Halloween dress ups

For the first time in our marriage.... my very creative husband decided that he would ACTUALLY dress up for Halloween. It hasn't been for a lack of trying on my part though over the years. Every Halloween would come and I'd ask if he would dress up with me and the response was always the same... "only if its a super awesome costume". So then Halloween would zoom by with no costume wearing for Elliot. But that was fine.

This year was different though. About a month before Halloween we talked about some fun ideas for costumes. All of a sudden the ball started rolling and before we knew it- our front room was turned into costume land. Ell's super creative mind was working overtime and the process had begun. There was no turning back now.

We decided that we were going to do a "Star Wars" theme. We already had a helmet for Boba Fett and Elliot really wanted to take on that character. So, after a ton of work on his "outfit" ~ Mr. Boba came to life...... and all I can say is hubba hubba :)

Then, I went thrift store shopping and for about $4.00 I had a complete Princess Leia costume put together for myself. (I LOVE thrift store finds!)

We had Macie's costume already which was Yoda (and what a cute little yoda she made) - so she was taken care of.
And at the thrift store I found a Darth Vader costume and mask for Scot for only $6.00 so that was soon checked off the list too.

The only question mark left was Ellie....... who should she be?


We (and I mean Ell) decided that he wanted to create an R2D2. What was thought to be an easy project with getting a garbage can, spray paint, etc... turned into a major and I mean MAJOR project. The right garbage can could not be found so hula hoops were bought and fastened together with wood, followed by cardboard screwed into the hoops, and vents made out of duct tape, and the top assembled mostly out of more duct tape. I think I bought duct tape 3 days in a row. We seriously underestimated the amount of duct tape that could go into an R2D2.


Anyway, after at least 20+ hours spent on this one costume alone.... it was enormous but complete .

Ellie didn't love wearing the R2D2 because it was heavy and uncomfortable and people kept poking at her. But she was a trooper and wore it to a couple of ward trunk or treats that we went to.

We even accumulated another Star Wars member...... our friend Sean who was a Jedi.

For the first time EVER this year~ our kids actually went REAL Trick or Treating. We joined our friends the Bradfords and had a great time in a super crazy neighborhood filled to the brim with trick or treaters. Only this time- I was R2D2 and Ellie was Princess Leia. It was so fun . The kids had a great time running from house to house and lets just say that Elliot and I felt like rock stars. Every 2 minutes people would come up and ask if they could take their picture with us (r2 and Boba). It was great. I think it was our 5 minutes of fame :)

So, Halloween is done.

My husband once again has outdone himself.

And although it was a ton of fun~

I am glad to have my front room

(and husband) back .

whew!

Seriously. It feels like it has been years since I've updated this thing.

My blog is kind of my family journal/history/vacation report/whatever is going on- record it here thing. I'm not sure if anyone even reads it which is fine because its pretty much for my benefit anyway. At the end of each year I have my blog printed into a book which is basically a digital scrapbook. I love it. These blog books are some of my favorite possessions because they hold so many memories over the last few years. Thank you blogger for making this so easy.

Anyway- on to updating what the Davis family has been up to.....

School and soccer season have made a grand appearance into our lives. With all three kids now in school ~ I have never more then at this time felt like a full time TAXI. I've heard other moms say it but honestly- I might as well paint my SUV BRIGHT Yellow and stick a sign on top.... because I'm in my car ALL the time. Did I mention that all Three kids are on different schedules. The kids are enjoying school though and have great teachers.

When we are not in the car then we are usually doing homework or at soccer practice. This year ALL three kids decided to play soccer. At the time of sign ups I thought this would be a great idea. But holy cow. What was I thinking? It is INSANE. Between Scot's practices on Mon/Wed, and Ellie AND Macie's on Tue/Thur, then THREE games on Saturdays- you could almost say we are soccered out by Saturday night. Saturdays are a little nuts because my hardworking husband has to work weekends, and needless to say- my taxi cant be in three places at once. So we get very creative. Thankfully my mom and dad, as well as my sister and friends have very graciously helped us out when games overlap.

But even through the craziness... there is nothing I love more then to sit on the sidelines and cheer for my kids. They are all doing so great.

Ellie usually plays in the forward position and she is FAST. She is so fun to watch because she puts a lot of effort into the game and loves it. This year she scored her very first goal. Thankfully I was able to be there to witness it. It was the only goal of the game and it was the perfect shot. I'm such a baby too. While everyone else was screaming around me- there I was balling my eyes out. I was very proud of her at that moment and she was beaming from ear to ear all day.

Scot is great at playing defender. He does a super job at making sure that ball does not go into our goal. What I love about watching Scot play is that he has a little bounce to his run and he is very "springy". It is as if he is getting ready to box someone so he just kind of bounces around ready to turn or kick. He is doing really well and is on a great team.

This is Macie's first year playing and she is having fun. I think I expected her to be doing cartwheels and picking daisies while out on the field but she has surprised us. She made 2 goals last week and 2 goals the week before. At first she would always kick the ball right to the goalie - kind of like she thought that was what she was supposed to do. But once we told her to kick it around him- she caught on quick and now goes at it hard. She is doing great as well and is a lot of fun to watch.

Macie also turned 5 last week. Can it really be true that my baby is now 5. We celebrated by having what may just be the most easy and best party ever. Macie LOVES the restaurant Red Robin- so we invited her closest friends, along with cousins (or course) and grandmas, grandpas and aunts and uncles to Red Robin.

The kids were SO great and Macie was in heaven. Couldn't have been more perfect!

For me the last month has been a bit overwhelming trying to get used to the craziness. Although in my down time (in between taxi-ing) I have taught myself to sew. I bought a sewing machine and decided it was time to learn. So far I have made tons of cute bags to give birthday presents in for the kids friends, pillows, a blanket for Scot and 2 quilts. I am seriously enjoying sewing. Who knew I would like it "sew" much :)

I've also been having lots of fun (not really) with some wonderful kidney stones. About a month ago I woke up at 4am to horrific pain in my side. So, my dad came to my rescue and took me to the ER. We had decided to leave Ell at home to take care of kids and get them to school. Anyway- they got me right in and after a ct scan and lots of crazy medicine given- they found that I had multiple stones, one of which was lodged in the ureter. So, lucky me got to come home and pass a stone. I have been told all kinds of crazy things about kidney stones but I wasn't quite prepared to experience the whole thing myself. It was not a very pleasant experience but I'm thankful to have it over. Sort of......

Last week I had to go in for outpatient surgery to have a larger stone broken into smaller pieces (shock wave lithotripsy). I was nervous about it because I've never been "put under" before. Thankfully Elliot and my dad gave me the most beautiful priesthood blessing. I really felt at peace after that and knew things would go fine. I'm now on the mend .....except while being down and trying to heal from that whole procedure my body decided that I hadn't had enough crap this month so it invited bronchitis over to play. Now I sound funny and have a horrible cough to go a long with it. Times have been fun around here for sure.

I have had such great help and support from Elliot especially. He has become the Taxi dad, as well as homework referree and chef. He has been great and I couldn't have done it without him. Family and friends have also been so supportive and helfpul. I have definitely felt the love from everyone around.

So there it is.... I am officially Blog updated.

Whew . Time for a nap.

:)

Kindergarten

Macie joined her brother and sister at school this year and she could not be any more excited. And talk about brave. There were no nerves or tears for her as she joined in with her fellow Kindergartners. She walked right in, found her name at her desk, sat down and started chatting with her neighbor next to her. By far, she is the easiest out of the three to start Kindergarten which was a HUGE relief to me. She is lucky enough to have the same teacher that Ellie had in 1st grade and we LOVE her. Macie has grown up a lot this week and become much more independent and confident. It's hard to believe that she is in school now. Time has flown by. It's gonna be a great year!

1st grade

Scot has now graduated from half school days from Kindergarten to the "big kid" schedule of all day school. When he came home at the end of his first day you could tell it had taken its toll. He was pretty exhausted and said that recess was "hot". He was happy when he got to school though because his favorite friends were in his class and he has the same teacher from last year. He also gets to see Ellie at recess sometimes which makes him feel pretty cool having a big sister there. We are hoping for good things this year in school.... once he gets used to the all day stuff. ;)

5th grade

Ellie is officially ruling the school with her fellow classmates. Especially since her school no longer has 6th grade. She had a great first day of school. She especially loves being a mini-aide for her teacher from the last two years. She was born to organize, staple, sort, and just be a helper to her teacher. She is happy to be back in school and back with her friends. She loves having a "planner" for her class as well, to help her stay organized. It is looking to be a great start to her school year. Hello 5th grade!

Summer Swimming....

The kids have basically spent their entire summer in some form of water. They have literally become fish and are probably growing gills somewhere on their little bod's. Macie especially became very bold this year. She tossed off her floaty, stuck her head in the water and really became a good swimmer. She is the kid who never had any "formal" swim lesson. I think she has just watched Ellie and Scot so much and decided that she can do it too..... and so she did! They have had a great time diving for their torpedo's and doing goofy jumps off the side of the pool. It has been a great "wet" summer. Thank goodness for grandparents, friends and neighbors pools. :)

Finale to Summer...

Our last trip of the summer came this year... and it seemed to come way too fast! Some summers drag on but to me- this one just flew on by.

We joined with a fun group this year to end our summer with a bang and we all met up at Bass Lake. We had the Durhams, the Jensens and Brian's parents- Deroy and Linda.

Our kids were in pure heaven because they had ALL of their cousins (on both sides) to play with.

All the adults were in heaven because there were a lot of options for the kids and adults to do during the day. ...

Kayaking, wave-runner (ing), floating on giant islands and inter tubes, reading, swimming, jumping off big rocks, relaxing, sleeping.... you name it and it was pretty much done.

The evenings were spent with campfires, game playing, ice-cream going, movie watching (for the kids), and lots and lots of fun.

Ell and Brian snuck in some video-gaming

(and yes they were in pure heaven too)!

Linda and Deroy concocted a great treasure hunt for all of the kids.

They had to work as a team with absolutely NO running.

They went from clue to clue sending them all around the cabins and our trailer site. They were a little worn out in the end but finally found ALL of the clues.

Once they had ALL the clues they had to put them together and flip the puzzle over so they could read the last and final clue (which told where the "treasure" was.

They found the treasure and it was ......

loaded with candy (of course). :)

So, we said goodbye to our summer.... but will always have super fun memories of this great trip with the Durhams and Jensen families.

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Unfortunately our travels home were not quite as awesome as the vacation itself. We ended up having car issues as we towed our trailer through the mountains. We had to park our trailer on the side of the road temporarily and have the car towed to the nearest town (about 40 minutes away) where we proceeded to find out that it needs a new transmission. We had absolutely NO cell phone service in the mountains which made us wonder how in the world people managed in the old days before cell phones. Thankfully we were rescued by some of Ells fabulous co-workers who took the kids and I into town and also went above and beyond when they got off work and (with their own truck) towed our trailer to one of their homes (which is where it is sitting as I type). We left our car in good hands and rented a car so we could get home. If all goes well, we will pick up the car and trailer next week. So, the day ended up being quite expensive which we definitely hadn't plan for. However, throughout it all- as we were feeling kind of stranded on the mountain with no cell phone, with 3 kids who were concerned about what we would do- I am extremely grateful for a husband who was calm through the situation and never once freaked out or panicked (like I honestly felt like doing). I felt the loving guidance from our father in heaven who (I know) without a shadow of a doubt sent Ells coworkers to help us. Considering where we were..... it was a miracle that anyone was patrolling that area at that time. We hadn't been parked on the side of the road for long before we had 3 different officers come to our aid which was a huge blessing.

So what should have taken about 4 hours to get home ended up being more like 10 hours. But thankfully we are home.

and now we are getting ready for school to start on Monday.......

:)

Santa Cruzin...

One of my all time favorite vacations finally came this year which was to New Brighton Beach. I love this place for a million different reasons. The first is because the second we drive into the campground- it smells like Eucalyptus trees and a bazillion different memories come flooding into my mind. It is seriously memory overload... but a good overload. We were able to hang out with our friends The Edwards which is always tons of fun.

The first evening looking over the cliff and here is the view:

I swear it never changes.

It is exactly like it was when I was 6 years old (my first trip to New Brighton).

This is me... with my man..... at my happy place (the beach).

A lot of beach time was spent doing this over and over again.... Those waves just kept coming back.


Out of all 3 of our kids~ Macie was the only one who wanted to be buried. I was amazed that she held still as long as she did.



Elliot (a.k.a the master hole digger) spent much of his time digging huge holes for the kids to play in.



The rest of his time was either reading on the beach or looking like this (in deep slumber). :)

Ellie was ecstatic when she found her first whole sand dollar. She thought she was rich.

We also let her get her first feather in her hair which is always fun.

Explorer Scot always finds the coolest sticks and rocks to add to his collection. He was one happy kid on the beach. We hardly saw the guy because he was so busy with his friends, digging holes, playing in the water, etc.

One of our favorite stops in Santa Cruz is Maryann's Ice cream.

I think the kids were trying to see who could get the most messy.

I think they all won :)

Capitola was a favorite stop as well since the kids brought their own spending money. They love to visit the Rainbow shop and see what fun things they "need".

We love Capitola too. It is such a cute little town filled with fun shops and Pizza My heart (of course).

The Taffy shop is a place we must stop in and load up for the beach.

and then finally the kids favorite..... The Boardwalk.

Everyone can get in on the fun here... (even the grown-ups).

But the kids smiles are priceless...

and the weather could not be beat.

Who doesn't love going on rides while overlooking the beach?

We found a new "favorite" this year.... Humongous Doughnuts.

They were seriously so good.

This year we cheated a little and drove out to the ship. We had a good time learning about it and walking on the "rickety" dock.

We were all so exhausted by the time we had to go home. Is it possible to have too much fun? It really was great to be there. I love that my kids love Santa Cruz as much as I did when I was their age. It is a tradition that I hope to continue as long as I'm around! :)