Getting Ready for Christmas

Our annual tradition is making Gingerbread houses. The only problem is the kids want to eat the house as quickly as it is made!

Thanksgiving Trip to Westlake and Arizona

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving week. First we went to Westlake and visited Great Grandpa Frank at Catalina Yachts. Austin really enjoyed this since he thinks Grandpa Frank is the coolest great grandpa because he knows how to build "real pirate ships". The kids really enjoyed seeing how sailboats are made and visiting with Grandpa Frank.

This is where all of the sails are made at Catalina Yachts.

We were also able to spend a couple of days at Papa and Grandma Debbi's house. Kylie loved baking with Grandma Debbi, Austin liked playing chess with Papa and Colton liked feeding the ducks (well - he didn't seem to understand that the stale bread was for the ducks, not for him to eat!).

Our next stop was Arizona to spend Thanksgiving with Jo Jo and Popsy's.

What a fun week we all had!

Halloween

The kids had a really fun Halloween....well what kid doesn't like getting a ton of candy! Austin went as Jack Sparrow, Kylie was Princess Genevieve (Barbie and the 12 Dancing Princesses) and Colton was Austin's sidekick - a baby pirate.

Austin had a special Halloween parade at his school and loved seeing all of the funny costumes some of the big kids wore.

Austin loved being able to bring home Terry Bear from his classroom at school.

Austin drew a model of a pirate ship that he wanted to build. Then he made a pirate ship to look just like his model. He was pretty proud to make a pirate ship just like Great Grandpa Frank!

A fun night with our neighbors. The girls watched a 3-D Barbie Princess movie and the boys camped out in the playroom and watched a "non-girl" movie.

Fun Times with Jo Jo and Pops!

We had a fun weekend with Jo Jo and Pops, especially playing miniature golf!

Kylie's First Day of Preschool

Kylie's first day of preschool at Shining Light! She couldn't wait to go to the same school that big brother Austin used to attend.

Austin's first day of kindergarten

I can't believe that Austin is now in Kindergarten. He was so excited for his first day of "real school". I was the only one that seemed to be a little nervous.

There are only five boys in Austin's class and 15 girls! Luckily Austin already knew two of the boys since they were both on his soccer team. Here is a picture of Austin with one of his friends from his kindergarten class.

The teacher had all the kids sit down at the table and draw. Austin couldn't wait to draw a picture of a pirate on a pirate ship! Here is Austin's first kindergarten picture.

With my heart in my throat I said goodbye to Austin. He said goodbye with a huge smile on his face and then blew me a kiss goodbye. When I picked him up from school he said he had the best day ever.

Vacation in Grand Cayman

We had a jammed packed final two weeks of summer. We went to Grand Cayman with all three kids and had an amazing week there. All of Ryan's traveling paid off and we were able to stay at the beautiful Ritz Carlton in Grand Cayman using some of our "Marriott Points". The island is gorgeous, safe and there is a ton of things to do there with the kids. Austin is very into Pirates of the Carribbean right now. Lucky for us, Grand Cayman is all about pirates so Austin was in absolute heaven! We rented a

car for three days which was an adventure in itself since you drive on the left side of the road.

We went to the beach the first day. Colton loved the sand at first.....until he dropped his pacifier in the sand, quickly put it back into his mouth with sand all over it. Then he put his hands covered with sand in his mouth, started to cry because sand probably doesn't taste that great and put his sandy hands up to his eyes. Yeah - the trip to the beach ended pretty quickly for Colton. But at least we got a cute picture of him before the chaos!

We then decided to head over to the pool which was much more enjoyable with a one year old. Mommy and baby were both happy campers.

Next, we went to "real" pirate caves. Austin apparently found the keys to the real treasure chest. Kylie freaked out as soon as she saw a skull and ran out of the cave and Ryan lost about five pounds holding Colton in the baby carrier on his chest since the humidity inside the caves was incredibly high. But Austin spent over an hour there convinced he was going to find the real pirate treasure which would then make us a "pirate family".

Later on our trip we went to the Turtle Farm. They had an area where you could pick up and hold the baby turtles which all of the kids loved. Even Kylie held one of the turtles! At the turtle farm, they have a huge lagoon stocked with over 4,000 fish and obviously lots of sea turtles. Ryan took Austin snorkeling (you couldn't pay me enough money to be in the water with all of those fish surrounding me!) and the two of them had a great time.

Ryan and I found a great babysitter and we were able to go out at night for lots of date nights!!!!

Later on the trip we went on the black pearl where there were real pirates and they made Austin and Kylie scrub the decks, fire the cannon balls and even tied up one of the dads. Austin was in absolute heaven there!!!! He even walked the plank with Ryan and jumped into the ocean.

Even Colton had a blast on the black pearl!








After a day out at sea, we went to lunch at Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville. To Austin and Kylie's surprise, they had a huge waterslide in the middle of the restaurant. Do you think the kids liked this restaurant?

Here is Ryan, aka the multitasker. That takes talent to work on your computer, listen to your ipod all while getting a one year old to stay asleep in your arms. I was so impressed, I couldn't resist taking a picture of it.

Austin takes this whole pirate thing very seriously. He decided one day that he had to hide his secret treasure box in his pants so the pirates wouldn't be able to steal it from him. I'm going to have to hold onto this picture for a long time!