Behind again...(sigh)

It has happened yet again. Shocker! I have fallen extremely behind in my blogging. My goal for the new year will be to post things a few days after they happen instead of a few months. So... with Christmas upon us I will now post the pictures from Halloween. I am going to skip the other stuff that happened before Halloween for now.
Here is our family at the church Halloween party. Can anyone guess who Jim and I were?

We had a TON of kids there, it was a little crazy!Here I am with my friends Jen , Emily and Jennifer

In case you couldn't guess who we dressed up as, we were David and Victoria Beckham. Jim was more obvious than I was.

Since Halloween falls on Bill's birthday, this year Wes and Jenny flew from California to spend Halloween here, so it was really fun. The kids always love to see them.

Here is Jenny and Zoie. We were trying to convince Zoie to put the rest of her costume on.

Zoie, all dressed up. The cutest ladybug ever!Aidan and Nolan as Mario and Luigi. Nice flip flops, right?

Keri and Berk also drove down from Orlando. Here they are with Jenny.
Ours friends the Angels and the Perkins came over to go trick or treating with us. Somehow most of my friends are able to convince their kids to dress up according to a theme. I tried that one year... it didn't work out so well, so I gave up after that.

Here we have a batman theme.And the Perkins went with a cowboy theme. Fun!
It happens every year, not surprisingly since she falls asleep everywhere.

Zoie passed out before we had finished.

Guess what?!? Zoie fell asleep again!

We went to the beach the weekend after school started, and it is sort of a tradition of ours to go to 7-11 after and get slurpees. So I was surprised when I turned around and saw Zoie asleep with the straw from her slurpee still in her mouth...ha ha. She is going to hate me when she gets older for having all these pictures.

The boys stayed awake though.

First day of School....YAY!

School's in again...whoo hoo! The boys were super excited (especially Aidan) for their first day of school. Aidan was really excited that this year he gets to go to Nolan's school. I was a little worried that there could be some drama on the first day, since Aidan was not crazy about his preschool but happily (or sadly, depending on how you look at it) he just walked into his class and started playing with the toys and exploring. He didn't even care when I left him... sniff... I guess I was the only one who would shed any tears that day. My little Aidan is a big kindergartener now.

Here are the boys getting ready to leave for school.

Here is Aidan in his class, happy and ready to go...

Nolan always does well on the first day. Here he is in his class.

More visitors!!

The week after my Mom left we had more visitors (well not in our house but at Bill and Elaine's). Jim's cousin Emily and her family, Spencer, Megan and Gracie all came back to Florida for a few days to visit. They used to live here but recently moved back to Utah, so we were all super glad to see them again. We met up with them at Will's pool.

Here are Spencer, Emily, and their girlsGracie, Zoie and Megan making a face.

Megan is really good at floating.

Here are the girls playing with Will. All the kiddos love Will, he is just so fun!

Saying goodbye... sniff sniff

It is always so sad when my mom has to leave and go back home. (sigh) It's hard living so far away.... but distance makes the heart grow fonder, right? Here we are at the airport, saying goodbye.

Here is my Mom and Zoie

My Mom and I
Mom and the kids

On a funnier note....

here is Aidan on the way to the airport, throwing a massive tantrum.

Nolan is perfectly happy, I don't know what happened with Aidan.

These pictures will make for good blackmail later. Ha ha

Zoie giving thumbs up.... he he. It's her new thing she likes to do.

sleeping zoie, part ???

It's time for another installment of where will zoie fall asleep this time??

Can you tell from the pic below? That's right! This time it's under her dresser....HA! I don't have a clue why.

So funny. Stayed tuned for more....

Golfing with Mom

While my mom was here we went golfing one afternoon at my work. It's nice to have a job that I hardly ever work at but I still get to golf for free....he he
We had a great time but we only were able to make through about 5 holes because there was a massive rain storm that soaked us. You would think that after living in Florida for 12 years I would know not to go golfing in the afternoon in August..... but no.

Before the rain came....here I am taking a swing Jim, playing in the sand...ha ha
And here comes the rain...for a while we decided to keep playing,
what's a little rain right?
Jim in the rain...

Then we opted to try to wait it out under the small shelter on the course....

but after a few minutes we decided that the rain was not going to let up, AND it might not be the best idea to stand in an open area while swinging a long metal stick in the middle of a storm.So we finally gave up and went home. It was still fun though. It had been a pretty hot day and at least we were nice and cooled off for the car ride home.

Pool fun and a visit from Grandma!

My mom came to visit for three weeks in July and August. We always love it when she comes, and the kids talk about it for weeks after. The room she stays in is still referred to by Zoie as "Grandma's room".
We spent some time over at Will's pool with Jim's family one evening. The kids all love swimming and they are all getting better at it all the time.

Here is Elaine, Zoie and my Mom (Linda) Will and Nolan

Aidan

Zoie hamming it up for the camera

Nolan's first pack meeting

Nolan was super excited to go to his first pack meeting. He had worked really hard on passing off stuff in his book and he also earned several belt loops at the cub day camp. If only we could keep him as excited about it for the rest of the year....

Nolan's Baptism

We had Nolan's baptism on the Friday after his birthday, and it turned out great. Our friends the Ojukwu's came down from Tampa and we had Jim's family and lots of friends from our ward there as well. After the baptism we had everyone over to our house for some refreshments and cake to celebrate. We are so thankful for Nolan and his decision to be baptized. We love him so much and we know that he is a great example to his younger brother and sister, and his friends.

Here is Nolan and JimNolan and I

The family (it is always such a struggle to get a good family picture.)

Tilisa and I. This is Nolan's kindergarten teacher who has become a great friend of mine and the family. She came over after the baptism to wish Nolan happy birthday.

I'm not sure why but I don't have many pictures. I need to get some more from Jim's dad.

Nolan: It's great to be 8!

I can't believe my first baby is 8 years old.....crazy! For his baptism I made a slideshow of pics of him growing up, so I thought I'd post some for those of you who couldn't make it.