let there be light!

on saturday we finished putting up our christmas lights. the kids {LOVE} the blow-ups in the front yard. tonight we went to look at the gift of lights display at sunset park while sipping hot apple cider and hot cocoa. it really got us in the holiday spirit. when we got home and saw our house all lit up mia said, "mom, you can run in the house and get your camera to take pictures of us with the blow-ups." so i did :).

so you think you can dance!

i am {obsessed} with 'so you think you can dance.' if there is anything in the world that i'd love to be it would be a dancer, but i was not blessed with that talent to say the least...i trip over my own feet most days. it is my guilty pleasure each week to curl up on the couch and watch these amazing dance routines. mia and george enjoy it too. russ bought me tickets to the 'so you think you can dance' tour for my birthday (which isn't until next month). my mom decided it would be fun to take my sister and mia too. so the 5 of us all went. we didn't sit together, though, because russ and i got our tickets several weeks before my mom bought the other tickets. i would have loved to sit by mia just to see her reactions to all the different things. it was an amazing performance!!! other than the lame commentary between each number, i enjoyed every second! mia absolutely loved staying up late. i have to give props to my wonderful husband for taking me to this when the utes were playing their biggest football game of the season at the exact same time. it's a good thing we have a dvr! he's the best!

all grown up!

mia decided she was ready to get her ears pierced. for about 3 days she kept asking me if we could go. finally last thursday i took her...i can't believe how much my baby is growing up!!! i think she looks so beautiful...

halloween

so far every year the kids have chosen costumes that go together...i wonder how long this will last! i imagine at some point george will choose to be something scary and gruesome, and i'm not sure mia will be too excited about coordinating with him. we had a great halloween carving pumpkins for hours (the kids only lasted about 45 minutes due to boredom) and trick-or-treating. my parents came over to share in the halloween fun. we passed out over 300 pieces of candy, and ran out! our neighborhood is pretty dang fun during the holidays.

our neighborhood friends that we went trick-or-treating with...

the HAPPIEST place on earth!

we FINALLY did it! we took our kids to disneyland! there are some people who have told me it is criminal that we have waited this long, but i think we waited the perfect amount of time. we met up with my good friend, sam, and her beautiful daughters, abby and sydney. our kids loved having other little people to pal around with, and i loved spending the day with my dear friend. sam had a pass that allowed us to essentially cut everyone in line for all the rides, which was awesome. we estimate that we got to go on twice as many rides because of it. we rode 12 rides in all...pretty good for 8 hours in the park. for the halloween season, the villains were out in mass numbers, which was kind of fun. we saw the witch and the queen from snow white as well as jaffar from aladdin. many of the regular disney characters were also dressed up in spooky costumes. it was one of the best days ever...we're already planning our next trip!

mia and abby with spooky goofy

the classic photo

we didn't ride mr. toad's wild ride but we got a picture in the car

these girls are so darling

i LOVE abby's face in this picture!

george worked hard for several minutes trying to get this sword out!

mia was so excited for this ride!

george was terrified of this ride!

{he did think it was a blast once it started}

me and sammi

every kid loves to knock on this door! they each needed a turn...

i skipped this ride...i didn't want to risk being sick the rest of the day. the kids, however, LOVED it! i think it was one of george's favorites!

there was TONS of nightmare before christmas stuff out. the whole haunted mansion was this theme. i REALLY wanted to go in, but the kids told us 'no way!'

sammi took sydney and george on the winnie the pooh ride and to meet the winnie the pooh characters while we went on splash mountain. i think she got the best shots of george!

i don't know if you can see mia's face in this picture, but it is awesome! we just had to buy the photo!

after the SPLASH! {she loved it by the way}

russ's sister, melinda, sent the kids money to buy mickey and minnie ears. they looked so cute wearing them around!

we tried getting a picture in front of this famous spot as we entered the park, but there was a marching band blocking it. luckily we got to get a picture just as we were leaving the park.

3rd birthday...take three!

for george's actual birthday we took him to wal-mart to pick out a big-boy bike. he chose spiderman! he also opened his presents from russ's parents (who were down for the weekend), mia and his aunt linnie and uncle mitchell (russ's siblings who live out of town). overall, this proved to be a spiderman birthday! he was hooked up with a spiderman action figure, car, plane, 4-wheeler, placemat, toothbrush, costume and more! he got lots of other fun things too! hamburgers are george's favorite food, so that night we took him to blt burger inside the mirage. if you're looking for a good hamburger, this is a great place to go! it's not cheap, but it is soooo yummy. soooo-ooooo yummy.

george has been practicing holding up 3 fingers...

mia gave him a nice birthday squeeze!

george with his grandma dolores and papa george. this was taken right after his bath to which george said, 'i need to smell nice and clean for my birthday.' hopefully he thinks he needs to smell nice and clean even when it's not his birthday!

3rd birthday...take two!

what do you get when you take uncle skaught's september 24th birthday and add it to george's september 26th birthday? a fiesta on september 25th! we all headed to el patron's mexican restaurant for dinner. there was a mariachi band that sang 'happy birthday' to skaught and george while they each wore a sombrero...george was wide-eyed and mesmerized. we then headed over to skaught's for a birthday treat {cherry oat squares} and presents.

yes, his ENTIRE head is inside that thing! i think the fact that he only has on one shoe adds a nice touch.

mia made skaught a very special birthday card. he promised to keep it forever!

the birthday boys!