Arizona Trip Jan 2010

We went to Arizona to visit Joel's best friend and his family. We had all had lots of fun. Joel and his friends went shooting and had a great time. We had a picnic in the park.

This is a picture of all of the kids at the picnic. We did our best to get them all looking but as you can tell we missed a few faces.

I was even able to meet up with my friend Vanessa. I hadn't seen her in over 10 years. It was so fun to catch up.

OK so 2 days before we were going to go to AZ the kids were running down the hall. JJ tripped and fell into Luke who was in front of him and Luke fell into the corner of the door frame. Well...long story short we watched him for about an hour and a half and there were no real signs indicating that we needed to rush to the hospital. So we put him to bed with a HUGE goose egg on his head. When he woke up the next morning it looked so much better, still gross... but better. Our camera battery charger was lost...again... so here is a picture take 4 days after.

Aliens!

Today we had an Alien Invasion. As I relaxed in bed I hear a funny voice coming up the stairs. "aliens... aliens... ehhhhh...." over and over is what I heard. Then this face pops up next to my bed. I just had to laugh and then run and grab the camera.

Christmas happenings...

Santa Visit Our effort at getting a good Christmas picture.

We spent a few days before Christmas in Visalia visiting family. While we were there Joel arranged a "friends" reunion. Here are a few of his pals from high school all grown up.

Celebrating Christmas at Joel's Mom's house.

Celebrating Christmas at Joel's Dad's house

Christmas Morning

We were lucky enough to have Daddy home for Christmas Morning. This is how Joel spent his morning before he had to go to work.

Luke with one of his favorite gifts.

J.J.'s 4th Birthday

For JJ's 4th birthday he wanted a "Halloween party". So we decided on a monster themed birthday. All the kids were able to dress up and use their Halloween costumes one more time. We decorated picture frames, Had a "trick-or-treating" scavenger hunt, hit a monster pinata, and ate monster food (mummy hot dogs, pumpkin sugar cookies, apples, monster sodas)and cake. We were very lucky his birthday fall just after Halloween.

This is perfect. JJ is always making funny faces. We love it.

Halloween 2009

At our church Halloween party Abby wanted to be this cool chicken that our friends let us use. She changed her mind when the kids laughed. We told her it was because it was a silly costume. it wasn't her. We let her change into her Princess Leah costume. Dad even had to go home and get it.

Here is Halloween night in all it's glory.

I have to say I am a little embarrassed at how much candy these kids got. We were not out long and we did not go that far. I guess when you multiply candy by 3.... We did however fill JJ's birthday pinata and had a good assortment for our gingerbread houses and we still have leftovers for bribes.

To get through the next few months....

Another trip to Utah

Is it so bad that I LOVE this picture? This boy knows how to cry and it was just because someone else wanted the phone.

Abby -- all dolled up.

At a birthday party there was a face painter. I think she went a little overboard. I guess that is what you get for living in Vegas.

We visited the Dinosaur exhibit on the strip.




Another trip to California.

I LOVE this picture too.

Once again... the seaweed.

On the train at Irvine park -- we met my friend Laurie and 2 of her kids and played at the pumpkin patch, rode the train and fed the ducks. So fun. Without realizing it we have kind of made this a yearly tradition.

My 3 little piggies.

We had Joel's mullet out for Halloween and put it on Luke. He did not take it off. It was so funny.

First day of school