Paige's 4th Birthday

For Paige's birthday, we met my sister and her family at the Chuck E Cheese in Layton. After splurging on pizza, wings and salad we divided up the tokens and sent all the girls on their way. Ashley loved the rides and Paige wanted to shoot everything. We had a great time with "cousins" and were glad they could join us.
The next day was not only Paige's birthday, but the primary program as well. My mom slept over so she could attend the program. Paige was a little bit of a stinker in church. She wanted to sit with us and not her class so I sat with her until the program started. Paige is a little fidgeter and snuggler and all she wanted to do was sit on my lap and play with my necklace. When it was time to go up to the stage, she was not happy because she didn't get to stand up to the microphone (she had to use the hand held one). She wouldn't stand up to sing and would only sit on the teacher's lap. Paige can be a handful and I was greatful that her teacher was so patient with her.
After a nap, she was much happier. All of Scott's family came over as well as my other sister and her family bringing her family from Logan. After presents, we had cake and ice cream. I hope she enjoyed her birthday and liked all of her presents including a new larger "princess" blanket.
Paige is such an amazing little girl. She had an incredible intelligence that blows us away. She is ready to read and knows her letters already. She'll follow her finger along with the words in any book we're reading. She's also picking up on games on the computer. She can move her finger around the pad so quick. I usually have to pull her off the computer. She's now in preschool and loves it. She'll share the letter she's learning and is so enthusiastic about it. She is still a snuggler and is so full of love. She wants to be held still but when we tell her she's too big, she proceeds to tell us that her legs are broken. She is so funny and has so much personality. She is pretty patient with Ashley. When Ashley will pull her hair or hit her, she doesn't retaliate. It impresses us so much that she'll restrain that anger and frustration that could quickly boil to the surface. She is still a contrary little thing with a little defiance when we ask her to do anything but her boistrousness and love for life overshadow that. We love our fun and sweet little Paige and are glad to have her as ours!!

Fun Fall!

Paige's preschool had a fun field trip to the Black island farms pumpkin patch. We were able to come with her and bring Ashley as well. They had alot of things for the kids to do and we enjoyed it as much as the kids did. We rode the hayride out to the pumpkin patch and were given a lesson on farms and how they were becoming obsolete. the kids were able to see fresh vegetables from the ground and they snipped the pumpkins right off the vine for us. The girls rode the slides, jumped in a blowup pumpkin, rode the cow train and looked at a few of the animals! We had a great time!
We also had a fun friend party with our old university friends. We love these friends of ours and are so lucky with how deep these friendships run. We always laugh, talk and catch up on how big our kids are getting. We carved pumpkins, had yummy soup and the kids played a fun Halloween game. Great times and we look forward to our fun overnighter with them in November!!

Disneyland!!!

The last week of September, we loaded up the new Pilot with a double stroller, pack n play and all of the clothes we could imagine needing. Armed with a DVD player and a bag full of food we set out for the long drive to California. We left after work on Friday night and stayed one night in a dive in St. George. It worked for the 8 hours of sleep we were there for but lets just say we won't be staying there again. The next morning we were off to Disneyland caravaning with Ginger and Dale, Scott's siblings. The girls did really well and they loved watching the new DVD players that helped us all survive the trip. Paige kept saying that it was a really long way to Disneyland and I couldn't help but agree with her. But the new vehicle provided room and comfort so we survived the drive in ease. When we arrived in California, we checked in and unpacked then it was off to the hotel pools for some swimming. We were up and ready to go the next morning, and after a short walk to Disneyland, we had arrived. Paige just kept looking around in awe. It was decorated for Halloween and that was really fun. The first ride was Space Mountain (which during Halloween become Ghost Galaxy). Of course there were scary monsters and Paige was terrified exclaiming that she wanted to go home and leave Disneyland. So off to Dumbo to cure her of her fear. The main problem of our trip was the record heat California happened to be experiencing. We thought that going in the end of Sept, we'd have balmy weather. Little did we know. The first day was 109 degrees and when we heard Monday was going to be hotter (114 degrees) we opted for Huntington Beach. It was so much fun just bobbing in the waves. Scott and I could have stayed out there all day but we had to return to our children on the beach. It was such a relaxing and peaceful day but when we returned to the hotel room, the piles of sand left from our bathing suits required a bit of housekeeping. Even though it was quite hot and my hair and makeup had melted by the end of each day, there were water rides and splash pads to keep us and the kids cooled down. We had a 5 day pass so we spent 2 days in California Adventure and 3 days in Disneyland. We were able to ride on everything and see almost everything that we wanted to. Paige told us she hated the scary coaster, the splash coaster and fantasmic (with the bad dreams) but she would go on 3 dumbos. We just laughed because we really spent a lot of time riding Dumbo, the Carousel, Alice in Wonderland and Pooh. We also had lunch with the princesses and Ariel (Paige's favorite because of the red hair). Paige thought that was fun but was pretty engrossed in her coloring to get really involved with the princesses. We loved the World of Color and the fun parades. Disney just knows how to put on a show. The trip was really a magical experience for our family. The kids were troopers with long days and little sleep. Paige and I were buddies riding alot of rides together. We also enjoyed spending the trip with the veterans in Ginger and Eric along with Dale and Cindi. They were terrific guides and helped us with the kids a ton! I wish I could post all 450 pictures but Blogger doesn't like that so here are a few highlights! (Keep in mind the heat contributing to the bad hair and makeup I had)