Trip To Florida 2006

Here's Maddi with her first pair of Mickey Ears. They only stayed on for a few minutes, but at least we go one picture to remember them. We were all excited to go to the Magic Kingdom.

Joseph wouldn't go on too many rides that we had hoped he'd enjoy because he is older. He did love the Dumbo and the gentler rides.

Jared had to take the boys on the Tea Cups. We hit every ride in the park at least once. Many (like Buzz Lightyear) we went on many times. The weather was great and the crowds were not overwhelming.

One of our new traditions is to go to Disne for the Mickey's not so Scary Halloween Party. We love getting the kids dressed up. Madison went as a blue fairy, but everyone kept calling her Cinderella so we went with it.

Here is our Jedi waiting to get on the boat that took us over to the Magic Kingdom. Star Wars was big with the childs this year.

I couldn't find a Jenga Fett costume. I glad too, because they all wanted to be Jenga. They settled for a Jedi Knight, Yoda, and Darth Vader. I tried to get a Leia costume for Maddi, but she made a cuter fairy.
Here we are all together in Mickey's House.
Joseph and James played with the pumpkins outside of Minnie's house.

We finally found Mickey and stopped him for a picture.
This was just as our night began. The boys were pumped to get candy and see all the characters. We must have collected 30lbs of candy this year. I'm rounding down on the poundage. We had to get a new bag just to get it home. At least, I don't have to buy any candy new for Halloween.
The Party ended just after Midnight. The boys were out before we left the parking Lot.
Grandpa enjoyed swimming with the boys. They wore him out jumping in and out of the pool. Grandpa was happy to catch every jump.
Grandpa, also, took the time to teach Joseph some swimming strokes. Joseph is excited that he can now tread water.
More Jumps.
It was a great trip. We hit all the Disney parks and the Halloween party. We, also, went out to the Kennedy Space Center to see them launch a Rocket at night. It was a week full of great memories.

Madison's Mama

Can you believe that this child is mine? We may have to take a DNA test to prove it, but she is my little girl from the light brown hair down to those big blue eyes. Don't get me started on the skin color contrast. I'm the one she looks for when she's hungry and the one she crys for when she's sad. I'm Madison's Mama.

A Day at the Beach

Bury Grandma and she'll have to stay.
Grandma Nali came back from her mission to be with Great Grandpa Chic while he was in the hospital. He gave us quite a scare. Once his health stablized a bit, we went to the beach with Grandma Nali to enjoy one more day together with the grandkids before she had to go back to Georgia to be with Big Pop.

The waves were playful. Here's Joseph's reaction to the awesome surf.

Everyone waited a few moments before taking the plung into the water. There they viewed the chilly water creep up the shore and tickle their toes, daring them to enter.

A few of us finally gave in and let the ocean greet us with it's icy fingers.

Ethan played it safe at first and seemed to play tag with the waves. He'd run after them as they pushed back and then would turn and run as they returned to the shore.

He let Katie, Jared's cousin and our favorite babysitter, take him in to explore.

James didn't want anything to do with the ocean. He stood as far back as he could and still see the waves as they hit the shore.

Grandma Nali tried to get him closer to enjoy the water like the other kids. James would finally come in after the kids discovered jellyfish being washed up on the shore.

Here is a jellyfish that the kids caught. These weren't stinging. The kids were catching them by the bucket load. They created their own Jellyfish bay by digging a hole and filling it with water, and tossing all their jellyfish together. They caught a few titty bitty crabs, but nothing to bigger than a half dollar. We went on the broadwalk afterwards and ate and did some rides. What a great day.

Ethan Singing Twinkle, Twinkle little Star

Scripture Power

Joseph wanted to sing a song to post. I hope you enjoy it.

It's a Jungle in Here

Here is James of the Jungle,

Ethan the Man Eater,

And Madison The Meek.

Jared gave a lesson on Daniel and the Lions den for family home evening. We decided to act it out so the boys would understand the story better. The kids loved getting the halloween makeup out and transforming into fierce lions. You knew we had a bunch of monkeys. We had tigers last week and lions this week. I wonder what next week holds for our family zoo. (Joseph was Daniel, but didn't want to be in the picture).

Maddie Girl Laugh

This is the cloest thing to a real good toothless grin that I have been able to photograph.

Maddie is so fascinated by the camera its hard to get her to smile on camera,

but you can listen to her laugh by clicking on the button below.

Tiger Boy Hybrids

What can I say, it was raining outside and the boys were bored. Ethan was growling at me while I was trying to put on my makeup. I picked up my eyeliner and went to work making the two cutest tiger boy hybrids ever. I think James got in to it even more than Ethan did.

What does a tiger say? Just click on the button below and Listen.

Pucker Up

It's been requested that I put this picture up on my blog. I got two separate shots of Madison's Pucker Face. I hope you enjoy laughing at our adorable, little, fish lipped child.

Fourth Of July

It's a bird!

It's a plane!

Really it was the Skydiving team that jumped just above our heads.

UNO time while we wait for the fireworks.

Going to Hill Cumorah

Jared and I took the boys and Madison Camping this past weekend with Jared's sister Cami and her family. Maddie was crying a bit so Jared took her while Cami and I prepared dinner. When he came back with her she was sporting this new hairdo.

Here's Ethan just hanging out at Niagara Falls. He climbs anything and everything. He loved the mist of the falls. All the boys loved getting soaked by the falling drops of mist. I love this picture because it looks like Ethan climbed the fence at the falls and is about to fall in (yes, just like in Superman), but truly, Jared and I aren't that bad at parenting. If you look closely you can see the top of a tree.


This picture was taken from an observation area above another observation area that was closer to the falls. If he fell it wouldn't have been more than 3 feet.

The Falls are amazing. We enjoyed going on the Maid of the Mist boat ride and another great attaction called the Cave of Winds. The Latter gets you close to the falls on foot.

The Hill Cumorh Pagent was great this year. Ethan is throughly convinced that the ship that Nephi built to come to the promised land was indeed a Pirate ship. James was scared when the destruction took place just before the coimg of Christ to the Americas. He was screaming until Christ appeared and restored peace.

We walked around at the pagent and found many characters walking around. We were about to head back to our seats when lo and behold we saw Joseph Smith. Our Joseph was so excited. He kept saying "I'm Joseph too! I was named after you." Joseph has wanted to read the Doctrine and Covenants since.

It was a great trip. Aunt Cami, Uncle Dom and their two girls, Kristen and Amanda, helped us out so much. I don't know that we would have made it through the weekend without them. Hope you enjoyed the insights into our trip.