She's 5, surprised, excited, sad, then joyous again...

On November 27th, darling Maizie turned 5! She had a whole day o' fun planned for herself :)

The boys and their buddy Jack 2 came to wake Maizie up with her favorite McDonalds cinnamon roll. And yes, she is still asleep because she is the one family member that sleeps in!

She was super excited to see her yummy breakfast and hear her birthday song! Jack, Beau, and Jack 2 loved performing for her.

She wanted to eat in bed just like Jack got to do for his birthday so we let her.

After breakfast she opened her Pappy's present and was happy about getting a Baby Alive!

Our first stop was to the mall! When I was 5 my mom let me get my ears pierced so I thought we could carry on the tradition and let Maizie get hers done at 5 years old too. This has been something she's been talking about for about a year now - so there was some significant build up. Here she is unsuspecting and just so excited.

After...

Poor darling!

When she looked in the mirror at her lovely new Hello Kitty earrings in her ears she started to settle down. Luckily the crying lasted for only a minute because there was more fun to be had!

Off to Chuck E Cheese baby! She had forgotten all about the awful abuse suffered at the Claire's store and now is at Chuck E Cheese opening presents and playing games. We brought our neighbor, Cher, who's 10 but loves hanging with our kids. Maizie had an awesome time here!

The tongue helps her perform better at the games.

Maizie is picking her nose on her favorite game here! Some boat thing? But she does love it!

Aunt Tiffani & Maizie in her new hat from Cher! She'll be ready for those cold So-Cal winters ;)

Maizie and her BFF Chuck

Awwww, the proud parents...

Oh, someone else got sucked into the picture...

Alright! Everyone! At the happiest place on Earth! er.. almost - Happiest place today!!

Few pics of Thanksgiving fun

Thanksgiving, oh it was so fun! We don't have that many pictures of it for some reason!! We were too busy eating and then lazing about. We went over to our buddies Wes & Michelle Turnbow's house and had dinner with all of their family. There were 30 people there and it was super great, somehow we missed pictures of everyone!

Wes & I having some sort of fascinating discussion as you can see. Me making a weird face. awesome.

Trav & I in the dark.

Jack not wanting to look at the camera because that would cause his face to turn away from the computer!

Beau is a hippie, with a collar.

Jack and a couple of the Turnbow boys hanging out at the computer, of course!

Evelyne & Maizie looking cute and sassy.

Me and baby Wolverine

Beau and his "Eye of the Tiger" karaoke rendition. It was off the hook!

Maizie mostly just likes to hold the microphone and have everyone look at her while she talks in it. What are we going to do with her?

And Travis... nothing more to say! Great Thanksgiving!

Surprise Baby Shower

Tiffani led me to believe that we were going to Starbucks and Coldstone for a yummy treat....but we arrived at the house of my friend Michelle for a BABY SHOWER!! FOR ME!! AND BABY WOLVERINE!!

Good thing I was wearing decent clothes and Maizie-girl is always dressed for a party anyway just in case. I was so very surprised. I just assumed that I wasn't going to have a shower even though we were in desperate need of baby stuff because we had gotten rid of most of the baby stuff after Maizie. I was SOOO thankful.

This cake was so delicious and cute!

We played a diaper making game out of tp and Maizie was driving me a bit crazy so she got a straight jacket/onesie/diaper number.

Here Michelle is decorating her daughter Abby, and behind them Jana is working on Meredith's lovely diaper.

Meredith & Jana and their lovely creation.

3 of the 4 diapers presented - very nice.

Opening presents!!

This little monkey outfit is going to be Wolverine's going home outfit! Yey! We are excited to bring his cute self home in that!

Me & Tiff! I had a really wonderful time! Thanks Tiff for the fabulous fun!! Such a blessing!!

We officially have an 8 year old, people!!

Jack turned 8! I can't believe it! He is so tall and starting to know stuff and it's really ridiculous! We feel really blessed to have him in our family as our son. Jack is so right minded. By that, I mean he seeks justice for everyone and he tries to do the right thing most of the time. He still struggles with tattling of course, because he seeks justice for everyone. But he is very responsible and loves to help with whatever needs to be done. I am being reminded daily that God has a very specific plan for each of us and so it's really exciting to see Jack's growth in his 8 years knowing that God's working on him!

The weekend before his birthday we had a big party and a bunch of his school friends came. It was awesome. We played water balloon toss in the front yard, which is like the best party game ever!! Pinata of course!!

Candy scramble!! I had to step in to make sure that everyone got some candy!

Jack specifically asked for an ice cream cake and since I've never made one, I figured that Baskin Robins could totally do a better job!

Delish!!

On Jack's actual birthday (Nov.2nd), he asked for breakfast in bed. So of course, he got it!

He thought it was awesome! He giggled the entire time we were bringing him his food. So cute!

After his breakfast he got to open presents from Travis & I, Aunt Tiffani, and a few others. He loved all of them and definitely did not want to go to school! However, that's one birthday request we can't do. :(

He got this new army robe which he adores and wears all the time! He's also a huge fan of this Baba Fet?? helmet! Jack loved all his great presents!

I brought cupcakes to his class and he loved it! He's trying to cover his face because he's too cool, but I know he loooved having me in his class!

Great birthday!!

Halloween!

Our Halloween fun stretched over a couple of weeks and it was a good time! Below, we were at the local Forest Lawn Cemetery for their annual pumpkin decorating contest. They kids were ready to do their best decorating!

Travis was giving Maizie some pointers from the sidelines. Jack made a ninja pumpkin. It was pretty cool.

Beau was quickly bored with decorating and just decided to color his entire pumpkin black. Oh well, there's always next year! The kids didn't win any prizes but they had a good time, well 2 out of 3 had a good time.

Travis bought some spider webs to decorate the house and it looked so spooky! The kids had a great time decorating. This was their favorite part of Halloween I think.

Travis had some very creative ideas and the house looked very Halloween-y!

Pumpkin carving & decorating! Aunt Nikki sent us these potato-head pumpkin decorating things a couple of years ago and they have been so great!! You just poke the potato-head parts into the pumpkin and they look so cute! We still carved a couple though. Everyone liked getting gooey with pumpkin guts.

The one eyed monster and the pirate potato head guy were Beau's creations. The princess was of course Maizie's and the jack-o-lantern face was Jack's. Travis insisted on painting my big ol' belly. It was lovely. really.

Maizie enjoying some cotton candy at the church Halloween carnival.

All the kids at the carnival on Halloween! Travis & I volunteered at a booth while the kids meandered around the carnival (it was a small one so it was safe). They got a ridiculous amount of candy before we even went trick-or-treating!! Jack is a white ninja from GI Joe, Beau is Batman and Maizie is Tinkerbell.

After the church carnival we went around the neighborhood a bit with Tiffani. They kids loaded up even more and unfortunately Beau had to quit early due to a candy induced belly ache. Luckily, Tiffani was with us to take Beau home so that the other kids could enjoy a few more streets. It was a super fun holiday!