2013 Family Pictures

We had new family photos taken a little while ago at Thanksgiving Point.  Here are a few of my favorites.

4th Birthday Party at Black Diamond Sports Academy

We celebrated Josie and Piper's 4th birthday a little early yesterday with all their friends at their gymnastics gym, Black Diamond.  The kids all had a great time and some friends from preschool, dance, gymnastics and other family friends all came.

All the kids getting warmed up: Piper, Josie, Scarlett, Ireland, Marley, Olivia, Ava, and Brody.

 Fun with the parachute

Ireland, Brody and Piper.  And let me pause here for a minute and introduce you to Piper's boyfriend, Brody.  We've been hearing about Brody nonstop for months now and Piper was so excited that he was coming to their party.  She's been saying things like "I want Brody to dress up like a prince and I'll wear my princess dress and then we'll dance."  Also, "I didn't dare to talk to Brody today".  Thank goodness Brody's parents brought him to the party.  It literally made her day.  They ran around holding hands together, jumped into the pit together, shared a hula hoop together.  My girl is already boy crazy!

 Getting ready to jump into the pit.

 After some gym time, we came in and had pizza and cupcakes.  There's little Emery in there too!

 My big girls are almost 4!

 Finally, opening presents together.

What a fun party!  We'll do it again with family on their actual big day.

Halloween Wrap-Up

I can't believe November is almost over and I'm just getting around to writing a little about October.  The month of October flew by this year with our trip to California, but we still had time to fit in some fun stuff for Halloween.

Halloween is not like it was when I was a kid.  I remember wearing my costume one time - on halloween night when you would go trick-or-treating.  That's it.  Now it is a month-long affair.

First up - we went to breakfast with a witch at Gardner Village with Lauren and Olivia Larsen.  Brooke was with a sick baby, so it was me and all the girls.  Josie wore her fairy costume and Piper wore her Care Bear costume.  Not the best picture of my carebear here.

 Then on a super warm Saturday, we headed to Cornbelly's at Thanksgiving Point again, which is a lot of fun.  This year, they went with all their Jones cousins.

Then we painted punkins on a Sunday night.  I thought it would be easier than carving, but maybe not.  Paint all over the dining room...

 The Monday before Halloween, they wore their costumes again at their dance class.  A bunch of little princesses showed up, plus one little scarecrow.  Too cute.

 Then on Halloween morning, they wore their costumes to preschool and there was a parade around the school with all the different classes.  These little girls, Ava and Ireland, are their preschool BFFs.

 All the kids in their classroom.

 On Halloween, we went to Bubba's work party again, which is incredible.  They put on quite the party.  They did some trick-or-treating there, then we headed to Josh's work for more trick-or-treating.  I didn't get any pictures because by this time, Josie was getting pretty sick.  By the time we got home, she was in full-blown fever mode and the sickness/fever/cough stuck around for the next ten days.  Welcome to winter!


 

My Little Hoarder

Oh Josie, my sweet little hoarder.

A few months ago, Josie started carrying around a collection of junk with her at all times.  She stores it in a variety of places, the pink princess bag in this picture, a purse, a kitty that zips up, and most recently, her closed up umbrella (!).  Last night, she slept with this collection at the bottom of her bed.  This particular collection includes: a knitting needle, two spoons, one of my scarves, a broken jewelry box, a kitchen clip, two headbands, one ballet slipper, a stuffed pig, etc, etc.  If you attempt to take ANY of this stuff away, there is a giant freak-out.  A couple of weeks ago, I found her in her bedroom.  She had arranged all of her junk in a circle and was curled up in a ball inside of it.  She called it her "nest".  Also, her teacher recently asked that I please not let her come to school anymore with rocks in her pockets (safety issue!).  She says the rocks are very special to her and she needs them.  She doesn't play with any of these toys normally, she just likes to spread it all out and look at it.  If you ask her what exactly is inside her bag on any particular day, she tells you "it's a surprise".

I fully expect to see her on an episode of Hoarders one day.