Maeli turned 1!

My baby! I didn't think this day would come, but she woke up and turned 1!


And she looked so cute doing it! Daddy tied her birthday balloon to her onesie. She was a little confused...


We had some friends over for cake. Yeah for naked babies and cake!

My kids are growing up so fast!


Notice our neighbor friends came over for cake, not cake and presents. Sorry Maeli. It's called 4th child syndrome.


I'm not a horrible mother, completely. She did get a baby doll. :) And this yucky cake I made.



Luckily I picked up a back up cake. :)



Happy Birthday (3 mo ago) sweet baby girl! We love you so much!

October

Apparently, I am the worst mom ever! Not only did I not blog about Halloween, I didn't even take that many pictures! In my defense, I was taking video instead. At least we'll have something to show their dates when they are older!

These pictures are from the school parade.

Trae was Diego. He loves Diego. I think he wears this costume at least everyday!

Grady tagged along. He was the cutest Buzz Lightyear. There were at least 2 other Buzz's, but this one stole my heart!

Winni and her friends Alexis, Bella, and Kianna. She was the only Ariel I saw. woot woot!

Then we had the Branch Trunk-or-Treat. Remember Nancy? The girl who 'looks like me'. Well, apparently she also thinks like me. Here are our kids with their Halloween Twin.

Ariel. Looks like Eric is doing pretty well. Check out the size of those rocks! :)

Winni and Sabrina. I realize Sabrina has no hair. Isn't she so cute! She likes to pull her hair out in chunks, so they shave her head. Poor girl. Dear Sabrina, stop pulling your hair out!

Not so much a twin, but definitely a super team!

Maeli and Zach. Another reason to go Trick-r-Treating on Saturday instead of Sunday. These 2 observe the Sabbath.

And the space dudes!

To Infinity (or the moon) and BEYOND!!

I just now realized I know I have more pictures of Halloween. But, I'm pretty sure they are on the camera we left somewhere in Georgia. sniff sniff. Dear Georgia, if you find my camera, could you please send me the pictures? Thanks.

Remember

So, remember when I acted like by 30th birthday was no big deal? I lied. Seriously. I'm kind of a big deal...to my kids. So, I make myself a big deal to other people. I threw myself a Murder Mystery Party and invited my new friends! The closest people walked to my house, then some crossed state lines, and others, the farthest, drove an hour! Talk about a self esteem boost!

Here he is. My Walter. Isn't he the cutest preppy boy you ever saw? I did good!

Jerry! He looks sweet and innocent, but don't let him fool you!

Amy and myself. Amy is my friend I stole from the Smyrna Ward. She and her husband Jerry, along with Lorien crossed state lines to be with me. They rock!

cheeeeeeeese!

Hazen aka OK, I don't remember anyones names and I can't see their nametags. But that doesn't really matter. I know this is Hazen and Stacey. They are our favorite neighbors here in MD. Stacey is awesome and she understands my need to feed my kids healthy. We both boycott McDonald's!

Ariane and Marc. Marc's aka is religious, for real. At church we call him Pres. Robinson. He is our branch president. Don't you love the tattoos?? He looks righteous, right?

Lorien. She loves Apple. She also loves making fun of Walter. And she's good at it!

Jessica. Another C-town friend and neighbor. Her husband, Sita, was late. After I stopped being the photographer. She's got a little boy that's 2 that thinks my house is fun. Or he used to. He hasn't stopped by in a while.

BJ and Nancy. These guys are some more church friends. They live in C-ville, not to be confused with C-town. People (read: old people and Nancy's brother) get us confused. I don't see it. She is smart and runs a lot. I'm not so smart and eat a lot. hmmmm..... They were our detectives for the night, but by day they are both Biology teachers at the local Community College.

These 2 couples are the local transplants, like ourselves. We have Allen and Katie Voelcker and Kristen and Matt Steck. Katie is Katie Carter, of the 12th ward. As in, my parents ward. They moved out here after they came out to see why we moved out here. What can I say? We are fun! Kristen and Matt are both from Utah and were in Katie and Allen's ward here. They tricked them into moving out here, too! It's our own little Utah.

Oh, and in case there were any questions. Hazen was our resident thug! The local trouble maker who ended up working for the CIA!


Of course, it was a murder mystery dinner. So, there were some casualties.

Not in death order, but still dead by the end of the night.

Katie, killed by Ariane

Hazen, killed by Ariane, with the hammer. She killed him in the kitchen, with everybody around, and nobody had a clue. She's good...and bad!

Amy, again, killed by Ariane. I'm tellin ya. Watch out for those Preacher's Wife types.

My poor Walter. He was the first to go. However, Ariane didn't kill him. His characters 'best friend' did it. Thanks Hazen! Knock him out early so he can start the clean up.



I made Cafe Rio Pork Salads for dinner and it was AWESOME! I love inviting people who like good food over. It makes them think I'm a good cook when I show them a little love.

Then for dessert I wanted something to the effect of Death by Chocolate, but I really wanted Better Than Anything cake. So, that's what we had, but I still called it Death By Chocolate. A little confusing, but who cares? It's my birthday...or it was almost 5 months ago!



Oh, and Kelly T. check out these pants! Kelly gave me these pants back when we were visiting home in January. Her instructions were, 'find somewhere to wear these!' She was laughing. But I took the challenge, and these 'liquid porno pants' as I soon learned they are called, are pretty dang sezy! :)

BE MINE!

I have GOT to get me a new camera so I can start blogging again. I miss it, but I can't blog without pictures. It's just not right! So, until my new camera shows up, I'll do some catching up...starting tomorrow? Anyway, for tonight I wanted to remember something my kids were doing today.

Lately, Trae has had a lot of questions about Walter's mother, Winifred. If you remember, Wendy died a couple days before Walter turned 4. While in SC over Christmas this year we talked about her and the bridge she died on. We also visited with her side of the family and helped the kids figure out how all of these people are related. So, she has come up in conversation a lot. Today they were playing in the other room and pretending to make Valentines. I heard Trae say that he is making a Valentine for Grandma Wendy. It was so cute. I'm sure she would love a Valentine from her sweet grandson.

Then in September...

Walter spent most of September on orders, in a hotel, by the airport. So, we would go on a mini vacation every weekend to go visit him. One of those weekends we decided to go to a free museum all about Communications (like satellite, telephone, and so forth).

It was pretty cool. But, this was my favorite thing there. Shout out to UTAH!!

This month, this little beautiful blue eyed babinski continued growing up....DANGIT! But, we still like her.


Winni has continued her fashion trend setting. Sometimes I even let her wear it to school!



I fell more in love with this...



Especially since he looks a lot like this...



Remember that hotel we went to? Here is another weekends adventure...



No, we aren't pretending to be The Beatles, we are using their parking lot for it's intended purpose...



Diet Coke and Mentos explosions. It's the right thing to do!

And this thing...



I've got a problem with this thing. It keeps taking my kids away!

Oh, and I got a little older. It was painful, but I looked good doing it! :)

1st days of School!

I cannot tell you how many times I have pulled up my blog and almost got to the 'new post' page. So many fun things have happened around our house, but I just couldn't get myself to take the time to blog. So, I'm going to try to recap for you. Hold on to your hats, we're about to knock out the season we call FALL!

Winni's 1st Day of School

Yep, they're ready!!

Trae's packin heat, since he is officially bigger than Winni, he's got to protect her at school! :)

Mom of the year! aka Mom with the most clothes on for the 1st day of school!

Big school...little girl

Meeting her teacher, Ms Durham


Saying bye to Dad and a very happy Maeli

Trae's 1st day of school

A couple days before the first day, we met his teachers. Ms Crook and Mrs. Hackett. Doesn't he look so excited!?!


Actual 1st day of school



He really was excited!



Big school...my little boy!