The latest do

This post is really about Lilly with a little Abe on the side.

Darling Lilly grew her hair out really long. (Let's forget about the fact that I was just too lazy to ever take her to get her hair cut) It grew so long, in fact, that it became increasingly difficult to comb. There would be complaints, groans, screeches of pain as I struggled to get the knots out every morning. Poor Lilly didn't like it either. I had had enough but every mention/threat of cutting her hair off produced sobs. Until, one day, I had a plan. I told her about Locks of Love and while she wasn't immediately sold on the idea, it grew to be something she couldn't wait to do. Finally, I took her in yesterday after school to cut her hair and she was thrilled.One last glimpse of her with long hair.

Abe with his embarrassingly wild mane.

THE AFTER

Lilly pronounced after her hair was done that she loves helping people. And I think she really loves her new look, too, as evidenced by her inability to remove herself from looking in a mirror. She was excited to go to school today and show it off. Doesn't she look cute?!

Soccer! Is! Over!

This soccer season was a lot of fun, I thought. Kelly was the coach and he did a really good job. All the girls really improved this season and our final record was 5 wins, 1 tie and 3 losses. We're happy with that and I think the girls are too. It was nice to have Kelly around all those Saturdays and we'll look forward to a few months rest and then another season in the spring. Saturday was our end of the season party.

Back again at Disneyland

Here are 10,000 pictures from our last trip to Disneyland. We did a two day trip again and it was EXHAUSTING! The kids had a great time, of course, and it may have been only me who had a couple of tantrums and meltdowns. Anywho...

Really the only thing we wanted to do on the second day was get the kids in to do the Jedi training. Kelly had worked with the kids the night before on the choreography (no kidding) so they were set. Fortunately, they both were chosen. It may have had something to do with us getting there WAY early and sitting in the front and Kelly showing off his guns. No, I'm just kidding.
They both fought Darth Vader and won. We were all so relieved. Abe was terrified and could barely move but Lilly was filled with the force and fought the dark side like a super jedi. She was so into it that when Darth Vader asks if she'll join him on the dark side, she shook her head no and boy, you could tell she meant it.

These next three pictures were taken when we first got to the park. The princesses were standing there and Abe just started posing away like nobody's business. We didn't even have our camera ready when he started pulling faces. He's an animal.

We really did have fun, but Kelly and I would love to be able to go by ourselves sometime. I'm just saying. (Hint hint grandparents)

Pumkin Patch O Rama

Sometimes I wished we lived on a farm. Or, more truthfully, I wished we had best friends who were also our neighbors who lived on a farm and they did all the work but we reaped all the benefits. The point is really this, we went to a cute little pumpkin patch horse place this last October and the kids had fun and we've got pictures to prove it.

Although Lilly loves horses, this is the first time she (and Abe, too) had ever been on a full sized horse. They did great!

At McKee Ranch you could go on a hay ride, feed the horses and pet the goats that wander around the property. It was a cute little place and the kids loved it. It's free all year round to go there except for Halloween time, but the kids got to take home a pumpkin and they got to get dirty, so they were happy campers.

Sinning outside of Sin City

( I totally messed up the pictures on this post, but it's a miracle that I'm actually blogging about it, so I'm not going to redo it. Do forgive me.)

This years Halloween was never ending, or so it seemed. There were school parties, trunk-or-treats and, of course, the real deal. The kids had a great time and I thought their costumes (that they picked out) were very fitting of their personalities.

Let's start backwards since I uploaded the pictures in the wrong order. We spent Halloween night in California with family. I don't think Abe and Lilly could have possibly had more fun. They were over the moon as they played with cousins and O.D'd on candy. Oliver was beside himself with fatigue and so I stayed in my brother's house and stole their candy while Kelly took the big kids around with the family. Even though I missed that part, it really was a fun evening.

Here are Lilly and Abe at Lilly's costume parade at school. Abe insisted on wearing his costume and I pretty much let him do whatever he wants cause I'm afraid of him.

These last two pictures are from the ward trunk-or-treat. Oliver was dressed in Abe's old pumpkin costumes that I made when he was a year old. Isn't he cute? ( IF you look at the first picture of the post there's another view of him in his costume. it was actually supposed to be the last picture. Oops!)

Oliver turned 1 a month ago!!!!

My little boy turned 1 on September 24th. It must be painfully obvious that he's the third child because Kelly forget to get the day off from work and we didn't buy him a single thing. (Dear Oliver, I want you to know that your father and I love you very much! Just as much as the other two. Sometimes even more! So don't take offense to a less than exciting first birthday party) By the time dinner rolled around and Kelly had come home from work, the poor birthday boy was exhausted. We quickly fed him dinner and hurried up with the birthday cake. I went all out and bought an over-sized piece of vanilla cake from Vons, stuck a candle in it and we sang a hearty rendition of happy birthday...

After an unsuccessful attempt at getting Oliver to eat birthday cake, I let him squish it up and dump it over the side of his high chair. He got a quick bath and then off to la la land.

Some things about Oliver:

-He took his first step a week before his birthday and everyday after has walked more and more.

-He loves to just wander around the house and play and get into everything. He's happy to entertain himself and I love that.

-He won't drink milk.

-He's a tiny little thing and remains in the 5th percentile. It's so funny to see such a little thing walking and sometimes he looks like a little garden gnome. Kelly accidentally called him a troll once, though. He meant gnome.

-He doesn't do lots of tricks. He really is just a sweet little boy and definitely the most complacent out of my three. Although now he doesn't like to be confined in a carseat or stroller since he's mobile, but that's to be expected, I guess.

-He's got a pretty good scream on him when he's mad.

-He doesn't like to wrestle or be tossed in the air. You can see the panic in his eyes if you start to get a too rough.

-We all just love him and have so much fun making him laugh and watching him grow.

Ragnar Relay 2010 (my version)

I tried to ignore it as best I could, but it was inevitable that Ragnar was coming and I was going to have to do it. And I did want to do it, I just didn't want to too. Follow me here? Anyway, the week leading up to the race I had some serious nerves and had nausea and couldn't eat (except for chocolate which was weird and yet also totally made sense). Finally it was Friday and my nerves had gotten so bad that I felt light-headed and on the verge of passing out a few times. Once we all met up and started decorating the van I felt a little better. Just glad to be starting it at least.

Our team name was Return of the Rookies and we were one team of 12 girls, or shall I say women, but in 2 different vans. The first van started the race at 8:45 am on Friday and van 2 took over by Lake Mead around 2 p.m. I think. I ran my first leg around 4:45 and forgot to put on my headlamp and rear light and just remembered it about a minute before we saw Lindsay coming towards the shoot. I was annoyed at myself but it didn't take long to get the gear on and get going. While I was standing there waiting for Julie to get the lights, the official was telling me how silly I was to forget them and another runner was being a jerk as well. So, when I finally started running I was hyperventilating and it took a while to catch my breath. It ended up being a pretty good run and a little shorter than expected (which is always good). My first leg was about 3 miles.


Here are some of the girls sporting our socks (Kelly, Emily, Julie and Lindsay)

I ran my second leg around 1 a.m. Saturday morning and it ended up being a little longer than expected (booo!!!) at 4.3 miles all up a gradual incline running against the wind. My final leg was 5.3 miles, uphill, around 1 in the afternoon. I wanted to cry the whole way...and walk. But I did neither so I guess that means I'm super tough. (not really)

Even though I whined the whole time I really really loved it! I'm so proud of how hard everyone worked and it was great to be on a team where everyone did their best. Our team ended up coming in 3rd place overall (women's teams) and 2nd in our submasters (age division). It was a great experience and I hope to do it again. And I'll try not to complain quite as much.