Thankful...

We had such a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday this year!  Definitely one of the best ever.  On Thursday, because we were going out to dinner, there was no cooking, prepping or cleaning so we got TONS done around the house!!  It was glorious!

Then we had an AMAZING dinner at Capital Grille with my parents...I highly recommend it for Thanksgiving dinner.  Their mashed potatoes are the best I've ever had.  And their signature martini is pretty delicious as well. ;)  Sadly, I forgot to take pictures!

The next day we were up bright and early to head down to grammy and pop pop's house for family photos and a little birthday celebration for Everett and Auntie Jenn.  It was so fun!  The kids did SO great during the photo shoot...here is a teaser that the photographer posted...have you ever seen a cuter group of cousins in your life?!

The kids had so much fun playing together, and it kind of melts your heart to see how much they love being around each other. :)

The boys whacked the heck out of the balls, splitting them in half, during baseball!

Of course there were golf cart rides...

These two...they are just the cutest.  They are the same size but a year and half apart!  They thought they were super cool with their Gatorade bottles in hand. ;)

Happy birthday Jenn and Everett!

Katie and I had a mimosa...or ten...

Family!

A Great Soccer Season!

Ella had her final soccer game, and her teacher came to cheer on the team!  We have the BEST teacher!!  This is a picture with all the girls in her class from Ella's team, as well as girls from the other team who are in her class or were in TK with them...

Everett and Colt cheered them on from the sidelines...or you know, didn't pay attention at all and only sat down briefly for snack. ;)

Team party and trophies after the game!

A Fun November...

Dinner and crafts with some of our most favorite people in the world!

Cadence's cowgirl party!

And Thanksgiving holiday play dates!

Tooth Numero 3!

Ella lost her third tooth on November 17, 2015.  Yikes, I need to get up to date with blog posts!  It was super wiggly and even bleeding so Gary tried to pull it out and made her cry...we had to wait until school the next morning for the tooth whisperer to pull it out again!!!

Dino Dash 2015

The Dino Dash supports our district's schools, but it's also super fun!  We were a little worried this year since it was the day after Halloween (who planned that one?!), and I admit that I just wanted to stay in my pjs all morning, but once we got there, it was so much fun!

Daddy ran the 5k and gave the kids a high five as he ran by...

These two did so great!  Ella and her friend ran the entire 2k, and Everett even ran half of it!

Ella's teacher ran with us too!

We ran into lots of friends!

We love to support our school!

Halloween 2015

I was able to do it again...fourth year in a row of coordinating costumes!  My little cheerleader and football player...

Coordinating cuteness four years and counting...

It was another fun year trick-or-treating in our hood with all the neighbor kids!  We had a big group...this was just half of them!

The cheer squad!

Godsiblings!

We still aren't sure which one he is going to marry...

...but it better be one of them!!! 

The amount of candy we now have in our house is really just ridiculous.

Halloween Parade

On Thursday, Ella had her school Halloween parade and class party- it's one of the most fun days of the year!

It was Red Ribbon Week at both kids' schools, so while Ella was parading, Everett was wearing his Halloween pjs to school for pajama day!  I wish every day was pajama day because he LOVED wearing pjs to school, and it was the only morning he didn't fight us getting dressed! ;)

Build-a-Bear

We've a lot of really fun birthday parties lately, but I always forget to take pictures!  Except at the Build-a-Bear party because we had never been- it was so cute!  Ella and her friends loved it, and I want to take Everett back there because they have adorable Star Wars bears!

Maui Day No. One 10/19/15

This trip was the kids very first time flying!  They were beyond excited- Everett could not stop looking out at everything that was going on on the runway...

 Time to board the flight!  They even let us pre-board even though it's supposed to be for families with infants only. :)

First time on a plane selfies!

The flight was great- so easy!  I was so scared to fly with the kids...especially Everett...and it was so easy.  An older couple actually stopped me when we got off the plane and said, "your kids were so well behaved, and they are so cute".  Amazing!!!  I told her that we got lucky. ;)  I had packed tons of candy and forbidden snacks, and I didn't even need to use them.  Oh, and Hawaiian Airlines is the only airline in the US that still serves free meals so we all received an unexpected lunch...and it was good!!!  It even came with a mini pack of chocolate covered macadamia nuts...um, yum.  I took those immediately off all the trays to hide in my bag...for myself!  The only downside was that the baby behind us screamed all throughout Everett's naptime so he got almost zero sleep. Almost...

We're in Maui!!!!!!  Grandma and grandpa were already there and greeted us at the airport...

We arrived at the Fairmont Kea Lani, and it's even more beautiful than I remember from 10 years ago.  They greeted us with fresh leis and gave the kids shell necklaces and shovels and pails for the beach. :)

The room was amazing- very big, completely separate bedroom and a huge bathroom with soaking tub- my top priority!  Our view was amazing- overlooking the pool and ocean.

 We spent some time at the beach before dinner...

We had dinner at Ko.  Kids 5 and under eat free at the hotel!  We were starving early since it's 3 hours earlier in HI, so we were able to catch the happy hour at Ko.  The appetizers were so delicious- the ahi sushi was SO good!  And the kids were perfectly behaved...even Everett, who had no nap (and he NEEDS a nap every single day) and was eating at 8pm our time.  Seriously, the kids were such troopers- so proud of them!  View from the restaurant...

 Gary and his girly man drink at happy hour. :)

We came back to the room to watch the sunset (absolutely gorgeous), and we got to see the kid running around blowing a conch shell while holding a torch, lighting all the tiki torches...the kids loved it!  Everett said to me, "mama, I LOVE this house!"  He thinks our room is a house! ;)

We also had a little treat in our room when we returned from dinner...