Thanksgiving Bust

Many months ago, we learned that a friend of my fathers promised to let us borrow his beach cabin for a weekend of our choice.  After discussing this with the family, we agreed that Thanksgiving weekend would be a fun time to go.  So, we locked in the dates and waited for the holiday to arrive.  Wouldn't you know that Lia would come down with a fever of 103 degrees the night before Thanksgiving.  The poor little thing had been looking forward to this vacation with her cousins for weeks, but this flu knocked her flat on her back!  As a result, we drove out to the coast to simply spend Thanksgiving day and then turned around that evening and drove back home.  Although Lia spent the day quarantined in one of the bedrooms upstairs, the rest of us enjoyed a delicious Thanksgiving lunch.  After putting Logan down for his nap, a group of us enjoyed a walk on the beach in balmy 50 degree, sunny weather which is unheard of for the Washington coast in November!  Although it was a quick trip, it was nice to spend the day with family in a beautiful location.  It's just a shame that Lia missed it all.  It's a good thing that she will have almost a full week of cousin fun after Christmas this month up at the Priest Lake cabin to make up for it all!

 

Thanksgiving 2013 on the Pacific coast!

 

This picture shows how Lia spent her entire Thanksgiving day holed up in one of the bedrooms watching movies.  She reach 103.5 degrees while we were there and only ate a roll and drank some water for her "Thanksgiving feast."  So sad.

 

The stunning view of the Pacific Ocean through the trees from the beach house's balcony.

Ron and I beginning our walk with Brynn, Callie, and Vivi.

 



 

 Ron, me, and the baby-to-be.  This is the first picture where you can see the baby bump!

 

 

My crazy brother, Chris, still thinks he's nineteen years old and donned his swim suit, grabbed his skim board, and headed out to the FREEZING ocean for some fun in the surf.  My other brother, Eric, soon joined him and it took the two of them hours to recover from their frozen extremities after returning to the house.  Serves them right!

 

 

The girls smothering Ron--a typical sight at family functions.

 

The two little boys after their naps!  So cute!

IT'S A......

 

GIRL!!!

Once again, Lia is absolutely thrilled and Logan is completely clueless!

Here's to one more little girl in the house.

We're so happy.

:-)

 

Our baby girl's profile from today's ultrasound.

What a cutie.

A Mini Miracle

 

It's no secret that Lia has had a love/hate relationship with her brother since the day he was brought home from the hospital.  She absolutely loves him to death, but makes him cry an unbelievable amount of times each day.  She smothers him, tortures him, teases him, mothers him...the list could go on and on.  However, every once an awhile, I witness a little miracle and tonight was one of those times.  Since Ron had to work late, I was in charge of putting both children to bed.  After bathing them, I quickly slipped into my room for a second and then I heard Lia reading to Logan.  Since this is what we always do after baths, Lia must have decided to get the ball rolling on her own.  She and Logan had climbed into his chair and began reading one of his books.  I quickly grabbed my camera before the magical moment disappeared and captured the shot above.  It just warmed my heart to see my kiddos sitting side-by-side happily enjoying one another's company.  Hopefully I will see more of this in the future as Logan gets older and Lia gets more mature. 

Mashed Potatoes Mess

I asked Ron last night if Logan needed a spoon when I served him a bowl of mashed potatoes.  Ron's response was of course, "No, he's a boy," and this is what we got by the end of dinner time.  Our bearded, smiling boy...

Disney on Ice

The day finally arrived yesterday after MONTHS of waiting!  Lia has been waiting forever to go back to Disney on Ice.  When the tickets finally went on sale, we were absolutely tickled to discover that her two favorite princesses were included in the small line-up!  What luck.  We quickly bought our tickets along with her best friend, Kaylee, and her sister and mom.  We had such a fun time enjoying every moment of our two hours together.  I loved watching Lia's reaction as much as I loved watching the show.  She was so excited by everything that she saw that she kept on bringing her hands up to her face and shaking them (which is what she does when she is super excited) and clapping and screaming with absolute glee!  I am so grateful that I have a daughter to share these kind of experiences with.  Here's to hoping that we have a few more years ahead of this kind of fun before my baby girl outgrows it all! 

Lia and I before entering the arena.

 



 

Lia with Kaylee and Emma before the show started.

 

Best buddies since birth.

 

The show started with Lia's all-time favorite princess:  Ariel.  It was a great way to start the show!

 

 

Ariel and Eric.

 

Rapunzel did not disappoint with her frying pan!

 



 

Flynn and Rapunzel.

 

 

Maximus even made a cameo!

 

The flying lantern scene was beautiful.

 

 

The triplet princes stayed in barrels during their entire number, but were just as a funny as the movie.

 

Merida and her mom.

 

Such a talented girl--skating and shooting arrows at the same time!  :-)

Belle and Gaston.

 



The "Be Our Guest" number was very impressive. I loved all of the costumes.

 



 

 Belle being carried by the "utensils."

21 Months Update

 

Our little Logie Cruz turned 21 months old yesterday.  I just can't believe how fast time is flying as we approach his second birthday.  I just think this kid is the cutest thing alive.  He is so busy, but so adorable and really happy most of the time (except for when his sister is torturing him).  Logan continues to be a fussy eater with the dinner meal, but luckily he has eaten a few more meats and vegetables than the previous month.  He still loves anything cuddly like his special blanket and all of his stuffed animals and he still LOVES being read to and would spend hours doing this activity each day if we had the time.  He loves playing at parks, barking at dogs, getting into everything, and playing with his grandpa's tools whenever he is down at our house working on projects.  Logan also picked up a few more words this past month.  He now says eat, book, shoe, bubble, star, shell, balloon, down, Lia (pronounced eee-yah), and please.  He also taught himself to say "cheese" whenever we take a picture of him which is just the funniest thing since we had nothing to do with this in the first place!  Logan also started climbing up onto our big bed alone and dragging the kitchen chair over to the kitchen island all on his own so that he can go through my giant drawer of cooking utensils (see the picture above).  It's keeps him happy for many minutes at a time and I'm happy as long as he doesn't find the knives tucked away in the back! :-)  That's really all I've got for updates this past month!  We love you, Logan!

Mrs. Ray

 

Last fall, we enrolled Lia at the YMCA and she began swim lessons once a week.  She blew through the beginner level, Pikes, in one session and only took two sessions to pass the next level of Super Pikes.  However, she then hit a plateau and took four sessions (plus a summer break in the middle) to pass the Eel class.  It seemed like she was stuck at this level forever.  However,  the Fall I session wrapped up yesterday and we found out that Lia finally passed and gets to move onto the Ray class next week.  Hooray!  We are so proud of her.  Good job, Lia!

Halloween Happenings

It's been a whirlwind week of various Halloween parties, get-togethers, and activities.  I was actually a bit relieved to see it all come to a close last night as the entire thing has me exhausted.  Although I didn't take pictures from Lia's Halloween Girl Scout party or the neighbor's Harvest Party, here are some photos from three other events:  our ward's Halloween party, the trunk-or-treat in our church parking lot, and our actual trick-or-treating on Halloween night.

 

Although Lia's #1 princess is still Ariel, she opted to dress up as her second favorite princess, Merida, this year.  Besides getting the dress and some jewelry, we decided to go all out and buy the CRAZY wig that earned her many a compliments.  I just can't get over how different she looks with it on.  Here Lia is coloring on the floor of our church's gymnasium at the ward party on October 25th.

 

Ron was too tired to go the party, so he happily agreed to stay home with Logan which allowed Lia and me to just relax and have a great time.  I threw on some pajamas that I bought years ago in Thailand and an old black wig and told people that I was dressed as Mulan on my way to bed.  Hah!  Here is the mother-daughter team in all of our wigged glory!

 

Since the Halloween party was super hero themed, there were all sorts of activities and games that related to the theme.  Lia eagerly jumped at the opportunity to have me take a picture of her "flying" over the skyscrapers below. :-)

 

Lia making a funny face before bursting out of the telephone booth like Superman.

 

After getting over her initial shyness, Lia joined some of the group games.  Here she is helping a bunch of kids stuff a girl with balloons to make her a "muscle man."

 

 

On October 30th, Ron and Logan joined us for our church's trunk-or-treat in the parking lot.  This was Logan's first time donning his Batman costume and he was soooo cute!  He really got a kick out of wearing it and really got into filling up his bucket with candy.  He is at such a fun age--I just love it!

 

Recently Logan has figured out that he is supposed to say "cheese" and actually smile for pictures.  It is the cutest thing!  Here he is flashing his pearly whites next to his big, sister, Merida.

 

Papa walking Batman down a row of open trunks!

 

Lia posing next to a nicely decorated trunk.

 

Logan fascinated with the lit pumpkins and candles inside this car's trunk. 

 

The children actually agreed to sit happily by each other and smile for a picture (notice Logan saying "cheese" again) before heading out into the neighborhood on Halloween night.

 



 

Batman exploring the pumpkins on our front porch.

 

Siblings posing for another picture amongst our pumpkins.

The kids heading out of our driveway and up the street for some trick-or-treating.

 



 

Mama with Batman and Merida.

 

 The group working hard  while walking up the hill to get some candy.  Logan had so much fun getting out of his stroller at every house and walking up to each of the front doors.  He enjoyed ringing the doorbell many times, barking at peoples' dogs, and even walking into a few of their homes.  It was just the funniest thing!