Utah Trip and Collin's 4th Birthday

So, we went to Utah for the General Conference and see some family. We needed a vacation very much and we are so glad we went. We had wonderful time and the children did a lot better than we thought. We did not even have to bring out the portable DVD player the whole time going and only half way back to California. We packed up the car the night before we left and started for our trip bright and early. Put the kids in the car in their Jammie's and drove as much as we could. They slept for a while and then were busy singing songs, looking at books and playing with toys. We only stopped 3 times for gas, diaper change and rotate the kid's seats around. We were so proud that we did not eat junk food and took lots of food, snacks and drinks.


this is were Samantha chilled while we were taking care of the things at our pit stops.

We stayed at my sister Kimia's house for the time we were in Northern Utah. Thanks Kimia for letting us stay at your house.

We got to go to Josh's mission reunion and see president and sister Call from Quito Ecuador mission. They are the sweetest people.

Samantha looooooved grandma Laurelle. She hang out with her most of the time we were visiting her. Doesn't grandma look too young to be a great-grandmother?

Collin turned 4 while we were in Utah, and we went to a dinosaur museum at BYU. It was very neat and it was free. The kids enjoyed it very much.

But when we got home, we had a birthday party with grandparents for Collin. Josh made the turkey and this time he made it with pineapple, BBQ sauce and wrapped it in bacon. It was out of this world.

He had been wanting a Peter Pan birthday cake for months. For the life of me I could not find any Peter Pan stuff anywhere. I went to 6 different stores and all they had was Tinkerbell. But I saw cool Toy Story figurines at the Disney store and called Collin and asked if he would like a Toy Story cake and he immediately said, Yes. That was easy and he loved the cake and got to keep the toys.

I can't believe my boy is 4 already. He is a wonderful kid and we could not love him more.

my mom got Amanda some hair stuff and she Loooooved it. She got all dolled up and was so cute.

Here she is posing for the camera.

She has been so girly girly lately. On Sunday when I was putting ribbon in her hair, she wanted some on her wrists too.

Happy Spring Everyone

Yes, we are alive...

Well, it has been a while since I have posted anything. We are well and life goes on like crazy. Our three little monkeys keep us on our toes but what can we do but to love them. They are after all pretty cute monkeys.

Oh, sweet Samantha is sure a cutie. She is a very good baby and loves to sit around and watch the others run around. Here she found Amanda's shoe and fell sleep holding it. Poor baby, all that entertainment is exhausting.

Amanda loves books and if you put her on your lap and read to her, she is in heaven. Thanks Hayley. You are her new favorite person now.

Oh, Collin. He follows his dad like a shadow. Here he is cutting up all the roots of the tree that we cut down couple years ago. Josh works on the yard very hard. He rotter tilled all the front yard and killed all the weeds. Dug up all the old roots and now is working on fixing the sprinkle system. He is planing to have a front-yard vegetable garden. They are nice to look at and sure wonderful to eat...

...like this rainbow chard from our front yard. I cut them up and put it in a stir fry and it was to die for. He has a lot of other vegetables and flowers and trees going on in the front yard. you can check out his new blog. I am very proud of him.

My kids are so lucky

...to have friends like these.

The Kids on Christmas Eve

The kids got to open their Christmas pajamas on Christmas Eve and they loved them. I made Amanda's and it turned out HUGE but she likes it so it was worth it. Collin got a Lightning McQueen one and was in heaven and Samantha loved the wrapping paper. We as parents are having a great time playing Santa and hanging out with our children. We feel very blessed to have them in our lives. They are growing up too fast and we are trying to enjoy as much as we can.