Christmas Preview

This is what we've been doing today....

Teeth

This photo is for Aunt Jill, so she knows that we brush our teeth at our house. She'll be so proud!

Happy Halloween

This year for our ward's Trunk 'r Treat Olivia went as a peacock and Malaki as a lion (Zoo theme, get it). Olivia won a prize for her costume and was pretty excited but not as excited as she was for getting to wear eye shadow. Malaki proceeded to strip in the first 5 minutes there and thank goodness I remembered to put a onesie underneath. Tonight we are going to Lisa's for dinner to celebrate Troy's 18th birthday and just walk her neighborhood. Happy Halloween!

A mum for the mum

The south is full of traditions that we just didn't have in California and one that has caught my attention is the homecoming mum. What's a mum you ask, well let me tell you.
From Wikipedia: Mums: A tradition that has been in place for almost a century at many Southwestern American high schools, especially in Texas, homecoming dates exchange mums and garters on Homecoming Friday, to wear to school and then to the big game, while at some smaller schools students where them to the dance this is usually not the norm. These are very elaborate corsages (for the girls, usually pinned to clothing on the chest or shoulder) or garters (for the boys, worn on the arm) that consist of large flowers, they come in several sizes and shapes and the larger the better, (usually a white synthetic chrysanthemum) surrounded by a ribbon ruffle. Long ribbons, decorations and trinkets and bells are hung from the mum. These decorations are carefully chosen to indicate the students' class, homecoming date, activities, and interests, in addition to commemorating the homecoming event with decorations related to the school and the homecoming game. And in true Texas fashion, bigger is better....so what started as a joke, I made one for Lisa to wear to the Homecoming Football game. She loved it and I have to say that it was nothing compared to what we saw on the girls walking around. It's tradition to decorate with the person's interests/hobbies, so I made hers a #1 mom and decorated a ribbon for each of her kids. I think it wasn't so bad for my first mum. I'll know what to do when my kids are in High School. It was a great game and we got to see Troy sack the other team's quarterback!

An example of the more common sized mums but on the mild side....lots of lights, letters, boas and stuffed animals were seen.

School

I can't really say back to school because this year is Olivia's first year in an official school. She started Kindergarten and has a great teacher. Of course, I didn't allow us enough time to walk to school, so when we got there it was time to say good bye right away and I wasn't able to get a photo of her with her teacher but Tomas got a quick shot of her sitting at her desk. It was probably a good thing that we only had time for a quick goodbye because I think it was harder on me then her to say goodbye. On the way to school, I asked if she was nervous and she said no but her stomach felt like it was going to explode... oh my funny girl! She loves school and her only complaint is that they don't let her take her shoes off and she really would like to be buying lunch every day. She was a little sad that she didn't have any of her friends in her class but she knows some in different rooms and of course she has made friends quickly, especially with a little boy named Jacob. We hear about him a lot!


on our way to school!

no looking back now....

I love the "deer caught in the headlight" look...

Little helper or just being nosy

Mr Nosy needed to know what was in the bird feeder....so he helped himself

Always in Motion

Tomas wanted to capture movement in a photo.

Happy Birthday Malaki

2 years ago today we welcomed our wonderful Malaki into our home. He had to be different then his sister, so he come breech (resulting in a c-section for me)and was born with a complete unilateral lip and palate cleft. He's had 3 surgeries in his 2 short years which he's taken with stride. We had a little family party Sunday before grandma left town and of course we had swimming because Malaki loves the water.

Two things that I love about Malaki!

1- He has a great disposition and a mighty temper... smiles at everyone, loves to laugh

2- He mimics everyone and everything.... monkey see, monkey do

Newborn
1st Birthday

2nd birthday

Mom's jogging partner

Mini Family Reunion

Last weekend we had a mini family reunion with some of the Cottrell cousins. Steven and Liz both live in Texas, so along with their families and Lisa, Cheryl, myself and mom all gathered at the Angeli's for 24 hours of fun in the sun. Our fun just happened to fall on the first day of triple digits this summer. Friday night we had a family dinner and swimming. I left early to put kids to bed but I understand the group that stayed played games and watched movies. Saturday morning we did a scavenger hunt that Cheryl was in charge of and launched water balloons. Went back to Lisa's for swimming, lunch and more getting to know each other games. While the kids played the adults sat around and shared stories about our dads and their families. A great day of getting to know each other and I'm sure the start of many more. Thanks Lisa for hosting!

First Cousins

The whole group as we left for the scavenger hunt
Water balloon launcher

Olivia helping her team

old stuff

Oops... I've been bad at this blogging thing... here's some old photos

Easter 2010

yes, Malaki is drinking the dye water



May 2010

Malaki in the bottom of our stroller with his 2 monkeys

Olivia's birthday
We had a pink and black pirate party to celebrate Olivia's 5th birthday. We met at a local splash park, with 15 kids it was great that they could get wet but I didn't have to worry about kids drowning. To keep the theme, we had water, water balloon sling shot, pirate pinata and a treasure hunt. Marisa and a friend came and helped, which was fantastic, now...where do I get some teenagers of my own to be permanent helpers?

Swimming

Summer means swimming around here, so it was obvious that lessons were going to be on our list of things to do. Logan has been visiting, so he and Olivia took level 2 and because I had to be at the pool for them and if Malaki is any where close to water, he's going to be in, I signed him up for a parent and tot class. Not sure if he really learned anything but he loved it! Olivia and Logan passed their level and Malaki can't move up until he's 3 but he's learned the monkey crawl, blow bubbles and pretty much in typical Malaki fashion showed no fear. For example, went down the water slide by himself, multiple times.

4th of July

For the breakfast at church I got us all matching Old Navy shirts to help celebrate the 4th.

Summer

Summer started with Malaki having surgery #3, more pallet work and I have to say, this has been his quickest recovery so far. 3 weeks of a liquid diet was kind of hard but lots of milk shakes, smoothies and snow cones made the weeks bearable.



waiting for his turn


the next morning, waiting to be released

Happy Birthday Olivia!

In honor of your fifth birthday, here are 5 things that I love about you...

1) you love your brothers and are a great big sister to Malaki

2) you love animals, just like me!

3) you are sassy like your mama!

4) you are a great artist

5) as long as it's your idea, you'll do anything....

Sneak Peak....

Here's a sneak peak of what we'll be doing tomorrow at 10am.... Can you guess who's day it is? Many thanks to Natalie for the cake... she rocked it for me!

Wild Flowers

Tomas and I took pictures of the kids in the wild flowers, not sure who took what but these are some of my favorites...