California 2011

We made our annual trek to Southern California the first week of May this year. We invited our friends, the Willie's, to go with us. As usual, it was loads of fun....we love the beach!


Lexi enjoying the drive...ok, not really. That long of a drive is never fun with little kids, to be honest tho, this was the best they have ever been on that drive.




We went to Legoland. We told the boys this was probably our last year going, we will start moving up to Disneyland and Universal Studios next time. They had mixed feelings about that:)





To celebrate the opening of the new Star Wars exhibit, they had sand sculpters make a cool Star Wars sculpture.

The kids had fun riding rides with their friends.

I had to put these next two pics in cuz Lexi is scared to death of pretty much anything and we forced(kinda) her to go down this slide. The top pic is devin looking bored to death on the slide and underneath is Lexi, who was absolutley terrified:)

But she loved the horse ride.

She wasn't sure about the helicopters.

But she liked driving cars with Amber(in the yellow car).

We ate fish n chips at the harbor...they were sooo yummy! They also had the best clam chowder ever!

Devin was pouting cuz Peter was giving him fish ears:)

The whole gang playing on the beach.

Peter and Craig working on their sand castle.

Lexi loves the beach! For being such a scaredy cat, she has taken to it much faster than the boys ever did.

Hadley, taking a break from the rough work of sand castles.

Hadley and Spencer getting ready to go hit the waves.

One of the people fishing on the pier let Hadley reel in their catch.

Lexi and Peter having a moment on the pier.

All the kids, plus Peter, on the pier.

Megan, Hadley, Spencer, Devin, Amber, Lexi and Peter.

We did lots of swimming at the resort pool.

And of course, we can't go to Southern Cali and not go to Sea World!:)

And we finally got Hadley to go on Journey to Atlantis with Peter.

We got to watch them move the Flamingo's.

Lexi was mesmerized by the sting rays. We were pretty bummed that Forbidden Reef was closed, but there will be a cool new sting ray exihibit next time we go.

We fed the Sea Lions.

We fed the dolphins.

And finally got to see the new dolphin show, we missed it by just a few weeks the last time we were there. I have to be honest and say I didn't love it. It was quite wierd and I had a hard time not laughing really hard.

I mean, come on, how are you supposed to keep a straight face when they have people in wierd spandex outfits, and a lady dressed like a parrot twirling above you the whole time...we were there to see dolphins not circ du soleil!:)

We played at the beach lots. Lexi just had to be buried after she saw another little girl doing it.

Devin had lots of fun finding crabs.

The boys waiting for their crab at Joe's.

I'm telling you...we were meant to live at the beach.....someday(probably not).

Lexi hitching a ride back to the resort one night on big brother's shoulders.

on our way home we stayed the night in St. George and the kids had a blast playing in our friend's pool.

As usual, it was a great trip. Thanks to the Willie's for joining us and making it even funner!

Easter

I feel like I should catch up on a few posts...yet I have no desire to do so, so I can't think of anything to write:)
sooo...here's the kids with their Easter goodies and coloring eggs. I am lame and didn't get a picture of them in their new church clothes.

This was Hadley bossing everyone around:)

Painting.

We have been in our house over a year now and I have only gotten the main floor and Hadley's room done...I know, I am a failure! Maybe I can do a floor each winter and it will only take 3 years:)
It's not that exciting but here are some pics of what we have done....I know, try to contain your excitement.

First, proof that Peter helped!:)

My kitchen, I am still totally in love with my cabinets. I am so glad we spent the money on the upgrade and got what I really wanted so that I can just be happy:)

Dining room

Family room. The blue looks alot brighter in the picture than it really is, it's a really muted beachy blue and I love it. I love that I am finally getting to do my beach themed color pallete with my decorating!

In an attempt to stop their fighting, and show Hadley that we realize that he is getting older and needs his own space, we did the basement bedroom for him. It took us a while cuz we had nothing for it, had to buy the bed, dressers...all the furniture. Luckily he was patient with us and he loves it.

And the masterpiece....his shark mural. If you don't know, Hadley is obsessed with marine life, but especially sharks. He LOVES them. When shark week comes on, we don't see him most of the week. He loves to watch it and insists that someday we will see him on it.

FINALLY got my front room turned into my office. So nice to finally have the boxes unpacked and not be embarassed when people come over!:)

These two pics are of the hallway on our main floor...please ignore the buckets of soccer uniforms:)

And, of course, the tour wouldn't be complete without the potty, right?:)

And there you have the main floor of our house. Hopefully it won't take clear until next winter to get the other two floors done! We have the opportunity to buy the lot behind our house which will more than double the size of our backyard so we are gonna be, not only really busy with the yard, but also pouring every extra penny into it, so paint may have to wait.

Caught Up!

Thanks to being stuck home handing out soccer uniforms all day again, I am finally caught up on blogging!!

something you have probably realized...you didn't miss much:) Something I realized...I really slacked off when it came to taking pictures after Christmas:(

We have done lot's of fun things since the year started and I dont have any pics, including an awesome spontaneous trip to Vegas when Tanya and I were SOOO sick of the cold. I have a few on my phone so maybe if I can figure out how to get those on here...but don't hold your breath!

Oh well, the memory card is empty so nothing to do but fill it up. Although, baseball and soccer started this week so my life is pretty much over for the next couple months. But, we are going on vacation the end of the month, and we will start putting in a backyard...ahh, see, theres at least 2 exciting posts to look forward to!:)

and, maybe once I go empty my memory card I can take a few pics of the projects around the house I have been working on and post them....I know, you can hardly contain your excitement!

I will try to hurry:)

In the meantime, here are a couple random pics that didn't really merit their own post.

The end of January I watched 3 of my friend's 4 kids for a week while her and her hubby went on a cruise. I was making dinner one night and they were laughing like crazy, I looked over and they had formed this line and were dancing up and down the hall.

Some friends and I started doing a Friday lunch group, we get together every Friday for lunch. We rotate houses or just go out. I hosted a couple weeks ago and we looked out and all the kids were doing this on the tramp. I believe I have a post from a few years ago of just my kids doing it...do other trampolines not have these holes?? Maybe it's because ours is an octogon, I have just never noticed kids doing this on other trampolines.

Birthday Boys

Hadley and Devin turned 10 and 7 in January (am I really old enuf to have a kid in the double digits?!?!) We didn't do much, they had big parties last year so this year was really low key. They each got to bring one friend and we went bowling.

Getting ready to open their gifts.

They both got new scooters and Hadley got the Nerf gun he has been asking for, Devin got the remote control gorrilla thing he has been begging for. I believe they were played with for a week and are now collecting dust on their shelves.(the toys, not the scooters...those get lots of use!)

Happy Birthday boys!

December

You can't have December/Christmas without a trip to Temple Square for the lights.

The kids by the model of the temple that they have in the visitors center. I believe Lexi is trying to shove Hadley out of her space.

Best seat in the house.

Look, I put this pic in just for you Stacy!! You always ask if I was there whenever you see pics from our activities cuz I am never in them....I'm in one!:)

The 4th grade Christmas program. Hadley is somewhere on the left:)

We started a new tradition this year. There is a hotel here in Utah that has a big pool and waterslide etc..., so we decided that every Christmas break we are going to go stay in the hotel and swim til late and just have fun. This is the kids ready to head to the pool.

Lexi testing out the water.

Christmas jammies. We handed out the gifts to open on Christmas Eve and Hadley said to everyone "don't get too excited, it's just pajamas!" :)

I guess I should probably address Lexi's smile. You may have noticed that she just doesnt' quite have the whole smiling thing down. My friend dubbed this her "smell the fart smile" every time you tell her to smile she does this wierd closing her eyes and scrunching up her nose thing. Devin did it too so I have high hopes that she will grow out of it:)

Another tradition. I let the kids make cookies for santa from start to finish, I don't help at all. (I'm not totally crazy, we use a mix)

Cookies for santa, oats for the reindeer.

Hadley with his new bike that he got for Christmas.

The boys with the Santa gifts. Santa doesn't bring individual gifts at our house, he brings family gifts for everyone to share. ie, wii games, movies etc...

Lexi with her new dollhouse....and sporting her smell the fart smile:)

(And please don't think Devin was neglected...everyone gets a 'big' gift and a few little one's for christmas, he got his (a NintendoDS) I just didn't get a picture of him with it.)

Totally Random.

So, you have probably heard me talk about the 'Vampire Academy' book series. (love it...better than Twilight!) Anyway, we got wind that that author was going to be at the Salt Lake City Library for a book signing in December the week after the final book came out. So, of course Tanya and I went! (Mandi took one for the team and stayed home and watched my kids!...don't feel too bad for her, I bought her a book and got it signed):) Richelle Mead. She came out and did a reading from the book and did a Q&A segment.

Getting my books signed. She would sign 3 books, one personalized and the other two just a signature. So I got the signature for me and my friend and used the personalized signing for my niece who I have gotten hooked on the series. Why would I do that you ask?? Cuz I am the most awesome aunt ever!!:)

She didn't have time to pose for pics so we had to just pose for pics and try to get her in the background.

On the drive home we looked at each other and said 'we do the most random things'. We do, and we have a lot of fun, so yay for random!

3!

November 19th my 'baby' turned 3 years old. I had a really hard time with it. She is just growing up way too fast!:( Her friend, Cooper, that lives a few houses down brought her this gift. Cutest tutu and bow!

Opening one of her gifts. She got totally spoiled with baby stuff. She got babies and cribs and highchairs etc...for her babies. she was in heaven!

She picked out a Tinkerbell cake

The boys singing to her.

Blowing out the candles. Happy Birthday Lexi Loo! We love you and are so happy you are part of our family!!