The Trio Is Back...

The trio of Mario, Luigi and Princess Peach that is!  The kids wanted to be the Super Mario Bros characters again this Halloween, and of course, I had no objection to not buying new costumes! Well, Maya got a new costume because there was an actual Princess Peach costume at the stores this year, but I didn't have to buy all three kids new costumes.

Silly kids!

Emma was the CUTEST butterfly!

At one of the festivals we went to, I gave Emma a lollipop and she LOVED it!  It's so much fun being the aunt!



Camden turns 8!

Camden celebrated his 8th birthday in October!

The typical morning wake up - I sure wish I was a better singer!

Seems like it was a birthday year of "big"/family gifts.  Braeden got the pool and Maya got Bella.

Camden's "big" gift was a kid/family computer

My sweet kiddos

Maya's Bible Presentation

As you may remember from last year our church has a bible presentation every year for 1st graders. It's a really special event where the kids get to walk across the stage in front of the church and are presented with their very own bible. After Camden received his last year, Maya and Braeden couldn't wait to get their very own bible.  Braeden will have to wait until next year, but Maya got hers a couple months ago.

Maya and her cousin Riley

Walking across the stage

So proud of you Maya!

Sports. Sports. And More Sports.

I don't consider myself a sports fanatic necessarily, but I did grow up playing many sports. And I loved it. So, it's not unusual to me that my children are involved in many sports. I don't feel like I push them to play (as some might think) but I do encourage them to get involved in activities. We're involved in church, school activities, and many other things as well. We're just a family on the go. Always moving. Almost always doing something. So, it's no real surprise that after spring baseball last year, the kids went into summer swim lessons, fall baseball AND fall soccer (that was a bit much - but that was me not being able to tell Camden no). And now they're all three playing winter basketball. For now, being the family on the go works. Only time will tell if I'm singing that same tune 5 years from now! :)

Baseball...  How could I tell this kid no?!

Soccer... This was a really fun season!  I moved Braeden up an age group and they all 3 got to play on the same team.  Braeden was definitely smaller than all of the other kids, but he played really well and held his own.  It'll make him a tougher player right!?! ;-)

I love this picture of all 3 of them!

Maya in action

 

Braeden with a breakaway!



Camden with the corner kick!

Emma went to a lot of the games too!

Great season Salt Lake!

Great job kids!  What a fun season!

Catching up - part too many!

I think I will be "caught up", for the most part, after this post!  Thank goodness!  I know what you're thinking, "why didn't she just start with current time?"  Well, I thought about doing just that, but the kids like to look at the blog - and I'm hoping to create books from the blog for the kids eventually - so I just didn't feel right skipping almost an entire year.  We're almost back to live mode people, just bear with me.

Maya turns 6!  Of course, I woke her up singing happy birthday as I do every year...



Maybe I should have done something with her hair the night before!



The morning of

We celebrated the weekend before...

 

Maya got a dog!  Introducing "Bella Sprinkles Rosie Speedy" - and yes, she was called all of those names for a while, but we've finally settled with "Bella."  I got her about a week before Maya's birthday and started to call her Bella, thinking I would be able to easily sway Maya once I gave her the dog.  So, on Maya's birthday, I gave her Bella and told her a list of "approved" (by me :)) names and asked Maya what she thought.  Maya gets close and whispers in my ear, "Sprinkles!"  Sprinkles??  Ummmm... ok.  Braeden decided he wanted to name her as well and came up with Rosie.  Eventually, her name settled in as Bella and she just as sweet as she can be with the kids!

Maya loves this dog!

 The first day of school!  Braeden started Kindergarten, Maya is in 1st grade and Camden is in 2nd grade!  I feel sorry for the teachers at their school...

Oh yeah.... I bought a mini-van!  Yep, it's official.  And I really can't say enough good things about this kid corralling, kid friendly machine.  I love that the doors slide back to open (as to not hit any other cars because no matter how many times you tell your kids to slow down when opening the doors, they will still fling them open!), it's lower to the ground (which is great for us shorties), and the best part (and well worth the "taking away of my coolness" factor) is that the kids can no longer touch each other!  I digress... back to the first day of school.

 Their backpacks just swallow them up...

 You made it Braeden!  He's really been looking forward to going to school!

 Isn't she adorable!

 Wow!  2nd grade!  I can't believe it.

 Maya passed out after the first day of school last year too!

I was a little worried about how Braeden would act in school.  Camden and Maya are so quiet in school, that I just knew I would be in for a rude awakening with Braeden.  Not that I thought he would get in a ton of trouble, but the boy likes to talk (a lot).  But so far, so good!  Not only that, but Braeden won the first month character trait award in his class.  Every month, the school teaches about particular character traits and each teacher from each grade picks 1 or 2 students they feel is best representing the trait being discussed.  October was the first month and the trait was "respect" and Braeden's teacher picked him to be  rewarded (with a yard sign for a month) and recognized at an awards ceremony.  Way to start off your school year Braeden!!

Catching up - part 5

We took a great vacation to San Antonio this summer!  The resort we stayed in was absolutely wonderful.  We really could have just vacation there and never left because there was so much to do.  They had a water park, a river on the grounds to float around, ping pong, water volleyball, smores by the fire every evening, a playground, outdoor activities and more.  We will definitely go back!

The sandy/beachy area along the river

Smores... Yummy!

The river

The playground

The lawn where they played games during the day and watched a movie at night

We watched "Finding Nemo" this night

Trails around the resort

The boys loved the ping pong!

Just hangin' out

Of course, we had to make a stop at the River Walk

All of the nonstop activities worked...  finally asleep!

We also stopped by SeaWorld while we were there

Of course!  Maya and I got soaked on the river ride!

The boys rode the Journey To Atlantis ride...

Maya and I waited...

We watched shows, went to the water park and had fun late into the evening!

Oh yeah!  I can't forget this.  Camden rode is very first "big" roller coaster, The Steel Eel.  He was sooo excited.  While we were making the climb to the first huge drop he was laughing it up.  But, as soon as the coaster made it over the hill and dropped, he scrunched ALL the way down in his seat and his eyes got HUGE!  I laughed so hard the entire time that I was crying.  This particular roller coaster took pics of everyone as they passed by at a certain point.  However, since Camden was on the side of the camera and was all the way down in his seat, he was out of sight to the camera and there was no picture.  It was still fun and something I hope he remembers forever.  He said he enjoyed the ride even though he didn't look like it while we were on it...

We'll be back San Antonio!