Santa Monica

We went to the Santa Monica pier our first day we were in California. The kids enjoyed looking down at the water, but they would have preferred to be in the water. It was a bit too chilly for that, but I think they had fun regardless. I would've loved to go in the water too. I love the beach! It's one of the things I miss the most about California.

DH and I went to this same spot for our first anniversary, so it was fun to go back 10 years and 4 kids later.

Of course we had to take tons of family pictures. Each family had their individual picture taken, we had big group shots, grandkids, girls, boys, you name it, we did it!! Isn't that what you're supposed to do when you get with family?!

Afterwards we went to the Bear Pit for lunch/dinner. It was yummy food. It's a family favorite and I've always heard a ton about it, so it was fun to actually get to go. Then, we got to hit the lovely L.A. traffic to head home in. It is crazy how much traffic there is there. I'm glad I don't have to drive in that mess every day.

It was a great day for all!

Quick Post

~I have a quick second to do a small post. We arrived in Cali. safely and made good time, only 8 1/2 hours!!

~We've had fun spending time with family.

~We went to Santa Monica pier and hung out there for a while. Then we went out to lunch at the Bear Pit.

~ Thanksgiving dinner was YUMMY!

~Today we've been hanging out around the house, riding the quads, eating, and are about to go play some basketball!

In all the craziness of trying to get packed I failed to mention my dads' birthday. Happy Birthday Dad! My sister wrote the perfect post, so go there because I share the EXACT same thoughts and feelings as her, except for the fact that I'm the favorite, not her!

All Our Bags Are Packed

So, we're headed for Cali. in about half an hour. We're all packed, the house is clean, we're ready to go.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

New Haircut!

J really needed to get her hair trimmed, so I asked my SIL if she would do it. When I told J what we were doing she was so excited and asked if she was going to get short hair like her sister. That wasn't my plan, but she really wanted to have it cut. I think she probably had about 10 inches cut off. She was thrilled and I think the cut looks so cute on her!

Lots Going On, Bullet Blogging

~ Nacho died on Saturday. It was a sad day for T and I felt very bad for him. He really loved that chicken and took good care of her. He buried her in the back yard and made a little grave marker.

~ DH took on a second job. He is stocking shelves 3 nights a week. I feel bad for him; the hours suck, he doesn't want to be doing it, I miss him, his feet hurt etc. I wish he didn't have to do it, but right now he does. I'm so glad that I have such a wonderful husband who is willing to sacrifice in order to provide for our family. Hopefully this isn't something he'll have to do for very long.

~ I'm slowly getting Christmas shopping done. I try to be done by Thanksgiving, but I doubt that'll happen this year. If I can at least be done by the first week of December, then I'll be good.

~ I'm finally losing weight!!! I'm so excited. This has been a struggle for me for quite a while. I lost weight, then had to have a hysterectomy and gained it all back. Ever since then it's been a battle. Now, something in my body finally clicked and I'm losing, FINALLY! I've lost 35 lbs. and 2 pant sizes!! Only 25 lbs. to go!

~ S started Little Hooopsters. It's a program for 1st and 2nd graders to prepare them for basketball. He likes going, but I'm not sure if it's because he's learning the sport, or if it's because he gets to be with his friends.

~ T is doing Basketball camp right now, and loves it. He is my little athlete. He's really improved in the last little while, and I hope he enjoys this season.

~ The girls are busy with dance, and loving every minute of it.

~ Yesterday I met up with 2 friends that I went to high school with. We had lunch and enjoyed catching up on each others' lives. It was great to see them again, and I hope that we'll get together more often since we don't live that far from each other!

~ We've been reading our scriptures really well lately. We've kind of sucked at it in the past. But, now the kids are very interested and love taking their turn at reading. We usually read about 1 page a day, which I know isn't much, but they have lots of questions and I'd rather they understand what is going on than read a lot just to get through it. We have a chart that says, "I HAVE READ THE BOOK OF MORMON". The letters are made up of squares, so that each time we read a chapter we get to color in a square. Once we've finished the saying will all be colored in. This is fun for the kids and they really want to get that chart filled! Some nights they even have to remind us to read.

~ I've been trying a lot of new recipes lately. Last night I made one called King Ranch Chicken (I got it from SIL), so delicious! And, this morning I made Brown Sugar Muffins for breakfast, also delicious! So, I leave you with the recipes:

King Ranch Chicken

1 can cream of chicken soup
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 can water
1 can Rotel
1 onion, chopped
3-4 chicken breasts, cooked and cubed
corn tortillas
cheddar cheese, shredded

Combine soups, water, Rotel and onion in a bowl. Tear tortillas into pieces and cover the bottom of a 9x13 pan. Layer chicken on top, and then sauce mixture. Repeat two more times and then top with cheese. Bake at 350 until cheese melts!

Brown Sugar Muffins

1/2 c. butter
1 c. brown sugar
2 c. flour
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1 c. milk
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla

Melt butter and brown sugar together. In a seperate bowl, combine flour, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt. Add melted mixture. Then add milk, egg, and vanilla. Bake at 350 for 15 minutes!

Driver License

The other day I got in the car to take S somewhere and I had to run back into the house to get my purse. He asked me why I needed it and I told him it was because I had my driver license in there and that I couldn't drive without it. He replied with, "OH, so if you don't have it with you then, you don't remember how to drive?" It was so cute! I sure love that kid!

So Rude!

My good blogging friend, Busy Bee Lauren sent me some good mail. I was so excited to see this envelope in my mail box. However, when I turned it over to open I noticed someone had already opened part of it for me. Then, I read the card. She told me she knew how much I love Edward Cullen so she sent me a magnet. Well, guess what? The magnet was gone. How Rude! Someone stole my Edward. I was glad that I at least got the card and that someone was thinking of me. Thanks Lauren, and boo to whoever stole my magnet.

A Precious Miracle

A few weeks ago I got to go see my friend give birth. I've never been to one besides my own, and have always wanted to. This was her fifth. She had her fourth and fifth at home. When she found out she was pregnant we talked a lot about her home delivery. She told me that if I wanted to, I could come when Simon was born.

I was so excited and went home to tell DH. He said that was cool but she probably wouldn't remember when she was in the middle of labor. So, I told myself that could very well be the case and I might not actually get to go. But, I did!

I got a call at 4:30 a.m. and was told that she was at an eight and that if I wanted to I could come over. I hopped right up, changed, threw my hair in a pony tail, brushed my teeth and I was off. I was so excited.

I was there for about 2 hours before the baby was born. She had a tough time because the baby was posterior. I felt so bad for her. Having gone through childbirth myself without pain medicine, I knew exactly what she was feeling and had such empathy for her. But, she did a great job and it was such a miracle to see this sweet baby boy come into the world.

She was eight days past her due date, so he came out big at 9lbs. 15oz. and 21 inches long. Such a big boy!! I woke her boys (9 and 7) up as the baby was coming because they wanted to be in the room as well. Then, shortly after the girls (5 and 3) came into the room. They were excited to see their new baby. The girls were a little hesitant. The boys cut the cord and helped with Simon after he was born.

I got to hold him just minutes after he was born! There is just something about babies coming into this world. No matter how you look at it, it is a miracle. He is a precious little boy and I am so glad that I was able to share this wonderful experience with their family.

770

770-

That is the number of minutes that I talked to my sister last month. That is almost 13 hours!! DH asks what we talk about for so long all the time. The answer is everything and anything. We talk about what we did last weekend, or our plans for the next few days. I know when her kids have doctor appointments or school functions. I want to know everything about her life, and I love it!

Trick or Treat

When the kids got home from school, they had a snack and then we fixed costumes so we could head out for some trick-or-treating. We met up with some friends for the fun!

After trick-or-treating we headed to the church for dinner and the ward trunk-or-treat. Dinner was a soups and rolls. Simple, but delicious. Some of the boys decided to go play soccer on the stage (behind the curtains) during dinner. T came and found me and told me that he had broken one of the stage lights. So, we had to go tell the bishop and then we had to get a broom and clean up all the broken glass. I was very proud of him for telling the truth when it would've been very easy to just leave the mess. I feel bad for him though because all the other boys fled, so it looked like T was the only one misbehaving. But we got the mess clean and enjoyed the rest of the evening!!

There were 3 wards in the parking lot for trunk-or-treat, it was packed. The kids got tons of candy. When we were leaving T told us that his bag was so heavy and that he wanted to weigh it. He put it on the scale and it weighed 5 pounds. That's a lot of candy, especially when you times that by 4. We are going to have candy forever.

When trunk-or-treat was finished we headed to Grandmas' for a little party. We played Halloween Bingo, musical chairs, and decorated pumpkin cookies. The kids had a blast!! During musical chairs it got down to only DH and S. They were running around the chairs, and S had the biggest smile on his face. He wanted to win so badly. Then, the music (singing) stopped and he was the closest to the chair, so he jumped up to sit on it, and DH pulled the chair right out from underneath him. He started crying, DH was laughing. What a mean dad. S really wanted to win. DH apologized and then they played several more times with S always winning. The next day the two of them were playing around and my sweet husband said to his son (in a playful tone, of course) "Do you want me to hurt you?" S just looked at him and said back, "You hurt me enough yesterday." This made DH feel really bad and he had to make it up to S.

It was a busy Halloween, but we all had a great time. By the time all the activities were done for the evening the kids were exhausted, and so was I.

Isn't she the cutest little kitten EVER?

This is the only kind of kitten I ever want to own!

Rock Star!!

You can't really tell in the picture, but he had a red mohawk with blue hair on the side of his head, and the coolest part of his costume was his tatooed sleeve! It was hilarious and he thought he was the coolest kid.

Miss Hannah Montana!

This was a very difficult costume. There were tears over the hair, and the thought of people not knowing who she was. But at the end of the day most people actually knew who she was, and she decided that she actually DID like her costume.

Arrghh!

T really wanted to be something bloody or scary or dead or some other gross typical Halloween costume. When I suggested he be a pirate he was not so sure. Then, grandma said she'd get a costume for him and when he saw it, he decided that it was cool to be a pirate!

Happy Halloween, a little late

My internet hasn't been working great so I am just barely able to post some Halloween pictures. We had a very packed Halloween day.

S had a program at school that we went to. They sang a lot of cute songs. S loves to sing, and he's pretty good at it.

Six little ghosts that I once knew,

spooky ones cooky ones and shy ones too.

But the one little had a special job to do,

he led the others with a Boo Boo Boo.

Boo Boo Boo down to the haunted house they flew,

in and out round-a-bout through and through.

But the one little ghost had a special job to do,

he led the others with a Boo Boo Boo!

He led the others with a Boo Boo Boo!

After the program there was the school Halloween parade. They paraded through the halls, in the gym and cafeteria, and around the outside of the school. This something the kids really enjoy doing.

Girls Weekend

For my MILs' birthday she wanted to have a girls' weekend. Her mom, sister, and some nieces came from Idaho, and a daughter came from Colorado. It was fun for the girls to spend time together.

Friday night we went out to dinner to Applebee's, which was so YUMMY!! Then we headed to Gardner Village for Witchapalooza! The whole place was decorated with witches and most people there were dressed up as well. We walked around and looked through the fun shops, got candy apples, and took lots of pictures. We had a great time, and plan on making this a yearly tradition! Next year I hope to be able to go a little earlier to enjoy more of the festivites!

After that we headed back to my MILs' for a slumber party. We stuffed ourselves with delicious snacks, played games, and stayed up late talking. I thought for sure Grandma would be exhausted and fall asleep, but she stayed awake with the rest of us, and was the first one up in the morning.

Saturday we slept in!! After everyone was up and dressed we had a yummy soup brunch. Then of us went shopping. I had to go home for a little so T and DH could go to the BYU football game. When the game was over, the girls got back together for more fun!

It was great being able to spend time with family and bond. I will look forward to next year with much anticipation!