Thanksgiving in St. George

For Thanksgiving we went to St. George with Corey's family. Usually we are only able to go for a couple of days, but since Corey's new job didn't start until Dec. 1, we were able to go for the whole time. We rented the same house that we rented over the fourth of July, and it was so much more fun than a hotel since we all get to be together, plus we got to have a pool in the backyard! Raylee had lots of fun with all her cousins, and had fun playing with all the girl cousins that are around her age.

We spent the time doing what we always do in St. George: eating, hanging out, swimming, shopping, and golfing! Definitely some of my favorite things!

Poor Jackson got pink eye right before we left, but he was a trooper and was pretty food the whole time! He got spoiled from all the attention from everyone!

One night we stayed up late playing games, and poor Raylee was so exhausted she fell asleep on Dusty's lap.

Even though it was November, and pretty chilly outside, we were luckily able to heat the pool to nice 95 degrees and so we had tons of fun in the pool that felt more like a really warm bath! Raylee is still a chicken when it comes to the water, but she is getting a little braver.

The weather was a little scary coming home, but all in all it was an awesome trip! Can't wait to go again!

Spooktacular Halloween!

We had lots of fun celebrating Halloween this year! Raylee and Jackson both had Halloween shirts this year, so I tried to get a picture of both of them together, but Jackson would NOT hold still! He is constantly wanting to be on the move. The picture above is the best I got, although he is still trying to get out of his sisters arm so he can make his escape! Raylee found a witch's hat in the Target dollar section and wouldn't take it off. I could barely get it off her to pay for it! She wore it around constantly for like a week.

Carving pumpkins was fun, as always, but I think I will be glad when my kids can carve their own pumpkins! Raylee was excited to get the "guts" out of the pumpkin by herself, but didn't like the way they felt, so it was daddy to the rescue!

After Corey was done carving Raylee's pumkin, we let her paint the back side of it while we carved our pumpkins.

We ended up with an itsy bitsy spider, a cat, Cinderella, and a "mean" pumpkin!

For Halloween, Raylee was Tinkerbell and Jackson was a monkey. I had a hard time getting a picture of Raylee because she kept trying to fly like Tinkerbell, so all my pictures kept ending up blurry. And Jackson wasn't any better. My little monkey wouldn't hold still, and kept trying to escape!

Since Halloween was on a Sunday, we celebrated on Saturday which just happened to be Corey's dads birthday. We started out in Tremonton to have a quick birthday party, and then Raylee went trick-or-treating with some of her cousins. Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of all the cousins together, but I did get one with Bella and Aurie.

After trick-or-treating we headed down to my sisters house for our annual Halloween party. We tried to get a picture of all the cousing together, but it wasn't happening so this is the best I got!

Halloween was blast, and Raylee came home with tons of candy which she unknowingly shared with her mom ;)

The cabin!

We went to the cabin for the first time this year in October. It had been over a year since I had been there, and so it was a long overdue trip up to High Valley! We had a blast as usual, and since this was our first trip since getting our new camera we took tons and tons of pictures.

The time seemed to pass way too quickly, but we filled it up with lots of fun activites. We did lots of ATV riding, and since we went during the deer hunt, any time we went outside our little cabin community we had to wear some sort of orange just to be sure we wouldn't get shot :)

Raylee got to spend tons of time with all her cousins, and had so much fun! They went on ATV rides, the tire swing, painted rocks, went on walks, and she even got to sleep in the same bed as 3 of her cousins. Jackson turned 9 months while we were up there, got to have his first piece of licorice thanks to his grandpa :), and started crawling while we were up there.

Instead of rambling on some more I will let the pictures do the rest of the talking....

Tubby Time

Bathtime has gotten much easier and quicker now that these two squirts can take a bath together, and they absolutely love it. Raylee does get a little annoyed that Jackson always ends up scooting across the tub and squishing her against one end of the tub, and Jackson should get annoyed that Raylee always takes the toys away from him, but he doesn't. He just entertains himself with some splashing.

Nothing like two clean kiddo's right out of the tub, one of the best smells there is! Too bad this can't be a scratch and sniff post!

Picnic in the Park

My family decided to get together for one last hoorah before Leslie left for BYU-I and so we decided to have a picnic at the park. We had just got our new camera and were having fun taking some pictures, although I am ashamed to say that I didn't get one of Leslie! There were a couple of really cute pictures, so I thought I would post them, although we are still trying to figure out the ins and outs of the camera. The picnic was lots of fun and gave us all one last Tweety fix to hold us over for the next couple months until we get to see her again!

One Year Older and Wiser too!

On August 27, my baby girl turned three! It seems like I just blinked my eyes and she went from a little baby to a 3 year old!

A few things about Raylee right now:

• She is teeny tiny. She only weighs like 24 lbs, and is a lot shorter than other kids her age.


• She is really shy. She is really quiet around people she doesn't know, and she still won't go to nursery by herself.


• Her favorite toys right now are her baby dolls, princess figurines, snap'n style dolls, and mega blocks. She also loves reading books, doing puzzles, and coloring.


• Her favorite TV shows are Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, and Dora. Her favorite movies are Cinderella, and the Letter Factory.


• She loves the alphabet and is always making me spell everybody's names.


• We always sing her a couple songs when we put her to bed, and a few of her favorites are I am a Child of God, I love to See the Temple, Jesus wants me for a Sunbeam, If you Chance to Meet a Frown, Part of your World(Little Mermaid), Itsy Bitsy Spider, Mean Old Witch, and Santa Claus is Coming to Town.


• Her drink of choice is strawberry milk, and her favorite food isn't really anything, unless you can count candy or junk food.


• She absolutely loves her little brother, and plays with him all the time!

Raylee was so excited for her birthday this year. For like the whole week before she would ask if it was her happy birthday yet and on her actual birthday she told me a few times throughout the day to tell her Happy Birthday.

Corey had to go into work for a couple of hours, but we let her open her presents as soon as he got home from work.

She absolutely loved her Cinderella dress up, and wore it all day long.

That night we went up to Coreys parents house and had a little party for her.

Then we went to the county fair! We go every year and it worked out that it happened to be over Raylee's birthday. She definitely didn't mind!


Jackson got to hang out in the stroller, while Raylee wasa going on all her rides!

Then we had a birthday party with my family for Raylee and Hailey a couple days later. Raylee thought it was pretty cool she got to share a cake with her cousin!

Bowling

This year for the Bird family reunion we just stayed around the Salt Lake Area and did a bunch of fun things, but the only activity I remembered to take any pictures at was the bowling. It was Raylee's first time bowling, and she had fun but I think she had just as much fun playing around with Ashlyn while the rest of us bowled!

My Grandma was nice enough to hold Jackson the whole time so I could bowl and help Raylee bowl.