Merry Christmas

random...

sami was "trying" to get a treat from the cookie jar. it gave me some bad flashbacks from last Christmas...

starting in 3rd grade kids can run for student council. we were in KY the day the kids gave their speaches... we're pretty sure that's why kate didn't win. i would vote for her... wouldn't you?!?!

not sure why sami was in her swimsuit... but she's just too stinkin' cute!! off all my girls she is the most girlie... which is a complete surprise since she is the one most like her dad. hhhhmmmmmmm? (ha ha just kidding derek!!!)

this pic says it all!!!

alexis LOVES LOVES LOVES to eat. especially treats!!! she thoroughly enjoyed her chocolate pudding!!

lexi has figured out how to climb on and off the couch. it's kinda nice because i don't have to worry about her falling off!

sunday photo shoot!! not a typical sunday. we are usually running out the door with shoes in hand so we're not late. ya, we have church at 1pm! ha ha

Happy Halloween!

diggin' out the pumpkin guts!

how i got stuck carving 3 pumpkins i'll never figure out...

they did turn out pretty cute though. the girls drew on paper what they wanted and then i used some not so good kniving skills to carve the pumpkins. katelyn's was a mummy and it looked awesome all lit up. i didn't get a pic of that though...

lexi was a butterfly/fairy... not sure, but i was so happy she left the headband on!! as you can see she's standing on her own! she CAN walk, but she basically refuses to do it. who knows?!

samantha was set on being snow white, but somehow i convinced her to be a witch. she loved acting scarey and completely forgot about snow white!!!

katelyn was a cowgirl and annie was a jailbird. they got tons of compliments on their costumes. good thing we had the becks' dance outfits to pick from!!!!

halloween was a success! we went to our ward's trunk o' treat. it was actually a tri-ward thing so there were tons of people. so much easier than walking through the neighborhood.

confessions

i have been too obsessed with facebook and have completely neglected my blog. now, however many months later, i am regretting that stupid move. facebook is purely for my entertainment... but blogging actually records the happenings of my life, and more importantly my children's lives. so today i am recommitting myself to blogging!!

Trip to Cali

so i finished hanging pictures/decor on thursday night and on friday morning we packed up and headed to long beach. it's about 4 hours from us. jeff and kristina met us there and we had a BLAST! i am already trying to figure out the next time we can go to the beach! friday we went to the beach for about an hour and then we went to dinner and walked around at the pier. the weather was so nice and everyone rode the ferris wheel.sorry, but there are seriously a million pics with this post!! saturday we spent 7 hours at huntington beach. my girls are awesome! they all loved the water and playing in the sand.
crazy uncle jeff getting ready to toss annie into a wave!








school was close to starting and katelyn and annie were really nervous. katelyn wouldn't talk to derek or me about it, but she poured her heart out to jeff when they were sitting on the beach together.


for some reason when i watched jeff and kristina leave with all their stuff it made me laugh so hard. they looked so dorky with the chairs on their backs!! ha ha it's making me laugh again just thinking about it!!! they were good sports and let me take a pic of them even though i was totally laughing at them!! LOVE YOU GUYS!!!
the kids were exhausted at the end of the day... lexi sleeping
sami sleeping!

when we ate dinner that night derek told our waiter that we were celebrating lexi's birthday so they brought out a HUGE pile of blue cotton candy. it was the best i've ever eaten!!

on sunday derek woke up feeling terrible. so he dropped us off at the condo jeff and kris were staying in and he went to the ER. they brought their really nice camera so we went outside for a photo shoot. this is a new face lexi's been doing. she scrunches up her face and sniffs her nose really loud. it's hilarious and i'm really glad we got it in a pic!!







love love love love love love this pic of alexis! she is the happiest, sweetest little baby and this picture totally captures it.




so kristina and i always talk about how we always take all the pictures so we're never documented being at any "functions". since pictures were actually taken of us this trip i feel like i have to post them... as attractive as they all are!! ha ha ha















it was seriously such a good trip. i'm so glad we squeezed it in before school started and stuff.