Five Years!

Five years ago today Sean and I got married. It remains one of the greatest days of my life. How blessed I am to be with Sean for not only this life, but forever. Five years seems to have gone by quickly, but much has happened - two children, two college degrees, several jobs (mostly for Sean), a new career, and a new state just to list a few. More new things are on the horizon for our little family and I look forward to seeing how the next 5 years (and many more) turn out.

Happy Birthday Grandma

Happy Birthday to my sweet grandma, love you!

Already December

Our time is growing short down here in sunny AZ and it is going to be hard to give up this perfect weather. Today it was in the 80's so we went swimming - its December and we are still swimming - I LOVE it!!! Even though it feels like summer, we are still feeling the holiday spirit around here. Our house is decorated, we have a live tree that smells wonderful, the outside lights are pretty, and most importantly, June is excited about everything Christmas. It is so much fun to experience this time of year with a three year old, she makes it magic. We watched the Polar Express last night and I think she was captivated by it!!! She knows all about Santa and wants to be on the good list. Every toy commercial that comes on she asks me, "can we get that from Santa?" My Jack still doesn't really know what is going on, but he is having a good time anyway.

I don't really have any relevant photos, but here are some of the family pics we had taken back in November :)

Halloween 2010

Halloween is for sure one of my favorite holidays. Just the Fall atmosphere, pumpkins, treats, dressing up - it's all fun. We didn't even have to worry about the weather this year and having to bundle our kids up. It was just lovely here in Yuma. June chose to be Tinkerbell this year and came to that conclusion months ago and stuck with it. I was all for it. She already had a cute Tinkerbell skirt and wings that my parents had given her. I decided to make her some "bally" shoes to go with it. I just bought some shoes at Target and then spayed them with adhesive and covered them with green glitter after that. Then I hot glued the fuzz ball on top. I thought they turned out pretty fancy! June was quite taken with her shoes. Here she is just looking at them and loving them:)

We started out the Halloween fun by going to a Halloween/B-day party for a friend. It was so much fun. We constructed and decorated haunted houses, ate yummy food, and the kids had a scavenger hunt. I just love the friends I have made while here in Yuma. I am going to miss them when we have to move in January. Below is Sean building our house with the girls.

This is June and Nick playing outside in their costumes. June loves all of the friends she has here too.

My Jack man dressed up as Jack Skellington. For his costume I painted the black stripes on his jacket. It was a long precess, but it turned out good.

Here is our finished haunted house.

We waited until the 30th to buy pumpkins and it wasn't such a bright idea on our part. We were lucky to find two little ones for the kids and two white ones for me and Sean. June is a crazy girl and liked to eat the pumpkin seeds.

Here is the finished product: an owl, wolf, and two faces.

Our ward put on a trunk-or-treat that was a lot of fun and tons of people came to participate.

Here are my little trick-or-treaters!

When we lite our pumpkins that night Jack was very fascinated by them. Jack-o-lanters are pretty to look at!

On actual Halloween we got invited over to another friends house for dinner and trick-or-treating around the neighborhood. We had a good time there as well! I think we are set for candy until at least Valentines Day:) June wore were Belle dress this time around. It was a fun Halloween and now we are looking forward to some more holiday celebrating in the near future

San Diego

Sean didn't get to go on our family vacation to Disneyland, and he felt a bit left out so we planned another mini-vacation to San Diego with just the four of us. We stayed at a pretty nice hotel that was right on the bay across from Coronado Island. This was the view from our room. We went to the beach the first day that we got there. June loved picking up sea shells and putting them in her bucket.

I love the ocean at sunset, it just looks so pretty. Here I am with June and Jack.

We spent that evening in downtown San Diego. We hopped on one of those "bike cart" things and the girl who was pedaling took us on a tour. She dropped us off at a good seafood restaurant that was right on the water. I am not a huge seafood fan, but I liked the fish I ordered. The next day we went to Seaworld. I had not been since I was 11, so really it was like seeing it again for the first time. The kids liked seeing the animals and June was braver than she was at Disneyland with the characters. She loved meeting Elmo and Zoe.

They had a great new dolphin show called Blue Horizons that was very good. It had accrobates and divers, plus the dolphins and a few whales. Of course we went and saw the Shamu show, Believe. It was a fun trip and I'm glad Sean got to join us on this vacation :)

Disneyland 2010

Every 5 years my family plans a trip to Disneyland, and this year it was our first time visiting the park in October. It was a great time of year to go - not too hot, the crowds weren't as bad as in the Summer, and the park was decked out in Halloween decorations. June, Jack, and I drove over to Anaheim and met my mom, dad, Rose, Stuart, and Kathryn. Sean couldn't get off of work and Preston is serving his mission, so we didn't have everybody there. Those of us that were there had an amazing time and made lots of memories together. I just love Disneyland and think it truly is "the happiest place on Earth." I hope to be able to bring my sweet family back several times in the years to come.

This trip was extra special because we celebrated Roses 15th birthday as well. She got to wear a birthday button and all of the Disneyland workers told her happy birthday whenever they saw it. It was also my two kids very first time. They were both very good vacationers for being so young. June had her moments of being afraid of some of the rides and of the characters, but for the most part she had a fantastic time. Her is my girl going on one of her favorite rides - the Teacups! My mom and dad on the Mark Twain River Boat enjoying a caramel apple.

June crying when it came time to meet the princess's at the Fantasy Faire (she liked them from a distance, but they were just too scary for her up close).

Jack loving the slide at Goofy's backyard playground in ToonTown.

Stuart and Kathryn with June in front of the castle.

At the Pixar Parade I got the kids some balloons that they both loved.

Me and my kids sporting our new Disneyland shirts in front of Thunder Mountain.

On Tom Sawyer Island.

We love Disneyland and can't wait to go back again!

When September Comes

September usually means the end of Summer and the start of cooler weather. My family is experiencing an endless Summer. It's still very hot in Yuma and I am loving it (I am determined to swim in my pool every day I can until I have to move). I must admit I am missing my "Idaho Fall" but I am very much enjoying where I am now. Sean celebrated his 27th birthday this past week, and he was even lucky enough to have it land on his day off. We didn't do anything too spectacular - mostly we just spent time together. Here he is with the Broncos tickets I gave him. My favorite thing about birthdays in our family is that I get to make a cake. Sean went with the "chocolate covered strawberry theme." I made a strawberry cake with real strawberries in it and put chocolate frosting on the top. It was very simple compared to his past birthday requests. It turned out good, so I was happy. I love Sean and I am so happy to be married to him. He takes such good care of me and we have fun together every day.

My kids are always the bright spot in my day, and I just can't imagine life without either of them. June has a new ballerina swimming suit that she adores - she even wanted to wear it to bed the first night we got it. She loves preschool, swimming, nursery, playing with Jack, singing, filling water balloons, watching Dora and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, and getting packages from Grandma, Grandpa, and Rose in the mail. She is so much like me it is a little scary when it comes to the way she thinks and acts. She is beautiful and makes her mama proud!

My Jack is finally getting teeth (he is almost 15 months old)!!!! He loves to play with his sister. Reading stories are still one of his favorite things to do. He says uh-oh now. He is smart and figures out things pretty quick. He loves to eat Mac-n-Cheese, bananas, raspberry's, string cheese, and any treat his mom and dad are eating. He hates church because while I'm playing the piano in primary I can't hold him. There always seems to be a bruise on his head - when the poor boy falls his head always seems to hit first (I promise I don't beat him). My baby boy is turning into a little boy and it breaks my heart a tiny bit. I love my Jackie Man - he has his mama wrapped around his finger.

Vegas!

Last weekend I went on a girls trip up to Vegas with some friends. We went to the Michael Buble concert at the MGM Grand. The show was spectacular!!! It really was amazing. The girls I went with were so fun and we had some good times. Here we are in front of the Bellagio. At the concert in front of a life-size poster!

Doing a little gambling(just because we wanted to pull the big handle)!

The concert

Preschool

I can hardly stand it that my baby girl is old enough to go to Preschool!!!

She had a wonderful first two days and is excited to go back for more!

Company

Sean's parents made the long journey from Idaho to come and visit us. Sean hadn't seen them since April, so he was excited to see them. I was just happy that I got to play hostess again and have guests stay at my house. We swam a lot in the pool and the kids loved having grandma and grandpa to play with. One day we took them on a tour of the area and showed them where Sean works. We also visited the Yuma State Prison which is a State Park now. My favorite activity was going to the Cardinals preseason game over in Glendale. The stadium is so cool and I just love football, so I was in heaven. We got great tickets on the 3rd row in the corner of the end zone. The game was pretty exciting for just a preseason game, and our row even won a contest where we all got $20 gift certificates to a motor sports store. We were able to get on the "jumbo-tron" too. I'm pretty sure that was just because our kids are so cute though. It was fun to have Kim and Julie with us and to spend a few days with them. Hopefully they can come down again before we leave in January.

These pictures are all mixed up and I don't know why, but here is the outside of the stadium. Here June is helping me make breakfast for grandma and grandpa one morning.

This is at the prison

June and Jack behind bars. I swear they are innocent!

Me and the kids after the game as we were leaving the stadium.

Adorable

Took the kids to get their picture taken today. I must say, my kids are adorable! We didn't get any good ones of the two of them together, but individually it was hard for me to choose. Here are a few.