Happy Holidays!

We have been so busy the past several months, with moving and Jon's new job. There just hasn't been time to blog. So, here are some of the highlights from the past few months.

Halloween

We went to a great big pumpkin patch on a very windy night. They had tons of stuff for the kids.

It was our kids first time going trick-or-treating. We went with our good friends, the Francis'. Emma had no problem walking into stranger's homes as we went door to door. They were all exhausted before we got all the way around the neighborhood.

Thanksgiving

We had lots of family at our new house for Thanksgiving.

Fortunately, about 2 weeks after we moved in, Michael figured out how to safely get down those nice wood stairs.

Christmas

We went out on one of the coldest nights to find our Christmas tree. We bundled up at had hot chocolate before we left. Mathew was really looking forward to getting a tree. The smell of the fresh new tree filled our whole house for days.


Santa Claus visited the kids at our ward Christmas party. Mathew & Emma didn't mind, but Mikey did not want anything to do with him.

We hope you all are enjoying the holidays too!

Birthdays, Birthdays, Birthdays

We celebrated little Mikey's birthday...








He loves to have his picture taken. I don't know if it's the sound effects or what, but it makes him smile.



...then Jon's birthday...


Reason #4 (yep, it's pretty high on the list) of "why I love this guy:" He thinks he can do anything (and I think he can too). He recently built a computer (an HTPC). It was a first for him, but it's up and running.







...then my birthday.








My Dad was in town for my birthday--yay!

Beach Fun

Another favorite thing of ours to do is take day trips--sometimes long trips.

Last month we went to Lake Tahoe. It was so pretty, and the weather was great.

Look, I caught a smile on camera!

The kids couldn't wait to play in the sand when we went to Santa Cruz.

Some Watsons Visit

We had so much fun when Gary & Lindsey came for a visit. It was crazy/hectic with 6 little kids, but we're so glad they came.

The girlies--Emma & Raegan

Aiden, Derick & Mathew, obviously enjoying their treats.

Root Beer Tasting

One of our favorite cheap thrills this summer is root beer.


On Fourth of July, when we went to the grocery store we picked up 4 new kinds of root beer to try. Here they are from our favorite to the not-so-good (L-R).

We started the holiday with star shaped french toast, then later had aunt, uncle & cousins over for BBQ.

Jon's backpacking trip

Jon went backpacking in Yosemite with the Scouts. They wanted to hike Half Dome, so they made it a 4 day trip. This was his first actual backpacking trip, so I'm so glad he had a good time, (especially considering all the gear he got).

He didn't want to sleep in a bivi, so we made a tent. We invested so much time making it, I was sooo glad when we were finally finished. Even though I did all of the sewing, Jon helped me the whole time. He thinks this tent is great because it sleeps 2 and weighs just 2 lbs.

Our first trip to the ER

I knew this day would come, but I could have held out for it forever. Mathew has been pretty lucky so far--we've had a lot of near misses with him running around wildly. I had to call poison control, once, but fortunately everything he's ingested has been harmless.

Mathew and Emma were in the garage with Jon (over a week ago now) when Mat grabbed one of Jon's tools--a big framing level--and dropped it on his foot. He had his crocs on, but that tool is heavy enough that it smashed his little toe really bad. So, I took him to the ER. I love the way Mathew tells the story. He says "I dropped a yeyow yever on my foot so Mommy took me to a nicer hospital."

His toe was broken and needed one little stitch. He did well in the hospital though, he got to watch cartoons and play with stickers, he didn't even want to leave. We've since gotten the stitch removed and the doctor said he was very brave. Mathew didn't cry when they were taking it out, he just kept saying "thanks" to the doctor.

Emma wanted to match Mathew, or at least get the same attention.

June Gloom or Global Warming?

Last week I got to take the kids down to Southern California for my youngest sister's high school graduation. Twelve years ago, the first of 7 kids in our family graduated from GHS. It has never been anything but hot, hot, hot on graduation day. This year, for the first time it was actually cold enough that people were wearing jackets and coats at the ceremony. That does not seem like a "warming trend" to me. Not that we don't care about the planet, but we don't need to hear scary stories in order to realize that it makes sense to recycle.

We had a great time on our trip though, it's nice to have so many brothers and sisters to visit with, and to help with the kids. Lake Arrowhead definitely had June Gloom. It was foggy every day up there. I took the kids to a nice park at a little lake there. We had a fun. It's always good to visit family.

Thank you to my family for all your help with the kids.

Family Pictures

We were finally able to go get our pictures taken by our friend, Angie. I just love her photography, so we were thrilled to have her photograph us. She posted some pics for us at angielane.com

Birthday Girl!

Our little Emma had her second birthday today. She is such a doll--we adore her! She is starting to talk more, so we are glad to hear her little voice. Emma is a complete girly-girl: She loves wearing dresses, playing with babies and getting her toes painted. We love having her in our family!

We went to a very cute birthday party yesterday for my cousin's daughter, Lia. It was pretty much an all girls party, except for the 5 little boys that were there. But, everybody had a good time. They decorated cute little crowns that the kids loved. Mathew was really shy at first, but then he warmed up and had a blast. Happy birthday Lia, thanks for the fun party.

Now that they both got their gifts, I can show you the tutus I made for two special little girls.

P.S. I want to give credit to inspirationorganization.blogspot.com, but I don't think the instructions are on the link anymore. Thanks for the great ideas, Melissa--you do so many cute things!

The Fenn's

Since Lani and Ryan are obviously too busy, or too cool to post on their blog, I thought I would go ahead and do it for them, but I don't have their password. I know they’re doing stuff--Ryan took Mat & Emma out on the canoe last time we came down to visit. And they were supposed to move. They must be busy, because they never call anymore. Maybe they’re over us or at least Mathew’s whining.

Actually, I was just browsing through some older pictures on my computer when I came across photos from their wedding and Lani’s bridal shower. Good times! I had fun at their wedding & stuff, mostly thanks to Jon’s wonderful sisters for helping so much with our kids at that time. Wow, I can’t believe they’re coming up on their first anniversary in a couple months.

San Francisco

When my sister Jenny came up for her spring break we went to San Francisco for a day. We walked around Fisherman's Wharf and Ghirardelli Square. Golden Gate Park was beautiful. We were there at the perfect time, everything was green and all the flowers were in bloom. It was a fun trip. We're glad Jenny came to visit us.

Happy Easter

Charity Hero

Our ward youth made this music video for the stake "road show," all the wards did videos, rather than live shows. This video was awesome! It's a good thing we have Rob Kroff in our ward. If the rest of us had to do it alone, it would not have been this good.

Michael was cracking up for 5 minutes when we shot this video. It's so easy to make him laugh & smile.

Adventures with Mathew

Our big boy is 3 years old!

It's interesting to think how different our life has been for the last three years.

We love Mat and the funny things he says.

"So, how's your day?"

"Mommy, can you just deal with this?"

"It surrre is!"

"I don't want a birthday."

Happy Birthday anyway!

Valentine’s Day

This year for Valentine's Day we weren't even going to try to go out on a real "date." Who wants to deal with the crowds at every restaurant? We decided to take the kids on a nice scenic drive. We took the scenic route to San Francisco, over the Golden Gate Bridge, then down the coast a ways.

We kicked off the weekend with heart-shaped pizza, then heart-shaped French toast, which Mathew loved.

It was a long walk down to the beach, and it was really cold and windy.



The sand at this beach was really nice—those small, smooth pebbles.