The Rest of Our Vacation

Ok, so I know that I am once again way behind with my blog entries!! Things have just been so crazy lately. But I do promise to try and catch up and then keep up with it :)

We went to somewhat sunny Southern California in November. We spent some time in Disneyland for Hannah's birthday, which I have previously posted about. I just want to quickly share a couple of other photos from the others spots we visited.

We spent some time at the beach. It was chilly but nice to see the beautiful work that the Lord created.

Handsome Gaber's walking along the beach (well, with a little help from daddy, of course) And No, he's still not walking...he's on his own time frame.

Hannah holding some sand in her hand. I thought it was cool how the sun reflected and made it look like she's holding something that's glowing.

Gregory and I posing so I can atleast get into one of the pictures. That's the downfall for being the photographer of the family.

My mom "Lu-lu" enjoying the nice cool breeze. Look how beautiful the water looks in this picture! It makes me want to go on another cruise, just so I can see the "aqua" water that really does exsist. It's so amazing!!

Hannah and one of the many sea shells she found along the beach.

Greg and the kids trying to stay out of the way of the waves. Hannah got caught in a few of them and she had water up to her knees! She was very cold after a few short minutes.

We also spent a day in Knott's Berry Farm which was fun. Hannah could ride all except for 2 of the rides. She's a little dare-devil!!

The whole "Fam."

During this photo, the lady who worked there was rushing us so much that I felt like punching her out!! Another lady who was witnessing the rude behavior of the first, purposely stepped in and offered to take an additional photo of our family all together, which then made the worker even more mad. I thanked the nice lady who then commented on how rude the worker was being so she thought she should teach her a lesson. Let's put it this way, the nice lady took her own sweet time taking our family photo which I was thankful for :)

As you can see, it was a long vacation for us. The "kids" were lucky and got to sleep the whole drive home. That would have been nice :)

Strep yet again!!

You heard me right...both Hannah and I have Strep Throat again!! This makes 3 times in 5 months for me!! The doctor gave me a double dose of anitbiotics in hopes of killing it completely this time and let me just say that those shots HURT!! I can still barely walk. So, today is going to be a "down" day, just relaxing and maybe taking a nap. That sounds very inviting...maybe I should get sick more often :)

Hannah's Birthday at Disneyland

This year we gave Hannah the option between a party with friends or a trip to Disneyland for her birthday. Now what kid is going to give up a trip to Disneyland? I wasn't as fond of the choice seeings how we've been to a Disney park 3 times in the last year and a half!!! I'm all "Disney'ed" out! Anyway, I tried to be a good sport and kept a smile on my face. We also ended up going to Knottsberry Farm and a trip to the beach but I'll post about those later. This post is about Hannah's birthday.

Now since we were on vacation for her birthday, everywhere we went to eat she asked them to sing her happy birthday. Here is the list of willing participants...McDonald's (which Greg was very pleased about), The Cheesecake Factory, The Olive Garden, The Brick Oven (just after we got back home, she still thought she needed to be sung to), and I know there was a couple of other places but I just can't remember them. I'll ask Greg and then add them to the list.

At Disneyland, Hannah was given a button that said it was her birthday so everywhere we went the characters or workers kept wishing her a Happy Birthday. It really was wonderful. I was very impressed!! :)

Well, here are some photos from our Disney-Day. It was fun and I purchased a special crown for Hannah to wear because she's always "the princess" on her birthday. It's kind of a tradition that's been passed down :)

Hannah with Mickey!

Hannah in her Princess Crown. It had flashing lights that she wore proudly as it became darker. She loves being the center of attention!!

Hannah and I in the Alice in Wonderland tea cup.

My two cuties!! You can see Hannah's little birthday badge in this photo. And there's little Gabe with his precious straw!! He wouldn't let go of it for the world!!

Hannah, Gabe, Greg, and Grandma on the "It's a Small World" ride. It's Hannah's favorite because she likes me to point out "her lands" and "Gaber's lands" since they're both represented in the displays. Her other favorites are the "Winnie the Pooh" & "Peter pan" rides.

Well that's it for now. I'll post the rest of our vacation shortly. I'm a bit behind, I know, but I promise to make it a priority!!

Kid's Halloween Costumes & More Videos!!!

Now for the rest of my Halloween posting. I'll start out with my kid's Halloween costumes and try to end with the other two videos from the Ball's Halloween party. I'll try to keep this short but sweet :)

Here's Hannah in her "princess tigerlily" costume. The thing hanging in the front was the bag I made for her to put her candy in but she insisted on wearing it across her chest. I began making the costume two days before Halloween and I would not recommend that to anyone!!

Here's another picture of Hannah. I had just figured out that my camera of about five years has options to take the photo in sepia or black & white! It was very exciting for me! The only bad thing is Greg is in the process of getting me a "snazzy" camera so it makes my new find almost obsolete.

Here's Gabe in his giraffe costume. I had planned on making him a little indian too but I never found the time to get his completed. So, we used the back up plan which was great because it kept him warm. I tried everything to get a picture of him looking at the camera but he wasn't about to cooperate. This picture was as good as it got :)

Here are my two little sweeties together after trick-or-treating around for a couple of hours. We were lucky that it wasn't as cold as it usually is. Hannah received TONS of candy, in fact I think I took a picture of the bowl. Let me see if I can find it...

Ok, so here it is. It's hard to tell just how much candy she got because the picture doesn't show the actual size of the bowl but that's a full size Reeses candy bar on top. The bowl is the biggest in my set of three nesting bowls, if that gives you an idea. And if you know me, I'm not too fond of letting my kids eat a lot of sugar so this bowl should last us until next Halloween :)

Holy smokes, that was quite an ordeal but I finally got the other videos uploaded!! I hope you enjoy them!! And remember...be nice to those who willingly shared their amazing talents on these videos :)

The Infamous Halloween Party!!

Now for what you have all been waiting for....pictures and video from the Ball's Halloween party!! All I ask is that you don't hold anything against any of us. This is what happens when you get together a bunch of friends, without kids, and hang out until 2 in the morning :)

The costumes...

Greg and I went as Edward and Bella, of course :) As I was putting on his "pale" makeup and adding dark rings under his eyes, he commented that if this is what men are suppose to do to be sexy (he knows how everyone is in love with Edward), then he's been doing it wrong this whole time! By the way, I may have Greg begin wearing the white make-up on his face from now on because it makes me look totally tan!!! Yippee...that never happens!! Also, the reason I look like I have black eyes is due to my "red eye" remover. It obviously got a little out of hand :)

This is what the back of our t-shirts said. Those of you who have read the books know that the ending is still up for grabs!! GO EDWARD!!!

This is Steve and Ashley. You'll get to see the lighter side of these two pirates when you check out my videos :)

These were the single ladies for the evening. Their spouses had to work so I forced them together to take the photo. Maryanne is the Cheerleader and Amy is the gypsie. Maryanne is the artist behind my new hair. She's awesome :)

This is Aaron and Catey (it was their party) or should I say Mr. and Mrs. Incredible :) And yes Catey is incredible!! She's had 6 kids and is able to pull off a body suit!! Totally incredible, don't you agree?!?

Rheanna and Justin decided to play doctor for the party. You can't tell in the photo but Rheanna is about to have a baby. She's actually being induced tomorrow!! Good luck with that Rheanna :)

My Most Recent Claim to Fame!

Last night, Greg and I went to a Utah Jazz basketball game. Our tickets are 6 rows behind the visiting teams bench. To get to our seats we have to walk directly in front of the opposing teams locker room. As we walked by heading to our seats, one of the Golden State Warriors was coming out of the locker room. We just smiled and kept walking. Greg ended up being about 2 or 3 steps in front of me, as we passed by him. As we continued walking, I could tell that someone was right behind me and before I knew it, someone had grabbed me around my shoulders, pulling me backwards, causing me to almost stumble. My first thought was that a security guard was stopping me so that the Warriors player could get past me. But as I turned my head to see who it was, I realized the individual was towering over me!! It was the Warriors player. He leaned down and started talking to me. At first what he was saying wasn't registering because I was so surprised. My mind was trying to process what was going on. I began focusing on his words and began realizing what he was telling me. It went something like this...

"Look, your man didn't even realized that I snatched you. He should never walk ahead of you like that."

Sure enough, Greg was quite a few feet ahead of me by now and hadn't looked back to see where I was. The player continued on...

"If you were my girl, I'd never allow another man the chance to snatch you away. Look, he still hasn't noticed!"

I went on to explain that we have been married for almost 12 years and that the "protective" thing kind of wears off during that time. He repeated...

"If you were mine, it would never happen. I would never walk in front of you."

By this point, Greg was all the way through the tunnel and stepping onto the bleachers. FINALLY... Greg looked back because he realized I wasn't with him or maybe it was due to the fact that all of the security people were staring at me and the G.S. player with huge smiles on their faces and Greg was just following their stare. I'm not really sure, but for whatever reason he finally looked back. His face was shocked as he realized that I had been snatched by the NBA player. The player again reminded me that I shouldn't let a man leave me behind because someone else will swoop in and take me. Then he gave a quick squeeze on my shoulders and quickly walked down the tunnel. He stopped at the end and gave Greg some sort of fancy hand shake and gave him a manly pat on the shoulder, letting Greg know that he was just playing around.

So, anyway, I thought the whole thing was odd but somewhat flattering. It's not everyday I get "snatched" by an NBA player. As the game started, Greg and I watched to see who the player was. He ended up being one of their starters. He was #2, Mickael Pietrus. I told Greg that the player had a really cool accent and it turns out he's from France.

Just as the game started I realized one of the reasons why he may have been so nice to me and Greg. I was looking around the arena and I realized that one of the colors for the Golden State Warriors is orange. I looked down at Greg and myself and started laughing because we were both wearing orange shirts with blue jeans.

So, the moral of the story is if you are going to a Jazz game either wear Jazz colors or research the opposing teams colors so you don't find your wife being snatched by the opposing team's player! :)

I want to finish by defending my adorable husband, whom I love. He was only a couple feet in front of me and I tend to lag behind. It wasn't his fault that I was snatched and he's decided to never let it happen again :)

Spa Party!!

I am going to be posting a few quick posts over the next little while, just so I can catch up!! Things have been so crazy that I have fallen behind on my postings and on reading everyone else's posts!! But hopefully the chaos is over and things will go back to normal :)

So, I want to start out with my "SPA" post. I had a spa party on October 27th, at my house and it was so much fun!! I invited some ladies over and we were pampered with some really great products. I encourage everyone to host one of these parties because they are totally worth it! I took a few photos (I'm saving some of them for blackmail opportunities) but I'll post a few of the others.

Here's Ashley relaxing with her soothing eye-pads on. A rare moment for a mother of three :)

Here I am with my green "seaweed" mask on. They insisted I have a photo taken of me since I was taking photos of everyone else! I know, I'm looking HOT but please try not to bombard me with fan mail...OK?

More green faces! It's totally ridiculous that Aubry & Ashley can look that good with green goop smeared all over their faces!

So, that's it for now. I will return shortly with photos (and unbelievable video) from a Halloween Party one of our friends threw. I promise, it's not something you'll want to miss. Let me give you a hint...just imagine Mr. Incredible getting down with a pirate...I won't mention names now but one is in our Bishopric and the other might be our Executive Secretary. I knew that would peek you interest...so until then :)