HaLLoWeEN

We had a busy couple of weekends leading up to Halloween.  It started with our ward trunk or treat.  I spent an hour straightening Aliza's hair to be sleeping beauty and spent 30 mins curling Lilly's hair!  Ben decided to go as the karate kid that night.  Everyone ended up changing their costumes like 3 times over the week so they are never dressed in the same outfit!

 How cute are they!

 Lilly wanted to be like Aliza and dress up as a baby - we went to IHOP for free pancakes!

 Aliza as a baby - this is how she went to school for the book parade

 Lilly dressed as a witch later that day when we went to the fire station

 Ali and Lilly inside the fire truck

 Our neighborhood had a great festival with lots of bounce houses and games for the kids followed by a costume parade and trick or treating.

Ben and Aliza in yet another costume at the neighborhood costume parade.  Later that night we went to trunk or treat at Kim's ward which was amazing!  The kids got so much candy and had so much fun at the carnival the ward set up inside the church.  It was so much fun and everyone had a fun time.  Halloween night we stayed home and passed out candy since Halloween fell on a Sunday this year.  The kids are already looking forward to next year - yeah halloween!

Baby #4 is . . .

So I am 21 weeks pregnant with baby #4 now and we have been wondering what it will be.  Having one boy and two girls I was hoping/figuring it would be a boy.  Just to have nice even numbers.  Aliza and Ben both were pulling for a boy and Don was figuring boy as well.  Lilly was adamant about having a baby sister.  So last week I finally had my 20 week ultrasound and was able to find out the sex of the baby.  I decided to make a cake  for the kids to cut into to find out if we were having a boy or a girl by the color of the cake.  Here is the cake:

And it's a GIRL!!!

Ben and Aliza were a little dissapointed.  The next day Ben was talking to me about it and kept saying why Heavenly Father Why!?  It was funny.  I reminded him that once the baby is here he won't care whether it's a boy or a girl he will just love it because it's a cute precious little baby -he finally agreed.

Campfire Stories

One of the features we love in our new backyard is the fire pit. The kids love to sit out there with a fire and roast marshmallows.  This night we decided to tell SCARY stories!  Don started us off then one by one each of the kids went up and told their own scary story.  It was pretty amusing to hear what each one had to say.  Lilly of course told a story about bears.  Aliza was really getting into it with making her voice lound and soft, Ben was funny and needs a little more practice!  He did much better with his story the next time we were out.  It was a very nice way to spend our evening home.

 The girls sat on one side and the boys on the other

 Daddy and Lilly enjoying some marshmallows

 Aliza, Hank, and Ali

Hank and Ali

Oh the things kids say and do!

Lilly is so funny and I'm trying to remeber all the funny things she says so the other day we were in the car driving home and Aliza was talking to Aunt Jennifer on the phone telling her she joined daisy scouts;

Aliza: I love daisy scouts it's so fun but I really really want to be a brownie

Lilly:  Why?  So I can eat you!

I was laughing so hard it was just so funny to hear that come out of her mouth.  Silly girl.

Ben was having a sleepover with his cousin who is 6, they had fun playing through out the evening but were asleep by 8pm.  The next day Hank was sooo tired he was falling asleep everywhere and kept telling me how exausted he was, which I didn't really understand just figured he should take a nap.  Well later that evening when he got home he told his mom why he was so tired.  Ben woke up at midnight and then woke up Hank to play nintendo ds in his room.  They played from midnight until they came out of the room at 7:30 am!!!  An 8 and 6 year old what the heck were they thinking!  Of course Ben tried to deny it at first, but eventually fessed up to his scheme.  I was mad but also trying not to laugh!  I could not believe they did that or even had the stamina to keep going for the rest of the day.  Crazy kids, needless to say Ben isn't allowed to have his ds in his room anymore :)

Aliza lost a tooth!

Aliza finally lost her first tooth!  It had been wiggly for about a week, then one day she came home from school and told me she pulled her tooth out all on her own!  She acted like it was no big deal, her teacher gave her a ziplock bag to put it in and she went on with her day.  She was so excited to have the tooth fairy come visit her and also worried that the tooth fairy wouldn't know she lost her tooth!  She was very relieved to wake up in the morning and see the tooth fairy had left her $1.00

Ben in the Principal and the Pea

All of third grade participted in the school play this year entitled the Principal and the Pea.  Ben's class sang and dance to "Food Fight".  Ben had the role of the flying toast.  They practiced the play for several weeks and Ben was very excited about performing it for us.  He even taught the song to Aliza and they gave us a sneak peek at FHE one night.  It was a very cute play and Ben did a great job even Lilly enjoyed sitting there watching it.  Aliza had seen it that day at school and couldn't wait to go back for the evening performance.  Way to go Ben!

what is with this new cheesy smile?

A quick recap

Well I am finally updating!  And to save myself sometime I am combining some posts together.  This is a quick recap of some of the fun we have been up to the last few months.  We have been camping more these last two months then in the last 5 years!  I love camping and so do the kids, Don not so much but he has been a trooper.  I think he secretly likes it he just doesn't want to admit it!  We went on a ward campout with Josh and Kim at the end of August.  It was beautiful up in the mountains and so much cooler!  It was nice to get out of the heat for a day.  Around the middle of September the ward had a daddy daughter campout and Don took Aliza and Lilly and they loved it.  Lilly came home talking non-stop about bears.  The young women had told stories at the campfire and the bear story just stuck with her.  For weeks all she has talked about has been bears!  It's been pretty funny.  Then in the beginning of October our new ward had a ward campout as well - so of course we had to go.  These pictures are from the first campout with Kim and Josh.

Kim and Lilly walking to breakfast

Aliza and Ali making crafts

Lilly with her macaroni necklace

He made it for his mom how sweet!

At the end of August Uncle David and Aunt Cindy came out to visit for a week.  It was so fun to see them and the boys.  We went to the science museum, went swimming, and went to the Stuffington Bear Factory - the only place I remembered my camera :)  They gave us a tour of the factory and we were able to see how they make their teddy bears

Posing in the "Bear Hall"

We celebrated Aunt Kim's 30th Birthday in September, this is the pretty cake I made for the occassion.  We have crammed alot into a short period of time.  We also have moved into our house and celebrated Don and Hank's birthdays, got to visit with Aunt Emily and the girls for a few days, helped plan baby shower for Aunt Cindy, and traveled to California twice!

First Day of School!!!!

 Aliza 6 years old starting 1st grade

Ben 8 years old starting 3rd grade

Ben and Aliza started school right after we got to Arizona.  We actually started school at the wrong school so they went there for 3 days before switching to QuartzHill Elementary home of the Trailblazers.  Aliza is in Mrs. Hayden's class.  She is in the same class as her cousin Hank so she had an instant friend which was great.  Ben is in Mrs. Noel's class and has already made lots of friends as well.  They walked into the new school liked they owned the place!  It was pretty funny but good to see the confidence they had in starting over in a new place.

Were Here!

Well we made it to Arizona!  The drive was very long but the girls were troopers and did very well in the car.  We were so excited to see Ben when we got here he had been in California since June so it was good to have him back with us.  We are now trying to settle in.  The kids started school on Aug 9th went for 4 days and then changed schools!  They now go to the same school as their cousin Hank and are loving it.  Lilly got sick with strep throat 2 days after we got here, poor thing was miserable with a very high fever for several days.  She was so swollen she couldn't hardly talk let alone eat and her throat was so irritated it was bleeding!  She is finally feeling better!  We are still on a house hunt, it is not easy anything worth living in is gone in a matter of days!  Hopefully we will find something soon.  No pictures for awhile, my camera cord was packed by the movers and is in storage somewhere :)  We miss all of our Texas friends so much!

4th of JULY

We love the 4th of July!  I have always liked this holiday, but since moving to Texas it has become one of our favorite holidays.  The kids look forward to riding their bikes in the parade and then of course fireworks.  Our neighborhood puts on quite the display, some of our neighbors much spend a small fortune, but it is fun to watch we are literally surrounded by fireworks going off.  This year we went to the Haslet parade and fireworks show on Saturday the 3rd, then had our annual BBQ and fireworks with our friends on the 4th.  Don is gone to Arizona and Ben is in California so it was just me and the girls.  Luckily my friends husbands had no problems shooting off the fireworks for us this year!  We have had so much fun doing this every year and are going to miss our friends tremendously!

A friend from church painted the girls faces for the parade

waiting for fireworks!

Excited for the show to begin!

our 4th of July cake

Grace and Lilly best buddies

trying out some sparklers

Lilly couldn't get enough, she probably burned through 4 or 5 sparklers herself - she loved it!

New York City

Don and I were able to take a vacation in June to New York City without the kids!  It was so fun, I had always wanted to go to NYC and it did not disappoint!  We crammed so much into the 3 1/2 days we were there.  We went to a Yankees game, they were coming in on a 13 game winning streak - but of course lost the night we were there!  We saw Momma Mia on Broadway - we wanted to see Wicked but it was sold out for 3 weeks.  We took the boat out to Liberty and Ellis Island, walked around Times Square, went to Rockefeller Center and the Top of the Rock, went to China town and Little Italy, went to the Temple in Manhattan and of course rode the subway.  My only complaint is how expensive everything is there but I would love to go back and see it again.  Maybe when Andrew is finished with his mission I'll convince my mom to go out there and pick him up and of course I'll have to go as her tour guide ;)

Picture spot inside the gigantic toys r us in times square - what a HAM!

We were freezing during the baseball game the temp was in the 60's!

Lady Liberty

LDS Temple

Times Square

This was Dylans Candy Bar - it was amazing so much candy!  The steps were all filled with various types of candy it was really kind of cool.

View of Central Park from the Top of the Rock