The Parties....
Our neighbors had a little Halloween part-ay and Jon and Kate decided to make a temporary reconcilliation for the sake of the kids. Jon is rockin' the tight Ed Hardy and diamond earring stud, too bad for him that the kids lost one of the earrings and too bad for him that when somebody bought the shirt for him she didn't realize it was a womens shirt. No wonder it was so tight. 
The annual ward trunk or treat...the kids ran off with their friends the minute we got there, so I didn't get any pictures of them. We did run into Maddox's buddy, Preston. He is the one who was born on the same day and the same hospital and Kristen and I are determined that they are destined to be best friends. Doing everything the same didn't stop when it came to Halloween either, we were both so surprised to see that we unknowingly dressed them in the exact same costume! 
The big night....
Given Jayden's current obsession with Star Wars, the kids were so excited to dress the part. Jayden as Darth Vader, Kylie as Padamei (I couldn't even spell her name, let alone find a costume, so this is my attempt at sewing my first and last Halloween costume). Maddox had to be none other than Yoda, and after spending hours searching for the costume (on the day before Halloween, of course), I was so sad when he got sick and didn't get a chance to wear it to go trick or treating. We met at the Martinez's for chili and then I took Maddox home while Jason took the kids around. After Maddox was sound asleep and the kids had more candy than they could ever eat, they went back to the Martinez's to watch a movie on their drive way while Jason and I went next door and had a great time hanging out with neighbors. What a fun Halloween, hopefully next year everyone will be healthy!
I can't forget my other birthday boy! Another year come and gone and we celebrated by surprising him at work with lunch and cupcakes (Kylie had the day off from school). I can't remember what we did for dinner that night since it's taken me so long to update, but I hope Jason knows how much we love him! Happy birthday!
I know how cliche' it is to say that time flies, but I realized how true it was when I found myself carrying 11 month old Maddox around in his infant carrier with his legs hanging a foot off the end of the seat and couldn't believe that it was already time (well past time) for him to graduate to a bigger seat. How could my baby already be a year old?? He still isn't walking but he is still everyone's favorite toy and always has a smile for anyone who looks his way. It's so fun to hear him jabber, his favorite word is "ba-ba" since his bottle has become his 5th appendage, but he also loves his "da-deee" and every picture he sees he thinks is "zezus", every light is "pitty" and every food is "cheeeese". He's not a big fan of eating (unless it's cheese) but he is a big fan of exploring every square inch of the house. He's not one to crawl under my feet crying to be held, instead he takes it upon himself to pull everything out of the cupboards. We love our little Mads and the smiles, laughs and slobbery kisses that he brings to our family! For his first birthday we celebrated in the typical 3rd child fashion, which means VERY low key. We still laugh at how we invited anyone and everyone that we knew to Kylie's first birthday party. He liked his birthday pancakes,
was entertained watching Kylie and Jayden open his presents,
was fascinated with his new toys,
had fun eating grass at a little cupcakes in the park get together with friends
and devoured his cake and ice-cream when dad came home. It was funny because I asked Jason to pick up a birthday cake on his way home from work, I had visions of colorful buttercream frosting and had to laugh when he came home with a glazed walnut bundt cake. huh? Even though I didn't get the traditional frosting covered face pictures, he still loved his cake and we all had fun celebrating a wonderful first year! (1 year old stats: 24 lbs, 50-75%; 31.5 inches, 90%; head 18.25 in, 50%) 
I couldn't think of a better way to end our trip than by kicking it with our good friends the Martinez's and Herrera's at a totally sweet cabin in Pinetop. We wanted to take advantage of the promotion at Sunrise where you get a free kids' season pass when you donate some canned food. So I was in charge of finding the cabin, which is never a good idea to put me in charge of things like that. I found a good deal on a 1500 sq ft cabin, which was going to be a tight squeeze for all TWENTY of us but after I booked it the lady kept saying she would send me a confirmation and she never did. Finally like the day before we were supposed to stay there I still hadn't heard back from her and I was getting in panic mode that we were all going to end up camping in the freezing cold. I turned it over to Jason and not only did he get the cabin booked but he got the lady to hook it up with this huge 3000+ sq ft cabin with everything from a hot tub to a pool table. So not fair. The kids of course had the time of their lives running around exploring with their best friends and we had the best time relaxing, hanging out and staying up late playing games and drinking hot chocolate. We even snuck out for dinner and left poor Brayden and Hannah in charge of all 13 kids, bless their little hearts. 
After 2 days at the cabin we took a little detour on the way home and stopped at Tonto natural bridge which was way cooler than I had imagined. We had lots of tired little kiddos and took lots of rest breaks, but the hike was totally worth it. 
And we can't forget our lunch at the cafe where not only did they seat our huge group and get our food out in record time, but they also gave us the most delicious pie for free, we will definately be making that our traditional pit stop from now on (if only I could remember the name...)! 
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