Gone Fishin'

Hello Friends and Family,
I know that I have neglected my posting duties these last few weeks. And now, you will have to wait even longer for our latest..... we are headed into the blue yonder for the Holiday. See you in a week.....
PS I am sure I will come back with a million pictures to post..... so hang in there until we return!

Aunt Julia

Aunt Julia got to come and visit us a couple of Saturdays ago. It was fun to see her and her baby bump! Oh how we love the belly!

Swallowed Up

Yikes! I just looked at out blog and it has been over a week since I last posted! How did that happen? Well, I can tell you..... life has just swallowed me up in the last few weeks. We have been too busy. Busy with all good and fun things of course, but none the less, too busy. So busy that I have not had much time to stop and smell the roses with my family, had to miss a fun tea party with my girlie friends, and just plain been rushing from one thing to the next. Mind you, I am not complaining, I have thoroughly enjoyed all the events that life has thrown our way in the past few weeks. But I am grateful for this blog. It has reminded me today, like it did the first day I began posting, that life can be a whirlwind...... I just need to seek out the rainbows in each day and pause long enough to enjoy them, because they don't last long and if I don't take notice now, I will miss them!

Thunderstorms

The best part of a thunderstorm is when you are scared, there is always a sister there who has been dying to hold you and will take whatever excuse it is to get you to cuddle into her arms.

And when there is a break in the rain, nothing feels better than a walk in the fresh, clean, cool, crisp air.

Did it Even Happen?

Yesterday was a rare "free day" in our November schedule. By "free day" I mean that other than church in the morning, we had no obligations or expectations. SO Seth and I decided on a whim to make it "date day" with our girls. They were so doggone excited it was cute, but also a good reminder that we need to step away from our schedule and routine more often.
So after church, we had lunch at the pizza parlor, with everyone getting their favorite kind of pizza. Then headed to the movies to see Madagascar 2. We had a big bucket of popcorn and laughed our way through the whole film. After the movie, Daddy thought the girls would be tuckered out, and they were. But when asked if they had enough energy to make a little detour to go shopping, they were ready to go. Which, of course, sent Seth and I into fits of laughter because girls will be girls...... and our girls like to shop until they drop (just ask Amma)! When we finally got home, we finished off our pizza, washed it down with some hot chocolate and headed off to bed with a stack of books to read!
It was the perfect date day with our girls. We did things we don't normally get to do, we stepped totally away from our routine, we laughed, and we just plain had fun!
The only thing that would have make it more perfect...... if I had a picture of Adalie sitting on a cardboard box booster next to her sister at the movies with a big ol' bucket of popcorn on her lap, or one of Josiah bouncing her bouncy ball prize across the table to Seth that she had gotten with her quarter at pizza, or even the looks on the girls faces when we said we were going to have date day, or the hot chocolate mustaches they had once we got home...... But alas, I did not even have my camera. Calamity, I know! And as Grammy says "did it even happen? because it is not documented..."
Now it is written in blog. The pictures will have to remain sweet memories in my heart, but the day will not be a lost memory because I have written it.

Halloween

Although Halloween is not really a holiday we celebrate around here, we did a bit this year. One thing that I am totally capable of is compartmentalizing things in my head. Case in point.... Halloween. In my simple little mind I can separate out all the things I don't like about Halloween, the witches and goblins, and enjoy the things I do like; dressing up in costumes and getting candy. Oh, if only life outside of my little world were so simple!
A big thanx goes out to the Webb family for hosting another year of their awesome party. I can imagine ALOT of planning goes into this event and I love it!!
All the kids get to dress up in their fun costumes and be taken on a hay ride around the neighborhood to pre-selected houses to trick or treat. The best part though.... this all happens the week before Halloween!
(Logan, Talan Kylee, Turner, Josiah and Adalie)
Just think, when Halloween night actually comes around, we are done with Halloween. We have already dressed up, already trick or treated, already counted our candy.
(Adalie, Josiah, Kylee, Talan, Turner, Rev)

Talk about feeding right into my compartmentalizing! Just good clean Halloween Fun! (Josiah, Adalie and Summer getting a hand full of candy)

Josiah and Adalie got chosen for best costume by this Halloween enthusiast you presented them with a pirate's jewel. And well, Summer is just cute too!

Adalie, pizza in one hand and a cupcake in another.... could life get any better??

Josiah bobbing for apples.

Even Mommy dressed up this year for her Bunco with the help of Josiah's Kindergarten teacher.

And then came the mayhem of costumes and candy at school on Halloween.



That's Josiah's teacher, the banana. Love her!

They paraded around every class in the school!

Too cute!

The Bologna is Josiah's teacher's aide, love her too!



Well, being new to this whole school thing, I now know why all the seasoned school Mom's asked me if I had fed my girls a big breakfast?? Yeah, to soak up all the sugar they were about to ingest! YIKES!! I know now!!

My Last Birthday

Well, on my actual Birthday Day, while Josiah was in school

Adalie and I

joined some friends

on a hike to see the magnificent color changes.

Only to be surprised

by the design of my loving hubby who knows I love birthdays,

with a Waltner/Whitson family celebration. (Seth, GiPa, Neil, Eli, Penny, GiGi, Doug, Me)

My Mother-in-Law made me a beautiful birthday cake. She graciously only put 3 candles on my cake. Symbolic of the 33 years I became today!

I had begun to think you had to be a cute little kids to get so many birthdays. (Ashlyn, Adalie, Piper, Josiah)

I am a lucky girl and felt very loved.

Oh, if I could stop time!





So here are some pics from by last celebration party, dubbed my last birthday.

The Beach

It's another picture post.
We headed to the beach last weekend for a little family fun and birthday celebrating. How lucky am I to have family that still celebrates my birthday? I love birthdays, not just my own, but everyone's birthday. And since having babies I came to the full realization of why these days are celebrated!

Met up with some family. (notice the not so subtle Subway plug here. Would you believe me if I said it was totally unplanned?)

We rode bikes at the beach.

We rode bikes to the beach.

Browsed the pumpkin patch.



We played alittle family basketball. And Aunt Jen is rather good! I even think she was going easy on me!!



The girls even got a chance to ride.






Although Josiah was pretty timid at the beginning of our ride, with a little encouragement and alot of instruction.....


she finally bucked up and started having some fun!

We swung

and swung

and swung some more.

got silly.

had a photo op. (Josiah 5yrs Avila Beach)

(Adalie 3yrs Avila Beach)



All in all, we had alot of fun!

Pumpkin Carving

Pumpkin Carving is one of my favorite family events.

I'm not exactly sure how it originated, but I distinctly remember taking it over. Seth I were married and living in our little studio in Santa Barbara and Miss Josiah was 6 months old. We sent out this invitation for all the family to join us for some seaside pumpkin carving. It was a blast! And I loved to be able to say that Pumpkin Carving was my family holiday to host.... it was perfect! Hard to mess up this one... no big elaborate meals to cook, just pumpkins!
Yes, that is Daddy and Uncle Jon carrying Josiah around in an enormous pumpkin.

A classic picture.

We've always been a family who knew how to have fun!

This was the 1st time we met Jen.... was it the Pumpkin Carving that reeled her in??

Back to the present...... Mimi invited us all back to the beach, this time Avila. And there we carved.

Adalie watching Mimi very closely.

Yeah I am pretty sure there is no way you are getting our clean little Adalie to dig into any pumpkin.

And it looks like Aunt Jen's gonna second that one with the pinkie!

Josiah and Daddy concentrating hard on their design, it's quite a competitive event.

Now that Adalie has confirmed Mimi survived the goo, we dug into a pumpkin of our own!

And this time she is brave enough to touch the stem and pull off the pumpkins lid. Watch our Uncle Taylor.

Everyone participates in this event..(Papa CT)

Uncle Jon and Aunt Jen relive the magic of their 1st Pumpkin Carving year by combining their efforts into one very precise pumpkin.

Josiah concentrating on her masterpiece.


For those of you who think that Josiah is my spitting image.... here she is looking alot like her Daddy.

Uncle Taylor needed some help with inspiration, which Adalie generously offered. She wanted a pirate pumpkin, so Uncle Taylor made her a pirate pumpkin.

Adalie putting the final touches on our pumpkin. Yes, she is using a knife, but they say they are safe even for the youngest pumpkin carvers (they were right).

The unveiling of Josiah's BOO masterpiece. Now that she can read she wanted her pumpkin to say BOO!


Another fabulous Pumpkin Carving day.