February fun and Kelsi's March birthday

 Kelsi and Daddy going to the Father/Daughter dance.  What a smart looking couple!  They have such fun and Kelsi came home with a sweet little wrist corsage.

 My sweet kids, February 2013.  They are so adorable to me and growing up way too fast.

 Kelsi on her 7th bday. Friends: Lauren, Nirja, Soquel, and Lily.  Girls played, ate, opened presents, and watched the movie 'The Last Unicorn,' while eating some amazing treats made by yours truly!

Kelsi played basketball for the first time this year.  She was such a little trooper.  She had such a desire to make a basket.  There weren't many teams in her age group and it seemed like the same few guys were ref-ing the games each week.  Finally a few weeks into the season she got the ball and scored!  Everyone was so happy and cheering for her-even the refs were high-fiving her as she ran down the court.  So funny :)

October 2012

 Here is my big 3 year old, flexing his muscles.  Don't ya love the chubby-chub of little kids?  That's my strong lil fella!

 Looks who's going out on a date together :)  Kelsi was feeling a little sick earlier in the week, so her daddy told her when she is feeling better he'd take her over to the mall for a date night.  She picked out an outfit for herself and got all fixed up. They had a great time.  She bought some earrings at Claire's.  What a super fun memory for both of them!

 Here are my blondie-Seahawk loving kids.  We bought them all Seahawk jammies cause we are fair-weather fans like that and Seahawks had a not-embarrassing season this year.  Actually they did really well and we watched every game!  The kids are hanging out on Brody's bed all chilling and reading together, so cute.

 Colton, so proud of the witch hat cookies he made at grandma Linda's house.  He was excited to eat them but also to show the family what he had baked.  What a sweetie.

I couldn't help snapping a pic of Kelsi in this outfit (?).  She loves writing in her journal and had put on her hat for the occasion I assume....but where'd the shirt go?!  LOL. She was probably wrestling with her dad, she always gets so hot and sweaty she ditches the shirt, just like the boys.  So funny!

Colton's birthday- 3 years old!

Colton's bday bike!  He loves green so Bryce and I picked out this awesome ride.  Got the birthday decorations up and ready for the fun to begin.

 We had a fun little family/friend party for Colton the day of his birthday.  Grandma Linda came over with the red velvet cake.  His little buddy, Christian, came over from 3 houses away :)  Domo was there and of course, Brody and Kelsi!  Colton looks pretty happy about turning 3!

 Everyone singing 'Happy Birthday' and apparently Colton was singing to himself too.

 Blowing out the candles!  Yay!  He got them all.  So excited.

 Digging in to the goodness of red velvet birthday cake.  3 is an awesome number.

Hanging out with Christian.  These two love to play together and keep each other occupied for hours.  So glad he has such a great friend right here in our neighborhood, so close!

Some more September happenings.

 Here is that huge chocolate bar Bryce brought home.  We opened it up after we got back from vacation.  It took a while to go through though.  We didn't do anything fancy with it, just broke off pieces and ate it.  I thought it was good chocolate though, yummy!

 Here is a picture of the cute toes our neighbor did for Kelsi for our Disney trip.  Isn't that just too adorable?!  She was so excited to show them to Minnie.

 Our neighbor works for the mushroom factory and she brought by this huge box of portabella mushrooms.  Boy did we have a good time eating those up!

 Brody earned his Wolf badge and was presented with the badge at a pack meeting.  They have a cute tradition of the boy escorting his mom to the front and then pinning the pin on her. 

 When the boys earn a badge it comes with a pin, which they pin on their moms.  It is very sweet, here we are hugging it out after he pinned me :)

Brody played his last season of flag football this fall.  He did a fantastic job!  Such a good player and has made such improvements over his first year (3 seasons ago).  He was definitely one of their top players and go-to play maker both in scoring and quarterbacking.  He wants to move on to tackle next year, I am sure he is ready, but am I?  So scary!

Black Light Golf Rocks!

 I had a groupon for black light golf here in Olympia, but never got around to it and then it was going to expire during our trip to CA.  So I asked for an extension through the next weekend, so glad they gave it to me!  The kids were out of school on a Friday so each of them asked a friend to come putt-putt golfing with us.  Kelsi asked Soquel and Brody asked Ethan.  Colton loved being with all of the big kids :)  Here we are on are way.

 Brody and Ethan...and Colton. 

 Kelsi and Soquel.

 All of the crazy gang.  What fun!

On to Limeberry for yummy frozen yogurt.  The kids had a blast, what a great way to spend a day off of school.

Coming home.

 Well, we did it.  Our trip was awesome!  Here is our last picture standing outside our hotel waiting for our shuttle.  Then on the plane and home we flew.

 The kids are opening their little souveniers we brought back.  Yes, I secretly bought a few items the kids wanted and of course Colton needed something.

 Each kid ended up with a large sucker, a Christmas tree ornament and some sort of toy or trinket.

Grandma Linda and Colton had come by and decorated with tulips and a big welcome home sign.  So sweet of them!  It was the best trip and I am so excited to go again in a few years when Colton can come with us.  We will be back!

Disneyland, Day 3 cont...

 We decided we had better ride the train.  So we got on and rode it almost all of the way around.  Did you know that between Tomorrowland and the Main Gate is this cool dinosaur land?  The air was a little stale, but pretty cool (at least I think that's where it was at).

 Hey look!  I actually did take a picture of us getting onto the Pirates of the Caribbean ride.  Just jump on, no waiting.  Going in the off season is so stinking cool.

 Kelsi and Bryce riding Mr Toad's Wild Ride on our last night.  We closed down the park in Fantasyland.  The day was coming to an end, the end of our trip was almost here.

 The kids and I in front of Snow White's Scary Adventure, see Brody's 'scared' face?  Gosh, he has such a quirky personality, it just cracks me up!

Just saying good-bye to Disneyland everywhere we could for a photo op.  Top pic is in front of the castle, bottom pic is in front of main street on our way out.  I tell ya, it was hard to know the fun was ending.  We definitely could have had another day in CA.  Either at Disneyland or Universal Studios or just at the beach or hanging at the pool.  So hard to go home.

Disneyland, Day 3

 Love this picture!  Brody is such a joker. Just getting ready for our last (sob!) day at Disney.  Four days would have been better.

 Nice picture of Bryce and the kids in front of Disneyland.  I love this shot.

 Step through the gate and who did we find?  Check another one off of our list!  Donald Duck!  YAY!  See the sunglasses?  We also got smart.  It's bright out there.

 On the other side of Fantasyland is a kind of hidden little path through to the back side of Frontierland.  We happened to walk through it this morning and came upon this cool little Frontierland ranch.  The kids went into one of the cabins and we snapped a few pictures.  All decorated for Halloween.

 And where did that little Frontierland ranch lead to?  The backside of one of our favorite rides, Big Thunder Mtn RR, so of course, we had to snap a picture and take another ride.  We were addicted to this thing.  You know, it's weird.  We rode Pirates of the Caribbean just as much as the RR and The Haunted Mansion, yet I guess we never took any pictures.  It was probably because we never waited in line, not ONCE, and once you get on it's pretty dark.  I love that ride though. I think it's MY favorite.

 Here are the kids getting ready to get on Splash Mtn.  Bryce was doing work on his phone, but don't let that fake you out, it turns out he actually doesn't like this ride much.  He doesn't like the drop at the end and thinks the ride is boring.  Totally surprised me, cause I think this ride is great!  I do think the storyline of Brear Rabbit is quite a bit old school and no one knows that story anymore, but I love the water ride throughout and think the drop is way fun!  I got a little wet on this one, especially my feet.  We weren't at the front, a couple had the first two seats, then Brody, me, Kelsi, and Bryce.
Brody liked, Kelsi didn't, I did, Bryce didn't.  We were split, but I'd go on it again definitely!

 Took a ride on the big ship around Tom Sawyer's island.  That was fun and I am glad we took the ride.  Kelsi kept waving to the people on shore, like she was in a parade or something.

 Here is the big moment!  Finally going on Star Tours, everyone was so excited.  Even me, until I realized it was a simulator. Uh oh.  I don't do too well on those rock and roll rides.  Yep, sure enough, I had to look everywhere but the screen to keep my lunch down.  Oh, I am such a light weight!  The whole family went on it a second time though, they loved it!

Had to stop by Tarzan's treehouse.  They did a great job with it, but you know what?  I miss Swiss Family Robinson treehouse.  For some reason I took an absurd amount of pictures at the treehouse, then deleted a bunch and still had like 4 or 5.  This one just shows us walking down the roped walkway.  It is fun to walk through and the kids played a ton on the ropes at the end bottom of the treehouse.

More to come, more to come!

Back to Disneyland, Day 2 ends.

 We went back over to Disneyland to see if we could jump on a few of our favorite rides.  Lucky us!  Mickey was signing autographs when we walked in the gates and the kids added him to their list.

 Here is Kelsi in front of the fountain in CA Adventure, I forgot to add it in before.  She had me taking pictures of her everywhere :)

 Of course, one of our favorite rides was The Haunted Mansion.  We had to jump on it again!  We loved the way it was decorated for Halloween and had a Christmas theme, we just couldn't get enough of it.

 Then over we go to Big Thunder Mtn RR.  Each of the kids wanted their pictures taken in front of it.   Brody is so cool :)

 Kelsi, always hits the poise :)

Loved this Halloween tree, it was lit up very pretty and awesomingly decorated!  Bryce and I each took pictures in front of it with the kids.

I think we also took another ride on the Jungle Cruise that night, it is very cool at night!  That ends up our day 2.