Halloween Is Coming

We are so excited that halloween is coming! I took these pictures before we went to Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween party at Disney World. I thought they turned out pretty cute and figured there was a great chance that these might be the best pictures we get. I was stalling cleaning my house and thought I'd go on and post them. Enjoy! Happy Halloween to all!

The Great Cake Escape

So the girls (Kathryn and Emily) decided to enter a cake decorating contest at school for their Hoe Down. They literally spent hours working on their beautiful cakes. They did a fantastic job and had a great time. We all learned a lot about cake decorating--no matter how much red food coloring you use you will still have hot pink icing, shredded wheat cereal can come in useful and when you’ve been eating candy for a couple of hours it tastes pretty good, 6 and 7 year olds can make great creative cakes all by themsleves. I successfully got both cakes (and all four kids) to school in perfect form (the cakes net the kids). The girls were excited, the hoe down was fun, and just as we were leaving we learned this year they had given the cakes away as prizes for the cake walk. Great idea in theory, however, we had not worked on these cakes for hours for someone else to take home. I believe if we had known that was the plan up front, we would have not been surprised and handled the situation differently. As soon as I realized what was going on I thought very rationally and decided just to pick up and cakes and leave--as if we didn’t really know the plan. In all honesty, we didn’t and I didn’t want to find out any more information. As I went to pick up Kathryn’s cake, a little girl was standing there with the number that matches Kathryn’s cake and she was very excited that she had just won it! I about died and tried to explain that there was a problem. The child’s mom was insistent that her child had won the cake at the cake walk and we could go home and make another one. I controlled myself and didn’t tell her to go home and make her own cake, but was not about ready to give up Kathryn’s cake--Kathryn was in a panic with her eyes full of tears. I couldn’t leave the cake, but I had to do something. I sent Emily to go out and get Abe. I told Abe I had to go figure something out and not to let ANYONE take Kathryn’s cake. He agreed and I talked to the mom and we decided to see if they could trade out our cake for another. I turned around and Kathryn’s cake was gone! I about died and then I saw Kathryn and asked her where her cake was. She said, “Daddy just took it out the back door!!!” I about died again and at this point all rational thinking was gone-- what would I say when the Mom came back, what do I do about Emily’s cake (which luckily had not yet been claimed, but would be any moment), and how do I think with all four of my kids, stressed, in a room with mass chaos reining. I believe I did what any self-respecting mother would do--I grabbed Emily’s cake (told the girls to grab Brandon by the hand) and we sped out the back door as well.
As I was running through the dark rain, with the high-jacked cake, and all four kids, I saw Abe coming down the road with the van, he pulled over and we all hopped in. We had saved the cakes! However, my consciences let me know that this was not setting a good example and I better resolve things inside for who knew the rumors that would fly about the member of the Stake Presidency who stole a cake at the elementary school fundraiser. Plus, I would have to face these people again at some point. I got some money and went back in. The mother was in there (correctly assuming we had escaped with the cake through the back door when she wasn't looking) and they had arranged for the child to take a different cake, I spoke with the PTA president who was trying to sort through this chaos reagarding our other "stolen" cake and told her we just learned that the cakes were being given away and my daughter was in the car and was not giving her cake up. I gave her $10 and told her to give it to the kid that ended up without a cake and they could go buy themselves some cupcakes. I felt better and we all returned home, happily with our cakes.

Kathryn's Barnyard Cake

Weekend Getaway

There are some great benefits of living in Miami. One of such is that I can pick up Abe at work Friday afternoon, we can cruise down to the Bahamas for the weekend, and he can be back at work before 8:30 Monday morning. Abe had a business meeting in Panama on Friday, I was going to fly down Friday night and spend the weekend there with him. The meeting ended not going through, but we already had babysitting arranged and church asignments cancelled, so we decided to take the opportunity and jump on a cruise for the weekend. We had a fantastic time on Sunday we were docked in Nassau. We spend the morning visiting the Atlantis Resort and then were browsing in the Straw Market when were thrilled to run into our friends Mark and Jessica Martinez. They were also taking advantage of a weekend cruise and we spent a couple hours visiting with them--all four of us went and toured Fort Charlotte. We ended our evening eating dinner and watching the sunset as we sailed from Nassau. It was a great day.

Sunday was spent at the "private island" of Norwegian Cruise Line. We had a great time exploring the island and snorkling. We saw lots of beautiful, colorful fish, as well as a few eels, a lobster, and a sting ray. We enjoyed relaxing and just being together. Again we finished our evening sailing away whatching the sunset and we ate our dinner.

Monday morning we packed up and Abe was back at work by 8:30. We had a great time and are very grateful for Abe's parents who were willing to watch the kids for the weekend. We really appreciated the time to ourselves!

Brandon's First Day of Nursery

Sunday Brandon was 18 months and got to go to the nursery at Church for the first time.

I thought he looked really cute. Right before we left Emily asked me, "Mom, do you think that looks like Church clothes?" Obviously, she did not.

First Day of School

Today was the first day of school for the girls. It was supposed to me on Monday, but because of Tropical Storm Fay the first two days were cancelled the girls were all really excited. Kathryn started second grade, Emily first, and Lauren is in the Koala class at Preschool.

4th of July

On Wednesday we went to Disney World and the kids had a great time. The ride of choice for everyone was Splash Mountain where the only person who got wet was Dad. Brandon's favorit ride was the Tea Cups where he screamed each time we had to get off. We had dinner at a restaurant by It's a Small World where we ate and watched people get on the ride. Kathryn and Emily spent an hour waiving and eating. We never would have guessed that we would leave the park at 11:30 pm only after riding Flying dumbo at 11:00 pm. We had a great time.

On Thursday we went to Amelia Island where we played in the sand and pool and watched the fire works for the 4th. We sat about a 100 yards from the fireworks, but we sat down wind, so all the smoke was blowing in our faces. In addition, the wind was blowing the fireworks at us. Throughout the night, we had pieces of fireworks hitting us, and live (i.e., flying fire) landing all around us. One live ember actually fell into Emily shoe right in front of Brandon and Dad.

Emily and Kathryn can now swim the entir length of the pool. We are sure getting to be a mature family

Kathryn and Emily's Ballet Recital

Kathryn and Emily participated in thier first ballet recital on Saturday. They were so excited and looked so beautiful! Grandma Louise came over to watch and Grandma Pam bought them each a bouquet of roses. Thanks grandmas. It's hard to say what was most exciting--the costumes, make-up, or actual dance. It was a great experience for all. The girls did great for a sold out crowd. It was quite the recital lasting about 4 hours. The girls were backstage waiting in a room with all the other "young ballerinas" for the majority of that time. It was a long afternoon, but well worth it.

Happy Father's Day!

13 Things We Love About Dad!

1. We love going to the zoo with Dad.
2. We love going to Disney World with Dad.
3. We love going to the Everglades with Dad.
4. We love Daddy Daughter dates!
5. We love dad laying by us at night.
6. We loves playing games with Daddy.
7. I love you to babysitus when mom is gone.
8. I love when Dad lets me go driving in his car.
9. I love going on bike rides with Dad.
10. I love dad because he helps me.
11. I like when daddy fixes my bed.
12. I like when he gets me presents.
13. I love when you come home and are so happy to see us and we are so happy to see you to!

Julie's 30th Birthday!

I can't believe I'm 30 and have 4 kids! I must be getting old! I had a swell birthday. The girls each gave me $2.46 from their own piggy bank--2 $1 bills, a quarter, dime, nickel, and penny. They told be that was over 200 (cents, dollars, it's all the same at that age) and I could buy anything I wanted. I am going to buy a bike--Abe added some money of his own money as well.
I had a great birthday. It may not sound exciting, but we put up a shelf in the play room closet so the kids can now reach their games-- without all of the games falling down. I have been wanting to do that for quite some time now. We took some Pizza Hut pizza to the beach and had a picnic. That is my new favorite activity. I bet we've done it 4-5 times in the last couple months. then we went on a little hike by the beach through the mangroves. We found these "ancient ruins." Abe and I thought they were cool--the girls did NOT want to explore them. It was fun nonetheless. The kids (with Abe's assistance) made me an awesome birthday cake with green grass, a yellow sun, some pretty flowers, and lots of sprinkes. If it would have been at the store I would have paid a lot of money for it. I feel so blessed to have such a great family. They made my birthday very happy! I would like to add a video of the family singing happy birthday, but I can't figure out how to download it from my camera--maybe another day!

Julie's Birthday

Today is Julie's birthday, she is 30. We went to the store, but they were closed. So we decided to make a blog so she has one more thing to keep up with.