"So Grateful"

I am so grateful for my wonderful family! We were able to spend all last week up in Utah for Thanksgiving with them, and it made me realize how lucky I am to have such a great family. Because we don't live by family, and haven't for quite a few years, I cherish every moment we get to spend with them.
My Mom planned every little detail out and made the week perfect for all us. She is wonderful! We ate, played games, laughed, saw Twilight (with my Mom and sister-in-laws), found out my brother and his wife Ashley are having another boy ! (Yey!) , some played in a Turkey bowl, shopped, etc. It was a crazy, but perfect week.

My Mom, Haley, and I preparing the food

The Fam enjoying all of the food. It was so good and we all ate way too much!

Then it was on to the Thanksgiving story and sharing what we are all grateful for. I just love these moments!

This year my parents are only going to have 2 kids home for Christmas. The 3 married kids are with in-laws and Chris is on a mission. So, my Mom wanted to end of the week celebrating Christmas together. We exchanged gifts, had a gingerbread house contest, and even had a surprise visit from Santa!

All of the houses, but the winner was...
Rich and Kristen! They definitely took the most time! Love these 2!

Haley with Santa. She was a little scared at first, but warmed up to him in the end!

Finally, my sweet Sister-in-Law Ashley helped me take some 6 month pictures of little Kate. Kate is so sweet and adorable. I absolutely LOVE the stage she is at right now. She sits up, loves to cluck her tongue, is so happy and smiley, and really, just makes us so happy. I just want her to freeze right now and not get any older.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

A Little Late...

But Haley turned "3" on Saturday, October 11th. Instead of having a party, we took her to Disneyland for her to meet the princesses. She had lunch with Cinderella, Snow White, etc. and LOVED it! Our camera is still broken, so I don't have pictures to post of Disneyland, but I have pictures of Haley in her cute Birthday outfit from Grandma! We just love Haley and her fun personality. Our family wouldn't be the same without her.

Scott turned 30 !!

SURPIRSE!! While we were up in Utah this past weekend, I threw a surprise 30th birthday party for Scott. We had both families up there, and our good friends the Vincents, Zollingers, and Warrens all in town to celebrate and make it fun. Scott golfed morning and afternoon that day so I could get the house prepared with the food and decorations. This picture was taken right when he walked in from golfing. The kids were so excited!!

It wouldn't be a real birthday party without a few sporting events for the guys to compete in. I rented some awesome games at the party store for all of us to play. The guys had a blast! We started out with the football throw...

Then moved on to Basketball... and ended with the Baseball throw. (I didn't take any pictures of that one.) I had medals and gumballs for each event winner! You gotta love it!

Since the kids weren't involved in any of the events, I had a football pinata for them to go crazy with. There were so many kids between all of us! Here is my little nephew Gavin taking a few whacks at it! The kids had so much fun with it!

Here's a bunch of the guys all posing for a fun "party" picture! And for all you BYU fans, yes, that is Harvey Unga there to celebrate Scott's birthday with us! It was fun having him there.

In fact, it was Havey's fiance Kalani's birthday as well. We had her and Scott blow out the candles together.

Scott's favorite gift from Tobi! A real football helmet. He couldn't have picked a better gift!

Especially with the weekend football game. It was a blowout! Here is Steph, Maressa and me at the game (with no kids! YEY!) I did have to meet my family at half time to feed Kate in the car. They were all laughing saying it was Drive-thru nursing! Perfect!!
Joey, Tobi, Scott and Jeff at the game. They were all smiles that day! It was a great weekend with everything. It was so nice to be back together with all of our good friends! Happy Birthday Scott!

Blessing Day

Here is sweet Kate on her blessing day. The day turned out great, with both families able to attend. And, for those of you who remember Haley's 15 second blessing!!:), Kate didn't cry at all!! I have never blessed any of my children at home, but I loved it. There was such a great feeling and so much love!! She is a doll to have!

Smiley Kate!

Tyler, Haley and Kate

Kate with Dad and Mom

We did it!

We have been gone most of the summer to either Utah or California. This past weekend we were up in Utah for a couple of events. The first, was.... the Hobble Creek Half Marathon. My friend Maressa and I had been planning to run this after both of us had our babies. A week before we were supposed to run, she got injured and couldn't run anymore. I was so sad! Lucky for me, I have the most awesome brother ever!! 13 miles, NO TRAINING, NO PROBLEM! Yes, he ran the whole thing with me with no training at all. And we crossed the finish line in great time too! We had such a fun time running the race. Hopefully we will find another one to run soon!!

The second, was my brother Chris's farewell. He is leaving in one week to Chile. He is such a great guy and will be an awesome missionary. We will all miss him a ton, but are so proud of his decision to go and serve. The kids will really miss him too!~
This weekend we are heading back up to Utah again! I know we are crazy. We just had a few things planned, that had to be rescheduled. Like.... this sweet girls' baby blessing!!

She is an absolute doll! I am loving having her in our family. She is such a smiley, happy little girl. In the bottom picture she looks a little scared. She was smiling, and then every time I snapped the picture, she stopped. One day soon I need to get a really nice camera so this won't happen!
We planned to do her blessing in Utah the last weekend in August, since both families will be up there. It's pretty good timing, since the first BYU game falls on the same weekend. You know Scott is so excited and can't wait!

He already has the kids trained too!

And while I have a picture of Tyler, I want to post a few of my NEW LITTLE KINDERGARTNER. He started yesterday, which was really difficult for me. I was in tears, even though he is only gone for 2 1/2 hours a day. I was having such a hard time with this change. I like my kids home with me, and am just not ready for them to get old so fast. But, today was the second day and it was much easier. I am assuming it will just get easier and easier! Yesterday he wasn't quite sure of the change, but today he was happy when he came home. He is such a good kid, that as long as he is happy and loving it, I am happy!
I will post a few pictures of the blessing and game when we get back. I just really wanted to update our blog. It has been forever, but we have also been gone a lot! Now that school has started, our travel plans will have to change!!

Summer Trips

We have had such a great time traveling this summer. We spent a couple weeks in Utah, and were able to go to my brother's wedding, celebrate my Mom's 50th birthday, and just play and relax. The kids had such a great time. Then, we came home for a couple of days and left for Southern California where we celebrated the 4th of July and Tyler's birthday. We loved it! We are back home in the heat now, trying to find things to keep the days fun. But, I wanted to post a few pictures from each of the events. Sorry if it is a little long!

Rich and Kristen on their wedding day. They are darling!!

Although we aren't looking at my camera, you can see how happy Haley was during the whole reception! We had a great time though.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM! We were able to throw her a surprise party for her 50th! (Even though she doesn't look it!) She is beautiful and wonderful and we love her dearly!

Here is my family at my Mom's party! It was so fun being all together!

I don't think Tyler and Haley ever came inside while we were in Utah. Between swimming, jumping, swinging, and riding bikes they were in heaven.

Then for the 4th we headed to the beach. The kids had such a fun time!
We also got to celebrate ......

Tyler's birthday!!! Yes, he turned 5 on the 4th of July. He only wanted an army party, and so Scott and I decked him out in this awesome outfit! All he wanted for his party, was for a real "ARMY MAN" to come and visit. We were lucky enough to call the army right after dinner and they told us to be expecting someone soon. Guess who showed up...


That's right! Officer Johnson showed up for Ty! He loved it, but was a little confused. We dressed Scott's brother Peter up, which Tyler was catching onto. But, in the end we talked him into believing it was really Officer Johnson!


I tried my best to turn his favorite cake (The German Chocolate Cake) into an army tank. Tyler loved it!

My two darling girls on the 4th of July! Haley loves holding Kate!

We went to watch fireworks that night at Brandon and Brittany's home in Ladera. They put on such a great firework show!

Here is Scott's whole family watching the fireworks. Jake was so cute, because he just loved Kate, as you can see in the picture. He always wanted to be right next to her!

Kate's 4 Weeks Old

Since Kate is already 4 weeks old, I decided it was time to post some new pictures. We had a friend take some newborn pictures of Kate and the kids. She did such a great job! . Kate has really been such a sweet baby to have. Tyler and Haley just adore her, and always want her to be awake so they can talk to her. We are getting excited to leave next week to Utah, for my little brother's wedding. It will be fun to be around a lot of family and let them all finally meet sweet Kate! We hope Kate likes her carseat! My other two kids haven't!!

She's Here!

My Three Sweet Kids! LOVE THEM!!

Me with my girls! ( I'm a little tired, as you can tell!)

Baby Kate was born Friday May 9th, 2008 at 2:34 p.m. She weighed 7 lbs 3 oz. and was 18 3/4 inches long. She is such a good, healthy baby, and we love having her in the family. A lot of the pictures were taken on my Mom's camera, which won't download onto our computer. I was so sad. And, since she is still here helping out (thank goodness!), we will have to post the rest of them later when she goes home and can download them.

Tyler and Haley Love their new baby sister! They are so helpful with her.

Dad must be exhausted!!!!

Kate Coming Home!