TOO MUCH CANDY CAN BE A GOOD THING...

By the time Halloween came along this year we were already candied OUT! We had our friends the Bailey's come visit last week and while they were here we did Mickey's trick-or-treat at California Adventure with them. The kids came home and filled 3 huge bowls full of candy! I learned my lesson when we did this last year and didn't buy a single bag of candy this year. Yep, given this candy away come Halloween!

One of my favorite Halloween activities in Utah was taking the kids to Dwight's work for trick-or-treating. Luckily, they do it at his office here too and the kids took home another load of candy! Between this, a trunk-or-treat and 3 other Halloween parties, by the time trick-or-treating came around we were ready to be done!















But what's Halloween without trick-or-treating? So we made our way around our street and went through the Haunted house at the end of the cul-de-sac before we all passed out from sugar highs.




Egyptian Princess
Indiana Jones


Flower Fairy #1(Annika)
&
Flower Fairy #2 (Mia)
























How is it that I don't buy a single bag of candy, use the candy we hoard before Halloween to give out to the trick-or-treaters and STILL come out with even MORE candy at the end of the night?
Luckily, I found a dentist in town that pays good money for this stuff ($1.00 per pound) When we took our candy to the dentist he had already collected 800 lbs. of candy (he sends it to the troops in Iraq).
So this year, I didn't even spend a dime on candy, came out $18.00 ahead and helped feed a soldier (I use the word "feed" very, very loosely :)

HAPPY HALLOWEEN :)

MYLEE'S 8!

Mylee's 8! This was a very much anticipated birthday for her for 2 reasons.
Ever since we moved to California, she has wanted to have a birthday party at Disneyland. Last year we went to Utah and had a party with her Utah friends, so this year we took a few of her friends to Disneyland. They had a BLAST!

Arriving at Disneyland

5 hours latter...

And still going strong!
After a 45 minute wait, we finally made it on space mountain--well worth the wait!










After dinner, rides, cotton candy, more rides and TONS of fun we ended the night with a treat from the candy shop :)
HAPPY BIRTHDAY MYLEE!




Mylee was mostly looking forward to turning eight because she has been preparing to be baptized. Mylee decided that she was ready to be baptized and she is now officially a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.







Mylee, we are so proud of your decision to be baptized and for wanting to follow Christ's example. You are so kind and loving and a wonderful example to everyone you know. We love you MyMy :)

BROOKS' PRESCHOOL

No, we didn't decide to hold Brooks back--he is attending his first year of Kindergarten. So why you ask am I posting his preschool pictures and not his "first day of kindergarten pictures?"
Besides the fact that I've just been REALLY behind in my blogging lately (gotta cut back on all the sun bathing--ha ha). The truth is that school started a month ago and I have yet to take his "first day of kindergarten pics" wah, wah, wah, wahhhh!
I will get to his, Mylee's and the twins "first day" pictures before the end of the school year--I promise!
But for now, I'll post some of the fun things Brooks did during his last year of preschool. Congratulations Brooks on graduating from preschool--you're in the big time now!

THE PERFECT CHEER!

So, Dwight and I recently had the chance to re-live our high school glory days of cheerleading. Well okay, we weren't BOTH cheerleaders...I would NEVER do that! I just made fun of them (which made this the perfect role for me).
HA HA sistas, you know I love ya! "Uh-huh, uh-huh. Uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh."

This was actually pretty fun. Our ward had an "Academy Awards" night with a few "guest apperances." We dressed up as the Spartan Cheerleaders from SNL and did a few cheers.

I'm pretty sure we won't EVER live this down!

Roll call! cha cha butchee, cha cha cha butchee roll call.

Arianna: I'm Arianna, I have team spirit, I don't do drugs, so check me out.

Together: Cha cha butchee, cha cha cha butchee Roll call.

Craig: My name is Craig, I'm on prescriptions, I am a spartan, so check me out.

Well you want a victory, well that makes you a wisher, cause on thing is for sure you ain't no Bobby Fischer. Bobby Fischer where is he? I don't know! I don't know! Bobby Fischer where is he? I don't know! I don't know! Go ask your momma and make sure you listen, cause one thing is for sure Bobby Fischer's missin'. Bobby Fischer where is he? I don't know! I don't know! Bobby Fischer where is he? I don't know! I don't know! He's Gone!

"POPULAR"

Mylee started Jazz this year with her friends Maddy and Adelaide. They just had their summer recital and even managed to fit in a few extra performances at a school talent show and our ward dance. This was Mylee's first year in Jazz and she is already such a great dancer.

She definitely gets her dancing abilities from her aunts!

Their dance was to the song "popular" from the Broadway musical Wicked. We took Mylee to Wicked in L.A. last weekend and she LOVED when they sang HER song "popular".

MUD RUN

Last weekend Dwight and I participated in the Mud Run at Camp Pendleton (one of the largest military bases in the United States that provides training facilities for the Marines, Army and Navy units).

This was the most fun I've every had running a 10K!

The Mud Run is a challenging 10K run with hills, tire obstacles, river crossings, two 5-foot walls with mud on both sides, tunnel crawl, slippery hill climb, and the final 30-foot mud pit. They even place a 2 hour 45 minute time limit on the completion of the course (NO SWEAT!).

We are definitely going to do this again next year!
This would be fun to do as a group--Anyone up for joining us?

IT'S OFFICIAL!

He did it! With only a 39.7% pass rate for the attorney version of the February 2008 California bar exam, Dwight beat the odds and PASSED the bar!
YEA! We are so proud of you Dwight even though we never doubted that you would be one to pass the exam!
Dwight found out at 6:00 p.m. last Friday. When he came out to his car 10 minutes later, we were there waiting for his surprise congratulations celebration (good thing he passed, popping all those balloons and eating all that candy before he saw just wouldn't have been as much fun as sharing it with him).

We'll have a more official celebration later, but for tonight we went over to the spectrum and grabbed some dinner

Listened to some great music


The kids ran through the water fountains

Can you say So Cal white trash?

And for the grand finale...I had my first taste of Pinkberry frozen yogurt! Oh my! This was a VERY close second to the best thing that happened that day! (it was so good, we made another trip to the spectrum the next day for another round and of course some to take home to hold me over for the weekend).

But I've digressed, Congratulations D! We love you and are so very proud of you!!!

MY MOM TELLS ME I'M A "HANDFUL"

"My mom tells me I'm a "handful". This is now Brooks' response to the question "how old are you?" Brooks is now FIVE (or a "handful"--in more ways than one)!
He had a great birthday and was spoiled by friends and family.















I told Brooks this was his special day and to start it off, I would make whatever he wanted for breakfast.
He chose 5 pickles and 5 scoops of ice cream...should I be worried?

And for lunch...














Popcorn and a movie with his sister Mylee.

Then off to Chuck E Cheese for a night full of pizza and fun!

Brooks also requested Disneyland and swimming as part of his birthday fun. So we managed to squeeze them in the day before and the day after his birthday.
I guess you can say he had a very happy birth"weekend"!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BUDDY--WE LOVE YOU (even if you are a handful)!

CALLIN' CALI HOME!

We have now lived in California for about 9 months. It sounds like a short time, but when I think of everything we've done, it feels like we've been here forever--and when I think of everything we HAVEN'T yet done, I realize we'll have to stay here forever in order to experience all Cali has to offer!
I think we can live with that :) We love it here!

We have done some fun things in the past few weeks and the other day on our way home from the beach, Mylee and Brooks started listing all the reasons they love California (they also have a list of "why they miss Utah", but it's really quite obvious--FRIENDS & FAMILY! Luckily most have already been here to visit and we hope the visits keep coming!!!)

Here are a few of the reasons we love Cali:

Mylee loves:
The BEACH
The POOLS and WATER PARKS
CALIFORNIA ADVENTURE
PLAYING OUTSIDE all the time

Brooks likes:
That we always go to DISNEYLAND
LEGOLAND with KELL
Riding his new QUAD to the PARK
BASEBALL GAMES with dad
Playing GAMES in the park
Flying his KITE & remote control BUG

Annika & Mia like:
GOING TO THE PARK!
Riding on the MERRY-GO-ROUND at the malls
SHOPPING with mom :)
When UNCLE MIKE visits!!

Dwight loves:
Work
leaving work to go to DISNEYLAND with the fam
GOLFING year round
BASEBALL GAMES with the boys
BIKING to work everyday

Mel likes:
THE WEATHER
The BEACH
SHOPPING
GIRLS' NIGHTS (AKA "WEEKLY ENRICHMENTS")
When FRIENDS & FAMILY VISIT!

We love it here and are excited to make this our new home!

LEGOLAND



DISNEYLAND & CALIFORNIA ADVENTURE



WHALE WATCHING

MINOR MISHAP







OFF TO THE PARK FOR GAMES WITH FRIENDS


THE BEACH


ANGELS GAME WITH DAD
AND THE RALLY MONKEY

MERRY-GO-ROUND WITH UNCLE MIKE