October thus far

We are so happy to be home from all of our traveling.  Our wonderful Daddy has been working so much that we are ready to go out of town again though! We miss him when he is so busy.  We've been able to sneak in some time at Disneyland with him though, and enjoy some soccer games with him too.

This is the day before Landon started preschool.  All I could do when I saw it was laugh and take pictures...and send him to school.

As soccer mom, I was in charge of getting the banner (i didn't know this until about 2 weeks ago), so here is the Sharks banner!

Hunter LOVING soccer.  He actually really enjoys it but he doesn't like 8:30 am games.

Aspen loving soccer.

Rockstar

That night we went to a pirate party.  The boys had so much fun!

 Aspen even dressed up a little bit.

 Tamara made this awesome cake and the blue cupcakes around it as the sea.

 Pirate and his treasure

 Landon's first day at school! He was so excited!

 Mia the bunny was running around the room.  Smokey comes out when Mia goes back in her cage.

 I took Aspen to the Pumpkin Patch with her class.  She LOVED the goats.

 Piglet!

 This scrape was so sad.  She was trying to stand up and scratched her whole face.  Poor baby.

 Our class.

 Aspen and her buddies! Owen, Lauren and Yuki.

 Aspen and Owen are having a love affair.

 That night we threw a shower for Chelsea (on right).  With 11 or 12 pregnant people in our ward, we are having a shower every couple of weeks it seems! It's so much fun to celebrate all of these beautiful women.

 Jasmine and Steph.  Steph and I were given the year off of childbearing because we did it last year.

 The next day I took the kids to the pumpkin patch.  The boys played in the bouncy house, rode horses and fed the goats.

 Landon refused to be in a picture with his brother and sister.

 Then we decorated the pumpkins by drawing on them.  They weren't really satisfied with this, so later that night I carved their pumpkins the way they wanted them carved.

 Mickey and Pluto

 On Tuesday we met Brian's mom and her husband at Disneyland.  The kids were so excited! So was Daddy!

 Daddy on the rockets (the boys' favorite ride!)

 The 3 kids sharing the stroller.

 Piglet at Disneyland! We stayed late and went to Mickey's Halloween party.  It was awesome! The park was lit up differently and it was kind of spooky.  It felt like a huge, fun party and it was really neat to see just about everyone in their costumes.  Rachel and Clayton met us there and spent the evening trick or treating with us.

 Tigger and Pooh.  Yes, I made the kids costumes.

 Rachel and Pooh

 The group! (I stole a man's sign to take this photo)

 Sleepy Piglet

 Tired Pooh wanted some snuggles.

 Piglet woke up and wanted part of my special treat!

We've had so much fun being at home! We have more fun coming up this week and we are preparing for Ms. Aspen's first birthday party.  How did she get so big so fast? It isn't fair.

I'm sad today

I'm sad today.  You know the cliche "it goes too fast?" Well, it does.  It goes WAY too fast.  Landon started preschool this morning in the Beginners room at Circle of Love.  I am not ready for him to start. It's only 2 mornings a week but it's 2 mornings more than I want him to be away from me.  He's still my little guy.  He sleeps with a pacifier.  He carries his pillow everywhere.  He insists on being held as opposed to walking when we go out places.  He loves to snuggle me every single morning and night.  He's my little snuggle bunny.

Last week we went to look at the Beginners room.  I thought that when he turned 3 (in January) we would start him.  But then, I also kind of thought I would keep him at home until next August.  After all, he is such a sweet kid.  He loves to be home playing with his trains or "helping" me. Well, this room has 2 bunnies that run around the room with the kids, a baby possum, a fish tank and 3 birds.  There's a train table, play doh, playmobile villages....all this is much cooler than Mommy.  That's when it started.  "I want to go to school!" After numerous fits, I thought I would start him in school in November.  He changed my mind when he drew on the walls with a blue crayon while I nursed Aspen and pulled all of the toilet paper off the roll in the bathroom.  He didn't cry or ask for me when I left the room today.  He's perfectly happy at school.  We'll see how he does when I pick him up today!!

Of course I'm also weaning Aspen as we prepare for her 1 year birthday.  It is so sad to watch the babies grow up! I love them getting bigger and bigger but it is also sad.  Anyhow, just kind of weepy today about my baby growing up.  Anyone who has been a mom can understand these feelings.

Connecticut and Vermont

We went to Connecticut and Vermont.  We had so much fun staying with our friends, the Paterna family.  They have a 4.5 yr old girl who our boys adore and a 17 month old little boy who was super cute.  

This is the view I have of Landon pretty frequently.

 We went to Disneyland just the 2 of us before we left and this was one of the only photos I took.

 When we got to Ct, Matt was excited to see Aspen!

 And we went to a fair. We were quite a group with 5 kids and 5 adults.

 This boy is such a character.

 Yay!

 These 2 love one another

 Group hug

 Brian and Matt getting a little bit of ice cream.

 Mmmm.

 Lobster rolls.

 Apple picking.

 Maddy and Courtney

 Brian doing his best Kalua pig impression

 Me and my big man

 Crazy little man

 The 3 musketeers

 Daddy and his girl

 Aspen and Miles.

 We took the train to NY. Landon was in heaven. Then we went through Grand Central station, which he thought was the coolest thing ever. We met up with one of my favorite friends, Stacey, and her 2 little boys.

 Grand Central Station.  We left Aspen home with Courntey's nanny.  She would be happier crawling all around, not in the rain and being independent, than she would have been with us.

 FAO Schwartz

 Max

 Stacey and Jake

 Maddy Hunter and Max. Landon was too busy with the trains.

 Carnegie deli for lunch!

 Me and Stacey and our 4 boys.

 Playing in Central Park

 Train ride home with a black and white cookies.

 Sleepy head woke up!

Movie night.

 Dinner date night.

 Pretty princess.  I missed her so much on NY.

 We drove to VT. We stopped in the visitor center to go potty.

 The view from the patio at Courtney and Matt's VT house. So beautiful.

 Happy girl.

 Jackson is SUCH a great dog.

 Miles and Aspen

 We got to do this beautiful walk several times a day, down to the river.

 The group at the river.

 My handsome hubby

 Throwing rocks in the river could be my kids favorite thing to do.

 There are 3 rainbows here but you can't see them very well.

 Monkey in a tree

 All 5 kids.

 Down at the river

 Daddy and Hunter

 Postcard perfect

 We went to Bromley - a fun place to play! We went on the Alpine slide and river rides, boucny house, trampolines, etc.

 I'm 11 months old today! I've been on 9 round trip plane rides to 13 states, Mexico and a Caribbean cruise.  I can crawl and cruise.  I am mellow, happy and love my family members.  When I wake up in the morning I kick my feet when I see Mommy.  As soon as Mommy picks me up I look around to see "Da! Da! Da!"  This always gets Da out of bed so I get kisses.  Upon seeing me, both of my brothers come over and give me hugs and kisses. I feel loved and I should be because I am such an easy, sweet baby.

We had a great trip! It was awesome to see our friends.  It is nice to be home! We are home until my birthday now and I am happy to have a break about traveling.