Little Indian

We will continue with more of our Maui memories later, but first here are a couple of cute pictures from Aubrey Rose at her preschool's Thanksgiving fun.   

 We had some sweet visitors to come pick up Aubrey Rose that day.  These are my cousins, Jeremy and Chelsey.  Thanks for being so sweet to her and us!!

Gobble, gobble!

Thanksgiving Day we weren't wearing our pants and long sleeves...

We were in our swimsuits and...

Hawaiian attire with Blake's family!

This was Austin's first trip to Maui.  Although we found out he had double ear infections while we were there, he was quite the little trooper.

 After a week in Maui, we returned at midnight on Saturday night.  On Sunday, we got together for lunch with my side of the family for our Penner Thanksgiving.

 The little cousins LOVED playing in the leaves...

 Aubrey Rose is absolutely crazy about her cousin Jedidiah.  She is so cute and tender with him.  It melts my heart.

 And there was plenty of sweet family time back at the house.  This is my brother taking Austin around for a spin.

I can't believe we are almost in December!!!

9 months

This boy sure makes us smile.  He is 9 months old today!

They are changing...

The leaves are changing colors.  The yellow leaves that fall from our peach trees make our early morning walks to school that much more enjoyable.  We are loving the change of seasons, along with the change of crisp, cool weather.  

Thankful

This was a cute ad for Wawona which was in a magazine for Children's Hospital Central California.  Love these kiddos!  And we love that we have such an amazing children's hospital just down the road. We are so thankful.

Surprise weekend

This past weekend we got to surprise a really wonderful, extremely deserving guy.  Blake's mom surprised Big Papa with a birthday trip to Las Vegas.  He knew he was going out of town.  He knew he was going with his bride.  He didn't know he was going to be with the rest of his family and he surely didn't know he was going to Vegas.  :)  Linda sure is good isn't she??!!

We surprised Bill at the airport.  It was pretty fun to help him put pieces together of our plans for the weekend.  So fun!

 It started with a glass of champagne....

 Arrived at the hotel, checked into our rooms,

changed into our Western chic clothes, then

 back down stairs to watch the amazing concert of Garth Brooks.  Phenomenal show!

 Next day, shopping, shopping...

 and more shopping.

 Then, we got all fancied up and went out for a night on the town

 We had a delicious meal...

 at the Mix restaurant.

 What a wonderful weekend with some of my favorite people.  Happy Birthday Big Papa!

Dress up

First, she saw the pink hat.

She asked to wear it.

Then, she saw the sparkly heels.

She then chose the dress and the jewelry.  

There is something precious about seeing your little girl 

wearing her mommy's dress up clothes.

Finally, some love on here...

They don't get enough love on our blog, but we do have two puppies.  Well, I call them puppies.  They are definitely getting older, no longer the tiny little things they once were.  Whether they get enough love on here or not, we are big fans of them at our home.  Austin giggles and wiggles every time he sees them and Aubrey Rose loves to do anything with them.  It sure is fun seeing them all together.

Pumpkins on their...

When we got the cousins together on Halloween, we decided to do one more thing with the little cousins.  You know, because they aren't quite old enough to say their opinion.  HA!

  Here are Austin and Jed...

And now with the girls...

We will not confirm nor deny if there were smiles on their faces as we did this.  And by the way, we realize our kids are probably never going to forgive us for this, but we think this was just too cute not to share.  :)

We are multiplying!

Between weddings and babies, our families are multiplying like crazy.  So fun!!  Ever since Aubrey Rose was born in 2008, my cousin and I have gotten our little ones together to take pictures of them on Halloween.  Here are Aubrey Rose and Christopher in...

2008 

 2009

 2010

For our 2011 Halloween picture, a lot changed.

Our cousins have multiplied...VERY quickly!

My sweet nephew Jed was added last year...  (+1)

My cousin, David and his wonderful family moved back to Fresno....  (+2)

Of course, you know, God blessed us with Austin... (+1)

 

Then, little Symphony was added to this fun family... (+1)

Which brings us to our 2011 Halloween picture...

Yep, in one year, we went from two cousins to SEVEN!!  LOVE it!

Halloween 2011

What a sweet tradition this has become!  I think this is our 5th Halloween going over to the Patricio's for trick or treating.  Garrett and Ashley were so sweet to host again.  Thank you G&A!!!

Here are our S'mores costumes we made...

(Thanks to my sister Christy for finding our inspiration for our costume!!)

 Blake and I love doing the family costume theme, but I am pretty sure this is our final year of choosing what we want.  Our little Ariel, was quite opinionated about not wanting to be chocolate.  She told us she "liked to EAT chocolate, NOT wear it!"  HA!

Our fun group shot...

 Our favorite Super Heroes!

 Lightning McQueen and his Pit Crew...they won for the best costumes!  Go Donnelly's!  If you look close, one of Lightning's sponsors is Wawona.  HA!!  Love it!!

 We love Mustard and Ketchup, but oh, that hot dog...I could just eat him up.  So cute!

 After a delicious dinner, we were all off for some trick or treating.

We thought our little wagon was a good idea, however our little marshmallow sat good like this for maybe one house.  HA!  The rest of the time he was happy in our arms.  Oh well, we got a cute family picture, so it is all worth it.  :)

Another successful, fun Halloween night!!  But, don't think I am done quite yet with Halloween 2011, I still have some more fun pictures coming soon...

Pumpkin Patch

We got to go with my family to the cutest pumpkin patch in Reedley called Hillcrest.  Oh my goodness...ADORABLE!!!  

We went with my whole family which made it even more special.  It was such a fun family outing.

One of my favorite things about this pumpkin patch is you have to walk thru corn fields to get from your car to the pumpkin patch.  It was so cute!

They had regular orange pumpkins of all sizes, as well as really fun, random kinds too.

This little one was Aubrey Rose's choice.

They had the cutest things to take pictures on of Aubrey Rose

and the boys...Austin and my nephew, Jed

They also have hay rides and train rides too.  This place was soooooo cute!

My dad and Aubrey Rose

My mom and Austin

We had such a wonderful time.

Then, it was time to go back through the corn fields one more time.

Can't wait to go again next year!!