The Young Family: A Family Journal

When I started blogging all those years ago (seriously, it's been almost 5 years?!), it was just a fun way to keep family that was long distance informed of the comings and goings, and mostly, to see the adorable daughter of ours grow!! Then it mostly became a way for me to journal about the comings and goings and happenings of our family, because I was terrible at putting things down in writing!
We periodically sit down and go back to the beginning of the blog and let the kids look at all the fun things that are on there, and it's mostly a great way to remember how time has flown and how awesome we have it! I love blogging. If only for myself, and a select few that read it, it enables me to put thoughts and pictures down that can then be translated to pages in a memory book. I can't believe I let so many days and weeks go by without putting the littlest things down so I can remember them a few years from now. That's already my New Year's resolution for myself :)
That being said, we've had a memorable past few months. We are in full swing-getting-ready-for-holidays mode at our house. The craziness is upon us, and we will soon be wondering where 2012 went.
Hiking in Palisades

We had a fun first weekend in October spending it with Mike's family in Utah. We had family pictures taken and were able to see Matt and Yvette's new addition.

Reagan and Kade had a great time playing with cousins and we enjoyed an adult dinner out celebrating Mike's parents 40th wedding anniversary. Great examples of long living love! Some of our pics.

I love these kiddos!

We then had an awesome visit from Auntie Jenn all the way from Pennsylvania. Although she's not technically "blood", we consider her so, and she's been an amazing friend to me for so many years, and a fun Aunt for my kids :) My kids are wild and wooley sometimes, but she takes it with stride and we always get lots of laughs, and some girl time it thanks to Mike, and always, always, enjoy her visits and miss her when she's gone!

She's throwing out the heart love sign for One Direction :)

Not a bad picture taken by a 6 year old who can barely hold the camera

Herriman State Park

Mike and I were then able to take our first vacation without kids in over 6 years! (That's not counting an overnight stay here or there) We stayed on beautiful Kauai and spent a week just relaxing, reading for hours by the ocean, uninterrupted sleeping, hiking, eating yummy food, snorkeling in the salty ocean, catching up on movies we haven't seen, and being happy just being together. We got awesome tans and were ready to come home at just the right time. We missed the kids like crazy, but it was totally what we needed and we came home feeling refreshed and freezing cold!! Although our sitter was more than excited to see us and did not exactly look tan and refreshed ;o)

There are thousands of "wild" chickens on the Island of Kauai. The tale says that in the early 90s a hurrican that wiped out the Island, also spread some random chicken farmers chicken to the island. They just roam around and nobody bothers them. I made the mistake of feeding a rooster a chip and he crowed at me for the next 20 mins until I kept feeding him.

The falls that are famous due to Fantasy Island

This picture is of Waimea Canyon. They call it the Grand Canyon of Hawaii. It was amazing. We didn't have the camera on this day and the above picture does not do it just. I think it runs like 10 miles wide and is 2ish miles deep. This was from one of the observation areas. Many of the miles that surround this area consist of red clay (dirt). I would HATE living in those towns. Absolutely everything is tinted red. Can you imagine what the inside of a house would be like after the wind blows?!

This picture also doesn't do our hike justice :) We decided randomly to attempt a hike down into Waimea Canyon. It was 2.5 miles and I am talking STRAIGHT down into the canyon. This was the "safe" part of the hike I think! There isn't a drop off into the canyon, or rocks and pebbles everywhere. We made good time and hiked half way down and then looked up and I chickened out!! I was thinking there was no way I could make it at a steep incline all the way back up! And we weren't sure exactly what was at the bottom so we climbed back up in the 80% humidity and 85 degree weather. I was sure I was going to pass out :) It was beautiful though!

Reagan is loving dance, school, socializing, and tormenting her brother. She's growing so tall and skinny. Some nights when we check on them before going to bed I can 't believe how grown up she looks! My sweet, chubby cheeked little girl is no longer. She really has a zest for life that you have to love. She is very cranky to do chores, usually will tell you your business, but in spite of the "kid stuff", she is a sweet girl. We are constantly reminding ourselves that we need to be easier on her, because, in fact, she is not 10, just a 6 yr old longing to be 10. After all, how many 6 year olds do you know that aspire to be a famous songwriter:} (And a note on that, she had 2 teeth pulled this week and was more nervous about it "affecting her singing voice" than any other outcome)

Kade is growing so tall and looking more and more like a boy and not a little toddler! He has a great vocabulary, is still obsessed with Toy Story, and has officially sworn off diapers for life!! He has become so insanely, stubbornly independant, very opinionated about what he wants and boy is it going to happen for him. We hear "don't touch that", "Leave it right here", "I do it". He's very particular (almost to a point of OCD) of where things go and how he wants them. It's hard to believe he will soon be THREE! He is my buddy and the best good boy ever. I just love spending time with him. I love reading to him at nap time and most nights I spoilingly (?) hold him to sleep just so I can love on him and kiss him a hundred times and tell him I love him without him brushing away kisses and saying "No kissy mommy" or "STOP kissy me mommy". But we love them, because in spite of our imperfections, they love us!

Halloween snuck up too fast!! We were entertained by Mavis (dracula girl from Hotel Transylvania), and Woody. Reagan carved her very first pumpkin and I was sure we would end up at the ER! Kade was less than interested in touching anything pumpkin and would say "ew, ew, ew". They were excited to go trick-or-treating and we picked a random neighborhood to go to and it ended up being a development with older, mostly widows. They were so cute and my not-really-candy-eating kids got more than they wanted. We were out and in bed in record time! Kade was adorable and would lift his hat and say "Howdee Parner" each time. He's been in true Woody mode since then and the hat has hardly left his head.