Madison's First Haircut

It's official. Madi has now had her first haircut. Even though mullets are pretty cool, it just had to go. My friend Misti Loveland cut Madison's hair for us. She ended up cutting 3-4 inches off the back. Madison did such a good job holding still. She was so cute! As she was getting her hair cut she would look in the mirror and say "pretty."

Before...



After.

Happy Thanksgiving

We had such a wonderful Thanksgiving this year! It had a the neccessities of a good day: football, family, and food! The day started out with PJ being able to meet his old buddies for their traditional Turkey Bowl. While the boys were getting dirty, I meet PJ's mom and sister for an awesome breakfast at Villiage Inn. It was fun to have a little girl time and of course pour over the Black Friday Ads! After breakfast and football PJ and I were able to spend a little more time over at PJ's mom's house. She is such a blessing to us! We love her so much a truly cherish any time that we are able to spend with her.

After lunch, we meet up with the Cutler family and headed up to our family cabin. We always love going up there. It's only a hour drive away, but when you are there it feels like you've escaped from the world. It's always beautiful this time of year with plenty of snow-except for this year. Somebody forgot to order the snow! This was the first Thanksgiving that we were able to drive our little car all the way to the top.

We had a great time playing at the cabin. We stayed until Saturday afternoon and had plenty of time to watch movies, play games, play duets on the piano, and make gingerbread houses. This year PJ and Mckay made an outhouse gingerbread house! was pretty funny.

On a serious note, our family has felt very blessed this year. We feel so lucky to have so many wonderful friends and family. In a time where many our losing their jobs and homes, it really makes you think of all the little things that we take advantage of. There are so many countless blessings that our kind Heavenly Father grants us each day. One of my goals for this upcoming year is to show my gratitude for the simplest things.


Our Little Indian- Mckay's preschool made Indian costumes for their Thanksgiving Feast. He had a lot of fun playing around the house and howlering Indian calls.

Family Pictures

It's that magical time of year again when it's time to update the family photo. These are just a few that our friend Annalisa took. We are still trying to figure out which one we should send with our Christmas cards this year. Any suggestions?









This is how Mckay really felt about taking pictures.

October Pictures

October was such a fun month for our family. Besides going to Disneyland we also were able to do a lot of fun things together as a family including Preschool field trips, carving pumpkins, costume parades and of course trick-or-treating!

VISITING THE PUMPKIN PATCH
One of my favorite parts about being a mom is being able to go on school field trips. The pumpkin patch this year was no exception. For this trip, we went to the Big Red Barn in Santiquin. The kids had such a good time riding on the hay ride, picking out their pumpkins and eating doughnuts.

Having fun on the hay ride.

Silly pumpkin heads!

Best Buddies-Jace & Mckay

Mckay's future car

Carving Pumpkins

Mckay couldn't wait to dig into his pumpkin. PJ banned simple pumpkin carving the first year we were married. We downloaded pictures from the internet...enjoy!

Mckay carving a scary Winnie the Pooh face.

Me and Minnie

The final product!

Are you scared yet? (Left to right- Mckay, PJ, Andrea)

MCKAY'S PRESCHOOL TRICK-OR-TREAT

Captain Jack (Mckay) at his preschool Halloween party.

Trunk-or-treating with Miss Tiffany.

Mckay with his loot.

Only about half of the kids are dressed up. The rest are wearing their regular clothes.

HALLOWEEN NIGHT!!!

We have been looking forward to Halloween for a few weeks. Mckay couldn't wait to wear his Captain Jack Sparrow costume he bought in Disneyland. Nothing was more fitting than a princess costume for our Madison. PJ and I were saved with last minute costumes from our friends Nic and Ashley Haws (PJ's will be explained later). It didn't take Madison long to figure out she could walk up to somebody and mumble something remotely resembling "Trick-or-treat" and people would give her candy. She always tried to get as much as her little hands could hold. Mckay loved the four wheeler rides, haunted house, and Disney movie all arranged by the ward. When we got home that night Madi bolted for her high chair, hid underneath, and began the sugar feast. We have never seen Madison get possessive of her things until that night. We almost had to use pliers to get her basket out of her hands to check through her candy. When we did pour it out on the floor you would have thought her life was about to end because of how upset she got. Being the loving family that we are all we could do was laugh as she pitched her fit. The kids had a couple of pieces and we made sure they had a good teeth brushing before they went to bed.

The only time Dad will let me wear makeup.

Mckay protecting Princess Madi.

Hippie Andrea!

Can you tell PJ is dressed up like a white trash, beer belly, redneck dude? At the ward trunk or treat everybody thought he dressed up like a pregnant lady who couldn't keep her belly and chest in. The looks we got that night were either of grand elation or utter discust. His hippie date (ME!) was totally embarrased.

Ready for a fun night!!

A Magical Week

We're back after a truly magical week. We had such a good time and made so many unforgetable memories. It was a nearly perfect trip. The kids were great, the weather was wonderful, and I’m already ready to go back to Disneyland. Here’s the breakdown of our trip…

Day 1:
We left on a very cold, snowy Sunday afternoon and headed down to Vegas. It was nice to run away from the bad weather. We made great time and were able to relax that night in the Vegas Condo. PJ’s mom cooked us an awesome steak dinner and later that night we checked out the strip.

Day 2:
The next day we hit the outlet’s in Primm and drove the rest of the way to California. We meet up with Vicki and Andy (Dane’s parents-our adopted parents) for dinner. They treated us to Bubba Gumps in Universal Studios. We had such a great time and our kids loved walking around all the stores.

Waiting for dinner...

Scary Shrimp Guy

Dinner with Andy & Vicki

The closest Mckay & Madi will ever get to having a real dog.

After dinner we drove to Anaheim. Mckay was so excited for Disneyland that he could not sleep.


Day 3-Disneyland
Disneyland was absolutely amazing. There's a reason why it's called the happiest place on earth. Honestly, it took self-control for me not to skip and break out in song as I walked through the gates. We had so much fun and the kids were so good. The lines were amazing. On several rides we were able to walk right on. Everything was decorated festive for the holidays. I highly recommend going in October. It was by far the best trip to Disneyland I've ever had.

Disneyland Gates

Beautiful Madi

Waiting in line to see Nemo. Madison adsolutely loved all the fish. It was one of her favorite rides.

Mckay was so excited to meet the "real"Buzz Lightyear. He was Mckay's favorite character.

PJ, Madison, Mckay, Hailey & Julie

Goofy was the friendliest of all the characters and made us laugh.

Exchanging kisses.

Poor Madison was scared to death of Mickey!

Waiting for captain Jack! We waited for almost an hour for him to show up.

Captain Jack Sparrow holding Madison's baby in a loving way.

Mckay, Jack, and Peston. Mckay loved going on Pirates of the Caribbean ride and after meeting the "real Jack" he decided he had to be Captain Jack Sparrow for Halloween. It was a fun suvenior to take home from Disneyland.

Wild Toad Ride

Madison loved the carousel in Fantasyland.

The end of an awesome day.

Day 4-Disneyland
For our fourth day, PJ's family took Madison down to the Oceanside Condo and PJ and I were able to spend a whole day with just Mckay at Disneyland. We were so grateful for them being willing to do this. We had such a good time with Mckay. For the first half of the day we spent it over at California Adventures. Mckay was fearless! He went on every ride that he could. After going on the Tower of Terror, Mckay said, "That was awesome!" When we asked him if he was scared, he said, "only a little." (I was still shaking!) We also loved going on Soarin California and the Toy Story ride. We were also able to meet a ton of characters in just a few minutes.

Cruella Devil was just as witchy in real life. When we asked her to sign her autograph in Mckay's book she said, "If I must Darling!" I think that she was scarier to Mckay then the Tower of Terror.

The Queen of Hearts LOVED PJ!!!

Mr. Incredible & Mckay showing their stuff!

Handy Mandy

Waiting for the Bugs Life movie

After the Bugs Life 3-D Movie, we had some lunch in a hanger by Soarin California and headed back over to Disneyland to catch the Woody's Round Up show.

After the show we grabbed some fast passes for Splash Mountain and went on the safari ride. The whole time we were on the Safari boat ride Mckay kept asking over and again, "Is that real?"

After a few short hours we headed back over to California Adventures to ride the Toy Story ride one more time and catch the parade. Unfortunately the lines were too long on the Toy Story ride, but we did get to go on the Grizzy River Rapids. A lady in line gave me her pancho. I felt like such a dork--but I did stay dry!!

Poor Mckay and PJ got soaked!!!

Moral of the story.....It's worth looking like a dork!

Later that night we ran back over to Disneyland to go on Mckay's favorite ride Splash Mountain. We also able to hit a few other rides and to pick out some souvenirs.

The end of a long, fun day. Mckay was so sad to go he couldn't hold back his tears. We couldn't blame him. We are already hoping to make the trip again in a few years.

Day 5-Oceanside
This was such a relaxing day. We were able to sleep in, hit the pool, and play tennis. Later that day we walked to the beach and had so much fun playing in the sand and water with PJ's family. That night we went out for Red Lobster and enjoyed being lazy.

Mckay Boogie-boarding

Beach Babes!

One sandy bum!

Day 6-SeaWorld

Sea World was a lot of fun too, not quite as magical as Disneyland, but our kids had a good time and we definitely got plenty wet!

Feeding the Dolphins

Madi was not quite sure what to think

I even got brave enough to touch one.

Madison looking like a California babe in my sunglasses at the Dolphin Show.

We are not quite sure what Mckay is doing here....

Shammu & the trainer. The kids insisted that we sit in the splash zone, and everyone got soaked. The kids thought it was halarious!

Not just a warning.... (Mckay, Andrea, Debbie, and Preston)

This ride is similar to Disney's Grizzy Rapids but you get a lot wetter. It was my favorite ride at Sea World because of Debbie. She was laughing so hard it was contagious. Every ounce of us dripping wet. We had a good laugh over it!

Jon & Julie

Mckay Debbie, and Andrea

Preston & PJ

The Sea Lions show had a Halloween theme and was one of our favorites.

Silly Madi

Preston & Debbie

Our family after a very fun & wet day!

Day 6 and 7-On the road again...

The next day we packed everything up and hit the beach for one more time. Our drive to Vegas seemed a little long, but luckily we were able to break it up with some outlet shopping in Barstow. That night in Vegas we just relaxed and had short cake from one of the casinos.

The next day we woke up earlier and spent most of the morning looking for a church to go to. We finally found one close to the Las Vegas temple. The ward members were so kind and inviting. It was a good example to us of how we should treat visitors. After church we drove the rest of the way home and read the 3rd Fablehaven book aloud.

Overall, it was such a wonderful trip. We felt so blessed to be able to go and hope to go on many more like it in the near future.