Merry Christmas 2010!

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Finally a trip to Disneyland

When Lynda first came to visit us on her way home from her mission, one of the first things Aaron asked was, "Are we going to Disneyland now?" For the past year whenever the kids mentioned going to Disneyland, we would tell them that they had to wait until Grandma gets home off her mission. Let me just tell you that Lynda returning from her mission was an answer to Aaron's prayers! He worried about her a lot and worried whether he would ever get to go to Disneyland. And for a kid who can't grasp the concept of time, that was quite stressful for him. But we planned the day we would go. Grandma arranged her plans to go to Disneyland with us and we all bought our annual passes. We are looking forward to spending many more weekends up at Grandma's house.

A frightful night...

We had a great time carving our pumpkins with friends this year. Once again, the boys delivered on some great designs. Aubrey helped draw her "littlest" pumpkin. Nanna sent us a book called The Littlest Pumpkin. It's a cute little story about a little pumpkin that wants nothing more than to become a jack-o-lantern. In the end, he's never chosen by the children that come to the farm but it's chosen by the mice in the barn as their perfect pumpkin for their Halloween party. So Aubrey was all excited about her little pumpkin.


A much welcomed visit from Sister Gibbs. Mike's mom, Lynda, returned from the Houston South Mission in October. We were happy to have her and her companion Sister Oborn visit us for a few days before heading back to Huntington Beach to be released. We were able to attend her sacrament meeting to hear her talk on the 31st. So we weren't home to see all the neighborhood trick-or-treaters! And wouldn't you just know it, I didn't get a picture of my kids in their costumes this year. Yes, I suppose it's a crime. But for the record, Aaron was a skeleton, Connor was a rodeo clown, and Aubrey was a fairy.

God's Promise

Our glorious rainbow back in September just after a rainstorm. This picture was taken from our backyard!

Summer Highlights

After a long hiatus from blogging, I'm determined to get back into it now that school has started and I have more time on my hands. We had a most enjoyable summer. I'm happy for the kids to be back in school but I'll miss the luxuries of summer! I'm proud to say that we kept plenty busy and enjoyed all the wonderful things San Diego has to offer, the zoos, the beach, the parks, aquarium, etc...

Our big summer highlight was our trip through Utah. We made stops in St. George, Layton, Portage, and then made it to Boise, and finally Lewiston, ID for our family reunion.

First Grade Field Day

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Aubrey's Haircut

I finally got the nerve to get Aubrey's hair cut. I really don't know what I was waiting for but I've been wanting to do it for a while now. I guess other things just kept getting in the way. A hair cut is not high priority on the list of appointments but alas, yesterday was the day! I thought of maybe trying to do it myself but there would be no way she'd sit and let me. She did pretty good at the family salon. She ended up sitting on my lap watching Dora the Explorer. Each station had it's own tv and kids could play video games or watch movies while getting their cuts. It was a pretty decked out for kids salon. And it was enough of a distraction to complete the mission despite her hesitation. And she likes it!

Spring break highlights

Aubrey helped me make some sugar cookies for Aaron's class. I wish I would have taken some pictures of the bunnies. They turned out really cute. I love my little bakerella. She is totally a hands-on kind of kid. Aaron's classmates were happy to see us. Aaron was especially keen on giving a sugar cookie to his friend, Malina who is in fifth grade. Aaron's class has fourth and fifth graders in it. The fifth graders weren't in class when I was there so Aaron went with his teacher to wait for Malina at the bus pickup. Yeah, he's a got a bit of a crush. It's so cute.

Egg hunt before pictureEgg hunt after picture.Aubrey's before picture.Aubrey after the egg hunt. Notice that she only picked the pink and purple eggs. She even traded with the boys to get their pink and purple eggs. Can you say fashionista?

On the hunt...the pink egg up in the palm was the last one to be found. The boys must have walked by half a dozen times.
La Jolla Shores...we had some most enjoyable weather during our week off. Seth, Hollie's son, sent us his Flat Stanley so we took him along for a few pictures at the beach.

Aubrey loves collecting shells. I spotted a small sand dollar and felt like I won a million dollars. I remember my sister Hollie always finding the sand dollars at the beach when we were kids.

SD Wild Animal park. We could never go there enough. Mike took a few days off and joined us for some fun. We enjoyed the Frequent Flyers show. Seeing the condor wing span was a definite highlight.

Here's a little shot of the baby African elephant born on Valentine's day. Even from far off, he's so cute!

Havin' a rough day?

Sometimes we all just gotta have a good pout!

A fun little favor...

Here's a fun paper crafting design that I discovered on www.splitcoaststampers.com. It's a great online place to find fun ideas for cards, favors, etc. For my birthday, I went to the Ghiradelli store with a few friends and I had come across the tutorial for these cute little Ghiradelli boxes the week before. They fit three Ghiradelli chocolate squares perfectly. So when I saw these boxes I just had to make one for everyone as a little favor. The tutorial suggests using a ScorePal, which I didn't have so I just used the scoring blade on my paper cutter. I did look up the ScorePal online to find out just how much they were and it looks like they're around $40. A little pricey for a paper crafting gadget but I can see how beneficial it would be if you were mass producing a bunch of favors. Unfortunatley, I'm unable to paste the direct link to the tutorial. Maybe because you have to be a member on the site. But if you're interested in checking it out, just search for Ghiradelli boxes under resources. Beate is the name of the gal that made the tutorial so that may also be useful in your search.

March Card Exchange

Here are the cards we exchanged in March. We had a smaller group this time but still had some fun designs with plenty of florals. Can you guess mine?

Mine was the "sending baskets full of warm wishes" card.

Easter Surprise

Well, we had a little Easter surprise yesterday. A 7.2 earthquake from Baja California. We went on a family walk in the afternoon and we were just standing on the sidewalk when it hit us. It sort of felt like my legs were giving out. Connor was riding his razor and didn't even notice. A few neighbors came outside. Mike was in the middle of the street and I was standing next to Aubrey. She was on her bike. We've felt much stronger quakes but it definitely gets the blood pumping for sure.

Seriously, what happened?

Well, actually I'm quite surprised how easy it was to drop off of the blogging planet for a while. Three months just flew by! We've been busy with the same old hussle and bussle of daily life. I've gotten back into reading and cardmaking. And I admit to going through a phase of playing several BBC miniseries shows on my Netflix queue. (Bleak House, North & South, Wives & Daughters and a few of the Jane Austen classics to name a few.) Still keeping with quilt group, book club and card exchange group and volunteering at the school. The boys have started Little League and it's been busy keeping up with their schedules. Aaron and I are still going strong with Webelos. Aaron just placed third in the Pinewood Derby this month. We were thrilled for him. He missed second place by .02. Crazy how close it was. We've had some fun visits from friends, the McCurdy's and the Christensen's. And my mom came out to visit us over my birthday. She stayed for the weekend and we had a great time! Here's a few highlights from January and February.

Connor has become an accomplished bicycle rider.

Yet another phase...breadmaking. Mike still wants me to be in this phase.

I kind of got burned out but I'll be making more again soon.

These are the cards from our January exchange. Mine is the pink cupcake card. I haven't taken a picture of our March cards. I'll get on it.

We've had many a bird land on our backyard fence. This one has by far been the biggest that I've caught on camera. (It's some sort of falcon or hawk.)

We've also admired plenty of doves, hummingbirds, and more.

Aubrey and Mike buddies with Darth Vader at the Lego shop in Downtown Disney.

Some friends of ours came down to spend a few days at Disneyland during their winter break and we came up to meet them for dinner. It was a short but very sweet visit!

Ella, Andy, Big Aaron, Little Aaron, Connor, Aubrey (so cooperative) and Mike.

Michelle and Jen

Joe Cool. I totally caught Connor in this pose one afternoon after school.

Hanging with the cousins at the Wild Animal Park during our school break in Feb.

Connor posing with yet another Flat Stanley.

I guess that's what we get for moving around so much. ;)