Happy Halloween!

Ok, so Ava had the hardest time deciding what she wanted to be this Halloween.  It it so funny being in the "mom" position now and trying to reason with my little girl by picking something that she wants to be, but also something that is not going to cost me too much!  It makes me think back to when I was a young and indecisive kid myself and would battle with my own mom on choosing the "perfect" Halloween costume...  And I've gotta tell ya, I don't know how that woman ever kept sane during these times of the year!  Everyday Ava would change her mind about what she wanted to be!  So finally, I just went out and bought her a little witch costume.  Nothing fancy, typical hat and broom.  Well, the only way that Ava agreed to wear this costume is because I told her that she could paint her whole face green!  And she was stoked!  It was all she'd talked about for the whole month of October!  So finally, it's Halloween night, and we are getting her costume on, and that crazy little girl just absolutely REFUSES to paint her face green!  haha... It's so funny how fast their minds can change.  Silly girl.  Oh well...  Can't wait to do it all over again next year!  I'm sure it just gets better as they get older!  :)
Anyways, as for our festivities, this Halloween we were invited to a party at my cousin, Michelle Speaker's house.  So we bbq'd hot dogs and hamburgers and enjoyed spending time with some family that we don't get to see often enough, and then we all went trick-or-treating around their neighborhood as a big group!  I've never been trick-or-treating in a big group like that before, and it was SO much more fun!  I think we will try and do that for all of our many Halloweens to come... It just makes the whole experience a lot more fun when you've got friends to have fun with!  The kids loved it because... well, I guess it's a given why the kids loved it... haha.  Cuz it's trick-or-treating!  But best of all, it was much more enjoyable for us adults because we got to talk and play and have fun trick-or-treating too!  Anyways, it was a great time!

Thanks Speaker family for throwin' a fabulous Halloween party!

 Carving pumpkins at the beginning of the week...

 

 

 

Sadly, after the first night of glowing out on the front porch, they we already rotten by the next morning... haha!  Guess that's good ol' AZ for ya!

~~Baby's First Halloween!!~~

Miley, the witch, and her cousin, Karter, the monkey!

Disneyland

I just wanted to post a GINORMOUS THANK YOU to Chris's parents and family for including us in their trip to Disneyland last week!  We had such a blast!  Lots of great memories were made!  We have such a fun family!  I am so lucky to be a part of it!  So Thanks Again Rice's for everything!!!  We love you!  Here are some pics from our trip!

Ready for the Happiest Place On Earth!

Day 1

 Waiting in line to see the Princesses!!

Day 2 

Ava being silly while we wait... and wait... and wait some more... haha!

It was all worth it though!  Ava loved meeting the Princesses!  I think it was the highlight of her trip!  We even got to have lunch with Ariel and some of the other Princesses at Ariel's Grotto over in California Adventure on Day 3!  I have to admit, it was pretty awesome!  Probably MY favorite part of the trip!

Even Miley was always worn out by the end of every day!

My two awesome baby-helpers for the trip!  haha...   Aren't they beautiful!?  Thanks girls!  ;)  Love ya!

I Cannot Believe It!

Wow, where has this year gone?  Is it really the end of October already?  In the words of the great Quincy from Disney's Little Einsteins, "I CANNOT BE-LIEVE IT!"  It's just crazy how fast this year has come and gone... I can't help but feel somewhat cheated as I look back and try to remember exactly what events this year consisted of.  It's as if time just blew past me like a giant freak gust of wind that just came up out of the blue, tossing my hair up and throwing dust in my eyes.  And before I even have the chance to catch my breath... it's gone.  Leaving me with nothing but watering, stinging eyes, and a very unattractive wind blown hair-do.  Now, don't get me wrong, it was a fantastic year!  SO much to be grateful for!  I'm just having trouble accepting it's almost over...  Man, not too many more of these and pretty soon at this time of year I'll be standing on my front porch, waving good-bye to my little Ava, as her and her date drive away on their way to her first homecoming dance...  ugh... just the thought of it sends a chill down my spine...

Hm, well enough of that... now where was I?... Oh, so here we are!  The end of October!  This has always been my favorite time of year.  When the weather gets nice and cozy, and fall colors are everywhere, and the holidays are just around the corner...  Seems like this year has just been somewhat chaotic with lots of ups and downs for our family.  In fact I feel like my head is still kind of spinning... But I guess all I can do is live for the now, right?  So here is an official update of what is going on as of now for our family! 

Well, as some of you already know we are kind of set back to square one.  Unfortunately after a whole year of waiting for Chris's new job with the LVMPD to work out, we are once again playing the same waiting game...  Ok, now I'm not very good at summarizing, but I will try and make a long story short.  But unfortunately Chris had to withdraw himself after his first week at the academy due to a back injury that we thought was healed.  See, back in April our family was involved in a minor car accident, in which case we were rear-ended by an elderly woman.  Anyways, luckily no one was seriously injured, or so we thought.  In fact, aside from being a little shook up, we all felt we were fine and didn't see any need to go to the hospital to be checked out.  (This was our first mistake, but neither of us had experienced anything like this before, so we had no idea of the after effects...)  Needless to say, after the adrenaline wore off, like any accident would do, we began to feel the soreness and achyness pretty intense.  So we decided to see a chiropractor, who did an evaluation and set us up for some appointments to get us feeling good again.  During all of this Chris was still in the process of applying and testing for the Vegas PD, so we never thought twice about it, because we figured we had plenty of time to recover before any thing happened.  So after six months of bi-weekly chiropractor visits, Chris is still not 100% better, but he finally gets accepted in Vegas and he decides to discontinue his visits so he can head off to start the academy.  Well, that was our second mistake I guess.  He had been training previously trying to get in shape for the academy and never had any unbearable back pain, so we assumed he was all healed.  Its not until he starts the academy and is pushed to his limits that his back pain comes back with full force.  So he saw a doctor in Vegas to see if there was anything he could do to lessen the pain, but he just put him on light duty, which meant that Chris couldn't participate in most of the physical tests.  Therefore, unfortunately his only option was to resign.  (Wow, I didn't really make that a short story did I... oops!)  Anyways, they pretty much just told him to get better and re-apply when his back is healed.  Needless to say it has been a very frustrating time for the both of us.  But it is no ones fault and there is nothing else we can do but work on getting Chris healthy again!   So for the time being we are here to stay.  Well, in AZ at least...  We will still be moving some time in the next month.  But no decisions have been made... we are still looking at our options and trying to decide the best path for us right now.  I'm sure we will let everyone know when we get things figured out!  We are just trying to stay positive and remember that although it was a very frustrating set back, everything happens for a reason!  I heard a quote once that said, " If you ever want to make Heavenly Father laugh, just tell him your plans!"  haha.... So I'm sure even though this was something we wanted, he has a plan for us somewhere!