Halloween!

Just a quick photo of Halloween!

We had chili dinner at Travis and Tara's house which was delicious! Then it was off to trick or treat in Nana's neighborhood. It was a blast! This is the first Halloween that Jack rememebers and could really participate in. He was so cute running from house to house. After every house he would find me and say, "Mommy! I got more candy!" It was adorable. He would also tell each house Happy Halloween until they said it back to them. He was the hit of the show!

What a fun night! And during the day Joshua had the Chocolate Chip Bowl for football and his team won! 28-8! Go Gators!

A few of Joshua's birthday photos

Joshua turns 8 years old!!!

It is hard to believe he is 8 years old! We have loved every moment of this little mans life over the last eight years. I have no complaint about this gift from God. From his birth to his big 2nd grade year in school he has been a joy to parent and watch grow. God has given him such a sweet heart and amazing spirit. He is so tender and very sensitive to others. He has amazing patience and a giggle that is infectious. He is loved by his brother and sister and his cousins and all his friends.

This has been a big year of growth for Josh too. He is doing great in school, has worked very hard at tackle football this season and still finds time to squeeze in his favorite love of xbox and nintendo ds.

We are so proud of him!

He got to celebrate in style this year. You all know how the Nichols love birthdays!

He had a friends party that was the Olympics theme again and then his party with his cousins, followed by a trip to California Adventure the day of his birthday and then a team cupcake and class chocolate lollipop celebration.

I think turning 8 willbe in his memory for a long time. What a fun celebration and

First Day of School!!!

It is amazing the extreme spectrum of emotions you feel as you see your kiddos start their first day of school. I thought it would get easier eacch year, but am finding that the emotions just stay the same each year. You experience total excitement for them but also worry about how they will navigate their day, who will they make friends with and what is their teacher like.

With my 2 school age kids being so different in temperant, I found my emotions all over the place the first day of school. We started the morning with letters from their teachers from the previous year, which were so awesome and encouraging to read to them. We got dressed and packed up and drove 1/2 to school. We walked in and made our way through the people to their classrooms. Mimi was so blessed to get Joshua's teacher from last year, but Josh had a teacher that was new to us. She has proven to be a jewel and Josh loves her already but leaving him with a stranger was a little tough. He was totally ready and not nervous at all. I was so proud of him. Mimi was very brave and went right in to her class as well with not a tear.

As we walked back to the car with just Jack, we realized how quiet our days were gonna be and that Jack was going to miss his big brother and sister alot. He just lay his head on Troy's shoulder and was very quiet. We of course went to Toys r Us to pick out surprises for everybody to celebrate their first day accomplishments which helped distract Jack and mommy from the bit of lonliness we both were feeling. I will love my time with just Jack and have already been savoring every moment because he will be in school in a year too. I don't want to miss one moment of their childhood. So Jack and I are having fun, but also love it when it gets to finally be 3:20 and we can go pick the big kids up!

First

Disneyland but not Disneyland...

Our very last event of the summer was to take the kids to the Disneyland Hotel for some much needed relaxation. We had an absolute blast this summer, but were in need of a little down time so we decided to do an overnight at the Disneyland Hotel. Whenever we go up and stay we are so involved at the theme park that we never really get to enjoy the hotel so we skipped the park and did the hotel! What a blast! We swam in Captn Hooks pool for 3 hours! Then we went to our room and showered and had a little rest before we took off to dinner at Goofy Kitchen. That was a while fun event in and of itself! Then we attempted the theme park but it was so crowded we just went back to our stress free room and got snacks! The room server surprised us and brought the kids up 4 huge mickey mouse cookies. What a treat! After a good nights sleep, we were of course awakened by our Mickey Mouse wake up call and breakfast in bed. The kids loved the special treatment! It was a great end to a great summer!

As a mom sending 2 of my 3 kiddos off to be at school all day it was so nice to reflect on the summer and see all the time we had playing, hanging out and going on adventures. It was truly a summer to remember and I will never for get the last 8 weeks I had with them. What a TREASURE!

End of summer road trip!

We decided to take another road trip before school started! It was going to just be the kids and I but daddy surprised us when he came out to the car to tell us good bye and told us that he couldn't bear to see us leave on a road trip without him again so he packed a bag and JOINED US!!! We went to visit our firends in Atwater, CA. We learned all about sweet potato farming, drove a John Deere tractor that had tires bigger than us, learned all about a dairy and saw a calf just after it had been born. It was one of the most educational trips I think we have ever taken.

The best part though, was seeing our friends. We had so much fun visiting our friends and felt sooo loved! They loved on us and made us feel so special. They are the most amazing people and give of themselves so much. Thank you to Dr. Susie, RObert and all the kids, Christina and Brent! It was a very special time with all of you!

The treasure of Gods word

I had an awesome Moms In Touch group to pray with this year. We decided to plan a one day VBS for our kiddos since we had so much enjoyed praying for all the kids through the school year. We had 10 kids total between all of us and picked "The Treasure of God's Word" as our theme. We made t-shirts, did a story, a treasure hunt, made verse packs, painted treasure boxes, had lunch, and ended with a big swim party.

The kids had a blast but us moms did too. It was so fun to plan a day that was going to teach them about the treasure of Gods word and hiding it in their heart. After all, that is what us moms did each week as we sat and prayed Gods word over them. It was a really fun day!

Soak City

One of our summer days was spent at Soak City! We have never done this theme park, but it will definitely be added to the summer vacation tradition list. It was a blast. We rented a cabana for the day which included a waiter and we spent ALL day playing in the water and coming back to the cabana to take a snack break. Josh and Carlys favorite was the wave pool and Mimi and Jack loved the wading pools. It felt so good to just soak up the sun and be in the water. But the best part was being together as a family all day!

Say "Good Bye" to 7 1/2 years of diapers!

The newest news in our house is that Jack has decided he wants to wear big boy pants and not a diaper. Out of the blue on friday night he followed me into the bathroom and decided he was going to take his diaper off and start peeing on the potty! I hadn't planned on potty training for another 6 months but he had another idea. He was so proud of himself! He has done so well! I offer treats after he goes as a reward, but he isn't interested. All he wants is to take his die cast cars Lightening McQueen, Chick Hicks and The King in with him for them to see. He sets them up on the counter and says "watch guys". Then when he's done he says "did you see that?" and out he walks with his buddies in hand. Feeling that he needed some kind of reward, I made a sticker chart and every 5 stickers he gets to pick a toy out of a toy basket. He seems to like that. So... here we are. 7 1/2 years of diapering and it has come to an end. Although I never minded changing my kids diapers, I must say that there is something accomplishing and completing about the diaper era ending. My little man is turning into a big kid. Am I really ready for that?

Here Comes The Bride...

We just got back from a week vacation to Seattle, Washington visiting my (Bonnie's) family. My brother got married to my new sister in law Dana and we had a ring bearer to provide for the wedding. Joshua was asked to be the ring bearer and was so honored and proud. He stood up front like a grown man. It was precious to watch Troy teach him how to shake hands like a man so he could do his duty in the recieving line after the ceremony. Seeing that handsome little 7 year old in a tux and watching him act like such a young man made me realize how much he is growing up. He is a very special and unique little man. I am so proud of the boy he is.

We also had 6 days of a vacation while we were up there. Every day held a new adventure and the kids were just "awe" struck the whole time. They loved seeing moms old stomping grounds, seeing the camp where mommy and daddy fell in love, being spoiled by grandma and grandma and Aunt Gayle and Uncle Denny. They loved the Space Needle, feeding sea gulls, the Science Center, the ferry rides, the clam chowder, feeding buffalo from the car, the adventures were endless. They even got excited about seeing a slug and learning how to flip over rocks to find crabs. Grandma and grandpa had all kinds of fun toys and special things waiting for them when they got there. We weren't sure they would want to come home! All in all it was a very wonderful vacation and full of memories. (I can only put a couple pictures on the blog, but you can see them all on facebook.com)

Five Day Road Trip with Mom!!!

After the fair we took off for a 5 day road trip with just mommy. I took the 3 kids and their friend Calry to Santa Cruz to meet up with our good friends from Montana and spend 3 days in their family cabin. It was awesome. The kids were perfect car riders. We stopped on our way up to visit my good friend Diana and her family. She has 5 kids and they all hit it off with my kids right away. after a 3 hour lunch and swim with them it was back in the car for another 5 hours to get to the cabin. Once we got to the cabin we had all kinds of fun there too. We explored some wilderness, we learned about "leaves of 3 let them be" and "if it's yellow, let mellow.." and went to the Santa cruz Boardwalk, the marine reasearch center, the Redwood Forest and just relaxed and hung out with friends. On the way home we stopped by Diana's again and stayed a night in the hotel and then came home. But we finished the trip off with a celebratory stop at the Rainforest Cafe in Downtown Disney. Then it was time to unpack, repack, and head out camping for one night in Wrightwood with some friends. It was a crazy week, but sooooo very fun! One the kids and I will never forget. We did miss daddy, but we had a lot of FUN!!!

All the pictures are on facebook. There was too many to put on the blog.

County Fair

Well, school got out thursday the 18th so what better way to celebrate than to do a day at the San Diego County Fair! We had a blast and spent all day on rides and rides and more rides! Jack and Carly got their faces painted, we made frisbees, ate funnel cake and rode more rides than we could count! It was a perfect day. Even Jack could ride almost everything and as we found out has no fear of any ride, drop or spin! He woudl scream AGAIN, AGAIN as soon as the ride finished. It was such a fun day to focus on one another and just laugh ourselves silly!

Surprise!!!

Well, we had a big surprise! I was getting the yard ready for a big playdate with a bunch of kids and their mommies. I was filling swimming pools, setting up the bouncey and next on my list was to get the sandbox cover off and make sure the sand was clean. As I took the cover off I saw cuddled up in a ball 4 wild baby bunnies! SURPRISE!!! At first I was worried they were rates! We have rats on our property, but then I saw their cute little ears and was so happy to see they were bunnies! So here are some photos of our new little temporary visitors.

Our little Jack Jack

Remember when you were little and something new would just be the center of your universe? Well Jack has had 2 weeks of new loves that he just couldn't part with. Not even during his nap. It all started with Mimi's pink mittens. We don't know totally why he was in love with these mittens but he was. He played in them and slept in them. A week later the newness wore off and we were back to seeing his hands again.

Then he decided he wanted to be just like daddy. Daddy wears hats alot so he decided he was going to wear his baseball hat all the time too. He took an entire nap in his baseball hat.

Just the other day he decided to nap in his new Reef flip flops.

He is such a delight to share life with and watch grow up.

Strawberry fields

What coudl be more fun than picking berries with your cousins?

Mimi and Jack and their 2 cousins Jared and Elizabeth got to go strawberry picking the other day. It was so fun! It was quite an experience and one we will do again! The kids couldn't wait to eat their hard work so we ate strawberries the whole way home. I never knew strawberries could be so messy!

Mimi is 6 years old

Here are just a few of Mimi's 6 year old pictures. She is such a beautiful girl inside and out.

A day to feel loved

I awoke on Sunday morning to the sound of my kiddos running around in the house and my husband bustling around. Could it be? My family is up before me? That means I got to SLEEP IN!!! What a great start to Mothers Day. Next was a beautiful pancake breakfast and homemade floral arrangements. Troy read a list of the activity ideas and gifts that he and the kids had come up with. The kids favortite though was that I was not to do a bit of work all day. I couldn't even wipe the table after breakfast. Then it was off to the mall to do a little shopping. I got an awesome kitchen knife and a new workout outfit. It was fun just to have everyone at the mall with me. How cute! We finished off a really fun day with dinner at the park with all teh cousins and then banana splits at Auntie Pattis. What a glorious day. I couldn't have planned it better myself.

Mimi's school had a tea for Mothers Day. We did a statio rotation and go tto make things together, listen to a story, have a snack and take pictures. They say some really cute mommy songs too.

Joshua made me a portrait of me. It was so cute with all of its details. He was very proud of his artistic abilities.

It was truly a fantastic day! I love being a mom!