A Montessori Feast !

At the girls preschool, Mrs. Merrill arranged for a fun Thanksgiving feast that the kids helped prepare, as well as, making their own costumes. Baylee was thrilled to have Indian braids and a feather. Kami loved her pilgrim bonnet.

Happy Halloween!

Too funny! Baylee loved the glasses and clown nose she won as a prize!

This is the life !

Go Fish!

Cake Walk

The girls loved watching Nana dress-up as Cruela Divil.

Well the long awaited dress-up day finally came. We had a Halloween party at Aunt Amy's and boy was it a party! Good food & treats, lots of fun games, and good company of the extended Merrill clan and my parents. The kids even got to trick-or-treat door-to-door inside Amy's house. We had a chilli dinner and I made this really good white chilli recipie of my mom's. It was so tasty!

GO GO Baylee!

Baylee just finished up the soccer season and loved it. Her team was the PINK panthers. She was much more aggresive at getting the ball this year and never wanted to sit out - an improvement from last year when she stood there and hoped the ball would come to her. She said her favorite positions were forward and goaly. It was fun to watch her run and get after the ball. Way to go Baylee!

Carlsbad Beach Trip

Too funny! Lacey's googly eyes. the kids did crafts at camp


Nana and Papa



Skateboard fun by the campsite


Dave loved the hearty camp breakfasts made by Dallan.






Well we had a fun October break going to the beach with Nana,Papa,Chelsey, Dallan & Bobbi's family, and Durfees. We camped on the bluff and played by the ocean for 4 days. We all had such a fun time-great food, great company, great fun. Baylee really got into boogy boarding and drip castle building. Kambria swam in the ocean with her floaties. Lydia liked the ocean at a distance, but loved all the puddles in the sand. Dave ocean kayaked with the men and boogy boarded. He got tumbled pretty good in the rough waves. I played on the beach with the kids and got brave enough to enter the cold water and boogy board. Much Fun! The only sad part is that when we drove back to the valley and visited Dave's parents in Phoenix, my camera got stolen out of the car and all my great pictures are gone forever. I had some really great ones, too. I am missing the pict I took of Lydia in her bright green cover-up sticking the top ofher head into our sand pond we built, with her naked bumb up in the air. Another favorite was Lydia guarding the water faucet by our camp. She was in her pink pajamas sitting next to the water faucet with her bucket, waiting for whoever to come along and turn on the water so that she could play in it. She sat their the whole time we packed up and got soaking wet and muddy- laughing & loving every minute of it. So, needless to say any pictures I post are thanks to Bobbi, who had some picts of our family on her camera.

Montessori At Last!

Okay, so Kambria has been asking me sense Baylee started school if it was her school day yet. So Monday night when I told her school is tomarrow she was thrilled and got her backpack all set out. Then she comes into my room at 6:00am fully dressed in her school clothes and says "mom, I'm ready for school" and then falls asleep at the end of the bed for another hour. After I did her hair in some tight curls to look cute for the first day, she later noticed herself in the mirror and said "I look like George Washington" --where did that come from--I guess GW had tight curls,too. Anyway, it was an exciting first day of Montessori for her and Baylee. Baylee reported that she is going to challenge herself in Montessori 'cause kindergarten is too easy. Kambria felt special getting to stay at Montessori a half hour longer, since Baylee catches the bus early,--and she couldn't stop talking about how she was "specially" chosen on the first day to take the snack basket home. oh, the simple pleasures. Dave and I were chuckling the other night about the dominating dinner conversations of our 2 school goers. --just one in particular --Baylee has a spanish girl that rides her bus to kindergarten. Baylee heard her speak spanish (she thinks) and decided she wanted to speak spanish to her too. So, she says she gets on the bus and says "Ola" "Como Esteh"-only the girl never responds. But, Baylee keeps trying. Then one day the spanish girl waved to her on the bus, and another time she got Baylee's backpack that was left on the bus. so I guess the friendship is budding. Only, maybe she doesn't speak spanish.

Anyway, our little Lydia feels a little left out in the backpack department, so today when she was saying "packpack, packpack" I found one in the closet her size and she drug it around all day.

A Super 6 Birthday!

Baylee had a great 6th birthday. She is so easy to please and so enthusiastic about the simple joys of a birthday. She got to do 6 special things that day. 1. Dad made her german pancakes for breakfast. 2. she got to take a treat to share with her classmates at school & found a note from mom in her lunch. 3. She got to choose whatever she wanted for dinner (pizza). 4. Choose her cake. (mom made an nummy apple cake, and dad drew the horse on top) 5. She got to open great presents. 6. She invited Merrills, Willis, and Braelyn over for a pinata bust. Lydia got the first hit and Rustin made the smashing bust of the pinata. It was really a great day for her and she felt so loved. Baylee loved each one of her gifts and has played with each on of them. My Baylee is growing up.

Lydia's Obsessions

Lydia's latest obsessions are shoes and toothbrushing. When I am getting her dressed in the morning all she wants is her "shoes". She will find any family members shoes and put them on. I also keep finding her with all the kids toothbrushes and the toothpaste. Though, I don't think she actually brushes her teeth as much as she likes putting the toothpaste on the brush and eating it. too funny!