I realized we haven't done anything really photo worthy lately and its been a while since I've taken pictures of the kids. I decided to take some just for fun, to show what we are up to.

Teslyn loves to color and will fill up a coloring book in a matter of days. It's just scribbles, but its very fun for her. She also loves snipping away at paper with little safety scissors. She hasn't done any real damage yet, so I let her do her thing. Hopefully she stays away from her hair.

Owen is a happy kindergartener. I got to sit in on his class today for 30 minutes as a parent involvement day. It was really great to see exactly what is going on. He is getting better and better at writing and can read more words everyday, it seems. Each day he is good he brings home a green ticket, and if he's super good he gets a gold coin. When he has 5 gold coins he can turn them in for a trip to the teacher's treasure box. He's done that once so far.

We are trying to take advantage of the great weather before it gets too cool. But even then, there won't be snow so we can still get out a lot. I am going to miss winter here. I am sure we will be snow-bound next winter! It's still a mystery where we will end up after Nick graduates in May. I am just excited that we are getting closer to that milestone!

We had a super fun and really busy Halloween time! I felt like I was just trying to keep my head above water while we were running around going from one party and event to another, and all the planning and prepping that goes along with it, while managing to accomplish the day to day tasks, like laundry and dishes. But it was all fun. I just wish I had time to slow down and take some good pictures! These will have to suffice.

We got around to carving our pumpkin the night before Halloween! We let Owen draw the face on a piece of paper, and I did my best to trace it on the pumpkin so Nick could carve it. Owen loved it and thought it was just scary enough.

Our ward had a trunk or treat and chili cook-off. Our trunk surprisingly won third place! This is the best picture of the kids that night. Teslyn is a ladybug and Owen is Batman.

And here is our "spooky haunted trunk!"

I am really sad my pictures don't show how cute Teslyn was, or how awesome Owen's costume was. Those two were stoked about trick-or-treating. We started the night at Nick's sister's house with a bunch of cousins for a fun and festive Halloween dinner. One of those over-the-top ones that takes lots of prep time and three people to serve. But it was amazing and the kids loved it. There was no holding still for pictures. This was Teslyn the rest of the night:

Tes knew the drill. She was good at reciting, "treat treat," followed by "thank you" and as she ran away she would call out, "happy Halloween!" It was so fun. I got Owen to stop for a brief moment for an awkward photo before he ran to catch up with his cousins:

I would love to share more about the fun dinner we put on for the kids, but it would be boring without pictures. I did take one picture of the three desserts I made. These bloody eye ball cupcakes. There are even cherries inside the cupcakes to give the feel of eating bloody eye balls.

The Saturday before Halloween Owen had his last soccer game of the season. Here he is with his twin cousins, Jackson and Savanna. It was a fun league for him to start with. Everyone got a star medallion that says, "If you had fun you won." So cute. He will miss it!

Teslyn is 2!!!

My little lady is not a tiny baby any more, that's for sure.

We just love her to pieces and feel so lucky that she's ours. We are thoroughly enjoying her littleness, while it lasts.

She's a smart one. She woke up to her pile of presents and knew just what to do.

Can you tell she's very in to Dora? She's obsessed.

We kept her birthday pretty simple this year. We took her to eat dinner at Rainforest Cafe with another family we are friends with. It was the perfect restaurant to entertain little ones, with the fish, monkeys, elephants, lightening and thunder. Here she is looking around while almost the entire restaurant shouted "happy birthday!" to her. It was fun. The ladies at the next table over bestowed their plastic bead necklaces upon Teslyn before we left. (It's Vegas and they were partying.) It was sweet.

We went home to enjoy the Dora cake that I made to surprise Teslyn, which turned out really sloppy. I wanted to make a homemade strawberry frosting so Dora would have a pink skirt, but I couldn't get the frosting stiff enough so it wouldn't pipe on all nice like. But regardless, Teslyn was thrilled.

She blew out her candles like a pro and we let her dig right in. I had made cupcakes for the rest of us.

She is such a sweet little lady, she makes us laugh and smile everyday. I really don't know what I'd do without her. She amazes me. Next comes the potty training and binky weaning. Those were surprisingly easy with Owen, so I am praying it will be with Tes as well!

Owen is playing soccer this year. It's a fun little league called eSoccer that my sister-in-law, Jamie found. Half of the team is made up of children with exceptional needs. I think the ones on our team are autistic. Today we played a team that had two of the children in big wheelchairs. They had a gigantic soccer ball that they got to push around while the rest of the kids raced back and forth playing the game. It was awesome to see those children in wheelchairs having so much fun and being so involved. The best was after the game when the parents and coaches made a arch/tunnel with our arms and both teams ran though, over and over. Their smiles were so big, and the cheers were so loud. I so wish I took a picture of those smiles. It made my day.

Owen is really loving soccer, and looks forward to it every week. I wasn't so sure how he'd feel about it, but he shares his love for playing the game with his father. I am not surprised. I think he's so cute out there chasing the ball. Today they had each kid take a turn being the goalie. Owen blocked two goals. Here is a picture of one below. He also scored two goals, so he had a pretty good day!

Today was his third game, so they are starting to get the hang of it. A big improvement from the first day, when they got so caught up in chasing and kicking the ball, they had made it through almost 3 other games that were going on next to us before we could get them called back. It was hilarious.

Teslyn was hanging out on the side lines and booked it out of the way just in time. This is a really fun park they play at, with a great playground. I have a hard time keeping an eye on Teslyn and watching Owen play at the same time.

It feels like summer should be winding down now, but its really not. Thursday night we got together with some friends to play at a fun splash pad/park and had a great bbq/picnic dinner. Since school has started, the pools and splash pads are shutting off which is unfortunate. We are still in the 90's here for a while. Don't tell Owen, but Teslyn and I go swimming at the M Resort while he is at school. Locals (women and children) swim free, and they are still open! Here's to fall in Vegas!

Owen is FIVE!

It is hard to believe that we have a five year old in the house. But it is also fun and exciting.

It's hard to believe he is growing up right in front off our eyes. He is getting so big so fast, which is fun to watch, until I realize that I am aging right long with him!

He asked for a Batman birthday party, so that's what he got! He invited 11 of his preschool, kindergarten, and church friends, including 2 cousins. And Teslyn. It was chaotic, but worth it for the fun they all had and the memories Owen made.

Owen, blowing out his 5 candles.

Of course there had to be a Batman cake, so I did my best to make that happen. The easiest way I could! My friend turned me on to this great stuff called sugar sheets, which I cut the bat shape out of. Placed it on a yellow frosted cake, and voila! Bat signal cake.

But not just any cake. It had to be special so I made it a 4 layer ice cream cake. Chocolate cake with cookies and cream ice cream. I guess it doesn't look very pretty though.

We served pizza for dinner, and I thought it would be fun to have a little fruit and veggie buffet for the kids to help themselves to. It was a hit, and they grazed on it throughout the night. By the end, almost all that remained was the broccoli. It looked like it hadn't been touched!

Batman pinata! There they are, anxiously awaiting their turn to hit him. After the fact, I wish I would have given them bad guy masks, since they had so much fun beating on Batman!

But they got Batman masks. Here they are giving me their best Batman poses!

Such a wild and crazy group of kids! They wore us out, but it will be a party to remember.

Owen the kindergartener

Owen started kindergarten on Monday! I thought I would be more emotional about this big milestone than I was. I think it was harder for me to send him to preschool. But this isn't about me, its about my cutie pie punkin' boy. He is probably the youngest in his class. He made the cut-off by a week or two. He will be 5 September 17th. But I feel he is so ready, and he acts the part. And he's tall. He was in a very structured kindergarten-prep preschool last year. When we asked him how his first day of kindergarten was, he said "we did the same things as preschool!" He loved preschool, so I am sure he will enjoy this as well!

The teacher wasn't letting parents come in the classroom, so I was grateful Owen turned to give me this last smile right before he went to find a seat. I hear great things about the teacher, so I know this will be a great year! He is learning and growing so fast, and I am so proud of him.

Teslyn liked how there are drinking fountains just her size outside.

We've been enjoying Nick's three week break between semesters this month. Next week he actually starts his fourth and final year of dental school! Yipeee!!

We've spent most of the break in Utah, where the climate and temperatures are more favorable. And that's where family is! We were able to spend most of it with Nick's mom and her husband, Grandma and Grandpa Moore (Nana & Papa). We were also able to be there for my little brother Danny's mission homecoming talk in church. It's so good to have him back! I wish we got some pictures with him.

The first adventure was Lagoon! It is a fun and nostalgic place for both Nick and me. And our kids were in heaven! Owen remembered the bumper cars most from last time we went, two summers ago. So that was the first stop for us.

But I think the favorite was this one. They rode it three times, and luckily the line was never long.

Tes was so excited to drive a car!

Teslyn was big enough to go on most rides that she wanted to, and thoroughly enjoyed it.

It was fun to see our kids having so much fun.

We also spent a morning at the Thanksgiving Point Museum of Ancient Life, which is pretty much the biggest dinosaur museum of its kind.

Cousin Aspen got to join us! They all had fun exploring. It's a very interactive and kid friendly museum.

Here we are playing in the sand and water, learning about erosion, I think.

We went back to Thanksgiving Point another morning to visit Farm Country, pretty much so that Teslyn could ride a "neigh neigh."

Of course they both loved it. And it was so fun to see a tiny girl propped up on a horse, well....pony.

They also got to feed lots of different farm animals.

And pet the friendly ones!

Then we headed south to St. George to go see The Little Mermaid performance at Tuachan with Nana and Papa. The kids were mesmerized for most of the first half. It was so magical and really entertaining. But nobody could help that my poor children who are use to going to bed at 7 pm (pacific time) were starting to fall apart during intermission at 10:15 pm. Nick and I were sad that we couldn't stay for the end, but it was for the best interest of everyone involved. And to Nick's dismay, I insisted we stop at the photo op on our way out.

We spent most of last week playing in the pools at the St. George condo. We don't usually get to play with daddy at the pool because he is so diligently learning how to be a dentist at school, so the kids definitely made up for it.

Overload of pool pictures, but I love it.

And who doesn't love a baby being thrown in the air?

Or a big boy?

We love this daddy.

He is super fun.

And so is this boy!

I think he's super cute. We sure love him.

And that's what summer is about. And so are ice cream cone moustaches.

We sure love this crazy little lady as well.