Thanksgiving and nias bday

I was surprised to be able to go see my little bro at the airport a few weeks ago. He had a layover at the airport and so Q and I drove over for a few minutes to visit. :) I sure miss this guy and his cute little family.

We were blessed to have mom and dad come out the week of thanksgiving. We had a great time going to my ultrasound, where they told us baby was a girl, then a boy!!!! We were like, check again!! Haha. Pretty definite that he's a boy tho. Then mike and I were able to go to the temple and have a Black Friday shopping date.  We sure enjoyed having them here. Q didn't let them out of his sight. He just loved spending time with them, we all did! Mom taught me how to cook her turkey, and it turned out fabulous!!! Everything was delicious. We miss them already. 

Nia had a great Star Wars themed party. I brought her marshmallow pops to share with her class, then I made a $ cake, with cheesecake inside, with a cake layer too. It was pretty delicious, all at nias request. She insisted on a Star Wars cake, so I did my best. :)

I don't know where this Star Wars phase came from, but ever since Disneyland and the ride star tours where she found her Jabba toy she has been hooked. 

We love you Nia!! Can't believe she's 7.

Ad here is growing baby at 22 weeks. :) I'm excited to have 2 girls and 2 boys!

Mikes basketball

Mike has put together a community rec league team for basketball this year that he has been enjoying. When the games are early enough we have been going to watch. We all love it and have a fun time. They lost the last game this week so didn't make the "playoffs", but he has still enjoyed it. Last weekend our stake had a 3 on 3 tornament. They randomly drew teams and mikes team won! I tell him- see you can still play even though you feel old. :) Here he is with his teammates. 

Guess what?!

Nia lost her first tooth! 

Annd.....

I'm just starting to show with baby #4.

I am just now coming back to the land of the living...I feel like this has been my worst first trimester of all the babies!!! Maybe having 3 others to chase had something to do with it. We are so excited and feel so blessed. Let's just say that mike has become a pro at cleaning the kitchen, and many other things! So crazy to think of having 4 kids come April!  

Quinton's 2nd Birthday

We had to make a cars cake of course, and I did my best to make a racetrack. I but I must say it wasn't very good! I even tried making a yellow cake from scratch, which used lots of butter, etc. It wasn't very tasty! I will just stick to cake mix and save time and $ from now on. :( I think he was happy tho. He kept eating all of the "tires", so I had to go buy more for the next day. 

He had so much fun playing with his first toy, we couldn't get him to open any more! It was like pulling teeth! Funny boy. 

He woke up to a tool set that he was happy to play with all day. 

It has a really loud saw that scared him a bit! 

He has been paying attention and practicing blowing out candles. He was so sweet and knew just what to do! The second we finished singing (sitting with a grin the whole time) he blew his candle right out. 

Q is such a sweet boy. We sure love having him hopping around, which he does all day long! He has such a fun- loving sprit and has started saying everything we say. He is such a quick learner. His favorite things to do are jumping, hopping around on his boppy ball, driving his cars around, and doing whatever the girls are doing. (Which still includes dress up. He can now take his pants off and pull on a skirt) 

We love you Mr.!

Mae's preschool

Mae was so very excited to start preschool! She is doing a little co-op with one of my friends and her little girl. We had a fun field trip to the pumpkin patch last week. She is very smart and just teaches herself most things. She has a drive to get things done and doesn't like to be idle. I'm glad I get a chance to spend some time with her this year. 

First Grade

Here it is- Nia starting full-day school. I am having a harder time with this than Kindergarten. I will miss my Nia all day long! What will I do without my little helper, or not knowing everything she does all day. :(
She is so excited! I love how exciting the first day of school can be. I am also happy that she has some great friends from Kindergarten in her class this year. We love our big girl!

And a picture from last year to compare:

Fragrant Floral

Whelp, I have decided to finally do something with my degree! Now that we are settled in here and there aren't really any other florists in the area/ward I am in the process of setting up my business. We found a free fridge and have it in the garage all ready to go. Wish me luck!

Family vacation

We took a trip to disneyland this past week. We left Sunday and drove 12 hours to Vegas, where we stayed at the stratosphere along the strip. Nia was so excited to see everything, and that we got to stay in the really tall one!! We slept in and walked around the hotel the next morning, waiting for the attraction to open to go up and see the view from the top. It was pretty fun! 

(You can't really see the view, but here we are at the top!)

We made it to Anaheim around 3, checked into our room which was newly renovated, yay! We hung out at downtown disney for the evening and met up with mikes sister Marcie and family. It was so great to spend timewith  them for a couple of days! 

The next morning we got an early start and made it to the park right at 8. Our hotel is the best-literally right across the street from the main entrance and has a warm breakfast each morning. We went on so many rides multiple times the three days we were there-Maes favs were the horse ride (merry go round-go figure) and the spinning tea cups, and the mater tractor ride. Mike got us spinning so fast in the teacups I couldn't stop laughing-it was  really fun! It was too bad she was too short for a lot of the bigger rides-she's a little daredevil. We went on the swinging part of the Ferris wheel and mike nearly lost his lunch, nia was freaking out because there wasn't anything to hold onto, it swung quite a bit really fast! , and quinton was trying to wiggle off my lap! Mae loved it tho. Nias favorites were cars racing ride, and star tours. She got to go on that one 4 times!

Q was so funny-we couldn't tell if he liked it or not. He was so quiet the first couple of days, and he would just pick at his lip and stare with a deadpan face when we went on rides. He cried when we went to the hotel to bed each night, so I guess he liked it! By the third day he started talking and pointing things out to us again. Oh-the first night we watched the fireworks from our hotels balcony and he kept clapping yay! And asking for "more, more". 

Mike and I loved reds apple freeze from cars land- it was delicious an tasted like a frozen martinelli. 

So of course we had to visit the princesses. We had a magic morning for Thursday and we got in early. We hopped in line to meet Anna and Elsa from frozen and it was 4 hours long!!! The day before it had been 2 hours. So we didn't get to see them.

 We saw so many characters tho. We saw sully from monsters, Jesse and woody from Toy story, Minnie, Mickey, Cinderella, aurora, Mulan, mr. Incredible and frozone, mater, red, McQueen to name a few. Then we saw a bunch in the parades. We went to the one in disney and the one in California adventure. 

A fun thing when we were watching the parade I had q on my lap and we were sitting on the curb. I was looking to the side and I hear this "BOO"! I screamed and jumped and Peter Pans face was right next to mine! Haha- he got me. Then art from monsters university did the same thing to me the next day at the Pixar parade! 

We had a fun encounter with Captain Hook, he was just walking along and headed straight for us. He gave the girls pretend threatening looks and grabbed Qs hand and shook it. 

Of course the princesses were amazing- they took the time to really talk with the girls. 

Mae got tons of kisses from Jessie and gave a picture she colored to Minnie that she brought all the way from colorado with us. It was so sweet-she really loved the characters. 

Good ol mater. These cars were amazing! We were trying to figure out if they had someone inside or were just programmed to drive around. Q LOVED them. 

Sweet Cinderella. 

Sweet Minnie.

Aurora Montez 

On our last day we scheduled time for the girls at the bibbity bobbity boutique! They got nails and makeup and hair done. I think they loved it. I overheard Mae tell nia "wasn't that so much fun!!" 

Their hairstyles they chose were a bit....well bouffant and pink! Haha-oh well tho. Nia was about to cry when the fairy godmother in training was brushing her hair back, but didn't! I know If it had been me she would have definitely complained. It was a really fun experience. They turned them around to show them themselves in the magic mirror and did a special introduction to us as princesses. 

It was a great trip and I think everyone enjoyed themselves. We ended the trip with Mickey Mouse shortbread cookies and world of color. The end. 

Nias graduation and other happenings

We got to hear Nia sing some songs and then she got her kindergarten diploma :) one of many firsts for us as we enter into the school years. She had made some great friends this year and has loved learning so much. Her teacher told me she is such a good example of working hard for the other students. She's told me stories of helping other kids that have touched my heart. She is so sweet ad thoughtful and notices things many do not. We have enjoyed her sweet teacher as well, Mrs. Franco. I'm grateful for caring teachers! Their job is far from easy.

She also had a field day a couple weeks ago and we got to go hang out and watch. I had never heard of such a thing!? Her fav was the tug of war. The day started out beautiful! But it turned windy and cold so she lost her enthusiasm! We stuck it out and got to eat lunch with her so shed know what to expect next year when she is at school all day! She is most excited about opening the milk carton all by herself at lunch :) 

This is what Mr. Q has been up to. I have to keep my eye on him because he will grab the high heels out if my closet and come down the stairs in them!! Ahh! This boy loves shoes. And dresses. And wigs apparently. He's a fashionista. Haha. He's so insistent and so funny. 

 

We got him some boy dress ups too. :) 

Nia made this little character one day out of my glass pitcher with a spout lid. Mae had the idea of dressing it up but nia took it a step further. 

Here's Mae with her little preschool as we call it. She meets once a week. I've been doing it with a group of moms we all take turns doing a basic preschool program we came up with and it has been great! She had her last day of school party last week. We have both made great friends. 

We all made freezer jam the other day wearing matching aprons from grandma June. I think q ate more raspberries than he smashed but it was fun.

 

Well that's what we've been up to!