Giving Thanks

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving this year because we were not alone! We had Tyler's parents staying with us for the week and his sister and their family were also in town and we got to see them. It was really wonderful to share this holiday with all of them. We have so much to be thankful for.



Lolin really enjoyed Thanksgiving dinner this year. She really suffed herself.



We had Christmas with Grandma and Grandpa Atkinson while they were here.



Halle had a 3rd grade feast at school


Vinny also had a Thanksgiving feast.

I am so grateful for all of our blessings. There are of course too many to list, but I thought I would mention just a few:

We are all healthy. What a blessing this is to have the health and strength to do all that you desire to do and all that is needed of you to do.

We are working. This is such a blessing in these days.

We have the Gospel of Jesus Christ in our lives to use as a guide in all things. I do not know what I would do without prayer and the knowledge that I have a Father in Heaven who hears my prayers and answers them and knows me and my family and loves us. He knows what is best for us and wants nothing more than to help us learn and grow so that we can return to Him.

I have my wonderful children and husband and we have family and friends who have shown us so much love alnd kindness and generosity. I am so grateful to all of you.

We wish you all a merry and bright holiday season and the very best for the new year.

Happy Halloween!

It's Halloween time again!

It was a busy end of the week with parties to go to and costumes to prepare.

Donovin had a cute little party at his pre-K. Of course I forgot to bring my camera, but if I get any pics emailed to me I will be sure to post them. They had a costume parade, made ghost lollipops, decorated cookies, had a few games outside and went trick-or-treating around the playgound. It was super cute! He had missed school the day before because he came down with a cold and was coughing a lot, but we decided to have him go to the party as long as he was equipped with cough drops and tissues. That afternoon we went to the library for a magic show. Both of the kids got picked to be assistants. It was really cute to see them giggle away.



Tyler dressed up as Ash from Fantastic Mr. Fox, one of his all time favorite movies. I was getting ready for bed Thursday night and when I came out of the bathroom he had on his mask and jumped out and scared me to death!




Friday night Donovin went to a haunted house with his friend while Halle had a couple of friends over for a spooky dinner of mummy dogs, blood soup with eyeballs and spider crackers. That night we listened to Halloween music and carved our Jack-O-lanterns. Halle carved hers all by herself this year. She was a little disappointed because she accidently cut his teeth off, but was very proud nonetheless.











Saturday was the Big Boo at Halle's school. Halle decided she did not want to be Bat girl or Cinderella or Wonder Woman, all constumes we had and were planning to have her wear. She wanted to be Junie B. Jones. So, she put on some school clothes and fake glasses. Hey, if she is happy I am hapy. The kids had fun playing a few games and Halle went into the haunted house for the first time. I was happy to see she was laughing when she came out. That night was our annual ward Halloween bash. We all had a great time.


Lolin wanted to run around and kick baloons all over the gym. She is so busy these days thinking she is one of the big kids. She doesn't really want to stick close to me like my other two would, so she can be hard to keep track of. She was such a sweet little bunny! Halle decided to change costumes and go as an ice skater. At first she was going around in her ice skates, but soon decided to take them off. At least she his easy to please when it comes to a costume.






We went Trunk or treating and got buckets of candy.

It was another great Halloween. Holidays are so much fun when you get to see your kids have all the experiences you remember growing up and making some new family traditions of your own. Until next year...

Heat Wave

So, many of you out of California probaly have heard about the heat wave we had this last week with record high temps of 113! It was H-O-T I can tell you that. So, where do you go when the heat is unbearable in your tiny, second floor, unairconditioned apartment? The beach of course!





This is El Matador beach in Malibu. We did not know about this place until this weekend. It was really beautiful and while we were hiking down to the beach we saw a school of dolphins swimming by.

Lolin is getting a little bit better and only tries to eat about 60 percent of the things she finds on the beach compared to EVERYTHING when we would go before.

My third grader!

The beginning of another school year. Halle has a lot of great and challenging times coming up. Third grade is no cake walk, but hopefully she will learn and grow and have many wonderful expernience. She got a nice teacher again this year, YEAH! She also gets to begin orchestra. She picked the violin. We are so excited for her.

Lolin's attempt at feeding herself

It's pretty self-explanatory and really really cute!

Our Tiny Dancer

Lolin has always been our little dancing queen. She LOVES music and will automatically start dancing whever she hears a beat of any kind. Tyler made her a video of her first year for her first birthday and this was a little segment of it entitled "Let her Dance."

Make sure you turn off the music that comes on with the blog to hear the music that goes with the video.

We hope you enjoy watching her shake it all out as much as we do!

A big summer

This summer has been very full so far. We left for Utah on the 25th of June and were there until the 25h of July. We did many, many fun and exciting things. Greatest and most exciting in my opinion was that Halle was baptized on June the 26th in Kaysville, Utah at Tyler's brother's ward. It was a beautiful experience and one I will never forget and I hope Halle will cherish forever.




I felt so bad because I completely forgot to bring towels with us. For some reason it just did not even cross my mind. I had to dry the child and her hair off with paper towels! Paper towels people. The poor girl. We just laughed about it, but inside I was horrified.

It was a wonderful day and we are so proud of her and I know her Heavenly Father is proud of her too.



She finally decided to get her ears pierced. I have been telling her since she was five years old that she could whenever she wanted, but that it hurt to get them pierced and she has not wanted to until now. She looks quite worried in the picture, but after the first one she was smiling. She said it did not hurt, "it tickled." She wanted to show everyone her earrings, and still does. She says she is so excited to wear big, dangly, sparkly ones... to school. We will see about that.

We packed a lot into the week that Tyler was there with us and before we knew it, it was time for him to go home. We got to stay for another three weeks and we had so much fun!

Vinny decided to give himself a haircut. He had the most beautiful head of hair (in my opinion) and it made me sad to have to cut it all off. He said he was tired of it being in his face all the time. Notice his hair in Halle's baptism pic and then in the one of the birthday party. Oh well, I guess short hair is better for him for summer anyway. I just cannot wait until it grows back.




Lolin and I had a double birthday party! How quickly a year goes by. Especially that first year. She started walking right at twelve months. I tried to discourage her until we got home so Tyler would not miss it, but she was very determined and was taking about five to ten steps at a time by the time we got back to LA.



She got three birthday treats. One cake, one pretty little swan cream puff and a pink piggy cupcake. She loved them all!




So, now we are back and life seems pretty boring without people to hang out with and places to go every day. I love my kids to pieces, but I sometimes lose patience with their constant bickering. Halle is just getting a lot older and interested in different things and wanting her own space and little Vinny just wants someone to play with all the time. They know how to push each others buttons too. Vinny especially thinks it is funny when he threatens one of her prized possessions with destruction and she freaks out and chases him around screaming. This happens on an hourly basis. I tell her that if she just acts like she does not care he will stop and I will not let anything bad happen to her things, but she hasn't quite gotten to that point of maturity yet. Hopefully we can make it through the next four weeks until school starts.... sigh.

Lolo's first trip to the beach

So, it was spring break this week, Tyler had Friday off so we decided to take Lolin to the beach for the first time. I was hoping it would be warmer, but it was very windy and after about 40 minutes Vinny came out of the water shivering and asked if we could go home. But we had a good time for a little while and Lolin seemed to like the sand.


This child loves textures and feeling things more than I can explain, so the sand kept her fascinated for quite awhile. She kept trying to eat it though...eww.



These kids are crazy! They don't care how cold the water is, they just jump right in. I on the other hand am becoming a pretty big wimp when it comes to being cold.




I forgot the best part of our week. Cafe Rio! Yay! They opened one up in Manhattan Beach, only about 10 miles from us. We have been twice already. I LOVE that place!

Dressin' up for Easter

I got the kids all dresssed up this Sunday since Conference is on Easter this year. I was fortunate enough to have a wonderful sister-in-law who let me borrow her girls darling matching dresses for the occasion. Thanks so much Kalani! Everybody loved them and said how beautiful the girls looked. I have to agree. Vinny looks pretty stunningly handsome himself.


It is amazing how difficult it can be to get three children to look at the camera at the same time and have a normal expression on their face. This one was best.

Piglet

So, I mentioned before that Lolin has a little Piglet that she absolutely LOVES. She sleeps with it every night and nap and hugs and kisses it. But lately this is the reaction Piglet gets whenever Lolin sees him...



I wish i got that kind of a reaction.

Lolin 7 months

Lolin learned to clap a few weeks ago, and since I can't figure out yet how to put video online (I will soon hopefully) you'll just have to look at all the pictures really fast and maybe it will look like she's clapping!

Vinny's 4th B-day!

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I promised Vinny I would take him to Disneyland for his birthday, so just he and I and Lolin spent the day doing whatever Vinny wanted to do. He has really loved Peter Pan lately and his favorite ride is the Peter Pan ride. I thought that would be the first thing we would do, but he wanted to meet Tinker Bell because he said she would think he was the real Peter Pan.



He was right, she did.



Then he had a knife fight with Fawn-



THEN we went on Peter Pan-


He loves the Finding Nemo ride too.

He wanted to go into Tarzan's Tree. He's my little crazy jungle man.





finally at the end of the day he got to open his presents

Ahoy Captain Vinny!

He got some cool GI Joes

and a really awesome Storm Trooper costume.

Then he got to have a little party with a few of his friends. Do you see Peter, Captain Hook, Mr. Smee, Tinker Bell and Wendy?


I made a crocodile cake out of cupcakes. Not as cute as the picture online, but I think it works and he loved it!

Happy birthday my sweet little buddy! You are the joy of our lives and make me smile every minute of the day.