Karate Kid

Matt's been doing karate classes for about a month now. He is doing really well for his age they say....I guess rolling around on the floor and running circles around the class with all four instructors chasing you is doing well?! I guess I don't want to know what not doing well is. For the most part he will listen and do what he is told but he has his days where he just does what he wants and they have to pull him aside and talk to him and he will end up getting held after class and then he has days where he will stand patently in line and wait his turn. He is the youngest in his class I think most of the other kids are about 5 and he is also the shortest. But he is doing well and Likes going to "karate kid class", so he can "be like Jackie Chan"

My little karate boy.


Learning his stance



Practicing his axe kick.



Ok, so this is of Matt practicing his axe kick, he is in the center row.

New Orders to Our Next Duty Station

Well Wayne finally got the news on his orders. We are heading off to......HAWAII!!!! We were supposed to be here in VA for 3 years. We guessed we would be here for four because why would the Marine Corps move us for just one year? Anyway we have been a military family for 6 years. We are fortunate enough to have never had to do a deployment but unfortunately we know that won't last forever. Well in September Wayne finally got promoted to Sgt...well being a career Marine and no deployments they said were sending you to a new station so you can be deployed. It will look better for his career. Lucky me 3 kids on an island with no family to help out while he is deployed!! Oh well I can handle it...I hope.
So we were hoping to move a few months before the baby gets here....well that's not going to happen either! Baby is due around the end of May 1st of June, yeah we have to be in Hawaii no earlier than June 1st and no Later than July 1st. So we will be having this baby and a week or two later head to UT, bless the baby, have a B-day party for the kids/ goodbye party and then head off to Hawaii! It's going to be a crazy 1st month for this next baby!
We are excited to be going someplace new again, although I think we were a little sad we didn't get Cali. Now I have NEVER like the idea of living in Cali but we could have come home for Holidays and birthday and family events. Oh well...I have a feeling we will have more visitors while we are in Hawaii than we ever got in NC or VA combined!!

Making the Switch

So we decided to switch Peyton to cloth diapers. We are trying them out on here before the new baby comes. That and Matt wears pull ups at night and Peyton will go into pull ups not long before or after the new baby get's here....that's a LOT of pull up and diapers to be buying. This will save us a ton of money!
After looking at ALL the different brands out there and reading review after review we decided to go with GDiapers.
They have three pieces to them but are really easy to use. There not as bad as people make them out to be and are really easy to clean....before you go to bed you just through them in the wash and then the dryer and your done.
There arent bulky as some that i've seen, and they velcro in the back which is good for when you hit that stage that they learn how to take there diaper off! Peyton isn't like the velcro in the back...she can't get her diaper off now!



The diaper cover doesn't get wet or dirty unless you don't have the diaper on right so the cover can get used the whole day you just change out the liner and insert.


So you have the cloth insert the snap in liner and the diaper.


Take the cloth insert and put it in the plastic liner

snap the plastic liner in the diaper and diaper your babe...it's easy as that.

I was telling Wayne look at that buddha belly....
So Matt said look at my buddha belly mom!

See can't even tell she has a cloth diaper on.

Halloween

So this year I decide to make both the kids costumes.....ya I think this will be the last time I do that. They werent hard...i was just lazy about getting them done and then trying to rush all
Friday night and Saturday afternoon trying to get them done in time. But there were so many Buzz and Jessie's out there that if Matt hadn't had a homemade one he would have gotten lost in
all those little Buzz lightyear's!
The kids had fun trick or treating this year. We went out with our neighbor and his two kids. Matt was very goo to say "trick or treat please" and "thank you, have a happy halloween!"
Peyton stayed in the stroller most of the time but we finally let her out to walk with the big kids. She LOVED going up to the houses and grabing handfulls of candy...she didn't like it
when mom would make her put all of it back but one piece. We started at 5:30 and were pretty much done at 7 but walked around until 8 just to tire out the kids.
Matt was so tired when we got home he fell asleep eating his spaghetti O's and was asking to go to bed. So they had fun and we had fun taking them around.
Wayne's camera has better pics on it of Matt going around to the houses so once he gets those onto the computer I will post those.



I had a sister in my ward help me sew these costumes together. I didn't like the way she cut out the first chest piece.



I didn't have room for all the buttons and patches that go on it. So I cut out a new pice.





We decided that we had enough material left over from Matt's costume to go ahead and make Peyton's shirt instead of buying one.


Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger and Vampire?!

Jessie the Yodeling Cowgirl



This was the best I could do to get them both in the same picture.
Trick or Treating with there friends Landin and Gigi


Most people ran out of candy at about 6...trick or treating started at 5:30. One sign at about 6 said they were all out of there 4lbs of candy!

New Haircut & The Pumpkin Patch

Matt hasn't had a haircut since I took him home to UT back July. I told him he they wouldn't let him on the plane unless he got his haircut so he sat still and didn't kick, scream or cry for the first time.
We decided today would be a good day to take the kids up to the pumpkin patch. So I told Matt they wouldn't let him into the patch unless he got a hair cut...he fell for it and sat very still and let the lady shave all his hair off! Yes we gave him his first high and tight. We did it a bit shorter than normal instead of a 2 on the sides and 3 on top we did a 1 and a 2! This way we shouldn't have to get it cut again until about February.
ANYWAY....we took the kids up to Alexandria to a place called Nalls. They have an area set up of pumpkins just for the kids to climb on and then a little maze of tunnels underneath. The kids had a blast running around in the maze and climbing on all those pumpkins! We lost our little camera so Wayne stopped at his work and got his good camera, so we have some really good pics!
We came home with two very large pumpkins! One was 20 lbs and the other was 17! Then we got a blue pumpkin and Matt picked out a little one for himself. To be honest I had never seen a blue pumpkin before so I had to get one, Peyton helped me pick it out. I let her touch them all and then she tried to pick one up...so that is the one we bought.



Peyton and her blue pumpkin.



I love this picture...even if it is blurry.



My favorite pic of Matt







Matt and his pumpkin he picked out.



Not sure but I'm guessing this is his "cheese" face.


Matt trying to pull the wagon.



playing in the tunnels.



awww such a cutie, love my baby girl.


Trying to push someone else's wagon!


She finally decided it was to heavy and headed back to the tunnels.


She decided this one was a good one to rest one.







Trying to steal another wagon!


Matt's new friend, they played tag for awhile.


Taking a break.






trying to pull the wagon...she didn't get very far.



She picked out her big pumpkin she wanted!


I think she was checking out that corn.


She tried to walk off with that pumpkin!



He was so proud of himself when he reached the top of the pumpkin mountain.