Happy Halloween!!

We had a fun little Halloween. I'll spare you all the boring details and just share with you the costumes. Because as we all know, halloween with kids is really all about the costumes. :) This is the first year that I can say that we had a "homemade" halloween. I made all of our costumes. Take a look:

Here is all of us at our Ward Halloween Carnival/Trunk-or-treat:

Ameliasaurus. She really wanted "dinosaur" feet as well, so she is the only one that got lucky enough to get the feet. :)

Joelasaurus

The "spike" view.

And here they are with our pumpkins too.

Happy Birthday!!!

Guess who just turned 1?!

Does he look excited?

Joel's New Perch.

So one day I was in the kitchen doing the dishes (as always) and Joel came in to join me (as always.) He loves to help. And he is very good and taking the silverware and throwing it on the floor. Best helper I've ever had. :)

But this particular day I was concentrating on the dishes and the next thing I new his little head was peering into the sink. He's discovered that he can now climb into the dishwasher and reach anything on the counter. He's learned that there is always water to play with in there (and makes a big mess with it). But as you can see, he's proud as can be of his new found talent.

More about the house...

Just us as we live each day enjoying each other.

I feel like we have so many photos like this. These two are often on the couch "snugging" each other. (as Amelia would say.)


Joel recently discovered our swing on our little patio, and he LOVES it!!! He's learned to open the screen door and will crawl out there and I'll find him lounging like this. It cracks me up.


Amelia loves to swing with him too.


Playing the drums. (Amelia took this photo. I thought it was so good, I had to post it.)


Joel also recently learned to climb into the toy box. Amelia will climb in with him and sing "row row row your boat." They love it!

Natural History Museum

We visited the Natural History Museum at the beginning of this month. The first Thursday of every month is free and it seems like EVERYONE in LA new this little secret! This place was packed. But Amelia still had fun with her two best friends from nursery!



Yes, we made them pose a lot so we could take photos.

Have you seen this??

This is an absolute crack up! I've watched it so many times now...it'll never get old.

Our Sweet Girl!

A few months back we had family photos taken. Amelia was not very cooperative. We didn't get any good ones of just her. I finally made it back there to take some of just her. Here are some of those shots that I took. Isn't she beautiful? (Oh yeah, and I made that dress. :))

I love moments like these!!

Being a mom can be VERY overwhelming sometimes. Sometimes I feel like I am telling these kids the same thing over and over and over and over and over and over until I am blue in the face. (I also remember my mom saying the same thing about me.) :) Sometimes I get so frustrated that I can't keep this house clean because all they ever do is play and leave their toys everywhere. Then I get mad at them....

Then I see moments like these, and I'm over the madness. :)




She thought she was putting make-up on like mommy...but with markers. :)


This is a very typical sight at our house.








And one of these days Joel will get the upper hand. :)




This is the best. When I find them playing so nicely in their bedroom. Amelia bosses Joel around about everything and Joel eats everything Amelia gives him. Perfect combination!!

Aunt Stephanie!!!

We had the fun opportunity of having Aunt Stephanie come and visit us for a few days. Unfortunately for her we happened to be having a cold spell sweep through that week. Temperatures didn't get above 75 degrees the whole time she was here. Poor girl! But we had fun anyway. Thanks for sharing these photos with us Steph!

Joel hanging out on the beach.

Who needs a leash when you've got this??

Is there one attached to this thing too??

Amelia LOVED Graumans Chinese Theater. She was running around putting her hands and feet in everyone else's. I love this shot with Steph.

If you look really close you can see the Hollywood sign through there. This is just outside of the Kodak Theater. Amelia played in the water fountain here while we took care of Joely business.

Santa Monica pier just happened to have this fun concert going on. Amelia loved dancing to the music...in her pajamas! :)

And the LA Temple. Always a beautiful sight.

Typical Amelia. Always loves to work it for the camera.

Happy 4th of July!!

So, my sister-in-law put me onto this blog called Make it and Love it and I check it almost everyday. One day she had this tutorial on how to make your own flag shirts for the 4th. Since that is my favorite holiday, I figured I'd make some flag shirts for my kids. And here they are:

Amelia doing her grumpy face. Hers has the ruffled stripes and buttons for the stars.

Joels is just an applique. Well, I ironed on to heat and bond onto the fabric and then ironed/stitched it onto the shirt.

Oh yeah, that's is Joel standing all by himself. He's on the verge of walking, but not there yet. Yikes!!

These were both SUPER easy and SUPER fun!!! I'm gonna have to try it again with other designs.

Random Grandparents post

So this is one of those post for you Grandma's and Grandpa's. Since we know you love the photos. Enjoy!

One day Joel discovered the crawl space behind our couch. Sweet little smile right?? No, he was screaming and I was laughing. :)

Since we have moved these two into their own bedroom this is a common sight. I love it!!

My sweet Joel. See that nice long hair? I somehow let Brad convince me to buzz it. So, it's much shorter now. :( He won't be getting another haircut for a long time.

His new talent: waving. He waves at everyone now. Love it!

And of course his killer smile.

I have very fond memories as a child of sitting at my moms feet while she put curlers or rags in my hair to curl it for Sunday. I always thought it was fun to feel really girly and have these bouncing beautiful curls, so I thought I'd try it with Amelia. So, here she is:

Wonder why there is no after photo?? Yeah, well, I think this is a tradition we won't be keeping. Let's just say MAJOR FRO!!!!

Ever the budding artist.

Amelia and a friend hang out after church.