Another Beautiful November Day

After church today we decided to drive up to Palos Verdes and take some pictures of the kids, especially since we have had such beautiful weather lately. We took some pictures up there at the library when Emme was just a couple of weeks old (to use for her birth announcement) and I thought it would be cute to recreate the same poses---the kids were not so cooperative though! Wiggles, running, asking for candy and Emme making these crazy laughing noises! We did get a couple of cute shots, but I think it will take a few more photo sessions, and maybe borrowing a nicer camera from my F-I-L to get some shots for a Christmas card. (I need a faster shutter speed so I can catch those fleeting moments when both the kids are looking at me!!!)

We had a really hard time getting her to look at us!

One of the crazy faces Emme kept making---

I finally gave up on taking pictures of them both and just took pictures of Owen.

Doppelganger

Emme makes this face that we call "serious face". We all get a huge kick out of it...she does it on command and it is really hilarious when she tries to do it while smiling!

While Scott was reading bedtime stories to Owen the other night he found Emme's doppelganger!

See a similarity?? (By the way, it is really hard to try and catch the exact face she makes on camera-this is as close as it gets!)

HALLOWEEN

We had such a fun Halloween this year (not that they aren't all fun!).

It all started with some pumpkin carving a couple days before Halloween. Owen and Emme loved squishing the pumpkin guts and throwing the seeds all over the floor. Oh, and they loved carving too! Owen made a scary face pumpkin, Emme (with some help) made a butterfly, Scott made a Frankenstein.

Owen had a costume parade at school on Friday that Emme and I went to see. He had fun walking around and showing off his cool army man costume. There were some pretty cute little kids there!

We had trunk-or-treat at church on Saturday night and the kids came home with soooo much candy! Emme was a little confused with what was going on. I was helping her practice saying "trick-or-treat" earlier in the day, but she just wasn't getting it! After the first few cars she took a look in her bag and got the biggest smile on her face!! She started giggling and pulled out a lollipop that immediately went into her mouth. I don't think I saw her without candy in her mouth the rest of the night. (I also found her eating chocolate the next morning in the corner of the front room! After that, the candy bag was placed on top of the pantry!)

Look at my cute cupcake!!

Tough army man!

On Halloween we decided to not take our kids out trick-or-treating but we did invite a couple of friends over to hang out (so the kids wouldn't feel like they missed out on Halloween because it was on a Sunday!).

We had tacos and root beer floats, watched Nightmare Before Christmas, and made our first deep fried Oreos and candy bars (Snickers, Kit-Kats and Reese's). The Oreos and Reese's were amazing!! I think we found a new Halloween tradition...deep frying our kid's Halloween candy! (It may sound gross, but don't knock it until you've tried it! We made fun of deep fried Oreos for years!)

Look how much Jessica and Mike love the deep fried Oreos!

SOCCER

 Owen started soccer this fall--he is loving it! He is not the best player on his team, but he does have fun and is learning how to play as a team. His team is the Green Gators-they are so cute!

Team huddle with Coach.

Walking With Dinosaurs

Months and months ago Owen saw a commercial for the show "Walking With Dinosaurs" and really wanted go. One of the final shows was herein September at Staples Center and since Scott works there...he was an awesome dad and remembered to get tickets for us to see it!
The dinosaurs were AMAZING!! They were so lifelike-it felt like we were sitting in the middle of Jurassic Park. The kids loved the dinosaurs, yes, even Emme. (She kept asking if it was her dinosaur!) Such a great show. Not a very long show, it is geared towards kids, but worth it! So much fun!!

 Emme smiling at the "dinos".

 T-REX!!!

Well...I tried to load a cool video of some raptors fighting a brachiosaurus but Blogger is not letting me. I will have to try again later!

Apple Picking

Ahh..Oak Glen! We come here every year and I always love it! We have great BBQ for lunch, walk around the cute shops, sample lots of yummy foods and pick apples!
This year there were only a few of us: Jamie and Kylie, Kylee, Owen, Emme and Brittany. We had a really fun afternoon and I was so glad the Jamie and Kylie came out with us!

 Nice apple Kylee!

 Owen and Kylie-busy little apple pickers!

Emme had to sample all the apples we were picking...well, actually 

all the apples on the ground under the trees we were picking from!

Kindergarten

So...time to do some quick updating!

Yes, it is almost Halloween and I am posting pictures from Owen's first day of kindergarten! I know I am behind! Owen has, well, a different teacher. We had some issues the first few weeks of school but things are steadily getting better. He is such a big kid now! I remember when he was born so clearly and now he is off in school all day!

Wedding Weekend

This last weekend has been sooo busy!! I was asked to make cupcake favors for our cousin Jessica's wedding (Welcome to the family Clint!) - 220 Jumbo cupcakes, individually boxed and tied with a ribbon. They turned out so cute, and they tasted good of course!

I was also asked to make the wedding cake for my friend Carly - congrats to Carly and Michael! She had a beach themed wedding and everything was so beautiful! I made the chocolate seashells and added graham cracker sand and edible pearls. I was pretty happy with the cake, I hope they were too!

Summer ABC Book

During the first week of summer Owen and I made a Summer ABC Book. The book has a page for every letter of the alphabet; on each page is an actvity that we came up with to do sometime this summer. The idea is, if Owen has a day where he gets bored, we open the book, find a page and do that actvity!! We have had fun doing everything. This might be something we do every summer!!

Yogurt Popsicles: we made these the first week and now make them all the time!

Bubble Art - You blow colored  soap bubble then press them onto paper.

Kool Aid Playdoh--so much fun!! (We made peanut butter playdoh too!)

Armed Forces Day

Every May, Torrance has an Armed Forces Day parade with tanks, jeeps, helicopters, fighter jets...and anything else you can think of! The night before the parade, you can go see and climb in all the vehicles, go into simulators, and meet some of the soldiers. We went down with some of our friends for dinner and to let the kids play around. They had so much fun!

Another fun day at the park!

We love that we have a park down the street...and that the weather is so nice we can be outside year round! My kids love playing outside and love playing with eachother...Love this picture!!

LA Zoo Trip

Scott and I have had free passes to the zoo since last summer..In April I finally decided to use them with some friends! We took the kids up for an afternoon and they had such a great time!

Petting a Python---Owen thought this was the coolest part of the whole zoo!

Emme LOVED the animals!!

Rex, Brady, McKenna, Peyton, Zane, Emme, Owen, Jordan.

Easter

Yes, yes...I am posting these VERY late! (At least they are here!)

Here are the Easter photos-we dyed eggs the day before. Scott and Emme were interested for about 5 minutes so Owen and I finished them up. The two of us had fun at least!
On Easter morning, the kids had baskets from the Easter Bunny and he hid eggs all over the front room. They had so much fun finding all eggs and eating their goodies in their baskets. Emme's favorite was the bag of cotton candy. Nothing like pure sugar for breakfast!!
After church, we had dinner and ANOTHER Easter egg hunt at Grandma Terri and Papa Mike's. There were only 3 kids (Owen, Emme and their cousin Adam) and close to 100 eggs!! Lucky kids-especially since some of the eggs had money in them!