Party Time!

It's been a few years since Jocelyn has had a birthday party. So this year I promised she could have one. We chose a cupcake theme. The girls had fun playing games and decorating cupcakes. Jocelyn has really great friends and she received thoughtful gifts. She's such a lucky girl! Each of those cute girls went home with some cupcake party favors and and apron. They loved them! 

Eight is totally GREAT!

My sweet Jocelyn turned eight! I can't believe it. She's growing up and I am sad. I want her to stay little. I love doing her hair and making her dresses and listening to girl chatter (OK maybe not ALL the time), but I do love it. I also love that she is social. She has lots of friends and wants to play ALL THE TIME! She is also great with Owen, playing countless games of "puppy and person". She always is asking to help out but for some reason hates to clean her room- go figure! She is starting to get really good with playing the piano even though she struggles with practicing. Although it is hard to watch her grow, she's turning into such a great little lady.

We decorated her door with streamers before she woke up!

She couldn't decide what kind of cake she wanted, except for the flavor, strawberry. So I decided that a little bit of glitter and pearls would be cute. She loved how her cake turned out and I was happy with her reaction. I don't proclaim to be the best cake decorator but I like to make my kids happy with their birthday cakes. Jocelyn received a new set of scriptures (which she started reading that night) and a CTR necklace for her birthday. What a happy girl! It was so hard for her to wait the 2 weeks to her baptism.

Soccer!

 The season of soccer ended mid October with mixed emotions. Yeah for having my Saturdays back and Tuesday nights are going to be quiet again but I'm kinda sad. Jocelyn and Jake had a great season. They played hard and did amazing. Both of them have come a long way. Funny that both of them are goalies for their teams. So now we will enjoy the quiet (Ha - is it ever quiet around here?) until Spring session starts up again.

Jocelyn was such a tough goalie- during one game the ball was kicked into her face. A really bad bloody nose followed. Once it was cleaned up, she was back in the game. She was a little nervous that she would get hit in the face again but was still aggressive.

    

Jake was really excited about soccer this year and as soon as he found out he was goalie, he used his own money to purchase goalie gloves. He worked really hard at practicing his moves and they paid off. 

Vacation!

This year since Ben's family reunion was here in Utah (which means money saved on our yearly vacation fund), we decided that it would be a good time to go to Disneyland again. My sister Laura and her family joined us also. Last time we went I was pregnant and Riley was just over a year old. So pretty much everything was new to me and the three little boys. I was able to ride all the rides, even when I really didn't want too, and Owen rode all the rides except for the one he wanted to- California Screamin'. He was too short and he let everyone know that he was not happy about the injustice. I had to drag Riley into the haunted mansion (which after the first room, he really enjoyed). Ethan was able to go into the invention center and Jake had fun with the new Star Tours. Jocelyn and the cousins were obsessed with pin collecting and Will just pretty much just hung out and went along with whatever ride he was taken on. All in all it was a great time. A little too hot the first couple days but that didn't stop us. One of the new things we did was the World of Color. We sat in the very front and enjoyed the show and the "light mist".

We spent the first day we arrived in California at Newport Beach.  The kids loved playing in the water and Jocelyn was able to make a great shell collection.

The moment we walked into Disneyland, characters were starting to come out. We grabbed a quick picture with Minnie. We were able to meet a few other characters, but for the most part the kids didn't care. They wanted to ride the rides.

That cute little guy with the red shirt peeking out of his Jedi robe is Owen. He was picked for Jedi training and was able to stand right next to Mace Windu. He spoke to Owen a few times because Owen could not get his lightsaber to open. It was hilarious! I don't have any great pictures since I videoed most of it. 

Cars Land was amazing! It felt like you were in the movie.

Ice cream at the cozy cones-twice!

Lots of fun to have Laura and her family go with us. We spent most of the time together and it was great! Owen loves Makayla and Lakota. At any point if I lost site of him I would look for those two cute girls and Owen would be attached to them! 

It's hard to stand in line, iTouches can really be a life saver!

The Lego store was really a huge hit for our family. We ended up there twice and walked away with a lot of legos. The kids opted to spend their souvenir money on legos! I must say that Jakes studying of how to fill tubs from the pick-a-brick wall really paid off. The Lego workers were impressed by how much he was able to fit in his cups. He was pretty excited. No pictures though- I bailed on Jake, and Ben. The kids and I headed off to Disneyland!

The last day in California we were suppose to go to Legoland. Well, since the kids spent all their money at the lego store, they chose the beach instead. I was all for it! Relaxing on the beach for free was a perfect!