Halloween and a Japanese Princess Tea Party

I wonder how much longer our kids are going to let us do themed costumes for them? This year took a little convincing with Remi, but it all came together pretty well. Grant's been wanting to be a ninja all year and Mike was so excited about the idea of making him and Sawyer characters from Mortal Kombat. He got Grant excited about the idea of being SubZero (because he wears shiny blue) and having Sawyer be Raiden. Once I found out what Mortal Kombat is, and what female options there were, the project was almost trashed! :) Mike's sister suggested a Japanese Princess. Rems was pretty disappointed she didn't get to be Elsa, but once we told her she could wear a pink dress and be a "princess", she agreed!

 

We also got to go trick-or-treating with Batman! :)

 

 Raiden tried to get away

Remi had said she wanted to have a princess tea party for her birthday. I saw this awesome idea on Pinterest to do a Japanese tea party so we did a Japanese Princess Tea Party. We tried to go smaller this year and just invite a few girls from her nursery class at church and it was much less stressful than in the past and still just as fun!

Mike made little kimonos for each of the girls and we hung sheets from the thrift store to look like those fabric room dividers.

 My dad served his mission in Japan and brought back this doll for my mom. She let us use it for decor. I also saw the idea on Pinterest to make "sushi" out of Twinkies and Rice Krispie Treats

 The girls had a little Frozen karaoke party afterward so Remi still got a dose of Elsa! :)
(Mike had wanted to stuff their kimonos with pillows and do sumo wrestling, but we didn't know how to pull that off in our tiny house!)

DISNEYLAND!!

I'm finally getting around to putting up the rest of our Disneyland pics! We went in the middle of October, and we had SO much fun!

These are kind of in random order, but...I tried!

Grant's favorite ride was Star Tours. He rode it at least three times, and once, he was even the rebel spy our ship was trying to hide from Darth Vader! He's on a HUGE  Star Wars kick right now, so we were really excited to see Star Wars at Disneyland!

Mike made him ride every ride he was tall enough to go on. That was fun for a while...

Poor Grant! After a while when Grant didn't want to go on ANY rides anymore, and Remi broke down crying, asking to go to Disneyland, we had to regroup and decided that our kids may still be a little too young to be doing all the big rides!

We decided to hit up Toon Town and it finally started to feel like the happiest place on earth! :)

Waiting at the wishing well to see Minnie

 Remi LOVED Minnie's house! She kept running from one thing to the next, excitedly showing it to us. I even caught her primping in Minnie's mirror. :)

We sat on Minnie's back porch for a good 15-20 mins waiting for Minnie to arrive. When Remi caught a glimpse of her, she announced to the whole house "THERE. SHE. IS!!!!!!!"

Sadly, she was a little more shy once she actually got to see her.

 

All the lines to meet the characters were pretty long. Minnie was the only one we decided to take the time to wait for. Grant happened to be in the right place at the right time and got to shake hands with Goofy. 

Nothing says "strength" quite like a paci and blank!

One of the few rides Remi rode willingly without crying...

But the teacups were her FAVORITE! She rode them four times and they're all she'll talk about even still when you ask her about Disneyland.

We also got lucky enough to meet the princesses. There was a Frozen show going on that everyone went to, which left the princess line wide open! Grant was such a good sport to do all the "girly" things Remi wanted to do! He never got a chance to take a break in the stroller like the other two and walked the WHOLE time! He was good about doing whatever everyone else wanted to do and he never complained!

 

Our good friends the Kelepolos were there one of the same days as us. They saved us spots for the first parade and it was AWESOME! We love their family and we're so glad some of our Disneyland memories include them!

 

 

The second parade was just as awesome! You can't tell, but we're sitting in front of a trash can. It was the only little strip of space in the whole park where there was room to sit. We were tempted to just forget about it and go back to our hotel, but we're SO glad we didn't!

 It's impossible to describe how awesome it was!! Even Sawyer was going nuts, bashing his little head around with the music and lights.

 

After the parade, we rode a few more rides and barely made it back to It's a Small World for the fireworks show which was also too amazing to describe! Remi was so excited because the finale was to "Let it Go" and it "snowed"! 

 

It was a quick and exhausting trip! We got there Monday night and went to the beach (which only Grant liked), then spent the entire next day at Disneyland, then woke up early the next day to get home in time for a doctor's appointment for Sawyer. Grant and Remi were completely exhausted, but not this guy...

Story of our lives...

The Traveling Wiltbanks

I can't believe it's already fall! We've been enjoying some BEAUTIFUL weather and for once, I'm actually excited about winter!

It seems half of our summer was made up of ho-hum "everyday" activities, while the other half was filled with new things and experiences. Since I haven't blogged in several months (AGAIN!), here's a run down:

The Traveling Wiltbanks

I think we made more trips this summer than Mike and I ever made as a newly married couple (which was a lot!). And now we did it with 3 kids! You'd think it'd be exhausting-which it sometimes was-but I LOVE going places with our little family and we had some new adventures!

More than half of our trips were to the Valley. First, my sister went to the Temple for the first time so we got to go through with her. I got to be her escort and it was one of the spiritual highlights of my life! I'm SO proud of her! She wouldn't let me take a picture with her, so all I got were some pictures of our kids with Cozi at a splash pad, since the Boddekers are always kind enough to take us in!

 

 

Next, we headed to Salt Lake to spend some time with Mike's family in Utah. Again, I didn't get many pictures, but it was SO good to see everyone and SO hard to leave! We got to take the kids to see some model trains and they got to spend a lot of time with their cousins! We stayed up too late talking with Emily and Nate most nights, but that's what makes it fun, right?

**

T.R.O.U.B.L.E.!!!

 Then, we headed back to the Valley again for a follow up for Sawyer's feet. He's not walking yet, but the doctor says everything looks on track and we got a prescription for new boots since he's grown out of his old ones. This time, the Strouds were generous enough to put us up, and the kids had a great time swimming and rocking out. Here's Remi giving us a stirring rendition of "Let it Go".

Another important purpose of the trip, we got to meet baby Elsie for the first time! She's SO perfect and wonderful and made me a little baby hungry! :)

 

After that, we headed to Colorado with some friends for a family/friend vacation. It was beautiful! We got to visit a train station and take the kids to a petting zoo. I took a lot more pictures, but had to narrow it down!

 

DISNEYLAND!

This deserves its own post, and I'll probably make one once I get all the rest of the pictures on the computer (we just got back this week), but I had to at least mention it! We met our friends the Kelepolos there and it was pretty close to a perfect trip (if there is such a thing!)!

Morning Walks

For a while there, Saw Man was the first one to wake up in the morning. I was having a hard time staying awake once he woke up, so we started going for walks. It was a GREAT way to start the day! I need to get into the habit again! He's been sleeping in later lately, so it's not as motivating to go, but I got some good documentation of some of our mornings.

Remi woke up early enough to join us one morning...

We saw our little buddy "Trey"almost every morning.

After a while, he knew us well enough to let us get pretty close.

Our view of Home

Outdoor Fun and Projects

Mike's had this idea to make this playhouse for his kids ever since he was a kid. It's been fun seeing it come together (especially since I was mostly a spectator!)! It's not QUITE finished yet, but here's a good progress picture! We attempted a sleepover in it one night. It got too cold to stay out there all night, but it sure made us excited for next summer!

I've always wanted to plant a garden and that's another dream that came to life this year. We were SO excited when our food started to come up! It was awesome to need a tomato and be able to just go pick one! We're so excited to go for it next year too!

We finally took the opportunity to spend some time at the park. I'm so excited to have our backyard finished next summer and hopefully we can spend all our time there!

Every year, around the end of September, these vines in our yard turn a gorgeous red, before any of the other leaves start to change. I never seem to get a picture of it because it doesn't last very long (literally only a few days in its peak), but we finally traipsed out there and did it this year!

This isn't an outdoor project, but it's a project that's been in the works for a LONG time! It doesn't look like much now, but this is the future home of our laundry room. I'm realizing that I really need to post some "before and after" pictures of some of the projects we've done around here...they just never feel like they're actually DONE enough to call an official "after"!

Sibling Fun

I LOVE how well our kids get along! For the most part, they love to be together and look out for each other. I've seen Grant stick up for Remi to his friends and it make me so proud! They definitely have their days where it seems like I'm breaking up fights every two seconds, but luckily, most of the time, they're happy to be together!

Even rough, tough Sawyer has a soft spot for his brother and sister.

Do you think he's ready for a BABY BROTHER in April?????

 

Cause I took this picture in July, and on our last trip to the Valley, we found out, IT'S A BOY!!

 **Did you notice Velda's face in the picture from Utah?