Mother's Day 2013

Flowers, breakfast in bed, nap in the afternoon, cute cards and notes, dinner... man I am spoiled!!! Not to mention I have my own fabulous mother who I am so thankful for, as well as a great mother-in-law, grandmothers and so many other wonderful women who are such examples of the nurturing power of women. May we alway recognize our divine worth and be a force for good in this world! Happy Mother's Day!!!

Easter morning

The kids found easter buckets with movie classics (Pete's Dragon, Annie, and My little Pony), a new spring outfit, and fun books (Josh got a strange facts book and Dekker got Where's Waldo) as well as sunglasses and other fun things. They were great egg finders and had fun finding not only eggs that they'd colored, but plastic eggs filled with treats. It was a fun morning!

Pinewood Derby Race

Josh, Jake and Dekker had a fun time building cars for the pinewood derby race. Josh's car took FIRST place in the first heats, and then somehow slipped to second in the finals by just 100ths of a second (Jake can tell you all about the wrongfulness of that)- but Josh was super excited anyway.

A couple of Birthdays

In February we celebrated a few birthdays! On the 12th I gave Titus his first ice cream cone. On Jake's birthday I made him one of his favorite meals (lamb chops in a balsamic reduction). Then went to Young Women's and sprained my ankle! Yeah, I'm just barely feeling like it's back to normal. Since Dot (who's Bday is the 19th) and Leah were in town for Brea's baby shower that weekend, we had the troops at our house Saturday night for cake and ice cream and presents. Leah brought her kids with her and the cousins had a blast playing together. Naomi and Chloe were two peas in a pod. Naomi adores Chloe and wanted to wear clothes and her hair to match Chloe as much as possible.

Sea World

Mid January is a great time to go to SeaWorld. It was not crowded and the weather was perfect!

Winter escape to SanDiego

We've learned that come January or February we need to escape the cold for a little while if possible. When I found a great deal on a resort in SanDiego the same weekend the kids had a Friday and Monday off- I knew I'd found out "winter escape" for this year. It was a quick and simple trip. We drove, stopping for a night in Vegas on the way there and back. Spent time on the beach, in the pool and at SeaWorld (we even got a 20% discount with our Southwest credit card!). Of course we were all wishing we'd planned to stay longer, but it was still a great trip!

Visit from Papa Ger

We were so happy that Papa Ger came out to spend a few days with us, he even got a little snowboarding in too! And having him around helped Mom get packed and ready for our SanDiego trip!

Dekker's Birthday

Dekker wanted a Pokemon party like Josh- so we went for round two of Pokemon cake and BINGO and favors. It was a little different though, and lots of fun. Dekker has lots of fun friends!

Josh's Baptism

Josh is loved and supported by so many people! His baptism day was really special and we are very proud of his choice.

Christmas Morning!

Last year was such a party- we weren't sure how this year would measure up. It turned out wonderful in a more traditional way. The kids were all very excited. Josh's faith in Santa was renewed when he brought a Nintendo 3DS even though we'd told him not to count on it. Dekker was thrilled with his new Cars2 racing game for the XBox, and as you can see from the pictures- there were plenty of other gifts to create quite a mess as well. We had chocolate croissants (a tradition, thanks to Papa Ger) for breakfast, stayed in our PJs all day and had Leg of Lamb for dinner. It was one of those cozy at home Christmases that memories are made of!

Other Christmas Events

We had a nice dinner the Sunday before Christmas with Brea and Tom, Elise and Mat, and our family.

And Josh was Santa in his 2nd grade program! We were a bit shocked to find out he'd have a solo with a mike and a bit of a jig- but he did such an awesome job!

Family Christmas Party

We had a nice Christmas party here at our home with My Aunt and Uncle, The Dixons, The Bush's, The Garcias, and Trish. We ate good food, watched the kids perform talents, did a kid's gift exchange and played a few minute to win it games. (I really need to do better at making sure we take more pictures to document these events.)

Josh's Pokemon party (8)

Josh wanted a Pokemon Party this year. We found a website that let's you upload a photo and make your own Pokemon card- so we used that to make his invitations. We played a balloon treasure hunt game (each balloon had different Pokemon character pictures inside), and Pokemon BINGO (which was a huge hit- so I'm glad I went through the trouble to laminate them so they can be used again). We had a Pokeball Cake and Pizza. For party favors and prizes we had a couple pokemon figures/balls, pokemon cards, and pokemon "badges" or pins. It was a huge success, and I think Dekker is planning to do a similar party - less work for me :) !

Another Minnie surprise, and Lucy

Naomi got a fun Birthday package in the mail from Nana. And one shot shows our sweet Lucy with her wrapped pins. Lucy had a broken growth plate in her front left leg, and so she went under surgery to fix it. She is such a sweet dog and member of our family that we really had no choice but to do it.