Here we are!

I guess it really is time for me to update this bad boy. If for no other reason than to post a couple of cute Halloween picts then so be it. Actually, I guess a lot has happened since last time I wrote on here. So where do I start? First of all, on Oct 19 I took Hailey and Hunter to San Diego where we met up with my dad, my brother Grant, my stepmom, and my stepsister. We were supposed to go scuba diving and to Sea World and all that but those darn wildfires just ruined all the fun. We ended up getting evacuated from my uncle's house where we were staying. Luckily I have several cousins who live nearby, so we got juggled around to their houses. It was a scary time for everyone and I felt bad trying to have a decent vacation while everyone's lives were in chaos. We did end up driving north to go to the beach one day and managed to go to the San Diego Zoo on another. Kinda crazy for a "vacation", but it was really nice to see family at least. But for the record, traveling alone with 2 kids...not particularly fun. I love them anyways though.
Here's Hailey enjoying the beautiful weather in San Diego-this was obviously before the fires...when it was still safe to breathe outside.

Hunter hanging out with some of his friends at the zoo.
Hailey and grandma Nette at the beach-we just kept driving north till the air was clean and ended up at Laguna beach for the day.


Now on to the Halloweeny goodness. If you can call it that. Part of the experience was not so pleasant because Hailey is going through this extremely opinionated/extremely contrary/extremely fond of throwing tantrums phase. I hear she'll grow out of it by the time she is 23. Long story short, she didn't want to wear any of the 6 costumes we provided. Finally we forced her in to something and plugged our ears while she screamed. Good times. She did however really enjoy getting up on the stage at our ward party for the costume contest, and nothing could be better than trick or treating with her cousins.Tell me this isn't the cutest lobster you have ever seen!

Whoa-who's that hottie?

Not the best picture, but if you can't tell, at the ward party Hailey was my twin Cinderella.

A nice little visit

My two* little angels

*sometimes

We finally got my mom and Ken to come out for a visit. It was a lot of fun. My mom was here for 8 days, but Ken was only able to stay for 3 days. In order to follow tradition whenever my mom is visiting, we went miniature golfing. Evidentally no one wants to play outside in the 90 something degree October heat, so we found this place with an indoor course and blacklights. Righteous! Hailey had fun for about nine holes. Hunter enjoyed watching from his stroller for about .5 holes.

I suppose it is about time that I post a picture of myself on my own blog. What a novel thought. My mom says this is my hoochie pose...but what can you do?

Here's Hunter and me with our new dino friend.

The real reason for my parents visit was so we could do the race for the cure for breast cancer. This the fourth time that Ben and I have done the race and the second time that my mom has come down to do it with us. It's becoming a nice little tradition. I'm overwhelmed by the number of people who get out to support this cause. I think there were something like 30,000 people. I got a little emotional at the end watching my mom go through this section they called "survivors path". Ben and I totally planned on running it this year, but at the last minute we decided to walk because we stayed up until 2 am the night before painting our living room.

Picture Time!

We finally got some pictures taken of Hunter. I think he looks kinda cute. Of course, I am slightly biased! I wish I could have gotten some of Hailey done too, but she is so funny in front of the camera. She was a very big helper when we got Hunter's pictures done and she loved to tell everyone that we took her brother's picture.

My friend Teddy

Well, they're not professional -but I managed to find some pictures of Hailey. Here's my little princess. (Do you like the polo under the dress??)
And here's some fancy crazy Hailey hair...

One more time.

Ok. Let's try this again. I'm sure I can do this blogging thing. What everyone really wants is some pictures though...so I'll definately throw some of those in with this post. I'm putting one of the front of the house. When we finally get the inside of the house decorated a little more to my liking I'll post some of the more interesting stuff. It is really nice to actually have our own house though.

The kids are getting big too fast. Hunter's new favorite thing is climbing up the stairs when I'm not looking. He's getting pretty speedy at it. He also enjoys spitting his baby food on me at dinner. I really enjoy that. He'd rather just have pizza or something but he doesn't realize that even though he has 8 teeth now, they aren't quite ready for that. Here's all my kids climbing the stairs (and in case you're wondering...that is just a little water on Hailey's dress).

Hailey loves to talk, sing, dance, and talk some more. She always has something to say. She is very helpful and loves to make her little brother "diggle" (giggle). It's fun to watch them do more things together. Here she is helping to push the stroller.

Never done this before

I'm quite new to the world of blogging, but per Claudia's request...I'll have to give it a shot. Beats listening to my son cry himself to sleep anyways. Life is fun here in Texas, with the exception of the not really having friends part. I take that back, we do have friends. We're so grateful for the time that we get to spend with Matt, Sharon, Matt Jr., Kat, and Megan-it's awesome to have family around. They're a lot of fun and have really helped to ease the transition for us.
Texas is, well, hot. I spend way to much time inside. My brother likes to tease me about that. I went outside today...nice family outing to Target. Good times.