Wedding Day

Last time we were in Maui we got a pedicure, so we had to do it again. Something about being in Hawaii makes me have to put a flower on my toe!

TJ's brother Zac got married, so this day was focused on being ready for that. Mollie and Sophia were the flower girls, so we got them all pretty and ready to go.

It didn't take much for them to strike a pose!

TJ was in the wedding too...2 of my favorite people:)

When Sophia walked down the aisle, she took 1 flower out of her basket and chucked it down on the ground and walked fast, hahaha. At least she did it right?! Thank goodness Anna watched Kenton for us, so I could help the girls and video tape. Anna did good work and had Kenton sleeping the whole time.

The ceremony was nice and sweet. Here are all the brothers after the wedding. Seriously I don't know how 1 family can look SOOO much alike. Everyone is mixing them up this trip (even their own kids, haha)

The Brown Family

Day 1- Gazebo

We had to wake up and go to the Gazebo for breakfast with Caleb and Anna..white chocolate chip macadamia nut pancakes..yum!

Our first family picture in Hawaii!

Here we go...

Flying is not my favorite thing, especially really early in the morning, but we did it and made it. The kids were extremely good (I think better than me). TJ sat in the middle to help with both kids, so if I needed to close my eyes I could...thank goodness! Sophia yelled, "yay!" when we took off and liked to look out the window.

Kenton got a turn to look out the window when sister went to the bathroom. I love this picture:)
I am very grateful to be on the ground!

Dear Santa

I love Macy's Santa mail set-up. It's so cute and classy! Sophia started to write and then got frustrated and said, "Mom I don't know how to write Hello Kitty!" So she told me what to write.

There it goes...

As we went into mall we strolled by Santa, but she still didn't want to sit on his lap. Actually the closest she got to Santa was at Walmart this year. She sat next to him on a chair, but I had to be in the picture too. Has anyone been into Walmart and seen their Santa's??? I say Santa's because there were 3. You could choose the ethnicity of your Santa: black, white, or Filipino. I AM DEAD SERIOUS! When I saw all 3 I almost died!!! Gotta love Walmart!

NEW HOUSE

I won't go into too much detail seeing as though I just did in my Christmas card. Ignore me if you have already heard this story. We weren't planning on buying a house this year, but an opportunity arose for us to buy this house. We prayed and felt like it was meant for us. TJ's grandfather built this house and many other and it fit our family. We are so incredibly thankful for TJ's grandparents and the opportunity we have to own a home. We feel like big kids now;)

We love it!
Our house is definitely not put together yet. I still can't park in the garage because everything is everywhere. Slowly, but surely we will get there. We fell in love with this mirror and fabric from IKEA, so we rolled with it and LOVE it. Kenton and Sophia seem really comfortable in our new home, as do TJ and I.

Lots to be thankful for that's for sure:)

Christmas Tree Shopping

Every year we have a tradition to go chop down our Christmas tree and this year it was sunny and beautiful. I am quite picky (my mom trained me to be that way) about my tree, so it takes us awhile. My parents and TJ's brother's family joined us this year and we were the last ones to find our tree (like every year, hehe). Sophia found hers right away...

Kenton found his too! He wasn't quite sure what was going on and didn't like to touch them at first, but warmed up to that.
About an hour into searching (told ya I was a little particular) Sophia was done. Thank goodness for this big puddle. Her rain boots were on, so we told her she had to cross the river. That helped her change her mood for a bit.

We finally found it! Isn't she lovely?!

There's my manly man cutting it down (isn't his outfit awesome?!)

The tree made its way inside and TJ went to work on the lights. I am so picky that I can't do the lights because I'd be there all day, so TJ does them and I have to deal with his job. He does a good job though.

Sophia had fun getting out all her ornaments. It was neat to talk to her about the ornaments and when/where she got them. I told her that she needs to spread out all her ornaments, but she said that she needed to put all hers in one spot! I also had to strategically place nonbreakable ones towards the bottom for the busy and curious boy.

(don't mind Sophia's hair...we hadn't gotten to that yet;)...Sophia also has her own special tree and little presents to put under it. Each day in December she gets to open a present and put the new little ornament on her tree.

O CHRISTMAS TREE, O CHRISTMAS TREE, HOW LOVELY ARE YOUR BRANCHES!

Happy Halloween

Before I go into Halloween, here's a quick snippet of pumpkin carving. Kenton was happy as can be hitting the pumpkin with a spoon. We put his hands in the pumpkin guts, but he didn't care for that.

Sophia was all into scooping the guts out all by herself. We didn't take a picture of their finished masterpieces, but Sophia wanted her pumpkin with circle eyes, triangle nose, and teeth smile. She then painted hers and Kenton's. She made Kenton's pumpkin look like him with blue eyes, nose, and mouth.
INTRODUCING PINK AND WHITE POLKA DOT MINNIE MOUSE!!!! My original plan was to sew her dress, but my mom started it for me and then finished it, hehe. It turned out to be a good thing because she had to do a lot of alterations to it because the pattern was huge and I would have had no clue what to do. We think someone took the child pattern out of the package and left the adult part because her small 4/5 was huge at first! Good job mom!

DON'T FORGET ABOUT MICKEY MOUSE!!!

This was probably one of the easiest costumes I've done. I bought a $1 black beanie, added felt ears, cut out felt white circles and glued them to red shorts he already had. Pretty darn cute if I do say so myself:)

Oh how they love each other:)

We did the annual "trunk or treat" at our church parking lot. It is absolutely perfect for the kids. Here's the gang (cousin's on the Brown side...only missing a few):

Mickey and I walked together for awhile. He was a good sport but I think he was wondering what the heck was going on ,haha

Miss Sophia knew what to do...She was done after an hour, which was perfect for me:)

The fun didn't stop. We went over to Grandma/pa Uffens house for pumpkin shaped pizza (thank you for Papa Murphy's) and they got more goodies there...

He was excited about his books

Check out her loot! It filled a gallon sized bag and I'm trying my hardest to stay out of it!

Look what Kenton got. He didn't need anything to eat, he just loved the noise of the wrapper. I didn't have him fill his pumpkin with candy because we didn't need anymore! Oh and check out his pumpkin. My mom did a good job there too! Now he has one like sister (but his is a boy one)! Happy Halloween...now onto more holiday fun:)

Thanksgiving and Christmas I am totally excited for you!

Pumpkin Patch

We had to take advantage of the nice sunny weather and go to the pumpkin patch. We didn't make it over the weekend, so we decided to go on Monday. It wasn't the most exciting pumpkin patch I've been too, but it was just right with the time we had. Plus Sophia gets to go to another one with her preschool:)

I think this is the cutest farmer I've ever seen...

And sunflowers...
Sophia was our leader through the corn maze and we searched for letters for the code. As we continued to walk Sophia would say, "ohhhhh this is getting spookier!"

This was Kenton's first pumpkin patch. He loved sitting with the pumpkins and patting them.

Averie (cousin) wanted in on the fun too. Aren't they cute?!

It's something about holiday stuff and memories made that make me love my family that much more!

Church Carnival

Introducing....MINNIE MOUSE!

On Friday we went to our church carnival, but we weren't totally prepared with the whole costume. Let me give you some background. Sophia is a girl who has an opinion with things, so I asked her what she wanted to be for Halloween about a month ago and she said she didn't know. She thought about it and told me Minnie Mouse and brother could be Mickey. Super cute and good idea right? We went to JoAnn's and I pointed out red and white polka dot material and she said, "No mom, I want to be pink and white polka dot Minnie!" She even found the fabric. BUT...years ago my niece was Minnie and had saved the red and white polka dot costume. My sister-n-law brought it out. Sophia thought it was cute, but she still wanted to be pink and white Minnie. My mom tried to talk her into it and said that Minnie is not pink and white. Well, Miss Sophia found a picture of a pink and white Minnie and showed it to her grandma. SEE GRANDMA! How can you argue with that?! I love that she has an opinion about stuff like that because it makes it more fun.

Because our church carnival was early, I did not have "Pink and White" Minnie's dress finished. Even started for that matter, ha! So she was red and white Minnie and had fun.
Mickey's costume was not finished yet either, so he wore his ghost shirt to be in the Halloween spirit!

A little cake walk action! Sophia was a little nervous (notice the finger in her mouth) because she couldn't read all the numbers, but I told her I'd help her, so she did it until she won. Lucky #6!

Ring Toss

Basketball Action

There were more games: fishing, face painting (which I can't get her to do), football throwing, donut eating contest, obstacle course, etc. At every game she was able to win a prize and had fun putting them in her pumpkin.

STAY TUNED FOR PINK AND WHITE MINNIE MOUSE...

8 MONTHS

My Kenton boy is 8 months old now! He is totally starting in a new stage and baby stage is going away way too fast. Last weekend we put the swing, floor play mat, and bumbo seat away and got out the standing play table. I don't know if I'm so emotional about all these changes because he's my baby or what, but I am full of different emotion...I'm excited and sad all at the same time. Seriously, look at him....man... he's got me hooked!

September was a crazy month for me and my family, so I didn't take as many pictures, but here is a list and a couple pictures of things he did during his 7 month!

Kenton started:

- saying his b, d sounds, especially dada

- crying when he has to get out of his bath

- going to Ms. Shelby

- eating snacks (the Mum-mum rice cracker)

- scooting around on the floor

And he got his top 2 teeth. I forgot how big the top teeth are! (Sorry this is a creepy picture...Sophia had to help me, haha)

Back to School

Hmmmm...where to start? Tomorrow is my first teacher contract day and my students come on Wednesday. I have a lot of mixed emotions. First I will say that I'm grateful! I'm grateful that I have an amazing job, teaching the most amazing kids and I'm grateful that I get to be a mom. But I would be lying if I said everything is just "peachy." Having 7 months off with my kids has been an unbelievable memory and experience (so to all the stay at home moms, don't take it for granted). 7 months sounds like so long, but it wasn't. TJ and I keep saying that it feels like yesterday that I had Kenton. But I guess with time going by so fast, it will be next summer before I know it right?! I've decided that if I could have Sophia and Kenton with me in my classroom, I would be one happy girl. It would be the best of both worlds! I planned it all out. Kenton can be in the baby carrier and Sophia can be my helper. I'll just have to inform my boss of that plan, ha! I know that once we get in a routine, I will be fine. I know that Sophia and Kenton are in a good place, but it's still a big deal letting someone else care for them other than me. It's almost 11:00pm and I know I should be going to bed, but I think I'm stalling because I know my alarm clock is going to wake me up. I don't know if I'm ready for this, but ready or not right?! Positive thoughts! Once my students walk into the room, they will make it all worth it because kids have that special spirit about them! So, I guess I am a lucky girl because I love teaching and I love being a mom!