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!