everyday life

is it really over?

I think I'm in denial that this weekend is over!?!  We had so many celebrations and so many events....there is so much to share!  We leave in the morning to head back to sunny Arizona but when I get there I will have very little time so I thought I would share a few pictures from our amazing weekend with the family. (I will say more about each event later)  We had such a great time and I know I will be a little sad tomorrow when we are driving away!  Bitter sweet!

Me and my brothers....each of us holding our babies that were born in 2009.

 

Getting to meet, hold & feed sweet baby Ruby!

 

My Grandma's 90th Birthday party.  So much fun to be with all of our cousins and enjoy our Grandma!

 

Grandma with her Great Grandchildren.....Wow!

 

We had the pleasure of sealing Bailey to us this weekend in the Newport Beach Temple. (separate post on this to come)

 

All of our family and friends who made the time to be there for us!

It was a really great weekend!  There is still so much to share and we are headed into another great weekend coming up!  Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving.....I will start to detox tomorrow!  ;)

our birthing photos

It's official!!!

Last Saturday Bailey's adoption was finalized in Court!  hooray!  We are so blessed.  It was a really great day and we are even more excited to be heading to California to have her sealed to us this weekend!  What an amazing experience this is....we are very, very grateful for this process! 

And here is a picture of the wonderful woman who gave us our Bailey!

Can you tell how beautiful Bailey is going to be!?! 

It's 1:30am and we are still wrapping up the packing and preparations for our trip.  We will be running on pure adrenaline (and two kids) all day tomorrow.  The next 5 days will be jam packed with some pretty great events and I will have PLENTY to blog about come Monday!  Can't wait!!!  Until then, Happy Thanksgiving to all of you!  I will be eating plenty of Pie!  As you can see we have plenty to be thankful for! 

Have a great weekend everyone!

when the house is too busy

take the kids and go to the Mall!  We were feeling a little out of place in our own home (construction crew on a new closet in the Master Bedroom, house cleaners, husband who works from home & his assistant) a few days ago so we headed the play place at the Mall.  It was fun and this time Ava wanted Bailey to get in on the fun!  These two really keep me laughing....crying sometimes.....but laughing mostly!

Both girls have had some runny nose issues so things have been a little rough around here.  Lots of tissue and lots of patience.  We are getting ready for our trip to California next week so I'm feeling a little (OK - a lot) stressed.  There is always so much to do!  The good news....my house is completely decorated for Christmas!  I'm sitting here enjoying some hot chocolate and the lights of our beautiful tree!  I know, I'm  a Holiday Skipper but I feel no guilt about it!  It will be so nice to come home from our trip and have everything done!  Ava has been talking a lot about Santa and leaving cookies and carrots for the reindeer.  The conversations are pretty funny and I think this year is really going to be great.  We will be doing a countdown calendar (advent) and have something fun to do everyday in December.  I'm looking forward to celebrating this year and watch Ava understand how great this time of year really is!  She has rearranged our nativity a thousand times and she thinks Joseph is Jesus so we will be working in some lessons on the "real" reasons for Christmas as well. 

And now for the big question....Can I buy Ava an Easy Bake Oven for Christmas simply because I want one?  She would love it but really isn't asking for it.  Oh what to do?!?

random photos

These were just a few photos that had me laughing....downloaded from my phone this morning.

Nothing like a plane ride on the way in to Babies-R-Us....

Enjoying a brand new cart at the brand new Target in Brea.  Have you ever been to a BRAND NEW Target???  It was nothing short of amazing!!!  Seriously!

 

A big helper...

Obviously these are not current but I loved them anyway!

{sister visiting}

so we are BUSY!  I put this girl to work this last week!  :)  We've canned 14 Quarts of Applesauce, cleaned out both the girls closets, tackling my closet tonight, ran a bunch of errands, went to the gym, played with the kids, took down Halloween decorations, started setting up Christmas decorations, stamped my Christmas cards (you read that right....I have my Christmas Cards printed!), went shopping, 10 loads of laundry, watched a movie, made our favorite foods, laughed too much, went to a Birthday party, went to lunch,  watched swim lessons, dance class and I can't remember what else.....BUSY!!!  It's been lots of fun and my kids have never been so clean (Kate loves to bath my kids)!  We will miss her when she goes home tomorrow and I'm not even going to talk about when she leaves on her mission in December!

Our visit to Dance Class.  I'm usually a purist when it comes to Ava's Dance attire but I caved and let her wear this tutu!  Let's just say we will be making a few more for her this year.  She was so excited to dance with her tutu and she was even more excited when her teacher told her how cute it was....she was so proud!

{These pictures are horrible - sorry - my little camera is not so good!}

It's been a fun week and we will all miss Kate when she leaves!  Luckily it will only be 2 weeks before we gather for Thanksgiving at my parents.  

Thanks for all of your help Kate!  :)

Halloween Fun

A little late, I know!  We had fun celebrating Halloween with our cousins at their traditional block party.  Ava loved Trick or Treating and seeing all the other costumes.  She would say "Hey, Mom look it's a Clown", and she would just be grinning!  So fun!

It was a fun night and we had 2 sleeping girls on the way home!  While Trick or Treating Ava said to me "Mom, hold my bag....it's hurting my arm!".  Classic!  Oh, and Bailey didn't dress up but her little orange shirt had a bat on it that said "teething bite".  So true baby!