it was back to the Discovery Museum (which is probably her most favorite place in all the world) for more fun. After that we had lunch with her friends, Tyson and Kelsie and cousins, Ashleigh and Evelyn. More birthday cake was eaten and more fun had by all...especially my 5 year old, LeOra!