Happy Birthday Sam

Yes this was several months ago but hey, you have to see Sam.
We only have pictures of him opening presents (unless they are hiding on another card somewhere).  He got his Bear book for cub scouts, a balance board that Hannah helped me make.  It's basically a board covered with fun duct tape which you balance on a PVC pipe. The kids love trying it.

 

Love the excitement for the rocket from Uncle Jordan (just add vinegar and baking soda) and a fun piano book from Grandma. 

We did let him have a small party.  He had 3 friends over and we let them have a late night playing video games.  They also played a couple rounds of ghost in the graveyard.  The best was when Dad hid from them and theyed looked for him with all the lights off.  We had some pretty scared kids. But they loved it!!
Happy Birthday kiddo, we love you! 

Fun Activities

So here are a couple of random photos of activties recently at our house. The kids school holds a Daddy/Daughter Dance and Hannah was thrilled to go (they also hold a mother/son movie night but there are no pictures of that event, we did go). Justin said it was a lot of little girls running around and screaming, basically having the time of their life. Justin even bought her a flower that we pinned on her. Oh and can I say how much I love that dress.  I found the fabric and immediately thought of Hannah.  It went together really well and I love how it turned out.
 

It has finally started to warm up, not as much as we sometimes think, but enough for the bikes to make an appearance. So every afternoon lately our cul-de-sac is filled with kids riding around on their bikes. I love living in a cul-de-sac.
 

And, Michelle decided she was done with her training wheels! She was a little hesitant after they were first off but now loves it. It helped that one of the kids who is older than her told her he didn't know how to ride his bike well yet. So she hopped on to show him how it is done. He has since figured out his bike.

Now, when I need to find my kids I have to look for whose house the bikes are stopped in front of and they are constantly asking if they can ride bikes. And Ben figured out pedaling on his tricycle. Looks like a fun summer ahead for us.

Hannah is Seven!

Happy Birthday to our Hannah girl. We celebrated with our family and then with some of her friends. Michelle and I made doughnut crayons out of some of our old crayons.

She loved them. She got lots of coloring stuff (an entire box of Hello Kitty coloring stuff from one friend).

Several craft projects, another of her favorite things.  I have hid several of these away so we don't lose parts before ready to do the project. 

And brownies with the family (we can finish those all off, not a whole cake though).  

Cupcakes with her friends! 

We love our Hannah.  She is very sweet. Always willing to do anything she is asked. Very helpful. She is very creative also. She is our adventurer, she will try anything.  She loves to play outside and also loves to play happily by herself. 

San Diego, First Trip

Justin and I went to San Deigo for our anniversary trip this year. Here is a brief summary of our trip.  We had a great time.  I had never been to San Diego before.  The ocean is cold there and from what I hear it is always cold.  It was warmer there than Utah though which is what we were looking for in a trip location. We spent one morning out at Cabrillo National Monument.  They have some cool tidepools and a lighthouse.  We spent a lot of time down near some of the tidepools even though it wasn't the lowest tide where you can see the really cool things.  I love watching the ocean.
 

This was out the window driving one day.  One massive cactus!
 

We walked around Balboa Park one afternoon.  We checked out all the free museums and such.  They had a small botanical garden that had this showcase of orchids as you walked in.  Someday I will get my greenhouse (just a small one would be fine) and then orchids (or maybe vice versus if I was convinced that I could keep them alive).

We went out to Coronado beach, the best place to watch sunset someone told Justin.  This is when I discovered how cold the ocean was.  I didn't want to play in the water, I barely wanted to walk in the edge of the water. We did of course see sunset.  This is my favorite picture, so classic. 

I couldn't have planned this better, the bird and the paddle boarder.  You can see the lighthouse at the top of the hill there also.
 

We also checked out the USS Midway.  It is a retired aircraft carrier turned into a museum. The tour is cool because you see things, you can read the signs or listen to the audio which often had extra stories from people who had served on a carrier if not that one. Then they had ones the kids could climb in, or the adults for that matter.  On the deck they had a lot of planes from all different time periods that would have landed on the Midway. There were also people giving talks about how it worked (as you come in to land, you go full throttle so that if they don't catch you you can take off again!).  I don't know if these men had worked on a carrier or with any of these particular planes but I think a lot of them were retired military.

We also stopped and saw the Mormon Battalion Visitor Center.  Wow, it is cool.  They have definitely upgraded in the last couple of years. It was awesome! And as a former site sister I thoroughly enjoyed it.

And that is a sum up of the first trip to San Diego. Next trip is with the kids, shh, they still don't know they are going. :)  hee, hee, hee.

More Snow Fun

Here sledding pictures, from our hill and then from when the kids went with Dad somewhere to go sledding.
 

 

 

 

I think the hill in the front yard was the biggest hit this year.  The kids loved going out all the time, the neighbors loved coming and playing, and I loved not having to try to cart them all somewhere to go sledding.  They also played outside more with a sledding hill in front than they would have otherwise. 

Ice Crystals

So this post is just to show off my photographers.  Sam and Justin set out to take pictures after we had had a night of some dense fog.  Everything was covered in ice crystals. The first set of four are from Sam, with no editing (I just picked my favorites).
 

 

 

 

Then the next four are Justin's with all his finishing work done to them. 

 

 

 

And then I found this one.  I know it is not really in focus but it gives you an idea of what the snow looks like after a freezing rain shellacs it.  Justin thought it looked like fondant and I think everything looks glossy.
 

Snow fun

We started to get a little bit of snow.  And then we got more snow and more snow and now we have snow.  One thing this means is that we need to shovel our driveway fairly regularly.  If there is too much snow (pretty much any) it becomes difficult to get up.  So here are pictures of what the kids enjoy doing while I shovel snow.

This is the first of the snow so there isn't much, enough for the younger kids to want to play in and slide in.  There are no pictures of the freezing rain.  That was the day that when we went to go and get kids from school, Michelle and Ben slid to the bottom of the driveway and then they couldn't get back up.  I went to go help them, ending up running down the driveway because I knew if I didn't I would end up on my backside.  Then we had to walk up through the snow with them following my footsteps because they couldn't break through the ice on their own.

Oh and Hannah decided this little hill was a good place to practice snowboarding. 

We started getting more snow.  We don't typically need the extra part of the driveway for parking so I don't bother shoveling it, for which the kids are grateful.  They loved sledding down it.

And then on Saturday after the snow I sent Justin out to build a snow hill for the kids.  He wanted to take them sledding someplace but instead built this and they have played on it so much and the neighbor kids as well.  You can get from our porch to the sidewalk.  This wasn't the best packing snow but they managed.

There are the snow activities.  :)