The Macks

Mom is Fired!

2012-02-07T18:16:00.000-08:00

So Mom hasn't updated the blog in a long time...she is really busy...however I decided to fire her from the blog and other things as well...keep reading you will understand. In January Malia started preschool with Ethan. She loves it and it's giving her independence...which is something I'm not sure she needs...because she's really bossy.

Then Dad decided to fire Mom again when she got mad at him for giving the kids a bowl of popcorn...but it looks like they didn't even need the bowl because they can just eat it off the floor.

Then Dad fired Mom because she wanted the kids to go to bed early...but instead Dad had this wonderful plan about a sleep over in the front room and they stayed up late and were really grumpy the next day...that was my best idea thus far.

...and we are getting a pool...can't wait...we are really excited...it's almost done

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-24T07:37:00.000-08:00

Ok I am determined to get all the Christmas stuff on here when it's actually Christmas. It's going to happen. As for the rest of the stuff that I don't have up here, maybe next year? Ugh...maybe one day I'll get everything on here and FINALLY be caught up. Anyways... we started our Christmas count down the first day of December, maybe a little long considering Ethan askes every single day if Christmas is tomorrow. He's just a little excited. Then all the presents came. Adam's mom gets the kids tons of presents and they come in their shipping boxes and stay in their shipping boxes as long as possible, well I finally caved and let Adam take them out and put them under the tree. Ethan and Malia have been very very sneaky, trying to pry their little fingers in the edges of their presents, Ethan managed to get one opened enough to see what it was, little stinker!

Sometimes I catch them just moving the presents around saying which one is for who, totally reminds me of when I was a kid. I was the worst. Sometimes I would even unwrap them, see what they are, then hurry and rewrap them, I know horrible. My kids haven't stooped to that level YET =) Today we told the kids they could pick 1 present and open it, well as I type Ethan is saying he is ready. "Mom it's taking to long, come one." I'm going to be hearing this, All. Day. Long.

This year we started a new tradition of taking the kids to the dollar store and let them pick out presents for each other and us. They LOVED it and are so excited for us to open their gifts. I hope they can grasp the concept of giving, even if it's just something little.

Ok enough writing, lets get onto the pictures. First, here are some outakes of our Christmas pictures. We actually had fun doing these, the kids loved it and I think they turned out really cute, no screaming kids, we didn't even have to bribe them with candy to smile!

This was probably one of my favorites. Ethan is falling off Adam's back, the girls are totally cracking up, and Adam and I are busting up while trying to kiss. Perfect!

And the one that made the cut!

Pretty Malia

How did she get so big? Is it bad to be jealous of your own daughter's hair?

Our Studly Ethan

And Princess Ava, ok so we did have a little crying. But the girl would not sit still for anything.

I can't believe how big she is getting!

Picture with the tree, and ALL our presents, not sure why they look miserable, but I swear they were all laughing a second before I took it!

This was at our church party. All the kids got to go up and sing some Christmas songs, Malia loved it.

... Ethan, on the other hand, was totally messing around with his cousin... nice Ethan!

This morning we had Santa pancakes, they loved it and are so excited Santa is coming!

We hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas!

Halloween 2011

2011-11-01T07:49:00.000-07:00

We got visitors for Halloween this year! Adam's sister and her family came down for the weekend all the way from freezing cold Idaho. Our church had trunk or treat on Saturday this year so they got to go with us! We threw some costumes together and headed off. The kids had a blast and got TONS of candy! The kids loved being able to trick or treat with their cousins, we're so glad they were able to come, (I'll post more about their trip later)

Cute little Brooke Our little DorothyDaddy and his ladybug

Brooke getting pushed by the crazy ladybug

Carving pumpkins, yes they are in their pj's and yes Ava is sitting on the table getting the pumpkin stuff all over her

Their pumpkin masterpieces

Trick or Treating, at one of our neighbor's houses Ethan walked up and just opened the door and said trick or treat! We had to have a little talk about that!

We made it back to the house, the kids were beyond tired, Malia was half asleep so what do we do? Take a picture of course!
Can you see the enthusiasm on Malia's face?

Tumbling With Malia

2011-10-26T17:22:00.000-07:00

Malia started tumbling tots at the Y last week. She was really excited and got all ready to go. Then we get there and she wouldn't even look at anyone. She sat by me for the first 20 minutes and would not budge. Then the class got a drink and she ran out with them and was totally fine after that. She loved it!

Happy Birthday Malia!

2011-10-12T11:15:00.001-07:00

Miss Malia turned 3 on Saturday! Can't believe she is already 3. She is definitely practicing for when she is a teenager. When I went to get her out of bed in the morning, I said, "Happy birthday pretty girl," and her reply was, "Don't talk a me mom!" Sweet huh? She is full of personality and little, well a lot of sass too, but she can also be such a sweetheart and very sensitive. She loves playing with her baby dolls, putting on MY makeup, doing my hair, and painting her nails, she is definitely a little princess. She loves to put on princess dresses and then she comes out and shows me how pretty she is. But she also loves to get dirty and wrestle with Ethan. She gives the best hugs, when she wants to. She sticks up for Ethan too when he is in trouble. When Ethan is in time out she will come and say, "I am mad at you mom, you go to time out." She keeps us on our toes! We love that she has some attitude to go along with how beautiful she is, I feel sorry for all the boys that will be chasing her, they won't know what hit them!

We love you princess!

brand new!

First Birthday
2nd Birthday

3rd Birthday

Her cousin Justin picked out some flowers to give her, it was really sweet. She loved them but wasn't about to give him a hug!

A friend gave us this kitchen and we thought she would LOVE it, you can see by her reaction she wasn't too excited about it, now she loves and won't stop playing it.

I tried to get a picture of her with all of her presents but she kept freaking out, so here's just her presents, yes she is spoiled!

Her birthday flowers, she was really excited about them!

Sweet little princess all tired out!

A few days later we went to Little Anthony's for Malia's bday. She looked so miserable when they sang, they didn't even attempt to have the boys come over and give her a kiss. But she sure LOVED her ice cream!

The birthday girl

Ava, check out those ears!

Ethan

Who's turning 32 today?

2011-09-20T08:23:00.000-07:00

This old lady is...what would I do without her...she's much older and wiser than I am...she makes me feel safe all the time because of her age...I love my old lady

Another remodel, no this isn't the same post

2011-09-09T08:31:00.000-07:00

Yes, we have another one. In our backyard we have a flower bed, that is affectionately known as the grass garden. We put it in around the time we moved in 4, yes 4, years ago and it has yet to have any flowers in it. We quickly realized that flowers would not last with kids and dogs running around. And I did not want to plant stuff just to have it torn out the next day. So it has gradually become our grass garden. The grass kind of took it over. Seriously, we could have mowed it. So we decided it was time to re-do it. And by re-do it I mean take ALL the bricks off and dig ALL the dirt out, then put it all back with new dirt, minus the grass. That was our labor day weekend, fun huh?

BEFORE

(just ignore the 2 cute kids running crazy)

It might be kind of hard to see, but there is grass growing everywhere in the bricks, and it's totally crooked.

After

We did some curbing below the bricks to help keep the grass out. All I can say is, if any grass gets in there I'm going to lose it!

All this for some flowers, it BETTER look good!!

ANOTHER REMODEL

2011-09-03T07:53:00.000-07:00

We finally did our bathroom...here is the before

And the After

First Day

2011-08-17T12:25:00.001-07:00

Ethan had his first day of preschool on Monday. He didn't seem too excited about it at first, but when he came home he was all smiles. He LOVES his teacher and the other kids. He did say that he missed his buddy Duncan but that he would still try and go to school without him. Here are some pics of the kids Monday morning.

Ahhhh, they do like each other!
Being Crazy

Ava would NOT sit still for a picture so Ethan had to try and hold her in the picture. ( This was taken a split second before the pacifier came flying out followed by Ava screaming at the top of her lungs.)
Is he really this big? He looks so grown up, ugh, one more year, then off to the big school =(

Family Home Evening at the Wash

2011-07-25T20:28:00.001-07:00

Good little helpers

2011-07-01T08:06:00.000-07:00

Ethan asked if he could dress Ava today and this is what I found.

I just hope that underwear is clean!!

BEACH TIME

2011-06-17T05:52:00.000-07:00

Viewer Discretion Advised

We couldn't get little stinker Ava to sit still...this is the only pic of the kids that worked

We have seen lots of Dolphins swimming around and they have been really close to shore. I've never seen them this close before. They were maybe 100 feet off shore.

Dewey Beach

2011-06-13T17:14:00.000-07:00

We have arrived at the beach. We stay at Dewey Beach and travel about 5 minutes to Rehoboth Beach to the Boardwalk in the evening. Here we all are eating real good food.

There are so many things to do here, from shops to rides to games. Our kids love it.

Then we go to the Beach for all day fun.

My Beautiful wife and little girl.

Our Beach House, it's 3 stories and lots of fun...somehow my Mom got a good deal on this place!

Our sleeping quarters, which has a sun room and also a porch.

The Swimming Pool

MORE TRIP

2011-06-10T19:15:00.000-07:00

Here we are at AMTRAK, Ethan had to push his stroller and Malia had to have luggage stuffed on her little legs. It was crazy.

My Aunt & Uncle have this Rabbit cut out of one of there trees.

We went to Hershey Park, behind us is the building that is filled with every type of chocolate in the world that you can ever have, its fantastic.

The rides at this park are awesome.

The city of Hershey has Chocolate Paraphernalia all over the city.

Right down the road from my Grandma's in Lancaster, PA is the Market. It's filled with every type of food that you can eat...and it's all fresh...we go there for the junk food that is all homemade by the Amish and local farmers.

Most of the Grandchildren.

Then we went to Dutch Wonderland which is a little kid amusement park...There was a Princess walking around the park and Malia loved her but was scared of her as well.

My brother in law making the best face ever.

You can barely see Malia with me on this ride.

Now we are on our way to the Beach. Ethan is excited.

The 1st three videos are of our rides that I filmed and that last video is of a plane that was just hoovering in the air. We are driving about 70 MPH away from the plane so it might look like it's moving but it wasn't moving it was just hoovering. We couldn't figure it out but it's very interesting.

Best Mom Award + Day 4

2011-06-06T16:06:00.001-07:00

Last Night we left the kids at the hotel with Sam's Mom Nancy and went back to Times Square. On our way back we were talking about what we were thinking and Samantha said, "I don't think Malia went poop today". So she gets the Best Mom Award for always thinking about the kids first.

We went to Little Italy and Chinatown. We ate at a small restaurant that had homemade everything. Samantha got a Panini and I got a meatball parmesan sandwich. Nancy got cheese cake that we all tried and everything was delicious.

I hate the Knicks but MSG is cool.

Malia telling me where to go.

We went to the TOYS R US store and they had a ferris wheel in it. We rode it and the kids loved it and all the many other things there, this place to great for kids.

Malia was scared to death of the Giraffe.

The Naked Cowboy

Then for dinner we ate here and the pizza and calzone we ate was really good.

DAY 3

2011-06-05T16:21:00.001-07:00

We 1st started off our day by going to church at 144 W. 15th St. The ward we went to was the Singles Ward. It was fun to go and see all the single guys and gals flirting with each other. We then headed to the Statue of Liberty. I always thought that Ms. Liberty was really big like they display in the Ghostbusters Movie, but she was small compared the movie.

Then we went over the Ellis Island. This place is awesome. They do an amazing job on describing the process everyone went through way back then. FYI-the scene from Hitch was filmed there but there is no book that has names in it displayed on the movie. Sam and her Mom had us walking all over that place looking for it. You can actually go to http://www.ellisisland.org/ to look up every person that went through the island.

Off to Wall Street to have a little fun.

We told Ethan to pose for us and that is where he went!

The Brooklyn Bridge

The WTC getting rebuilt

We got there just in time to hold this thing up...if Malia wasn't there it probably would of fallen on us because me and Ethan are not as strong as she is.

DAY 2

2011-06-04T18:05:00.000-07:00

Today is our 7th Anniversary...it was fun...but wish the kids could of been with a babysitter at times...haha!

Times Square again

On the Subway
The Museum of Natural History

The Lion is gonna get Malia

St. Patrick's Cathedral

Some couple was getting married a while thousands of tourists just stared at them and took pictures, I bet this wedding cost major bucks

Rockefeller Center

Our Mormon Temple at Lincoln Center

We finally took a break at Central Park and it was real nice. The Play area was awesome. Central Park is really nice, which is good because I always thought Central Park was a place where criminals wandered around hurting others.

The Inside of this little place has about 1 inch of water flowing through it, so kids love it and parents hate it.

FAO SCHWARZ, on my bucket list was to go here someday and see the BIG PIANO from the movie BIG with Tom Hanks

Malia wants this Barbie Foosball Table and it's only $25000, lucky us that its in our price range

My dreams come true

After 12 hours of walking we are on our way back to the hotel

New York City

2011-06-03T21:13:00.000-07:00

The Statue of Liberty from our plane window

Ava on the subway

Exit to Times Square

OLD MAN FOOTBALL

2011-06-01T21:19:00.000-07:00

I was able to live up the old glory days by playing full contact football one more time. Their is a guy who runs a business setting up football games between old high school rivals, he does two games a week in the US. Their is no age limit(one guy was 52) and it's for pure fun. I decided to play for one of the high schools in AZ that I went to. I split half my high school in Safford, AZ and the other half in Blue Springs, MO. This was for the Safford/Thatcher game. I've been traveling down to Safford on Saturdays to practice then drive home. Ethan was my travel companion when I would go and we had a fun time doing that(except for the time when we were almost home and he spit up his McDonald's happy meal all over the car). Now onto the details of the game. All I can say is that I'm 31 and really shouldn't be running around hitting other people. Samantha told me that if I got hurt she would further hurt me. I didn't have any major injuries but I did hurt my shoulders. It's been 5 days since the game and I can finally lift my arms over my head with very little pain. I'm thankful for Tylenol, I've been popping them like they are gummy bears. I played okay, had some success and made some mistakes. I really forgot how tuff it is to play this game. I just really wish I was a little younger and had a little more spring in my step. That was really frustrating but it's a good reality check. Samantha has seen me play full contact football in a semi-pro league just before we got married and I asked her what the difference was in my play from then(age 24) to this game(age 31) and she just sorta laughed and said that I was far less aggressive. I agree, I was really worried about getting hurt. I played reserved. I'm glad I played in the game, but I know I won't play again next year. I humbly admit...I'm a broken old man. Since the game Malia has wanted hugs and to cuddle and I told her that I can't because I'm broken, because it really did hurt to have kids crawling on me, so Malia has been running around the house yelling "Daddy's Broken".

Me & my cousin Michael McHugh

My Faithful Supporter, I Love You Ethan

You can sorta see Samantha's parents behind her. They went and I think they really enjoyed the game. Sam's Dad played football at KU and was the full back for a guy named Gale Sayers(one of the greatest NFL players and a member of the pro football hall of fame). I enjoy talking sports with Robert and I'm glad we have that in common.

Happy birthday baby girl!

2011-05-28T22:51:00.000-07:00

This year has flown by. It really just seems like a few months ago I was at the hospital with Ava. She was our little 5 lbs surprise.

Ava is our 3rd and in most cases once you have 3 kids, you take less pictures and little miles stones aren't that special. I always hoped I would never be the parent that did that, but I think I might just be that parent. Ava is a year old and I realized that I never wrote down her delivery, which I did within days of having the other two kiddos. So here I am on her first birthday and I'm finally writing down what happened on her birth day. I know, a tad pathetic.

I was set to be induced at 5 am. Yes 5 AM. Fun. My mom spent the night so she could watch the kids for us. Ethan had gotten scared a few hours before we were set to get up so he came in our room. He was laying in bed when we were getting ready to leave, and then I heard IT, that sound that is completely unmistakable, he threw up ALL over our bed. What the heck!?!? So we cleaned it up and told my mom, and wished her luck! And I'm thinking, great we're all going to get the flu with a new baby, that should be fun.

We finally got off to the hospital and got there at 5. They started setting everything up and then came the nurse ready to start the IV. For most people this isn't a bid deal. And I really don't mind needles, and for the most part I can handle pain, BUT with my other two kids, it took 4 or 5 pokes and 3 different people to get my IV going. ANNOYING. So I was hoping this time would be different. Not. So. Lucky. After 3 pokes and 3 holes in my arms another nurse came in and finally got it going. What's funny is the first time they always say how good my veins are and how easy this one is going to be, HA! I guess my veins are tricky or something cause they are definitely not easy. They finally started pitocin at about 8 am and I was thinking that I could go pretty long without the good drugs since I made it all the way to a 10 before getting it with Malia, but for some reason this time it HURT FAST. I was so uncomfortable and so tired so I gave in and asked for the drugs and of course the nurse said it might take a while, so we waited, and waited, and finally relief came. Gotta love modern medicine. I admire those women who do it all natural, but that is just not for me. After the good stuff, I totally relaxed for a little bit. Then I started to get a little worried when I noticed her heart rate would drop with every contraction. It would go down around 40 or 50 or the monitor would lose it altogether. I could tell the nurse was getting worried too and she called the doctor. She said she would be there in a few minutes to infuse fluid back in. Wow that sounded fun, but once she got there the heart rate was totally fine and we were ready to go.

Since we already had a girl and boy we decided early on not to find out if this one would be a boy or girl. I LOVED not knowing. It was so fun sitting there waiting to see what this baby was going to be. I remember thinking, I really have no idea what we are having. Adam had said just a few minutes before she came out that he thought we were having a girl, and even put a quick post on our blog about it but I had no clue.

About 4 hours after the pitocin was started we were ready to have a baby. For some reason after you have a baby you totally forget everything that happens, until you are in that moment again, then it all comes back to you. I remember thinking, didn't I just do this? Oh yeah I did just do this! Ugh, yes we are a little crazy, but it's worth it right? So we are ready to go. I have a contraction and push about 3 times and out comes this little baby, seriously easiest delivery! As soon as she came out I wanted to see if we had a girl or boy, and I hear Adam say, it's a girl! For some reason I couldn't believe we really had another girl, not that I thought she was going to be a boy, I think I would have thought that if she was a boy too. It was so crazy in that short moment there was a new little girl. This entire time we had no idea that we were going to have another little princess. She came out and was so little, not even 6 lbs! She was a great eater and sleeper right off the bat. I remember always having to wake her so she could eat. She was such an easy going baby, which was a nice change from our crazy, fussy, colic babies we had. I remember I would sometimes forget she was there because she NEVER cried. She was so quiet and such a sweetheart. I would hold her thinking, I don't hold her enough, I need to hold her more.

Well a year later, the quietness has gone and you definetly don't forget she is there. She has quite the personality now. She started walking about a month ago and she is into EVERYTHING. She climbes on everything and has no fear. She stands on Ethan and Malia's table and tries to jump, she is just like Ethan that way, a little daredevil. But she does have some Malia in her. To say she is fiesty is an understatement. Lets just say I'm usually not worried about Ethan and Malia hurting her, I'm worried she is going to hurt them. When she doesn't get her way or they take something she wants, she bites, hits, pushes, and screams at the top of her lungs until they give it back to her or they distract her with something else. She can definately hold her own.

She loves to be outside, she loves to eat, she'll eat hers then get down and and try and take Ethan and Malia's food. She loves to climb things and loves to play with Ethan and Malia, she follows them everywhere.

She hates to be alone, yes she is ATTACHED to the hip, she hates milk so far and does not like bottles (yeah, that's been fun). And now does not like to sleep. She is a stinker, but she knows when to flash that cheesy smile and has the cutest little smoker's laugh. She wasn't exactly planned, but she is the best little surprise we could ask for. She is such a joy and blessing to our family. We love her so much and are so grateful that she's our baby girl! Happy birthday baby princes, we love you so much =)

minutes old

Blessing day

If you look really close you can see her fangsReady to party on her bday

This is her mad, get me the heck out of here, face.

Daddy and his little princess

FATHERS & SONS

2011-05-23T18:03:00.000-07:00

Each Year our church has a Father & Sons Campout. I took Ethan and we had lots of fun. He was covered in dirt from head to toe...but Dad doesn't really care about that...and Mom was at home!!! We slept in our van because some friends were using our tent. The church cooked a giant breakfast and then we went to pena blanca lake after that and ran around. I'm glad I can look forward to this each year with Ethan.

Day 3

2011-05-09T17:50:00.000-07:00

Look how tan Mama is

What a good older brother holding Malia

Ava loves the water

Look at that evil look

The dolphin flipped out on malia

DAY 2

2011-04-29T07:06:00.000-07:00

Day 2 started out by going to Mormon Battalion. The Church remodeled this place about 2 years ago and it's very high tech. Plus the story of the battalion is really cool, especially since the church helped established much of early california.

Panning for gold

Then onto the Beautiful San Diego Temple

Then we went down to La Jolla Cove...there was more wildlife in this little cove than there is in all of Tucson.

these little crabs are everywhere

Nemo without the stripes

A baby seal

Then to Mission Beach, we rode the rides and walked around, it was very relaxing.

SEA WORLD

2011-04-28T06:27:00.001-07:00

I had extra vacation time that needed to be used by April so we decided to go to San Diego and our 1st stop was Sea World. Me & Ethan rode this ride and he wasn't tall enough to ride it but I they didn't measure him and just let us on. However the 2nd time Samantha took him on and they wouldn't let him go so he cried for about 20 minutes.
Cute Kids and little penguin behind them

all I could think of was Danny Devito when he played the Penguin in Batman

the Dolphin Show...a cool video is at the end of this post

the SHARKS

look at those teeth

PIRANHAS, there skin was neon

We got to feed the SEALS

this EVIL bird would steal the fish out of little kids hands

This Seal would beg

We decided to play one game...It's the game where you throw the rings onto the bottles...we thought it would be a fun game for the kids and didn't think we would win...well Samantha got a ring on the bottle and now we are stuck with this giant penguin...no idea how we are going to stuff it into our van when we drive home...but I am proud of her...she's my southpaw.
THE TURTLES

The Shamu Show...we decided to sit in the front so we could get splashed!

At the Shamu show...Ava was flipping out so Samantha had to nurse her...well that's right when we got splashed...it was funny.

Easter boys...pyros in the making... and some other fun stuff

2011-04-25T06:00:00.000-07:00

We had a pretty low key Easter. We woke up at 5 am to Malia throwing up in her crib, nice. No church for some of us today. So that is why none of the girls are dressed in their Easter dresses, it was boy's dress up day. So daddy and Ethan put on their suits and we got some great pictures of them. Ethan is such a poser now. He's so fun to take pictures of!The studs of the house
He did this one all on his own

Ethan trying to make a mad face

So hopefully soon we can get the girls dressed in their cute little dresses and get some pictures

We also had some fireworks and decided we should set them off in our backyard, totally safe right? The kids LOVED them, not quite to Disneyland expectations, but they were good enough for them.

Malia found a new love, jumping. We were down in Safford and Adam's aunt and uncle have a trampoline in their backyard. Malia couldn't get enough of it, she would be up there all day long if I let her, and she is pretty good at it. Ethan was scared to leave the edge and kept jumping by the edge, which was totally scaring the crap out of me, but they made it without a broken bone, I think we might need to look into one of these. It would keep them occupied for hours =)

Ethan's run in with a permanent blue marker. At least it was only on his lips and NOT the couch!

All dressed up.

Ava will hardly sit still for a picture so I had to be quick, this is all I could get of her.

I still can't believe how big he is!

Isn't she beautiful? I feel sorry for any boy that likes her. They won't stand a chance! She's gonna walk all over them!

The only good one I got

Our neighbors down the street had an awesome yard sale. I feel like I almost ripped them off, but whatever, we got some great stuff for the kids and hardly spent any money, awesome!

All of our yard sale loot.

The Three Musketeers

2011-04-10T20:01:00.001-07:00

or the three little stinkers. They love to play together, but they're really good at getting into trouble together, good thing they are cute We got these chairs at a yard sale for $3 each, and they LOVE them! Even Ava loves sitting on her chair. She also loves to stand up on it and fall off it. Yes we realize Ethan's chair is a girl chair, but whatever he doesn't know the difference!

Happy Birthday Ethan!

2011-04-02T16:18:00.000-07:00

I can't believe he is 4, how in the heck did time go by so fast??? It makes me sad that he's not a little baby anymore and doesn't need mommy all the time, but it's so much fun to see him learn new things and it amazes me how fast he picks things up. And I swear he is the funniest kid. He says the most random things and makes us laugh all the time. And he is such a good boy, a little crazy, but so sweet. He always sticks up for Malia and makes sure she has what she needs. He loves to play with Ava. I always catch him carrying her around the house so he can play with her. He loves to play any sport and is really good at whatever he does. We had a little birthday party for him last night and invited some friends over, he LOVES to have friends over and LOVES to party, just like his dad. He picked out a spider man party so that's what we did. He got some awesome toys and hasn't stopped playing with them. Here's some pictures from the party, enjoy!

All of his toys, he was so excited!One of many toys that he HAD to play with today.

We are so grateful that we have Ethan in our family, he is such a blessing to us.

We love you buddy =)

Looking back...

2011-03-25T13:01:00.000-07:00

Ethan and Malia love to get up on the computer with me and look through old pictures of themselves and Ava. They always laugh and think they are just the funniest thing in the world. Well, we came across this video and they both started laughing at themselves, and I have to admit, it's pretty dang cute. So excuse the messy room and take a look at my cute kiddos bustin a move.

My two little leprechauns

2011-03-18T08:11:00.000-07:00

Well the leprechauns came to our house yesterday and brought the kids some surprises. The hats were a big hit! They also turned some of our food green. Somehow Ethan got some green on his hand and he said "mom the leprechauns are turning me green too", he was very excited about it.They seriously would not sit still to get a picture. The kept dancing around and goofing off, maybe a little surgar high??

And cute little Ava wanted in on the fun too.

The kids were so excited that the leprechauns came, it was like Christmas all over again!

Hodge Podge of Pictures

2011-03-17T14:30:00.000-07:00

Well here we go again, I'm totally behind in blogging. I have so many pictures to put up I don't even know where to start! Ugh, maybe one day I'll be one top of it, maybe. BIG MAYBE. Until I get my act together I put up tons of pictures of the kids and some of the stuff we have been up to. It's not in order, but it's on there and that's all that matters right? Well if you have time to look through about a million pictures, here ya go! Enjoy!

Ava loves the swing, she would sit there all day long if we let her.

Bath time is always entertaining with three little crazy kids!Watchin a movie together

Told you they're are totally out of order.

This is Malia at my grandpa's house. All of my family was there for his funeral and she completely passed out from everything. Yes she is standing up, kind of.

My brother and his wife and us after the funeral.

Visiting the temple in the Gila Valley, Ethan started to throw a fit after this pictureSo Malia was the only one that would let us take a picture.

Isn't she pretty? Random cuteness

I love her smile, I'm a little biased, but she is freaken cute!

Just Chillin'

Helping dad fix the car, he loved it!

Chocolate pudding. See how clean Ethan is and how messy Malia is? That's how it always is with food. Weird.

Ready for church

So Ava is 9 1/2 months old. And she is a busy girl. She weighs 16 1/2 lbs, she loves to eat, a lot. She loves being outside. And she hates it when Ethan or Malia takes something from her. She has a little bit of her sister's temper I think, I know we are totally in trouble. About 2 months ago she started crawling and soon after that she was pulling her self up and walking along the furniture. She is really fast now and pretty much gets into everything. She's started to stand up on her own but then gets all excited and makes herself fall down. She has the biggest smile with two little teeth on the bottom. And she loves daddy. She goes crazy when he comes home from work.

Eating snow, at least it wasn't yellow!

We went to a little carnival down the street from us and the kids loved it.

We went on this ride about 4 times and the kids loved it. Malia would say she wants to go on it and but as soon as it started to move she would bury her head in my lap. As soon as it was over, she would sit up and be perfectly fine.

Starting off happy. See the little girl hiding on the second row down? That would be Malia.

Loves her daddy

Now instead of sitting IN the walker, she wants to push it around.

Ethan trying to help

We took the kids to the skating ring, I think we skated all of about 5 minutes before we were done.

Impossible to get them all sitting and smiling at the same time, oh well, this is the best I could get.

Malia decided to be the baby. Whew, made it. Ok, now hopefully I'll stay caught up!!

Horse Ride or Broken leg?

2011-02-27T19:57:00.000-08:00

Malia calls this riding the horse...but I call it a broken leg.

SNOW IN TUCSON?

2011-02-27T06:50:00.000-08:00

Sam isn't even up yet...and apparently it snowed last night. It's just Me & Malia and Momma will be mad at me for letting her go out there without warmer clothes...but in my opinion that's what Dad's are so post to do(get Mom mad at me).

We are sorta pathetic...those pallets usually have wood stacked up to the top of the wall but are empty because we burn it when it's cold and we have burned all the wood this year...even though it's doesn't even get cold around here.

I'm glad we didn't put anything in our planter yet...it would be dead this morning.

I'm sure the snow will be melted in probably an hour.

Grandpa Pollock, one of the best men I knew

2011-02-15T12:45:00.000-08:00

My Grandpa was 96 years old and passed away last Saturday. He was such a good person. In all my life I don't ever remember hearing him say anything bad about anybody else, no matter what they did. I wish my kids could have known him longer and could have seen what a wonderful example he was. I know he will be missed by a lot, but I know he is in a better place. He's happy, and probably working hard, just like he always did.

My grandma passed away about 13 years ago and I was living with my grandparents at the time, going to college. I remember how hard that was for my grandpa. Someone asked how long they had been married and he said 56 years. The person replied, wow that's a long time, and he said, not long enough I wanted more time. He loved her so much. I cannot remember a time when they went to bed at different times. They would always sit on the couch in the evening watching TV, my grandpa either had his arm around her or was rubbing her feet. They would go to bed at the same time and hold hands as they walked down the hallway. I remember thinking, I hope when I've been married that long my husband and I look like that. So I know he is so happy to be with her again, and I know they are together. I can't imagine how much joy he must have felt being able to see her again. I'm so happy for him, but still miss him a lot. It's hard to believe he is really gone.

He was the kind of grandpa that everyone would want. He made you feel special and would do anything for you. When I lived with him during college, after my grandma died, he would always get up and make me breakfast, then he would go to the deli and get something for lunch and dinner. He was so sweet. I remember when I was there, someone in his ward at church needed help putting on a new roof. Even though he was in his 80's, he went over and helped them get that roof on. And that's how I will always remember him, helping anyone that needed it. When Adam and I got married, we had to put up a block wall and had no clue how to do it. Grandpa came over, he was about 90 at the time, and showed us how to put up a wall. Again, when we had to tile our house, he came and showed us how to do it. He had the same home teaching companion for about 17 years, and never missed visiting a family. My mom was saying recently when he was getting really sick, that she didn't think he ever used a sick day for work. That's just how he was, always working hard and helping others.

He was just an all around good person. He was such a good example of a Christlike person. I'm so grateful for him and all he did for us, we will really miss him a lot!

I love this picture

Ethan and Grandpa, the kids all called him great papa

I love this picture of grandpa and EthanGrandpa and MaliaGrandpa and Ava

At Malia's 1st birthday
Just relaxing

Christmas 2007

His Birthday a few years ago, I think it was his 93rd.

95th Birthday

My sister's family and grandpa

At the mountains this past summer.

Our first annual Family Talent Show last year.

His last birthday, 96 years old!

Samuel Webster Pollock

October 25, 1914 - February 12, 2011

He will be missed, we love you Great Papa! I would say Rest In Peace, but I know he's not really resting, he's working hard up there!!

Merry Christmas! Part 1

2011-02-05T07:17:00.000-08:00

Yes I realize it's February already and I'm just getting Christmas on the blog. You know your a bad blogger when your husband comments about you getting stuff on the blog. Anyways, here it is. I had to break it up because there was too many pictures so here is the first part. We were so excited about Christmas this year because we were having family come and visit us!! Adam's sister Kortney, her hubby Chase, and their cute baby Camille came from Ohio and Adam's mom came from Missouri for Christmas. Then the day after Christmas Adam's brother Jeremy, his girlfriend Karissa, and Adam's sister Kelsey came for about a week. We loved having everyone here. We had so much fun with them and ate way too much good food, seriously gained like 10 pounds! When we told Ethan they had to leave he cried, he thought they were here to stay, poor kid. And they both say they see Chase walking down the street all the time! We didn't do to much, just hanging out at the house, but it was really relaxing, thanks for coming everyone!!

Here are the pics from Christmas morning. The kids were so excited to open all of their presents and they still talk about Santa coming and getting all those presents! There are Christmas videos at the end, it's totally out of order but it's a pain to try and move them so check them out!

Ethan checking out grandma's presents

The Crowley's
Malia's cheezy smile

"Say cheese mom"

Ethan and his one of many, many cars. Good thing Adam has a good hold on that remote, not Camille that is slowing slipping down.

We had to make our stop at Pinnecle Peak

Jeremey and Karissa

Chase and Kortney

Then on down to Safford to see family and eat the best Mexican food ever!

Kelsey enjoying her food
Jeremey stuffing his face

Cute little girl!!

Here are the Christmas videos. Most of them are of Malia. Ethan seriously would not sit still to get him.

This is of the kids running out to see everything from Santa. I can't wait until next year when they can understand it all just a little bit more!

Rewind to a few months ago...

2011-01-22T10:00:00.000-08:00

So I am WAY behind in blogging. I guess it's the fact that I have three kids all going in different directions all of the time. So I'll start where we kind of left off with our house. After we finished our kitchen Malia decided that she wanted to become an artist on almost all of our walls, and of course when we tried to clean it, the paint just came off. So we got to paint the entire house again. Which was ok because I really wanted to paint it tan, so there was my excuse for repainting the house. Total pain in the butt to paint with three kids running around. Ethan and Malia tried to help so I usually sent them outside with a paint brush and water and told them to paint the outside of the house, kept them busy for along time! So after the kitchen, taking out the pillars, repainting the house, and rearranging three bedrooms, we are taking a little break from home improvements. And we totally suck at taking before and after pictures so all we have are after pictures. We still have a few things in the girl's room to finish, but for the most part we are DONE, for a while!

Of course I had to add some pictures of the kids causes they are kind of cute.

So sweet when she sleepsAva has started scooting everywhere. She is really fast and will be crawling really soon, totally not ready for this. We have two little steps from our living room to our entry and she can climb right up them which means I can't contain her anymore dangit!

Aww they really do love each other, at least for a few seconds

Ok, here are the house pics, this is were those stupid brick pillars were

And now we FINALLY have a toy room. I had to beg and beg Adam to give up his computer/guest room, but it is so nice to have all of their toys in one place. I was going to clean it before I took the picture, but really there is no point.

Ethan's big boy room with no toys!And the girls room, by the way, I know this may come as a total shock, but I sewed both Ethan and the girl's curtains. And they look great as long as you look at them from far far away!!I had been looking at this comforter set ever since I found out Malia was a girl. I love it. And we got an awesome deal on the bunk bed. We don't even use them yet, but when I do get brave enough to get Malia out of her crib she'll have a cute little girl bed to sleep on! We still have to paint the bunk bed and get their dressers but it looks so dang cute!

And finally, our kitchen is done, well it has been for a while now but we're just now getting the pictures up cause I suck at blogging. We love it! It's soooo much better than our old one. I actually don't mind cooking now.

Christmas is next, not that it's the end of January or anything!!

A quick one, catch up will hopefully come later...

2011-01-19T15:11:00.000-08:00

Ethan always says the funniest things, well, today was no different. We were in our living room and Ethan pulled out one of Adam's photo albums from high school. He quickly said " mom, mom come here quick, look at this." So I go over and see him pointing to a picture of his dad wrapping his arms around some other girl. Ethan says " Look mom, dad got a new mom for me." Wow, isn't that nice? Every time Ethan saw a picture of Adam with another girl, he would say, look a new mommy. When he was done I asked him if he really wanted a new mom and he said no, so I guess I'm safe for a while!!

Hopefully soon I will get around to updating the blog since I have a bunch of stuff to put on it. It's been so long I almost forgot my password, oops!!

Santa still sucks

2010-12-11T08:06:00.000-08:00

Our church Christmas party was last night...and Santa came to visit so we thought we would see if Malia warmed up to Santa...and it started real well.

This is Ethan saying cheese, his girlfriend Candace Paul is on his right, Ethan really likes her.

Ethan's cousin Justin is behind him with the real cute smile

Another cute Justin smile

As Malia gets closer to Santa she smiles less

Ethan loves Santa

Malia still hates Santa...or me for putting her up there.

Justin loves Santa too.

WARNING - TMI post

2010-12-08T19:50:00.000-08:00

Seriously this is totally tmi, but way too funny not to post so we can actually have a record of this. So stop reading now if you don't want to know the rest. So here it goes. Today Ethan had diarrhea. When I went in to "help" him and he said "Mom I sick." Then he turned around and looked at the potty and said "Look mom my butt threw up, that's throw-up poop." Could not stop laughing. Oh the things kids say!

Santa Sucks

2010-12-04T08:13:00.000-08:00

Well at least Malia thinks so...All Ethan wanted was the candy sitting next to Santa
Good times with our angel children

By the way Adam, Malia, and Ethan are sitting on the couch watching Aladdin. Adam started to sing with the movie and Malia turns to him and says " No sing dad, stop sing dad" and then covers his mouth with her hand, she's so sweet.

Flexin' In His Whitey Tighties

2010-11-24T15:01:00.001-08:00

Don't know where he gets it from!!

Death to the old Kitchen by Adam

2010-11-07T20:24:00.000-08:00

Day 1...2 weeks ago...we moved everything into our front room. We had to barricade everything from the kids to keep them from getting into everything. The 3 pictures below was our kitchen for about 2 weeks.

We did most of the work ourselves to save money. Sometimes it was fun...other times it sucked. We started by taking down the old cabinets. It really wasn't that hard. The part that was hard was the soffit(the part above the cabinets). We had 3 soffit's and we could only take out 2 of them. The other soffit had about 10 different wires in it.

In 1970 when our house was built we had these nasty decorative brick pillars in the middle of our house. They just took up space and our kids would run into them all the time. We decided to take them out. It was actually pretty easy and now our front room looks much bigger with these gone.

We found a phone wire in the wall. It had to be moved and since I work for the phone company it was really easy for me to splice into it and hide it behind the wall.

This is after the pillars were taken out. You can see the 2 holes in the ceiling and the 2 holes in the floor...that's where the pillars were.

Then we started to patch all the holes we made. This is one of the worst parts. We probably should of paid to have someone do it but we wanted to save money doing it ourselves...however we will never do dry wall again...we hated it.

After the drywall was put up and patched we needed to sand it so that is looked smooth. Samantha did all the patching and all of the sanding. Dry wall dust was everywhere. It got on everything. It was nasty.

She is sanding where the pillars were...it must of been nasty in there...but I don't really know...I was just taking the pictures.

Here she is...queen of the drywall...one of the many things I love about Samantha is she works just as hard as I do. We have completely remodeled our house and she does everything that I do. She isn't afraid to give things a shot and isn't afraid of getting dirty. If she wasn't like that we would never get anything done because it would be hard for me to stay motivated. What is funny about this picture was awhile I was taking pictures of her as she worked...I was also watching the world series!

Our almost complete new kitchen. We don't have counter tops on yet and the detailing of the kitchen isn't done yet but we were able to put our stuff back in our kitchen.

Against this wall is where we will have more cabinets, they are not in yet but will be soon.

We have worked non stop for about 2 weeks. We would work before I would leave to work, then Samantha would work all day when I was gone and then when I got home we would work till we went to bed. We usually crawled into bed about 10 or 11 each night. Just about 1 more week and a little bit of tile work and then we will be done. We are both really excited.

It's a bird...it's a plane, no it's Superman...and supergirl... and superbaby!

2010-11-01T13:16:00.000-07:00

For a couple of weeks now Ethan and Malia have been putting on Ava's headbands and running around the house yelling "Superman" with their arms up in the air. I have no idea where they came up with this, they have never seen any superman shows or cartoons but they both LOVE superman. So of course this is what they had to be for Halloween. We didn't really have a costume for Ava so we just kind of rigged one up. It didn't really matter because she pulled everything off within a few minutes anyways, but we got some pictures and that's the important thing right? Ethan had a little party at his preschool that Malia was aloud to go to. So I got them in their costumes and they went crazy. They were so excited to actually be Superman! They had fun at their party. Then we had our trunk or treat at our church and again the went crazy in their costumes, or maybe it was because of all they candy that their grandpa and daddy were giving them!! Here are some pics of the little super hero's!

Supergirl got a little embarrassed

This is when they got a little crazy from the candy, can't imagine why???

Superman stealth mode, I really think he thought he was being very very sneaky. Adam's costume, always so creative.

What candy mom??? (I think she had about 6 candy bars in her hand)

Dad working really hard to control the candy.

Just a cute one of Ava with Ethan's cowboy boots on just hanging out!

Ava

2010-10-13T14:37:00.000-07:00

Here's a cute little video of Ava. She is seriously such a happy baby. She ALWAYS smiles. She's up to 12 lbs 8 oz and is getting cute little fat rolls. She usually sleeps pretty well, but does still have some crazy nights. Overall she is such an easy baby, we're so grateful for her! And Ethan and Malia LOVE her. They have never been jealous or tried to hurt her. They love holding her and giving her kisses and sharing toys with her. It's so much fun to see them all interact together. Ava loves watching them and laughs at them all the time, then that gets Ethan and Malia going and before I know it they are all cracking up at nothing, so freaken cute! Ahh I love being a mom!!

Malia's bday party

2010-10-09T14:31:00.000-07:00

We had my family over for some cake and ice cream for Malia's birthday. She didn't really get the whole present thing, so Ethan took it upon himself to "help" her unwrap her gifts. Everytime she would see something new she would get so excited, it was really cute. Here are some pics and video from last night, enoy =)

The Big 2!

2010-10-08T07:32:00.001-07:00

Malia turns two today, I can't believe it! It seems like we just had her first birthday. What can I say about Malia... she is full of sass and fiestiness (if that's even a word). She can be the sweetest cutest little girl, then the next minute all of her "personality" is coming out! There is never a dull moment with Malia around! She still loves her baby dolls and now carries around all three of them everywhere, she also has to sleep with all three of them, plus her blanket, plus at least one phone. She is one crazy girl but we love her to pieces!

Love that look!

She LOVES her baby sister!

Malia and her baby dolls and blanket shoved in there

Happy birthday baby girl we love you!

Old Lady Birthday

2010-09-19T06:37:00.000-07:00

Just Some pictures that remind me of my Wonderful Samantha. She is turning 31 tomorrow and this is a special blog tribute to her.

If I die, Samantha said she will either use the life insurance to find a very rich man or rescue cats.

I told her that Cats can't be trusted.

If I didn't come along I think Samantha would probably still be single.

This one is my favorite, Samantha always uses force to get what she wants, she's sorta abusive!

Seriously though I LOVE Samantha, She is such a GREAT Wife and GREAT Mother. In my eyes she really is almost perfect. Many times I feel so fortunate to have her. She always puts her family first and especially the kids. She really doesn't ever complain about things, just when I get on the computer to check ESPN. Sometimes I'm surprised that she doesn't have her favorite TV shows on that she watches religiously. It's because she's busy doing her duty as a Mother.

She makes me very proud.

Malia Story & Rock Climbing

2010-09-09T12:29:00.001-07:00

Well here's another fun story about Malia. Sometimes I just don't know what to do with her! She is obsessed with stripping everything off! Yesterday I heard her wake up from her nap to find her completely naked, blankets all pulled off the crib and on the floor and she is sitting in a puddle of PEE, what the heck? And of course her diaper is on the floor completely dry. And do you see that her head is half wet, yep that is pee in her HAIR, ugh, gross! I know she looks really sad sitting there naked in her pee, but she's really grumpy when she wakes up and wouldn't look at the camera and I had to get a picture of this...good thing she is so freaken cute!

Ok on to the next item...rock climbing!

Bright and early Monday morning we headed off to windy point up on Mt. Lemmon. We went with two other couples, Adams Cousin Michael and his 9 month pregnant wife and the Pauls. Justin Paul had just taken a class for rock climbing so at least one of us knew what we were doing. Adam and I had both done it before, but not for a long time. Anyone who knows Adam knows that he is terrified of heights, but he can go bungee jumping, totally weird. Anywas he was just a tad nervous about this rock climbing thing. It took a little bit to set everything up and make sure we weren't going to die and I thought Adam was going to have a heart attack anytime anyone got just kind of close to the edge. Adam went down last.

This is overlooking the cliff

I wish you could see the beads of sweat running down his face. I think it took him about 10 minutes to go about two feet, but he did it. He made it down with no trouble at all.

Then came the climbing part. Nice butt shot huh?

And of course he has to get at least one pose in...

...and then he's done. This is one of the couples daughter, I think she is around 6 or 7. She was like a little monkey, just climbed right up, no fear at all. She made it as high as most of us grown ups!

My turn going up the rock. It always looks so much easier from down below. I think I was stuck in this same spot for at least 5 minutes.Adam zoomed in on this shot but there is no way that's getting on here, no butt shots for me! We both made it out alive. I loved it, it's a great workout and it's so much fun. Hopefully we get to go again really soon!

Playing Catch up

2010-09-02T14:17:00.001-07:00

Here we go again, playing catch up with pictures of the kids. I was looking at our pictures on the computer and there are TONS that just never made it to the blog. There's a lot so there might be a couple catch up post. So here is post # 1 of catch up, post #2 coming tomorrow, hopefully.

One saturday we headed up the mountains with some of my family for dinner and let the kids run crazy. Everytime Malia would see an ant or some kind of bug she would totally freak out and scream until we came and picked her up, I have never seen her so scared of something. She sees ants all the time at our house, but I guess the ants on the mountain are the scary ones.My dad and AvaGrandpa Pollock, almost 96 years old!Do you notice that Malia always has food in her mouth??

yes he posed for this picture, and I actually took it a few times. We had to get the right "affect"

Little Miss Princess

Crazy little boy, I had to keep telling him not to jump off.

Adam took Ethan on a father/son campout with our church. He LOVED it.

Stomping on the ants

A friend and I took our kids down to the childrens museum. The kids loved it. Malia found a cart and was "going shopping", typical girl.

Ethan and Malia were totally freaked out by this guy.

Future firefighter

We blessed Ava back in June. I'll post more about that later, I don't have all the pictures yet. But she looked very cute in her dress that was huge on her since she was just bearly 6 lbs when we did it.

This is Malia's little monkey friend, she always has either a stuffed animal or one of her baby dolls in the high chair, usually she has it stuffed behind her head for safe keeping.

The kids LOVE to be outside. They don't care how hot it is or if it's raining, they want to be outside. These are some rare shots of them outside playing in the pool, WITH their clothes on. That is usually the first thing to go, they run around naked and love it. At this point, I don't even care anymore, naked or not, they have fun and aren't getting hurt. Does that make me a bad mom???

I love this look Malia gives, don't know what it means but it's so cute.

how sweet, helping dad stay cool

We took the trolley that is down town with some friends and the kids loved it. Also got some great stuff at the Goodwill store down town, gotta love cheap stuff!!

I wander who took these pictures???

2010-08-20T12:24:00.000-07:00

Future photographer ....... maybe??

Do I get to go to school now?

2010-08-16T13:54:00.000-07:00

That's what Ethan has been asking me lately. I've been looking into pre-schools for about 6 months now and didn't find any that I was really impressed with, that we could actually afford. Well last week my friend called me and said that she was ready to start a pre-school on Monday at her house. YES! I was so excited cause I knew it would be perfect for Ethan, nothing to intimidating, only 2 hours a day twice a week, and not a ton of kids. Perfect. And she's a certified teacher so she actually knows what she is doing. I've been talking it up to Ethan all weekend and he has had his backpack ready since then. I've also been telling him that this is a big boy school, not a mommy school. He wasn't liking that so much. He kept saying " Mommy you go to school with me." Great, this could be bad. So we loaded up our awesome minivan and drove to her house. I went in with him hoping that he would jump right in, well that did not happen. They were doing puzzles on the table and instead of going in there, he went and sat in the other room and wouldn't look at anyone, and he kept his backpack right next to him. I let him sit there for a little bit then I went over and got him to come into the room and do a puzzle, so of course he sat at the chair that was the farthest away from all the other kids. I had to take the other two kids in with me and Malia didn't hesitate at all, she went right over to the table and helped herself to a puzzle, so crazy how different they are. I stayed for a few more minutes and Ethan stayed RIGHT next to me. After they read a story they went to play with some trains and I knew that was my only time to escape, one little problem, Malia wanted to stay, really bad. I grabbed her as fast as I could and went out the door hoping Ethan wouldn't see me. She threw a HUGE fit the entire way out screaming as loud as she could. She only calmed down when she saw that we were going to grandma's house.

Finally smiling... his teacher, who is just awesome!His new buddies

Being sillyHe was so proud of his little folder and the pictures he drew. He kept wanting to make sure he had them so he could show his daddy later

When I went to pick him up he had a huge smile on is face. He loved it, never cried or anything. I'm so glad he liked. It will be so good for him to play with other kids and get away from mommy for a little bit. He really had an awesome time and is so excited to go back! If anyone wants any info on it let me know, your kids will love it!

I didn't hear him as I was working on this blog, so I knew he was either doing something naughty or he was asleep, this is what I found. Asleep on his backpack with his folders and papers by him. I guess school tired him out!

Zillions of pics of the happiest place on earth

2010-07-31T10:27:00.000-07:00

I'm FINALLY putting up our pictures of our trip to Disneyland, yes I'm a little behind. Even Adam was asking me when I was going to update our blog. So here it is. There are TONS of pics, but sometimes you just can't pick which ones to put up, so enjoy!

First pit stop between Tucson and Phx. Ethan had to "pee on the road" I swear he will pee anywhere BUT the toilet!!

Malia passed out, notice the cookie still in her hand.

And little Ava. She did so good. The only time she woke up, was when she was hungry. She hardly ever cried the entire trip, she is such a good baby!We drove about 1/2 way and stayed the night in Blythe, CA. If anyone knows Malia, knows that she sleeps really really well, at home. When she is anywhere but her crib she wakes up screaming uncontrollably, that night was no different. About 2 in the morning she woke up screaming and continued for about 30 min. So her and I hung out in the bathroom trying not to wake up anyone else. Great, I'm thinking it is going to continue all night, but she finally went to sleep and slept the rest of the night, whew, one night down. We made it to our hotel and met up with Adam's sister Ashley and her hubby Cameron and their 3 kiddos, Dallin, Cade, and Carter. We got a great hotel right across from the entrance to Disneyland so we could walk back and forth if we needed. The hotel was the Tropicana Inn and Suites (thanks Sarah) and it was really nice, and we got a great deal on http://www.getawaytoday.com/. If your planning a trip there check it out, they have great deals. Anyways. We headed out early the next morning for Disneyland! Another great thing for Disneyland is a program called ridemax.com. You download it on your computer and it schedules your day at Disneyland so you miss all the lines, it totally works, we'll never go back without using it. Ok now on to the pics...

First ride, first temper tantrum by none other than Malia! Poor girl, just wanted to go on the Merry-go-round. Ava trying to talk to us.

Malia and daddyMust be nice to be carried around and sleep most the day =)
I realized that I have hardly any pics of Ethan, he was just having too much fun to sit still for any pictures, luckily we got a few.

Malia carried around these flowers about 1/2 the day.

Malia was not a fanThe cute High boys Dallin, Cade, and Carter
The Highs, we had so much fun with them, totally wish we lived closer!

Still has the flowers

Malia was done by about 8 or so and just hung out in the stroller with a bunch of blankets on her.

This was Ethan's (and daddy's) favorite. He talked about this ride after the first time we went and totally remembered it this time.

What mom? Candy makes everything better

Ethan loved this ride, he talked about it all day, and is still talking about it.

Goofin' around in the hotel room

We went to Huntington Beach after Disneyland was done, it was FREEZING!

They both loved running in and out of the water, there was no way I was getting even my toe wet, way too cold!

Do I have sand on my face?

Getting bored on the way home...

ok, that only took me 2 days, hopefully it won't be another month before I do this again, cause I'm sure you hold your breath waiting for me to update my blog =)

Three Cute Kids

2010-06-25T07:58:00.000-07:00

Ava is now up to 7lbs 9 oz, she eats all of the time! She has taken after her brother and sister and has become a not so good sleeper. Wonderful. She's starting to smile and despite not sleeping well, she is still our easiest baby. She is completely bald on top of her head, just like Malia was, and is now sporting the "old man cult-a-sac" hair do. Even partially bald, she is still freaken cute!

In this picture I think she looks just like Ethan

All about safety...

I know he is going to kill me for having so many naked pictures of him, but seriously he is ALWAYS naked so it's not my fault!

New meaning for the word bed head. Her hair is out of control, I have no idea what to do with it, but it's just to dang cute to cut!

ABOUT TIME

2010-06-11T08:19:00.000-07:00

WORLD CUP 2010 IS FINALLY HERE, now how can I trick my wife that I am helping out at home and doing work but lying about it and trying to watch the World Cup. Please leave me your ideas.

Score = Kids - 100, Mom & Dad - Big Fat 0

2010-06-08T20:40:00.001-07:00

Well, we are out numbered. And I think it's starting to show!!

The other day we found Ethan in the sink, naked, and Malia trying to scrub the sink, I'm sure they were just trying to help!

In the bath Malia was going a little crazy with the splashing...

but Ethan got her back by spitting water on her, I guess he takes after his dad =)

This is Ethan "helping" Malia take off her diaper so they can both run naked in the back yard and play in the mud, how fun!!

What a good big brother!

The face of a trouble maker, but a cute one!

Malia throwing a fit, one of many.

And last, but not least. Today I heard Malia wake up from her nap so I went in and got her. When I turned on the light I saw POOP smeared ALL OVER HER! She had it everywhere, up and down her arms and legs and on her face. I was going to take a picture, but I was so grossed out I couldn't. I seriously didn't want to touch her, but I got her in the bath, cleaned her up, then cleaned everything in her crib, hopefully this doesn't happen again, at least when Adam's gone, I think next time it's his turn.

Some pics of Ava from this week

First bath, wasn't liking it so much

How sweet is that? She really is a good baby. She loves to sleep, sometimes a little too much.

Ethan and Malia absolutely LOVE her. They really can't get enough of her. Anytime some one comes over they both immediately start talking about baby Ava and want to show her off. They love giving her kisses and petting her head. No jealously yet (knock on wood)!

We went from this.......to this

2010-06-04T12:44:00.000-07:00

6 years ago......

to 6 years later...Crazy what can happen in 6years!!

Love you long time =)

1st Family Picture

2010-05-29T07:13:00.000-07:00

I don't think there is a remedy to getting all the kids to smile and look at the camera at the same time.

UPDATE ON NAME & PICTURES

2010-05-28T13:14:00.001-07:00

Jen won our contest, she won 3 of the 4, but since she didn't get 4 of the 4 she is eliminated from naming our child. You had really good guesses but sorry those are the rules. So we've decided to name her

Ava Kristin Mack.

We both loved the name Ava and right when we found out this baby was a girl Samantha thought she looked like a Ava and Kristin is the name of my older sister. My older twin sisters are Kristin & Kelsey. Malia's middle name is Kelsey.

As Samantha was at the end of the labor, I put my hand on her head and she told me to move it and not to mess up her hair. I was laughing real hard at that one. She doesn't look like Malia did when she was an infant but she looks a lot like Ethan when he was an infant. She has my toes & lips Samantha says. I'm really proud of Samantha.

IT'S A GIRL

2010-05-28T12:34:00.000-07:00

12:12PM

5LB 11OZ

18 INCHES

PICTURES TO COME

No Bebe Yet

2010-05-28T11:52:00.000-07:00

No Baby yet, but real soon...she's at a 10...here are some pics and a funny video of her...also my favorite pic of me & Malia. I'm starting to think it's a girl.

TAKE YOUR GUESS???

2010-05-26T16:44:00.000-07:00

Well Friday at 5am is coming soon. Take your guess?

Boy or Girl?

Weight?

Length?

Time born?

The person who wins gets to name our baby. Please include the name of your choosing in this post.

Illegal Immigration ?

2010-05-23T09:29:00.000-07:00

Is Dora the Explorer an illegal immigrant? We saw this on the news and couldn't stop laughing...and just thought we would share. Sometimes we need to just laugh and enjoy life a little more despite all the issues going on out there.

No More Cast!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2010-05-18T12:03:00.001-07:00

Yesterday we went to the doctor and got Malia's leg back!! YEAH! Adam met me down there and they cut off the cast and then took x-rays to make sure it was all healed up and it was. After they cut it off she was trying to put it back on, I think she was a little confused as to why the leg she was now used to was gone. The first thing she did was stretch out her leg, and then she started scratching it. I can't imagine how itchy it was. And of course her foot stunk soooooo bad. After we got home she had her nap then it was bath time, she seriously did not want to get out. She still walks with a limp and she has to be careful for the next few week (like that will happen) but the doctor said she will just fine in a few weeks.

Running around with her cast on

It took her about a week or so and she was off and running. After that it didn't slow her down one bit. She was running, climbing, jumpin, and causing trouble! Yes that is my big belly in the way at the end!

At the doctors waiting to see if we are getting it off

Ethan being a stinker and Malia eating, of course.

Getting it cut off, it's kind of long sorry

Oh yeah, that's my leg.

Trying to put it back on

Maybe it will go on the other leg...

First time walking without her cast, she did pretty well!

MY ABUSIVE WIFE

2010-05-11T15:00:00.000-07:00

I want to shave my head and my abusive wife won't let me. During the summer time it feels so good to have a shaved head. Please talk some sense into this woman!

Kelsey Rocking Out

2010-04-30T12:00:00.000-07:00

I have a sister who has cerebral palsy. She has always been a wonderful sister. Here she is playing the piano & singing. At about 2 1/2 minutes she really starts to get going. I always thought she would of been a comedian if she wasn't born with her disablility. She always makes us laugh. You can also see my little brother Jeremy with his girlfriend Carissa at the end. I have some old friends that I know will enjoy watching this.

SUPERMAN

2010-04-28T14:57:00.000-07:00

Ethan woke up this morning and wanted to be Superman.

This pic is just for Malia...she's such a pretty little girl.