Sign #3 that I might have a DIVA on my hands

She's runs through the water like a Baywatch girl.

Sign #2 that I might have a DIVA on my hands

She has her own sense of style. She wants to wear a skirt or dress everyday. She has to pick out her outfits. Anything I want her to wear, simply will not do. She likes crazy color combinations. The more colorful and crazy the better.

Sign #1 that I might have a DIVA on my hands

She has to have a magazine to read while taking a bath.

Don't you just hate colds?

This little guy woke this morning and came into my room saying, "My nose! It's not working!"

Cousins in Costumes

Sunday we had our monthly family dinner. And even though Halloween is over we had the kids dress-up (they didn't mind) in their costumes one more time so we could take pictures of them all together. Sadly, Trevin was sick, so we are missing him and his sister Halie but all the other cousins are there.

I love these pictures. Is there anything cuter then a group of kids all dressed up? We have taken lots of these kind of pictures over the years and they are among my favorites. I love seeing all the cousins together and seeing how they grow and change from year to year.

The boys

The girls

Everyone together

A moment for which the world was made

I just finished listening to E.M. Forster's A Room with a View on my ipod.

I enjoyed it.

I really liked this quote, "When I think what life is, and how seldom love is answered by love--Marry him; it is one of the moments for which the world was made."

I especially liked the last part, "it is one of the moments for which the world was made".

This phrase stuck in my head and I kept thinking about it.

What are the moments for which the world was made?

I think this was one.


Sisters meeting for the very first time.

A Happy Halloween

Wednesday, Ella and Gordon got to dress up for their parades at school.

The saddest little witch. She liked the idea of green face makeup but when I actually but it on she HATED it! She almost cried, we had to hurry and snap these pics and then wash her face. As you can see from the next picture she was much happier without it.




Here is Ella during her parade at school.


Some of our Halloween treats. They were a big hit with the kids.



Gordon was a vampire at school and then switched to a ninja for Halloween night. His dad helped him put together a great ninja costume. I say next year dad can be in charge of all the costumes.



Here we have Ella the beautiful nice witch, Gordon the fierce ninja, and the ever adorable Elmo. We had a great time at the Ward Halloween Party, playing carnival games and listening to spooky stories.

An adorable little ladybug who has absolutely no idea what Halloween is about, but is cute nonetheless.

After the ward party we went Trick -or- Treating in the Canyon. Poor little Elmo missed out on that because he fell asleep in the car. Not to worry though, he still came home with plenty of candy. It was a great Halloween.

09/09/09 @ 9:09 am

This is the pic I took at 9:09 am at 9/9/09. My two little ones laying together on the ottoman.

The joys of Motherhood

Just look at this sweet face. Can you believe such a cute little guy is capable of this?


I assure you he is. I am saving this picture FOREVER. Just to remind him when he is older of some of the things he put me through.

Is she really that old?

Ella is loving Kindergarten, although waking up in the morning is still quite a struggle. She is very dramatic and comes home telling lots of wild stories that I know can't possibly be true. Anytime I ask her to do something she tells me, "but my teacher says...." I glad she respects her teacher and thinks she is the ultimate authority but come on!

The things they say

"Mom, my legs are starving to lay down!" - Ella age 5.

The 2nd day of Second Grade

Today is the 2nd day of Second Grade for my Gordon boy. All I can say is WOW, has he grown up fast.

It really doesn't seem that long ago to me that he looked like this and and was my baby boy.

He still loves school! Yeah! I'm crossing my fingers and praying he continues to love school in the years to come. He has one of his favorite friends in his class and is enjoying taking a lunch to school in his Transformer lunch box. Last year I was pregnant so we did school lunch. He really wanted a lunch box and really wanted to bring lunch from home so I promised him we would do it more this year. He's an old pro at riding the bus and is excited to help his sister get to her class each day when she starts Kindergarten next week!

Well it only took us about 3 months but we finally got our sweet baby girl blessed. And it was worth the wait because both sets of grandparents were able to be there (Keni's parents from Samoa and mine from AZ) for the happy occasion. Another special thing about Kalia's blessing is that she was blessed at the same time as her cousin Mataio, who also shares her birthday. Lori (who is my cousin and is married to Keni's cousin) and I had our babies on the same day about 5 hours apart. Too bad we were at different hospitals. Anyway since our families are mostly the same on both sides we decided to bless our babies together. After the blessings we had a party at Lori's parents house and what a party it was. It was so awesome to be surrounded by our famlies. Kalia and Mataio are so lucky. They already have hundreds of people who love them and would do anything for them. Thank you to everyone who came and supported us on this special day.

Here is Kalia in her blessing dress. Ella wore this dress also.



This is Kalia in my blessing dress.

Lori & Mataio and Kathy & Kalia

Mataio and Kalia.

Summer Song

What is your song for the summer of 2009? The song that when you hear it years from now it will remind you of this summer; of cruising in the car with your kids on the way to swim lessons, of laying on a hammock reading, of the places you went and the people you were with this summer. My summer song for 2009 is My Time With You by David Choi and Kina Grannis. You can download it for free here.

Please tell me what your summer song is. I would like to make a summer playlist with the summer songs of my family and friends.

Peonies

are my favorite flowers. What are yours?

Obsessed

I cant' stop taking her picture. Plus, I got a fancy new camera for my birthday which makes it even more fun.

2 months

Disclaimer: Kalia does have onesies that fit. I am taking her pic each month in a 12 month onesie to show how much she grows her first year. Kalia's grandma saw her one month pics and thought she didn't have any onesies that fit. We now have more than enough thanks to grammy.

She's two months old today.
She's a happy baby.
She ALWAYS has a stuffy nose. (Going to ask the Dr. about it)
She likes to be held to fall asleep.
She loves to be all bundled up tight.
She smells delicious. (Well, most of the time)
She awakes up once in the night to eat and usually ends up sleeping the rest of the night in my arms.
She slept all through the night once.
She WON'T take a Binky.
She has started smiling and talking to us.
Her cheeks are getting chubby.
She's perfect.
We can't imagine life without her.

She's a dancing girl!

Tuesday, Ella had her first dance recital. She started taking dance in January and she LOVES it. She did a great job and looked gorgeous (even though her mean mother wouldn't let her wear makeup at the performance like some of the other girls).
Here she is on stage.

Ella's cousins Jaidyn and Irelynn go to the same dance studio. It was so fun to watch them dance too.
It was a special treat to have Grandma Reid there.

My Fab four

Not the best picture, but here they are my fab four. I bought the vests for the boys and as I was looking through the girls clothes I found these two dresses that match. They all looked so cute.

Memorial Day Weekend

Here is Kalia meeting her Grandpa O. for the first time.


This is my adorable nephew Brock. I think he is one of the cutest babies ever and I had to capture the darling way he is crossing his ankles in this pic.


We had so much fun in St.George this weekend. My parents rented a big beautiful house and we all went down there for the weekend. All of my brothers and sisters and families were there for at least part of the time except Jason who is on his mission in Mexico. There were 24 of us in all. We had so much fun swimming, eating, shopping at the Outlet stores, visiting and playing games. Grandma had crafts for the kids to do. The older kids even had their own room to sleep in away from their parents. They loved it, but I'm not sure how much sleeping they did! We had such a fun time it was really hard to leave.




The pool was awesome. It had this great slide that the kids and adults all enjoyed.

Little Dorrit

I recently enjoyed watching Little Dorrit on PBS. I liked it so much and wanted more when it was over so I decided to read the book.
I didn't realize it was so long. I had forgotten that Charles Dickens was paid by the word. Now, I don't have anything against long books, its just that with a newborn and three other wild children my reading time is limited. I asked Gordon how long he thought it would take me to read the book and he said, "150 years!" Well, I hope it doesn't take THAT long. I am however, determined to finish if only to show him that it can be done. I am currently on page 27, only 817 more to go!