Just the 4 of us

This Thanksgiving was our smallest yet. It was our first with just our little family. We were in St. David, but Roy's family drove to Albuquerque to spend some time with his brother Ben. We wanted to go but Roy boy was sick and we didn't want to deal with a 6 hour drive each way. Both Roy's and my favorite food was probably the most delicious homemade dressing that we got 6 years ago from Natalie Perry, a good friend from New Orleans. The kids favorite would have to be our 'better than homemade' bread (Rhodes).

We're so thankful for this wonderful holiday to remember all we're thankful for. Our family, friends, a roof over our heads, food on the table and especially the Gospel of Jesus Christ!!

Picture day

We had fun on Morgan's picture day at preschool. I thought I would try curlers for a nice loose curl look. Ha! Her hair was no less curly than Shirley Temple's and a whole lot frizzier. It wasn't exactly what I wanted but after I got over the shock I thought it turned out pretty cute.

She loves to look all girly and done up. So once all of the pulling and twisting was over she was excited to go to school and get pictures taken (who knew they had picture day in preschool anyway?)

Roy was feeling a little left out so aunt Barbar did his hair as well. Then he was a happy camper!

Happy Birthday Papa Roy!

Roy is now the big 32, yippeee!! Yes, this happened about a month ago, but I figured I better get caught up before #3 is here in about 2 weeks. He and I had a nice long date in Tucson where we caught Disney's A Christmas Carol (wouldn't recommend it), our second movie on the big screen this year. All day long he indulged on many favorite food choices as he'd been doing a serious diet for 3 weeks. He deserved and enjoyed the indulgence!!Happy 32nd Papa Son...we love you!

A precious moment

We have had some sleep issues with our kids. Surprisingly Roy boy has been the easy one. He either has to be in the room completely by himself or have someone to snuggle with. Unfortunately when he snuggles with Morgan she wakes up, cries and has to spend the rest of the night sleeping in our bed or with one of us in her bed.

This particular night we heard Roy crying for a few minutes and then suddenly he calmed down. We peeked in there after a little while and this is what we found.How precious! We were quite surprised that she didn't wake up and were hopeful that maybe they could just stay together the rest of the night and comfort each other. But sure enough she woke up a little while later and in turn woke him up...so we had two crying children to deal with. These precious moments never seem to last long...but they do happen pretty often. We're grateful for them.

The Crime

The perpetrator...the weapon...the victim...the crime...the outcome...our sweet little boy now looks at least 5 years older! :( He did need a haircut anyway though and at least it grows pretty fast! How could we get too mad at our little hairstylist!?

Halloween

Okay, so I'm a month behind on posting. Oh well, at least I have the blog looking all Chrismassy and stuff. That's a step in the right direction eh?

Getting the little man into his costume.

The lovely Pirate Princess and Chicken Little.The happy Princess.

The sassy Princess.

Our arrival at trunk-or-treat. We LOVE trunk-or-treat!

They didn't quite get the whole maze idea. But it was still entertaining to watch them try and figure it out.One of the many games out of someone's trunk. You play the game and then get the treat.Collecting his reward.A successful night with plenty of candy (half of which got thrown away when they weren't looking)!There's nothing like eating a sucker in a chicken costume.It was a fun, low stress, short evening. That's why we love Halloween!

Pre S-C-H-O-O-L

We have been anxious to get Morgan started in preschool. She's been asking about it for a while, but we couldn't really start until we got back to Arizona. We found a wonderful one in Benson that incorporates Spanish and sign language in their daily lessons. This is her first day...
She has been going for a few weeks now and she just loves it. She has already learned so much already. We are SO excited because we have been wanting her to have more stimulation then we could provide. I'm sure just like any other 3 year old she learns so fast and soaks up so much right now that we want her to learn as much as possible while she actually enjoys it! :)

Roy Boy is 2!!

We celebrated this little guys birthday a couple weeks after the fact so that Papa could be there. We went to Chuck E. Cheese with just the four of us and the kids love us. Roy Aaron, you sure keep us on our toes, but there's not a more adorable boy out there! You are so precious to us, we love you son!
After several attempts at trying to throw the ball up, she figured out a way to make it a bit easier.

He followed suit of course.

Sweet Reunion

October 11th was a good day. After 39 days these guys got their Papa back. Wow, I didn't realize how hard it would be to have the hubby gone for so long! We won't do that again if we have control over it. Kudos to all the wives who have to send their hubby's overseas or to the spouses who go without each other for long periods of time for any reason!

We're so glad to have you home Papa Roy...we love you!!

Lotsa time

The kids and I have been in Utah for almost a month now and have been able to do some fun activities with family and friends. This is just a few pictures since I am bad at taking them while here for some reason. The kids have LOVED spending time with Grammy and Grampy and their aunts and uncles and cousins...it's so fun to see how each has their own special relationship with every individual person.

The pictures in order:
A big family birthday party where some Tongan dancers came and performed a mini luau.
Making cookies with Grammy and their cousin Mia.
Prego pics of me and my sister Leslie...I've been to 3 of her baby showers since we've been here! The pictures were at the first shower.
The kids with my parents cats. They love every opportunity they get with them because I'm allergic and normally throw them out every chance I get!

We'll be here another 2 weeks, so I'll be posting more pictures later.

Little Spellers

Morgan and Roy spelling their names...Morgan with a bit of coaxing and Roy with a bit of help!

ta ta

Ta ta Seattle, ta ta Washington. We had a good summer, but we will not miss this place much. Was it beautiful?? Yes...breathtaking! It just didn't strike a chord with us. Was it the crazy winding roads and horrible street planning or the apartments with no a/c that had a pregnant woman sweating all summer?? Probably a combination, but we are grateful to be leaving the 'Evergreen' state.

We are a little sad that we never made it to many of the touristy attractions such as the space needle and Pikes market, but we will survive.

This isn't meant to be pessimistic, just honest. We are grateful for the good productive summer we had, but are even more grateful to be going home. Of course, that's not until mid-October...but we are excited nontheless!!

There were a couple highlights. For me these were, #1 The hotels we stayed in that had a/c, and, #2 The Lake.

The kids and I loved coming here as often as we could for walks, a beach, a huge playground, and some of the most delicious hamburgers ever. In fact Morgan called the place where we lived 'Lake Washington'. Whenever we were away on one of the out of town jaunts she would ask, "When are we going back to Lake Washington?"

I may miss the lake, but I think that's the only thing. I would like to say, "Good bye Washington and HELOOOOO Arizona!!"

No, my children do NOT drink soda!!

You can't tell can you? What that really is is colored water put in a Arby's cup so that they think they're drinking soda. Ha, I wish! We have tried it though, lol! Who knew that they would immediately be able to tell the difference and ask to drink ours??

You see, Roy and I have quite enjoyed Diet Coke as our 'drink of choice' over the past few years. We have, however, drastically cut back by replacing 'the drink' with Fortune Delight and Calli Tea made by Sunrider (a company that we love). But every once in a while we get this thirst that cannot be quenced by anything but 'the drink'. It probably happens more often than we would like to admit, and unfortunately our children share our affinity, or shall we say addiction, (gasp) for it!! We try to hide 'the drink' or to just get one when the kids are sleeping or when we are on a date. But inevitably they catch us and we are forced to either deal with a crying fit or.... share.

We don't like crying fits.

One of these days we hope to have the strength to 'just say no' 100% of the time, for the benefit of both us and our offspring. But until then....these pictures speak 1000 words!!

Dress up King

I find it quite hilarious that our son loves dressing up. I don't think this means he'll have 'issues' when he grows up...he just loves his sissy and wants to do whatever she does!! Here are some examples...

You can't really tell, but this are some of Morgan's princess panties. I suppose the fact that he wants to wear underwear isn't girly, but we'll be sure to buy him some manly ones when the time comes!

Family Outing

Here are a few pictures from our outing yesterday. We didn't do anything new or exciting, we just enjoyed being together for an entire day!! We're really looking forward to August 31-September 4 when we'll have Papa to ourselves exclusively until he leaves for Dallas, TX for extended season :(. He'll be there for 5 weeks, and the kids and I will most likely stay in Salt Lake while he's there.