halloween

halloween is for sure one of my very favorite holidays. i love costume,s and dressing up, and candy! niya has adopted my love as well. she was sooooo into halloween. it was really fun to experience it through a kids eyes. she totally got it.

during the day i just wanted to dress her in a cute festive outfit. well, she thought she was a witch, and insisted on finding her witches hat. i didn't have one for her of course, so i had to improvise. i cut out a little hat shape out of felt, glued it onto a headband with some feathers, and voile! 

she was the cutest witch i've ever seen

for trick or treating she wore her "hoo hoo" costume. i worked really hard on this costume and when she threw a fit when i was taking off her "witch costume" i thought it was all going to be for waste. some how i managed to get her to change. candy works everytime

at first she didn't want to walk. drew kept on telling her that if she wasn't big enough to walk then she wasn't big enough to trick or treat! when she realized trick or treat meant put candy in your basket she stopped complaining

she looked so cute standing at the doors waiting for someone to open with a bucket full of candy. she said trick or treat everytime, and happy halloween!

we tried to do a family theme costume this year. Drew was harry potter, i'm hermione and niya was our little owl. drew kept telling me that hedwig was white and niya didn't look like him. i said i took some creative liscense. for our costumes i just got graduation gowns at DI and made a semi look alike gryffindor patch on my silhouette (amazing craft cutter)

after trick or treating in our neighborhood we went to drews parents. niya was so happy to see manda dressed as a panda

drew thought it was so hilarious to "cast spells" on me

yeah he's nerdy

grammy was a witch and she made super yummy chile and we ate doughnuts. it was a really fun halloween!

Barcelona

warning: picture overload

Im finally going to try and tackle blogging about our trip to europe. Pretty much i haven't blogged all summer so i guess i have to start somewhere. We were so lucky to go on a European cruise with Drews work. I invited my parents along. It was and amazing trip!

We sailed out of barcelona so we got to spend a few days exploring there. I have to say i was really surprised how much i LOVED barcelona. It was such a beautiful, modern, clean city but still had old charm. Drew loved it too. It was definitely on our top list of places we visited.

when we all arrived we decided to venture out even though i was feeling soooooo jet lagged. i really really really hate being jet lagged but i knew i couldn't go to sleep for the night at 2 in the afternoon
so....

we hopped in taxis

and headed to the market

drew was absolutely in heaven. there were just rows and rows of local food. He especially loved the cured ham. we bought some saffron too for a really good deal.

everyone found some delicious treats to enjoy

there were some not so delicious things as well

like skinned goat heads

our dads thought they were hilarious 

the next morning we went to see Sagrada Familia

its a catholic church designed by Gaudi. Its basically been under construction since 1843 so the scaffolding is kind of a permanent look. Its too bad because it really distracts from the whole presence of the church

the inside is really amazing. It was super modern

the stained glass was beautiful

and the design was so unique

it was was different from old gothic style churches you see across europe

my personal favorite was jesus floating away on a hot air baloon

the outside of the church is soooo intricate

there are these little biblical scenes all over the outside

we took the elevator up to the top of the bell tower. the view of the city was prety cool. You took the elevator up but the stairs down

these stairs were the craziest things i've ever been on. there was no rail in the middle to keep you from falling hundreds of feet to your death. im not kidding when i say my legs were shaking with fear.

on our way out we noticed that the doors to the church was carved out will all sorts of scriptures. Very cool, and very modern.

the rest of the day we spent just exploring barcelona including visiting all the Gaudi houses

all the detail is amazing

we stumbled across a political protest going on in catalunya square

and ate tapas, ofcourse. 

drew had to order the angulas (baby eel) they looked like little gray noodles and tasted super garlicy

we found some fantastic local art

and just enjoyed a fabulous day

our last day in barcelona was the day we got off the ship. we just wandered around. 

saw some churches

went inside more chrches

and just enjoyed the cute little streets of barcelona

the skinny streets are one of my very favorite parts of europe. i took millions of pictures of streets :)

niya was such a trooper. of course we had to bribe her at times with candy

we had such a fun group. it was crazy at times trying to all be going in the same direction at the same time. but it was worth it. I believe scott took this picture, and im pretty sure my dad was lost on some tour bus by himself at this point

the last thing we saw was the christopher columbus monument.

this was where columbus landed back in europe after he discovered america

kinda cool

that pretty much does it for our visit to barcelona!

 i do have to add one more thing that happened on that last day. When we got off the ship we went with my parents to their hotel. We were just going to leave our bags there, because we were heading out on a train that night for madrid. So we were all there waiting to meet up with the quists. Niya was ofcourse running crazy around the hotel lobby. All of a sudden i see her run toward the revolving door. Before i can get to her,  i see her fall down and her leg get sucked underneath the revolving door. I let out a blood curdling scream. I grab her leg and literally have to rip it out from under the door. As im doing this im thinking her leg is broken for sure. And if its not broken then im breaking it right now by tearing it out from under the door. She's screaming. The hotel people are around me. I get her loose and am just kind of in shock. She's just crying, and I'm trying to examine her leg. It looks totally fine! After a couple minutes she gets down from my arms and runs away. sheeeeesh!

Easter

Every year drews moms family spends easter weekend in st geroge. it was a tradition for drew growing, up and has become a tradition for our little family. this year was no different, and we had a great time.

of course there was an easter egg hunt

i wasn't sure niya would get it but she picked it up right away

it was so fun to see her get all excited as she spotted another egg to put in her basket

the egg hunt rapidly came to a halt when she figured out there was candy inside

she couldn't believe her luck

of course she turned into a candy mess.

she is SUCH a sugar monger 

niya also discovered how much she loves the pool

it was so fun, that she threw a fit when we took her out

it wouldn't be easter without decorating eggs. 

niya decorated her very first egg

she had to get a little help from drew though because she started to try to get wild with the dye

my mom sent an easter package for niya

she was so excited to open it

it was the cutest little owl and fluffy chick wearing high heels. niya kept saying "shoe, shoe, shoe"

this was the only "easter family pic" i got. drew and i had already changed out of our pretty easter dresses. i was a little bummed about that, but niya fell asleep on the way home from brunch and we didn't want to spend all day in our sunday best. 

so oh well

Happy Easter!