January

January is a dreadfull month. I want to start saving money to a "january fund" so when this long, cold, dull month comes along you can go on vacation, or do lots of special stuff to get you through the month... glad january is over :)  here are a few snippetts from the month

 Millie loves fruit! everytime we go to the store she tries to get a pomegranite.  she will bring it home and eat the whole thing in one sitting!

 

 Logan does not take a binki, that is part of why I think this picture is so funny. He also used to hate hats, but because he likes girraffes he likes this one... love the neclaces too. 
 

 Cute little logan (17 months) all dressed up for church... a little professor baby.

 

We couldn't resist taking a quick get away to phoenix, to enjoy some 65 degree January weather.  We went to the zoo and had a good time! (although, we are very spoiled zoo people, as the Memphis zoo is supposed to be the #1 zoo in the U.S.- according to trip advisor... who knew?! we used to go there about once a week, so we can't help comparing all other zoo's to it)

 

Millie is doing some animal investigations at the zoo... while wearing her offical wild kratts apparel!

December

we had a SNOWY december! (and january...and february...) I wasn't particularly fond of the snow because I am training for the phoenix half marathon and it is hard to run in a bunch of snow... Millie and Josh built a nice igloo, which stuck around for almost a month. 

 Logan LOVED the snow too. it's so funny how kids just don't even notice how cold it is outside.

 

 We have a horse pasture in our back yard.  There was a herd of elk (i think there were 19 of them) who came and stuck around for a few days.  The horse didn't seem to fond of them.

 

We headed out to utah for christmas.  It was fun to see both our families, and to see Josh's brother who just came home from his mission the week of christmas.  The riverwoods mall always puts on a great show for the christmas season.  There are concerts each night, lights, fires to stand around to warm yourself etc.  We went there to see Santa.  Logan isn't as friendly and easy going as millie was so we were surprised that he was ok with Santa!

 

There is a perfect kids sledding hill at the park by my parents house.  We were glad to have a white christmas and be able to go sledding.

 

Millie and her little cousin Ollie don't always get along super well, but they did have a good time working on a gingerbread house together.  I love making gingerbread men, and houses! It just seems so cozy

Josh thinks it would be a good idea to let our kids choose a christmas lawn ornament each year (I however do NOT share this idea)  but this year they picked out a shivering polar bear.  After Logan got over his fear of it, he LOVED it!  every day we would have several fits where logan was hitting on the front door (or kicking and screaming on the ground) yelling "Po' bear, Po'bear" on days that it was warm enough he would spend 15 or so minutes just looking at the polar bear, hugging it, and punching it.

November

I am still so behind on blogging. but I finally made my new years resolutions and I hope to do my blog twice a month... but for sure at least once. October had alot of excitement for us, so luckily november was a little slower. 

 

Millie started ballet class in the fall.  now she is learning to be a "Dancerina"  Little girls are just so cute all dressed up in their ballet outfits.  (I can never get a normal picture of millie)

 

 Josh's sister owns a gymnastics gym up here.  Mill has loved taking gymnastics there!  She always talks about here "McAdams blood"... some days she has it, some days she doesn't.  I think her McAdams Blood helps her be brave and athletic.  (She sure does have McAdams blood- but I think McAdams Blood just makes you overly energetic and crazy)

we got some november snow... and these kids loved playing in it!!!  Josh loves to make fires so he let them do a little marshmellow roast after playing.

Millie is really into her stuffed animals right now.  she will gather them all together, or put them all in piles, or shove them all in her tent.  This is when she gathered them all together and asked me to "take a family picture" for them.

 

I teach a little preschool class once a week.  It was invented by millie, and we call it "Animal Club".  Each week we learn about a  new animal.  I know a lady who owns Llamas so we got to take a fun field trip on the day we learned about Llamas. The mother Llama had given birth just a day before our fieldtrip... what perfect timing!

 

 thanksgiving was fun with alot of good food.  Josh's parents and sister came out here for the holiday. Josh and I enjoy cooking together and have enjoied finding our own delicous thanksgiving recipes (ie: creamed corn, sweet potatoe casserole, homeaid cranberry sauce, etc)

grandma and grandpa gave millie this cool cowboy hat.  That is an essential if you live up here

 

day after thanksgiving we went with grandma and grandpa and  all the cousins for a little hike up in the pines

 

Just some random crafts from november.  These bird feeders are fun and EASY to make.  spread a mini bagel with peanut butter and press in birdseed... hang on a branch.

 

This dough made some cute leaf sugar cookies.  we just put food coloring in different balls of dough, and then pieced them together. 

Happy Halloween!

 snowflake pumpkin patch. I love the fall season! (notice M's chin. She split it open- she was jumping up and down, in the bathroom, having a fit about something, and came down and hit her chin on the counter!!!)

she was adamant about PAINTING her pumpkin

 he loves utinsils so he was a natural at pumpkin carving...

cute little kids with one of millie's best friends... he's a real cowboy.  Little rainbow brite didn't want to wear her rainbow sleeves because they were too itchy... We had a really fun time trick-or-treating.  Logan even got really into it and would wander up and say his own version of "trick-or treat"

 Logan LOVED this costume.  He would find it laying around the house and bring it over to me wanting me to put it on.  He would wear it around, hood and all (normally he hates hats).  He was so pleased with himself when he could be a "dinosaur" (it's a dragon but i told him it was a dinosaur) and chase millie around roaring at her!

 and of course the halloween meal...  dessert is pudding covered with oreo crumbs and gumdrop mushrooms (dots for the top, and spice drops for the bottom... just roll bottoms out to be a little thinner.  sprinkles for dots)

 These were eyeball kabobs. there are also some carrott fingers on there (carrotts with a almond slice for the fingernail)

  Spider ravioli... bone breadsticks... and marshmello eyeballs over our orange soda.

Happy Halloween!

Millie's Birthday and Disneyland trip

This cute little girl turned 4 last month!  We had wanted to go to disneyland this summer but didn't make it so we decided to go for millies birthday.  We didn't tell her that we were going untill the morn. of her birthday.  She had actually asked for a hello kitty suitcase for her birthday, it was all packed up with her clothes for the trip when she opened it.  We asked her why she thought it was all packed up... she said so excited "because we are going to memphis!!?"  poor girl!  then when we told her we were going to disney land she was just... pleased. haha.  (She was more excited that aunt Lin was going to be meeting us in california. She loves her aunts. thanks lin for being our special helper)

She did get more excited as the day went on. She wanted to get "all pampered" to get ready for disneyland. Also notice, she is wearing her favorite birthday present, her "wild kratts" shirt.  (Wild Kratts is her favorite show on pbs.)  She learns soo much stuff from this show and it always makes me laugh when she says stuff like "mom, did you  know proboscus monkeys have a resonating chamber in their nose?" the back of the shirt says "Millie, saving the planet with creature power!"

 

There are a lot of pictures in this post... I had a hard time narrowing them down because we just had such a fun trip!  I LOVE disneyland, and probabally enjoyed it more than Millie.  Millie liked it but we were going to take logan home for a nap mid-day.  We gave millie the choice to stay at disneyland or go to the hotel.  She wanted to go swim at the hotel... disneyland was too crowded she said. haha!

We saw sleeping beauty first thing when we entered!  I think Millie liked seeing the princesses more than going on rides.

Loved all the halloween decor they had up!

Logan had a good time too.  He just loved walking around and seeing all the cool stuff.  He loved the jungle ride, but was afraid of all the indoor rides (I don't blame him- they are loud, and kinda creepy!)

These gals were hillarous! they really stayed in character.  Millie started to hug the witch she she goes "ahh! a CHILD is touching me!" it was pretty funny

 

 

 Millie wore her special Minnie Mouse dress to disneyland...

 before we went to disneyland I had seen a commercial with one of these caramel apples in it.  I was anxiously anticipating eating one of them.  I knew it was going to be pricey, and it sure was, but I enjoied every bite of my $10 Micky Mouse apple. well worth it!

 We couldn't resist a trip to the beach.  We went to newport where my family would vacation when I was a girl.  We saw a seal...  Logan LOVED the beach.  he and josh were running from the waves, he was totally soaked and freezing but wouldn't get out of the water.

 

 

 We also had to hit sea world for this creature loving girl.  She loved the beluga's.  She got a stuffed Beluga that goes everywhere with her now... she named it biscuits.

What a fun trip! can't wait to go again!