Halloween Costumes

Okay, so the real reason we go to all this Halloween trouble, well besides the obvious candy rewards, is so that I can have cute pictures of my kids dressed up. In the morning, it was off to the school parade, I put these three in some costumes that didn't make the final cut.
Tyson, Larry Fitzgerald of the Arizona Cardinals:

Carolina borrowed from Brooklyn, to become an adorable blond Pocahontas:
Show us your adorable shoes Carolina Jones:
Gracie "Alice in the Wonderland"..also borrowed from Earl cousins (thanks for saving me a bundle Kaelynn!)
Jack, Army Guy:

The Garden Gnomes, Henry and Fi:
Is this cute or what?
Of course these two wasted no time finding my candy stash by the front door for the trick-or-treaters:

This is what I saw when I looked down the hall.


It was a good time...but boy was I glad when it was over...they are already talking about what they want to be next year.

Gracie Turned Four

Grace's birthday is fun, because it is around Halloween. Her birthday week started with a visit to her school. I brought a poster, and told her class all about her. Here she is with her amazing teacher Miss Cathie:
I love this picture of Grace holding her baby sister Fi. Needless to say, Grace is a small person. Grace is quick to point out that she is little, but she is not a baby. "I'm just short"...she says.
Things I love about Grace...where do I begin? This little girl is what we call a "do good-er"...whenever anyone is in trouble she is quick to point out "mom, I'm not talking mean"...or "I will always obey mom". It is funny. She is very agreeable and easy-going, which helps her to get along with her sister Carolina famously. They are best friends in fact, and are pretty much inseparable. She loves to sing and is happy to give a performance anywhere to anyone. She is cute and funny and is super-cuddly. She gives the best hugs in the family...using both her arms and legs! She hates to get in trouble, and it breaks my heart when I have to scold her...which isn't too often. She is the peace-maker of our bunch. She skips everywhere she goes. She has an odd stubborn streak that kicks in occasionally, and at the weirdest times, always catching me off guard when it happens. She has a tendency to be what we call a "lolly-gagger"..taking her time and getting distracted when we are trying to get in the car. Everyone thinks she is an overachiever, she is extremely verbal, especially for her height! She is famous in our ward and neighborhood, everyone knows who she is for some reason. I love my Grace!
We decided that we would go to Build-a-Bear for her birthday. Ash has been wanting to go for years...ha ha. I was willing to do a bear for Carolina and Grace, then Jack begged me to come, so I paid for HALF of his bear.

Excited CC in the parking lot!
The birthday girl.
The kids with Auntie Ash...I didn't have to do too much talking to convince her to come with us!
Here we go, Jack has leftover camo-paint on his face, from wearing his costume to school that day...
Giving her bear a "bath":
The final product...and three VERY HAPPY KIDS!!
On Halloween, before trick-or-treating, we sang to GiGi and opened presents. Aunt Linh came through AGAIN with a sweet cake for Grace. She had the lady at the bakery put princess rings on the cake. And she got a special pin to wear. Thanks Auntie Linh, you are the BEST. Grace was THRILLED. She is dressed as "Alice in the wonderland" (as she calls it).
Hmmm, I wonder what this present could be?
Holding her spoils from Gramy Lori:
Jack and Oli, ready to hit the streets for some candy gathering:

Fiona Turned One

Looking back, I didn't blog about Fiona's and Grace's birthdays. Ashley did of course...but then someday when we are reading the blog book, I don't want these two daughters of mine to wonder "what gives?".

First off, I know you have all seen these pics that I went back and stole off of Ash's blog, but they are worth re-showing. Cort, you are amazing.

So with this post we will focus on Fiona. Fi is a very spunky and happy little baby. She brings so much joy to our family. It is so fun having a baby when you have older kids. They love her so much and are incredibly helpful with her. She basically has four little servants running around to do her bidding. Fiona makes us laugh so much and brings the whole family together. Who could resist this face?

I loved reading back on Ash's blog. We threw a big family party for the "twin cousins" (not to be confused with our actual cousins that are twins!).

Time to blow out the candles.
We had a baked potato bar (a cheap and delicious way to feed the 28 fun family members who came). Ladies in the kitchen...doing what we do!
Fiona has MANY nicknames...I thought I might list some for the record: Fi, Fi-nona, Nona, Fid, Fidstonias, Noni, Fi-Fie, Baby (Grace is Beebs)....oh yah, my grandma also calls her Little Wee, and Lil' Fixin...usually, when I call her name she RUNS THE OTHER WAY, laughing.
Auntie Linh made these ADORABLE cakes for the babies....can you believe it? I love the fondant stars.
Then Cort took the babies outside to snap a few pics...we had bought these matching outfits for them.

I love these pics with her best buddy Henner Bens...is that how you spell that Ash?
I love these babies.

Steinerson Reunion, Summer 2010

I have taken a very long and obvious sabbatical from blogging. So at this point should I just give up on it all? Well, I have decided I am going to follow my mom's lifelong advice of "keep trying". So anyone who actually follows this blog (the mamas), prepare yourself for lots of updates forthcoming. I want to go back and include the things I skipped, including but not limited to: Steinerson Family reunion, Grace's birthday and Halloween, Christmas, and the Pinewood Derby. I know you are all perched on the edge of your seats. I am mostly going to throw up LOTS and LOTS of pictures.

Summer 2010 was very eventful. I went to girls camp, helped plan the ward trek, we had pool passes and lots of visitors. The Steinerson Reunion was a very special time for our family. It was held in Lindon Utah. Okay here come the pictures. (which I stole from Allison's blog...I was busy and ended up with practically NO pictures of this awesome party...I kept saying, take a picture for me!)

This first picture is from the book that Emily published for the family. As per usual, Emily never does anything halfway, and now we all have a very important book of family history, with beautiful pictures.

This is the couple who started it all (Grandma Ruth's parents). They had 3 daughters: Katherine, Ruth and Lois. We really appreciated the effort people made to come, we had lots of relatives from Missouri, Arizona of course, some from Oregon and other places.

The following show what great times we had (in no particular order). Girl cousins:

We had a neat program in the theater where Gramy taught us all about the family and her childhood and memories of her parents.
We had the kids sing "The Family is of God"...I love a musical number!!
The pancake crew!
The brothers and sisters who were there and their spouses.
As Doug Earl would say "Does it get any better than this?"
Some say I look like Aunt Sandy, so I included this hilarious picture where we both look ridiculous, but seem to be enjoying each other's company immensely:
We spent time in a small park by my house (Creekside)...volleyball, food and fun times ensued.
Ladies and babies:

The following montages were obviously stolen from Alli...I don't know how to do this cutsie stuff, but I LOVE IT!!

We played lots of games (thanks Aunt Jean and Joey!):
We went up the canyon for an "easy hike" (you may be laughing if you were there...thanks Sandy and Chunk for assuming we are all in shape..ha, wait, who am I to say?? I went straight to the ending campsite to set up for dinner!) Camp songs soon followed as we celebrated Chunk's birthday.

I love this picture of Grace...so dirty and holding a sucker. It reminds me so much of the family reunions of my own youth.
A beautiful (rare) picture of Carolina Jones with Uncle Aaron:
Sisters!!
I want to end with this picture of Gramy Ruth (with Fi). We love you Gramy!!!!