Vote!

I now have one less thing on my to-do list.

I voted today.

Have you voted yet?

I hope you do - Tuesday is the day!

Reagan and her Cousins

Reagan's best friends are her cousins.

Her cousin, Paige. It's funny because it you ask Reagan who her favorite person is, she will always answer "Paigey" even though almost every time she plays with Paige, her face gets scratched up! Paige is cute, but she's a spitfire having to defend herself in a household of boys!

Reagan has seen her sisters play a lot of Barbies lately so that's her latest thing. She always wants to do what they do. She's come up to me many times very excited to tell me that her tooth came out. She so wants to be big like them.

Ryder is her other cousin and best friend. We are so glad that Tyler and Gina moved down here because it's been very fun for the kids to play together. Ryder, otherwise known as Chancho, loves Reagan and they play so well together. He is so sweet with her.

Caleb is her other buddy, but we are sad because they moved to Tucson after living nearby for the past year. These two really got to know each other as Megan and I hung out. They are actually more like brother and sister than best friends. He always seemed to be thinking of some devilishly evil thing to do to her - like run at full speed and then push her down. But there were a few tender moments as well. She loves him and I know she misses him a ton!

Family Zoo Trip

We decided to go to the zoo yesterday. Apparently half of the valley decided to do so also because I have never seen it so dang crowded in my entire life! They had traffic signs saying the zoo parking lot was full and people were parking and walking almost a half a mile to a mile just to get there! We luckily found someone leaving and were able to park in the parking lot though.

I guess that's what you get in Arizona when the weather finally starts to cool off - people want to do things outside for a change!!

The weather was lovely.

This is where Reagan spent most of the day - with her daddy!
(her favorite person in the world)

She actually never even got in her stroller until we left the gates. That girl kept up and ran around like a maniac when she wasn't on dad's shoulders.

Maybe my girls (Savannah in particular) are getting too old for this seashell. I must have about 50 pictures of this same shot with them at various ages. It'll be fun to go back and compare.

Savs

London

Reagan - she loved this statue.

The petting zoo which I despise so Nate took them in. I have been forced to take them in there many, many times when I've come without him. His turn. He's more of an animal lover than me, but who loves goats - seriously?

Miracle of all miracles - we saw the cheetah!
We usually barely see him stalking in the high grasses or laying under brush, but he apparently liked the nice weather too.

Fun Family Saturday.

We also had our ward Halloween carnival last night. It's a huge ward tradition and even adults dress up. Nate and I dress up as hunters (no pictures, sorry) and gathered our vampire, snow princess and lion to head to the party.

An older couple in our ward has a lot of land with a barn which conveniently turns into a pretty darn good (scary) haunted house every year. Nate took the girls and their little friend, Anna, and ended up with three girls hanging on all parts of his body! They refused to go through the upper level of the barn. They also had a bounce house, carnival games and all kinds of good food (that I couldn't eat). Very fun. I wish I had taken pictures and I'm cursing that I didn't. I'll be sure and get some this weekend.

I'm Back!

This time I'm serious. I have a few good reasons why I'm going to be consistent this time.

1. My cute niece, Emma, emailed me last week asking for my blog address. She lives in Montana and we never get to see her because before that it was Denver and then Boston and then England. We hardly ever see her and she wants to keep up with the girls.

2. Happy Holiday Habits. I really like this idea because all 10 things are things that I should be doing everyday anyway. And I really, really want a family picture shoot for free! Like really. One of the 10 things is to journal/blog everyday. So I've decided that between this family blog, my personal journal and my gratitude journal I can do that one every day easily.

3. I haven't been taking pictures lately. Something about blogging makes me think to take more and more pictures.

4. I have a horrible memory. And I don't want to forget all the funny little stories and things my girls say. For example, Reagan talks in her sleep. She usually cries "no sissies, no!" over and over again. Last night, however, she cried "No sissy! No London! No London, no!" Her biggest tormentor (London) torments her during the day and apparently during the night!

5. I have a lot of things to be grateful for and blogging is a good way to remember those things!