Happy Halloween WEEK!!!

TRICK OR TREAT!

Cinderella, Her Pumpkin & The Fairy God-Mother:

TRICK-or-TREATing with friends...

Amelia's first experience at Trick-or-Treating... SO DANG CUTE!!! She LOVED it...

First off, MILLY LEARNED: PUMPKIN BUCKET=CANDY!!!- Her favorite thing in all this world! She did NOT let go of this pumpkin all night, and would scream if you tried to touch it.
She held my hand to walk & at the door would hold out her bucket, saying "hi, hi"! When a bowl of candy was held out, she learned quick that all it took was to grab the candy & put it in her bucket as fast as she could till I stopped her!
What an awesome new concept for a kid: I hold out this bucket & I get TREATS?... At EVERY door I KNOCK ON???

She discovered that if she got started on a box of Nerds, she could actually EAT through 1/2 the box & suck the Nerds OUT... lets just say, she LITERALLY ATE 3 boxes of NERDS!!!

Princess friends going Door to Door: 

Rylee loved being the first to hop inside as soon as the door opened:)

Then, MORE... with the RALPHS cousins:


And finally... THE LOOT!!!

Amelia could not have been more in Heaven:

EVENTS LEADING UP TO THE ACTUAL DAY OF HALLOWEEN:
Okay, HOLY Halloween PARTIES! Wowsers... I had NO idea that the week of Halloween was as fun & party-packed as Christmas??? Man, there is SO many fun activities to do around this time of year!

Smith Cousins:


Ralphs' Cousin Party:
Thanks Grandma Laurie!


Ward party: FAIRIES!
(we thought we'd switch up the costumes for a night!)

PlayGroup Halloween Playschool!

Ghost, Ghost... BOO! A Doughnut walk!


We can say, it was a HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

The PUMPKIN PATCH!!!

Picking out Pumpkins for Amelia's Birthday party...

Hmmm...

FOUND SOME!

The CORN MAZE was aMAZEingly cute!

And Bringin the pumpkins to OUR homemade Pumpkin Patch!

OUR LITTLE PUMPKIN IS ONE!!!

Here is AMELIA's pumpkin-themed FIRST BIRTHDAY party...

*Welcome to AMELIA's PUMPKIN PATCH:

We didn't actually grow these pumpkins, but we DID grow the vines... we only grew a few green pumpkins? We bought these at a real pumpkin patch, & cleared out our garden to make our own!

I have to say, I LOVE BIRTHDAYS!!! Everything from the decked out invites to the killer cakes! I had SO much fun planning Amelia's party:)

We all enjoyed picking a pumpkin from the pumpkin patch, and Decorating it:

We have such great family & friends!

Mmmm... BIRTHDAY CAKE!!!!

The BIG ROUND PUMPKIN was specially for Amelia to dive into, but it looked a little intimidating... so she dove into a cupcake from the cupcake pumpkin!

Then, somebody got a little FREAKED out of that dang birthday hat that fell off her head...
IT's HER PARTY, SHE CAN CRY IF SHE WANTS TO!!!

A few people broke the rules & brought presents, but Amelia didn't seem to mind:)

Amelia really had a great time at her birthday party! She may not even remember or appreciate it, but at least we have pictures:) ha ha... What's NOT to celebrate about a FIRST BIRTHDAY, right? Plus, it may or may not just be an excuse for me to throw a party?
Either way, it was SO CUTE, & SO FUN!!! I can't wait for Rylee's....

Ultimate Vaca...

my DaD took mE, STEve, & my siBlings on a MEexican CRUISE, 5 DayS, NO KiDs

...need I say more???

Okay, so most of you who know me know- my kids are my favorite thing in this world! I love being a mom more than life itself! Now, having said this, over the past little while- with 2 crazy kids & all Steves dang traveling- I have come to the harsh realization that as much as I LOVE being a mom, it is not ALWAYS as fun and easy as i'd like (not quite the same as when I nannied and got to leave them at the end of the day, and the disciplining was NOT a factor, nor was my messy house)...
Well, I have to admit that as heart broken as I was to leave our girls behind for the first time EVER, thinking that no one in this world could possibly take care of them the way that I do, it was AWESOME!!! I'm pretty sure that my mother-in-law is my new hero, and i figure i've built up about another 2 1/2 years of patience, love & tolerance for my sweet little rugrats:)

I have to say, this pretty much sums up my entire week... seriously, does it get more relaxing than this?

Okay, we DID do a little Mexican Adventuring for 2 of the days...
In Cabo San Lucas, we went to LOVERS BEACH... WOW! I have been there before, but I do NOT remember it bein this SWEET! I actually SWAM in the Ocean- which i usually hate 'cuz you can't see what's lurking below you? But this water was clear & warm, I loved it. Then, on the other side of the little island (divorce beach) are these ROCKIN waves that crash down like thunder, & would kill you if you got trapped out there... they were beautiful though, and it was SO nice to lay on that beach in the shade with our books & listen to the crashing waves!

Here is me & My bro Shane chasing these 20 foot swells- the picture doesn't do the height justice, but it was a seriouse adrenaline rush:

Then there is the lovely ENSENADA... where I thought being hassled by the shop owners & being pressured into buying chicklets was the ONLY thing to do there!
Well, aparently there is a tour you can take to one of the few BLOW HOLES in the world? It was BEAUTIFUL there. Such a pretty place, with way yummy food & great shopping!

Here we all are, just shopping & bartering away:

Of course the Days at sea were spent enjoying all the classic luxuries of a CRUISE... the killer ice sculptures, the fancy random sea creatures that are beautifully presented on your dinner plate, and of course the towel animals that grace your room every night:)




And all the while, our girls were having the TIME of their LIVES, getting 100% love and attention from grandma & grandpa Smith!!! Thank heavens for THEM:)
When we got home, Rylee was excited to see us & Milly was weirded out for a few hours. BEST of ALL- not only did they love/appreciate us again, but RYlee learned how to SLEEP IN HER OWN BED (after 2 years of sleeping in OURS) & almost got rid of her BINKI, and Milly learned to drink MILK! So... if you want your childrens habbits to be broken, send them to Grandma's for the Week!

Fall Leaves

HIKE UP THE PAYSON CANYON!
Me, Ry & Milly went on the prettiest hike while we were visiting the Jacobsons. WOW, was it ever beautiful! I had no idea there was so much to learn on a little Fall hike? Ry loved learning about all the colors of the changing leaves- we drug behind the group as we took our sweet time finding all sorts of 'mommy & daddy' sized leaves of all colors!

Rylee made some cute new friends...
Maya stayed behind the group to "help Ry", it was darling. There were 5 places where they helped her cross the river over logs. Ry thought it was the greatest thing- especially when she was "going on a BEAR hunt". She would get all excited and run so fast, laughing her head off till they'd bif it, then she'd cry and i'd carry her (and milly) for a minute till it looked so fun she'd get down and run again!


This was the awesome waterfall at the top of our short little hike- check out Ry's excited face!
This "hike" really was darling. A cute little trail up along side a river, with this reward at the top:)

This was the great group we hiked up with- we made lots of new friends. Rylee got brave and climbed up this muddy hill to sit by Brady. Boy was she ever proud that she did it, with all the big kids!