Halloween 2009

We had such a great Halloween this year! Seriously, I love this holiday and this time of year. The weather was gorgeous (77 degrees) and our day couldn't have been more fun or festive.

So here are the kids in their costumes...all ready to party.

Emily dressed up as Hermione...

(note: when Emily told me that she wanted to be Hermione for Halloween this year I was totally surprised. I am actually a huge Harry Potter fan, but I didn't know she was too. She hasn't read any of the books (not yet at least...I think they are a little too scary for her still) and she has only seen the first movie. But upon reflection I decided Hermione would be just perfect for her. I have had the opportunity to observe Emily during school, during primary, and during FHE and she is totally one of those kids who raises her hand for every question and usually has her hand up before the teacher has even finished asking. She's funny like that. So Hermione stuck. :) )

Justin was Cowboy Woody...

(after two years as Buzz he was ready to move on, but not too far. :) )

And my sweet little Eden was Minnie Mouse.

(she had no say in the matter. :) )

I just wanted to mention here that we borrowed all of our costumes this year (and lent out a couple of ours as well.) :) It was totally a great way to go...it was so nice not to have to spend the money! I want to say thank you so, so much to Cortni, Cheryl, and Lisa for being so nice and lending us your awesome stuff!

Cutest. Mouse. Ever.

Finally time for Trick-or-Treating...(actually Trunk-or-Treating.)

Trick-or-Treating was SO much fun this year because it was Eden's first time ever. She was so funny...

Sometimes she would take the candy being offered...

And sometimes she would only stare at it...

And other times she would just plop herself down in the middle of the parking lot and stare at it some more...

My parents drove out to go trick-or-treating with us which was so nice of them and so fun for the kids!

Almost done...yay for candy!

Our happy family...

We love you, Halloween!!!

Hair

This post is totally silly, but I think it's still blog worthy. Last week my friend was watching Eden while I was helping at Justin's school. When I came back to pick her up I found Eden in her first EVER ponytails. My friend had done them while I was gone and I just thought it was the cutest thing ever. I know this may not seem like a big deal, but it kind of was to me. I had no idea she was ready for the whole ponytail thing. I probably should have realized it because she's been sporting a pretty sweet mullet for awhile now. :) But I didn't even think to try. I (of course) had to take pictures...

(Thanks Lis!)

This is also a good chance to share this photo of Eden wearing a wig Emily wore for Halloween a couple of years ago. I think it's pretty funny...

Princess Eden

Oceanside 2009

Every September we go to Oceanside, CA with my family. We always have the most amazing time just soaking up the beautiful weather and spending hours upon hours at the beach. It is really one of our favorite places to be. It was especially fun this year because Eden was old enough to really enjoy it.

In fact, here is a picture of the first thing she did when she saw the ocean our first day there. She just took off running strait for it...

The kids were in heaven...

Me and my Dad...

My Dad and his awesome goggles...

Babies and seaweed are a cute combination...

A couple of wipeouts...

Our little crab friend that almost got Eden's toesies...

Eden was so well taken care of by her sweet cousins...

Some boogie boarding fun...

Emily and Justin caught a wave together...

Eden really wanted to catch one too...

Me and Dave...

Our Beach Babe...

(she really, really loved it)

Eden and Ryder hard at work...

The last Beach photo...

We went out one night to celebrate my mom and my sister's birthdays and take some family pictures...

Justin and Eden, excited for the cupcakes...

Me, my parents, and my sisters...

(two of my brothers joined us for the last day)

My parents with all of their grandkids...

We took one morning off from the beach to use our bounce back tickets to SeaWorld. We only went for a couple of hours...but it was still super fun.


Eden playing the huge instruments...

Emily and Justin loved playing in the awesome bounce house and fort again...

Before we left we had to say goodbye to Shamu...

The end.

I know this was a huge post. If there was a class to take on narrowing down pictures for a blog, I would take it. I'm sure less is more when it comes to blogging, but it doesn't feel that way when I'm going through my precious photos. :) Thanks for bearing with me!

So it begins...

(note: my camera was on some weird setting for the above picture, but I decided I liked it anyway.)

My squinty kids...

:)

Emily and Justin are at different schools right now. Justin's requires uniforms, Emily's doesn't. I just felt like I should explain Justin's boring clothes. Not that he cares. :) Hopefully Justin will be going to Emily's school next year...

Someone's Excited...

This is how I found Justin when I went to check on him the night before his first ever baseball practice...

Looks comfy, huh.

He's in his second week of practices right now and loves it so much. Games start the week after Labor Day. He and Dave have been practicing every night together before bed. In fact, they are out there right now. :)
Here are some pictures from their nightly father/son playing catch together ritual. As you can see from Justin's happy face, he really loves to play...

An awesome throw, and catching a grounder...

Check out his getting ready to throw position...he concentrates really hard.

.

And this has nothing to do with baseball, but this is how I found him when I went to check on him the next night...

:)

Collages are Fun (Bear Lake 2009)

We went to Bear Lake a few weeks ago with Dave's family. This is our third summer going together, and we had a great time. The kids just think it's the awesomest thing ever...running around in the condo, playing all day at the lake, and being with their cousins and grandparents for three whole days, they were in heaven.

At the end of the trip my brother-in-law took the memory cards from each of our cameras and burned everyone a disc of all the Bear Lake reunion pictures. Needless to say we came home with tons of great pictures...way more than I could ever post. Thankfully my friend just told me about this great photo editing web-site (http://www.picnik.com/) and I was able to make a bunch of collages of lots of the fun pictures. I am way behind the times when it comes to the whole collage thing...I had a lot of fun putting them together though. :) And for those of you who (like me) don't have photo shop but desperately want it but can't afford it right now...that picnik site is great, I definitely recommend it. :)

So, it's collage time...

First day at Bear Lake...we arrived in the afternoon. The kids had fun playing on the playground and of course we had to walk down to the lake. We just need to remember for next time that there's no way we can take all the kids down to see the lake in their clothes and think they'll be content to just get in a little bit. The little ones especially got soaked. :)

Second day was our day at the lake. The kids had so much fun playing in the sand and swimming in the water.

We rented a paddle boat which was lots of fun too...

My brother-in-law took some photos of Justin and he caught some of my favorite facial expressions of his...so I had to post them. :)

Cute cousins and cute grandparents... (my awesome teen-age niece and nephew-Alison and Davis-are pictured above in the boat ride pic)

Day three...we took family pictures! (Thanks Sean.)

(before and after)

Cousin picture...

The whole family...

Day four...we spent the last day of our trip in Logan.

Dave's mom made all the kids the most adorable aprons and they spent the day wearing them. They all looked so cute. They had fun making sugar cookies together and getting those new aprons nice and messy. :)

Every year Dave's mom plans a cousin scavenger hunt and a "cousins forever" game where she reads information about each cousin (like their favorite color, what they want to be when they grow up, etc.) and the kids get to guess which cousin it is. It's always really funny and cute and they absolutely love it. So here are some pictures from our last day...

Thank you Gutke Family for a wonderful trip!!!

Grandma Rachel

My beautiful Grandma Rachel turns 91 today. Isn't that amazing! She is an incredible woman and has lived an incredible life...I love and admire her more than words can say. She came to visit a few weeks ago and it was so wonderful to see her. I thought it would be a perfect day to share these pictures...

Eden's actually named after the little town
where my Grandma was born.
Eden, AZ

Dave's Grandma (and mine too of course :)) just turned 85 a few weeks ago. Let me just say she is one incredible lady. I really look up to her and feel so blessed to know her and to have married into her family. :) My cousin-in-law just wrote a sweet post about Grandma Barbara with pictures from her 85th birthday party. I was so glad to see them because we couldn't be there. If any of you would like to see pictures of another beautiful and amazing Grandma...click here.
I am one lucky girl to have such wonderful women to look up to!


These next few pictures are from the night we were visiting with my Grandma at my parent's house. They made me happy...so I wanted to share them...

p.s. Today is also a special birthday for someone else in my family. My newest nephew, Holland, was born just this morning! Happy Birthday Holland!!!