You've had a birthday shout HOORAY .......

Talan turned the big "1" on Friday October 19th. We had a long weekend of birthday festivities. Nothing too exciting, but hey at least it was something. It started out with going to Costco and eating Pizza on Friday night... which is the kids favorite !! Along with mine of course. Saturday we went to the park with my parents and the Peay's for a picnic and to feed the ducks. Sunday we topped it off with singing "Happy Birthday" and opening presents with all the cousins. Talan is so much fun to have around. He can be such a goofy kid sometimes. Some of his favorite things to do are to EAT of course (I wonder where he got that from), push his shopping cart around the house all day long, play with his sister and of course get into anything and EVERYTHING that he's not supposed to, especially now that he is officialy walking and can get around pretty fast. This year has flown by for us and we look forward to many more fun years with Talan !!

eating pizza at Costco

picking up dinner at Alby's before heading to the park

Talan feeding the ducks with dad

singing "happy birthday" to Talan

all the kiddies

Photo Shoot

I attempted to have pictures taken of the kids from a good friend of the family Angie Sloan a few weeks ago (she actually did my hair for my wedding almost 8 years ago). Anyways, her and her husband have their own photography business "Sloan Photography" and are honestly the best photographers. Needless to say it was fun but stressful. Of course Kalei was posing for every picture but Mr. Talan did not want to smile for the life of him, he just felt the need to give crusties everytime Ang would put the camera in his face. Of course I left frustrated but knew Ang would still pull it off which she did. That was honestly the first time I have ever had the kids pictures taken together, besides the ones I do myself that don't do justice compared to these. I was quite impressed and excited to have some cute pics of the kids while Talan is still somewhat little. Anyways, for more check out their blog http://sloanphotographers.wordpress.com/ or their web-site for more information about them ttp://www.sloanphotographers.com/main.php.

Sweet Treats

I love Fall/Winter Season here in Arizona. I love when it's finally cool enough to leave the doors open and enjoy the cool breeze and of course being able to BAKE !! I love to bake yummy treats. Especially if they actually turn out. This weekend was just a taste of what's to come. It has been so nice this weekend and it's also General Conference weekend. You can't ask for anything better than that which is why I decided to make some cinnamon rolls to top it all off. First of all I don't normally make cinnamon rolls because for some reason they never turn out so I leave that up to Kanoe and Jules. Well this time was different... I am a little proud of myself if you can't tell. They aren't PERFECT yet... but they are pretty close. Here are some pictures to prove it. For those of you that got the family cookbook last year the recipe is in there, they are call "Cinnabon Cinnamon Rolls". For those of you that didn't if you want the recipe e-mail me and i will send you it, it's kinda long to post.

.....after rolling and before rising.....

.....after rising and before baking.....

.....baked, frosted and ready to indulge !!.....

New Favorite Toy

Talan is going to be turning 1 yr old this month and has been trying to walk the last couple of weeks. He is so close to doing it but can't really figure it out. He got really frustrated in San Diego because he was in the stroller a lot and wanted to be out roaming around. After going to the Zoo we have decided that he crawls around like an Orangatang dragging his one leg underneath him, it's quite funny. When we got home on Monday I pulled out Kalei's toy walker that we used to get her to start walking. I tried it a couple weeks ago and he wasn't interested at all. Well this time it was different, he took off. Justin was supposed to be helping him when he would get stuck. Talan would stand there and yell to get his dad's attention, but being that daddy was watching the movie "Cars" at the same time it would take him a while to register that his son needed him. So Talan figured that by the time my daddy pays attention to me I could be on my merry way so that's exactly what he did. After a few times of getting stuck and being ignored he figured out how to back himself up and move on. He will go about 30 minutes non-stop and then start whinning, but won't let go of his toy. We figured his legs are probably hurting him because if we touch his thighs or calves he pushes your hand away. Hey it keeps the kid occupied for a while which I am thankful for. I always know where he is because I can hear him scootin along. Hopefully he will be walking without it sooner or later, he would probably be a much happier kid, more so than he already is. I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing for me, I guess we will find out soon enough !!

San Diego

This last Thursday we went with my parents, and the Peay family (my sister) to San Diego for a little vacation. We rented a condo in Pacific Beach, San Diego so we could all stay together. We took the kids to Sea World all day Friday and then to the San Diego Zoo on Saturday. It was a lot of fun !! I think the kids enjoyed the Zoo a little bit better than Sea World. If you are ever in that area I highly recommend the San Diego Zoo, and I thought our Zoo was cool. I'm glad that we got the fun stuff out of the way just in time for Talan to get sick Saturday night. I thought it was heat exhaustion at first from being out in the sun all day the past couple of days, he was throwing up and running a fever. Then his sister got it Sunday night as we were packing up to leave early the next morning. She ended up throwing up all over herself while we were in the horendus(sp?) line for the security check. It was just water and flemmy since she hadn't eaten anything but the sad thing was she had to stay in those clothes until we got home. Good thing the flight was only 45 minutes, needless to say it was a long trek back home. I figured it must have been a flu bug, luckily it only lasted 24 hours. My kids rarely get sick and it seems like the times that they really do is when we are on vacation, imagine that. Besides the last couple days of drama it was a lot of fun and a nice get away for a few days!!