New Baby Boy!

My sister Amber had her baby...Brady Reed Garrett. Isn't he a cutie??? He makes #4 for her (only boy), #9 for our side of the family, and #20 on our in-laws side of the family(remember, we share in-laws). His big sisters love him as do his cousins!! We are so excited to have him in our family!

Thanksgiving

We had Thanksgiving with Grammy this year. Dinner was DELICIOUS!!!! (eventhough her crockpot exploded- a story for another time)
The kids had fun playing with their cousins.

I'm already craving next year!!!

Halloween night

I finally found Macy a Princess Leia costume so Macy was thrilled! She wanted to dress up as a Star Wars Character just like the boys.
On Halloween night we went to a Trunk-orTreat party at church. And then finished off the evening by trick-or-treating in our neighborhood, We got way too much candy.

Riley and Tyler were hilarious hippies. I even made their bellbottoms. I actually had to hide them after Halloween because they kept wearing them to school! They loved them!

May the Force be with you!!!

Halloween with Grammy

A few nights before Halloween we went to Grammy's to celebrate. She had a cup cake-cake and chili dogs. YUMMY!
All of the kids dressed up in ther costumes. The twins were hippies. Gage was Darth Vader and Lucas was Yoda(a little bit blurry because he is swinging that green lightsaber). Macy was Dorothy because I couldn't find her the Princess Leia costume that she wanted. Carly was a punk rocker. Jenna was a witch and Georgia was "Tinkybell".
Grammy got everybody a pumpkin to carve. The kids' mostly designed there own but of course had help carving.
They turned out really cute!!!

Happy 9th Birthday Gage...in October

Boys are awesome! They are so easy!! And Gage is no exception. All he wanted for a birthday party was to play flag football with all of his friends. So thats just what we did. And all we needed was... Football cupcakes, lots of snacks and a cooler full of gatorade...

A bunch of fun, hyper boys(about 16 of them)...

A park on a gorgeous day...

and A very patient, football- lovin' uncle Reed. (Thank you Reed!!)

Gage got an electric guitar for his birthday. He picked it out months ago and was promised he could have it if he learned to play several songs first on his acoustic.

Rock on Gage!! We love you!!!

Prince Charming

Cinderella would be so lucky.

Disney's California Adventure

The second day we went to the other theme park- Disney's California Adventure. It has some of our favorite attractions in it. My favorite is Soarin' over California. AMAZING! This time Macy was tall enough to do it and she loved it too. Of course we got to see Lightening McQueen and Mater. Their eyes moved and they talked and everything. We really liked Turtle Talk with Crush. It was really cool. There was a little roller coaster that was pretty stinking fast for little kids but they liked it(especially Gage) and road it several times. Lucas loved the Playhouse Disney show. The big girls liked Honey I shrunk the audience...Lucas- not so much. Too scary!

Macy loved sporting her new pink mouse ears. I had her name embroidered on the back. If only they could stay this little forever.

Lucas and Daddy vs. Gage

A portion of the park was under construction but there was still more to do than we had time for. We were able to ride the new Toys Story Mania ride. AWESOME!! Worth every minute that we waited in line! We were dying to ride the river rapids ride(I can't remember the name). We all wanted to but it was really chilly that day. Riley stayed back with daddy, the little kids and I and only Gage and Tyler braved it! They got soaked and had a blast!

Disneyland

Wade and I have been lucky enough to have taken our kids to Disney World twice. It is seriously the happiest place on earth! The moment I saw Cinderella's castle the first time I had goosebumps from head to toe. I found myself walking around the park with a smile from ear to ear and thinking over and over "we are actually here!" And even tearing up when we had to leave to come home. And then to be there with your children and share that with them is amazing. Nothing compares to seeing your little girl's face when she sees a real Princess or your little boy's face when he gets to fight Darth Vader with a light saber.

The entire experience is magical. Everything from walking down Main Street USA to Mickey shaped chicken nuggets. There is always music playing in the background everywhere you turn like it is the soundtrack of your vacation. The Castmembers (employees) treat you like they came to work that day specifically to accommodate you. They always greet you with a smile and refer to your children as "prince" or "princess". The bathrooms are spotless and seldom do you see trash around or ever smell cigarette smoke. The parades are amazing and I couldn't even begin to describe the fireworks displays because they are definitely "see it to believe it" type events. We love all of the 3-D shows and the live shows with all of the characters. The rides are awesome and leave you wanting to go again and again and again. They add new things all of the time so you can never say you have seen it all.

Wade grew up in Vegas and visited Disneyland several times. That park was a little different than the Magic Kingdom and he always said he thought he liked it better. I couldn't imagine that he would like Disneyland better than Disney world. I always thought they had to have been the same maybe just layed out a little different.

When we found out we were going out to Vegas we decided to surprise the kids and drive to California first to spend a couple of days in Disneyland. They were totally surprised!!

This was on Its a Small World. It is such a cheesy ride but you have to do it according to Macy and Lucas. They both got their first mouse ears. The twins and Gage got theirs a couple of years ago. They are a little too "cool" for them now. Besides, I don't think they would fit over Gage's hair!

Doesn't Lucas look so natural standing beside explosives!! scary! I hope this isn't a preview of a later post! These pictures were taken in toon town. The first picture at the top was in the "dog-pound" and apparently we picked up an extra puppy at the pound.
We had a blast at Disneyland and spent an entire day riding rides and seeing shows. We played and played until our legs wouldn't let us anymore.

***Interesting note... a lady came up to me and asked me if we were here for UEA. I told her that I didn't know what she was talking about and she said "I'm sorry, I just thought you looked LDS". huh???????? I know I look 19 and have several children but if she heard me open my mouth I'm sure she would have known right away that I was not from Utah. Of course I told her I was LDS (she has good radar) and she explained what UEA was and we had a nice conversation. And then I remembered that I had seen BYU t-shirts and ball caps on people all day. Now it all made since. Definitely not something that would have happened in Memphis.

VIVA LAS VEGAS

In October, we traveled out west to visit friends and family in Vegas. We actually drove from Memphis to California for a couple of days. Then we drove to Vegas and were there for a few days and then drove all of the way back home. Let me just say... a lot of snacks and a lot of movies.

We had so much fun in Vegas. We stayed with Wade's cousin David and his family. We love spending time with them. Lucas is still talking about Hank the dog. They are always so sweet to let us crash their pad and we are so grateful for them.

I got to visit with my friend Debbie and her kids. They just moved to Vegas this summer from Memphis and we have missed them so much. I even brought her a gallon of Corkeys BBQ sauce since they were having withdrawls from lack of good BBQ. The only pictures I got in Vegas were of our kids together when we went ot visit the chocolate factory.

Aunt Tootsie had a "Cookies, Cocoa, and Cousins" event for us to see the rest of the family. It's amazing how fast all of the kids become aquainted eventhough most of them had never even met.

We also got to see Wade's best friend Jerrald and his family. Wade helped Jerrald with a wood floor problem and we went out to dinner. Our kids are all about the same age and had fun playing.

On the way home we met up with my friend Kayleen and her family at a park in Flagstaff Arizona. We had a picnic and played for a while. It was so good to see Kayleen after 3 years!

We had so much fun and didn't want to come home. We decided the next time we go out there it will be for at least 2 weeks. And I could just kick myself for not taking pictures!

He strikes!!!

I know...when you think it couldn't get worse!!!! Yes, that is SHARPIE marker on my hardwood floors!!!!! Not just on them, but ALL over them. The entire length of my den. I wanted to die! Fortunately for the little menace his dad is a floor man.

Soccer

Three of my kids played soccer this year. It was crazy trying to get them to all of there games and practices on all different days and times. And we had A LOT of rain this year so there were a lot of make-up games which took our soccer season well into November. But it was a lot of fun to watch the kids.

Tyler played a couple of seasons ago and decided to take a break and try something else. But this fall she wanted to play soccer again and was lucky enough to be on the same team with one of her friends. Their team had a rough start to the season but ended up winning most of their games. It was so fun to watch them all work together and become a pretty good little team.

Gage also took a break form soccer but was anxious to start back. He enjoyed playing goalie and forward this season. The boy teams are fun to watch because they are much more aggressive than the girls and way more competitive. They had a blast.

Macy, our little diva, decided she wanted to play soccer too. We were like REALLY?? but I didn't want to discourage her from anything so I let her try. (Besides, once you pay for 2 kids the 3rd one is free). Macy has always taken dance classes, ballet classes and acrobatics. She enjoys singing and performing so I wasn't surprised when she was so concerned with her "soccer outfit" for her practices and games. Nor was I surprised at her 2nd practice when she announced that she didn't want to play anymore. I made her stick it out.

They all had a great season. I'm such a looser and didn't get a picture of all of them but i did get one of Macy. Chances are she won't want to play again so at least I have the proof that she gave it a shot. The little un-athelete even scored a goal!! You should have seen her celebrate! (and brag to her siblings of course)

Update!

Wow, I have so much to catch up on. My favorite time of year (October-January) also happens to be the busiest time of year. Which means my blog took a back seat to holidays, vacations, birthdays, school activities, illnesses, etc. (I warned you that would happen to me) Now I have a little time to catch my breath. So the next few posts will be playing a little 'catch-up'. It's never a dull moment around this house!!