Never quiet in our home

Just wanted to share.

She was a Skater Girl....

A few young men were riding their skateboards at the Halloween party on Saturday night and Camille was just mezmorized. Usually she wants nothing to do with strangers - and especially men - but since they had these magical moving machines, she was willing to come close enough and try it out herself. We somehow managed to miss the HUGE smile she had on her face.

Halloween Time

Yeah! I love this time of year. Cooler weather (yeah, right! It was in the high 80's all week long), changing leaves, and trick-or-treating time. This year Natalie sewed her own Pebbles Flinstone costume (thanks Aunt Cyndi!), Allyson donned the Egyptian garb to be Cleopatra, Amanda was a snow princess and Camille cheered on for USC.

Fashionista

With a house full of girls we have a lot of fashion savvy. And the older they get, the more interested they are becoming with shoes, hairstyles, jewelry and stylish clothing. But the BEST part is the posing that accompanies dressing-up.

The Big Fresno Fair

I love taking my kids to the fair because I love to watch their faces when we see all the animals. (You've got to listen to the conversation I'm having with my older kids during the movie.) Oh, I am such a cotton candy junkie. Passed that on to my kids as well.

We always have to take a picture infront of Kerman's agriculture exhibit (home town girl).

All age 5

Here we all are in our Kindergarten photos (me, Amanda, Allyson). Do we even look like we're related?

Kindergarten Field Trip

What a treat to join Amanda's Kindergarten class on a trip to Storybook Land. These park has life-sized showcases of nursery rhymes where the kids can see the wolf sleeping in Grandmother's bed, enter the witch's house with Hansel & Gretal, fall down a hill with Jack & Jill, and sit on a tuffet with Little Miss Muffet (and there was one scary looking spider).

This park has been around for years and brought back memories of coming myself as a child. Very special for me to now bring my own children.

For those of you from Fresno, remember this?

What in the world?

Imagine my surprise while searching for the neighbor boy's ball in my backyard bushes and finding THESE growing on one of our trees! Tons of huge, green, unidentifiable fruit.

See, we planted an orange tree in 1998 but it died. Then 2 years later it started growing. So for the past 8 years we've had a beautiful tree, with no fruit. When I made the discovery I promptly told Troy.

Why he waited until we had company sitting at our kitchen table, I'll never know.... but he went out and picked a bunch of the fruit and put them all in the CENTER of the kitchen table (where they stayed for 2 more days until I disposed of them.)

Our conversation turned into a type of science lecture. After slicing one open, we decided they were oranges since that's what they smelled like. We'll have to wait until the remaining ones on the tree ripen to see exactly what we are growing in our backyard. Kind of makes me feel like Jack & the Beanstalk.

We're obsessed with the chubs!

This is one CHUNKY MONKEY and we are loving every square inch. Good thing being bald and fat are cute when you're 14 months old.

Our photo shoot

Nothing like a little fun with the camera and a pair of glasses.

Another oranizer in the family

Camille was so excited to dump this basket of utensils out and then pick them all up - over and over. Look how she can just squat so easily (love those cute chubby thighs and that tummy!) She'll help me pick up anything and gets so excited to do it. We're going to have to put her talents to good use around this house.

Strawberry Waffles

Strawberries, whipped cream and waffles have become a tradition for Sunday morning (or afternoon or even dinner!) This Sunday was no exception. We had 4 happy kids.

I'm Innocent!

Camille is not a very mischievious child. She actually doesn't get into things much. (I know I'm lucky). But this night she just had to check out the kitchen garbage can. Look at her face! (Yes, I had quite a mess to clean up.)

Yes! I have!!

I decided to do a Halloween album so it would be fun to flip year by year and see how the kids grew and the costumes they chose. So, I jumped right in (starting with 2003).