Big Bear on the 4th

Another great year in Big Bear. The weather was great. The kids enjoyed the boat and the fireworks were as amazing as ever. All the kiddies...
Paige and Fletch on the Crazy 8. Paige is a wild one - she has a serious ZEST for life!
Our annual family photo on the swing out front.
Paige and Fetch.

Even Orange looks good on this baby. :)

Ferrall's - The Day After Xmas

Each year we try to celebrate Christmas with family and have a nice Christmas dinner. This year was a bit different - it just didn't seem to work out. Since no one was available we skipped it all together and decided to take the kids to Farrell's. We went the day after Christmas (because it was closed). Let's just say.... it's a long wait... and it's LOUD.
Owen (or as we like to call him) "our affectionate child" - is showing his love to me. So sweet. He never runs out of hugs, kisses or I love you(s).
Paige Owen and... where is Brock? Brock was not in the mood to be photographed. He's a bit too cool for the camera at times.
Olive was checking out the commotion... I thought dinners at our house were loud - um... not compared to here. It was nice not slaving away in the kitchen for once, and just taking the kids to a fun family restaurant. But then again, slaving all day in the kitchen... isn't that was holidays are for? The food was good though! I'd go back if I didn't have to wait an hour.

Getting Ready for Christmas

Getting ready for Christmas to come is probably one of my favorite parts of the holidays. The holiday parties, Christmas performances and of course seeing Santa. Here are some of our highlights...
Paige and her friend Lauren at their class holiday party.
Owen as a shepard in the ward primary program.
Olive sitting on Santa and LOVING the attention... she had no idea who was holding her - just that we were all making her smile.

Owen is always so loving. He would have layed there with Santa all day if we let him. Brock wouldn't go near Santa. In fact he cried and cried if we even mentioned seeing Santa. On each of my kids first Christmases I've taken them to see Santa and get a photo - then we put it in a frame and it hangs on our tree. Olive was ALL SMILES - so fun! And Paige and her cousin Fletcher and the Barber's house.

Halloween

Holidays have been getting more and more fun as these kids get more and more into it. I think it is really fun when you can see it through your children's eyes.
My kids tend to have strong opinions on their costumes. Paige wanted to be a "Blue Fairy." This was the first time I attempted to make a costume. I thought it turned out OK. Owen wanted to be Spider Man - and he was. Brock wanted to be "The Gleen Globlin" or the GREEN GOBLIN. Too bad for him they don't make that costume anywhere in at 2T/3T - so after looking everywhere we finally convinced him to be a pirate. He was OK with that. Olive was our precious bumble bee. This Bumble Bee costume has been used every year since Paige first wore it 8 years ago. A little hammered but still cute.

Pumpkin Patch

Each year my kids look forward to going to the Pumpkin Patch. This year they were just as excited.
These kids always have a lot of fun there. Owen loved the swings... just look at the joy on his face.
Brock was a little unsure but enjoyed the ride.
Paige wants to go on EVERYTHING! Seriously, sometimes I think there is just no pleasing this girl.
Ollie Pop was just happy to be there.
Fun times - why does it go by so fast?

The Surf is Up!

Well this is what we have been doing this summer. The kids have been surfing and having a blast doing it. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of Paige... she rides her board all by herself. She will paddle out with John and it is so cute watching them sit on their boards out in the water together waiting for waves. (It's hard for me to get photos because I'm usually under the umbrella with Olive)
John puts the boys on the front of his the long board and they paddle out. Hey! Put a life jacket on those kids!!!
Brock is our die hard. He is always telling John, "I go surfing with Daddy like Surf's Up!" He is so cute out there, he will tell John "more... more..." He loves riding the waves in.
Owen tends to be more nervous, but when he comes in he jumps up and down saying, "I did it! I went SURFING!!!"

These kids have such a good time with their dad at the beach - this has been a really fun Summer so far. We've been at the beach at least a few times a week. The hardest part is lugging ALL the stuff down to the sand. With 4 kids, 2 boards, umbrella, 2 chairs, sand toys, car seat (for Olive to sit), food, and towels... it's exhausting!

Hopefully we'll see you there! Monday nights... Doheny... FHE!

Easter

The Easter bunny came to our house again this year and the kids were super excited. They woke up to find eggs hidden all over the house and their baskets filled with special goodies. We got ready for church and the kids were all dressed in their Easter outfits. (It was a little last minute this year, and a bit more casual).... something they will wear again though. :)

After church and some naps we went to Jake & Wendy's house for an Easter dinner, Egg Hunt and birthday celebration for both Tess & Sophie. The kids had a great time!

2 Weeks.... Who's counting?

Well, my baby comes 2 weeks from tomorrow and as awful as I've been at blogging lately I can't imagine it will be any better. Next week is our Spring Break and almost everyone we know is going out of town - so that leaves me, huge and pregnant, trying to entertain 3 kids with no friends around... ALL DAY LONG for a WEEK! Yikes! Not sure what to do. If that isn't enough to think about I BROKE my camera last week - I KNOW! Can you believe it? The thing slipped right out of my hands and crashed on the floor leaving me with no camera and no money to buy a new one. Yes, we are back on the budget... I know the Economy is tight right now, but it's funny how we have been "poor" every time we've had a baby. I was thinking about it the other day and when Paige was born we were still newlyweds and we had to go from 2 incomes to 1. When Owen was born we just moved into our house and we were "house poor." When Brock was born John had quit his job to start up his own and we were in the middle of a nasty law-suit. And now this baby is coming and the Economy is the worst it's been in decades! Maybe it's a good thing this is our last baby.

Well, let's hope I can snap a few photos on my iPhone... gee... that's not even funny!

Thanksgiving in Utah

Every year for Thanksgiving we go to Utah - this year when we went we were able to stay with my parents.  The kids had a blast at Grandma & Grandpa's house.  We stayed downstairs and had the place to ourselves... it was great.  We spent some time with my sister Emily (who is moving to Texas soon) going to the park and the movies.  We had a huge Thanksgiving Feast with my parents and still spent time with John's mother and brother's family.  We were there for 8 nights and we couldn't believe how fast it went by... a lot of fun!

Here is Brock being funny with some chocolate.
We tried to have fun whenever possible - here we are at a quick trip to a local grocery store... the boys were having a blast.
One morning John took Owen for some special Daddy time.  They went to a nearby creek and threw rocks in the water - you have NO IDEA how much fun this is to Owen.  This boy absolutely loves throwing rocks in the water.  Good cheep fun, right?
We met up with the Peterson family and headed to Chuck E. Cheese.  We don't get to see them very often so it was a treat. 

John couldn't help but feed into Owen's OCD... they lined up all the dominoes in order - Owen wanted to pose for a picture by them.
It was nice to visit with Great Grandma as well - she flew up with us and it only took a couple of days but then Brock really warmed up to her and couldn't get enough.  We would come home from an outing and he would run and jump on Great-Grandma's lap and say... "Baabaa!"  You just have to put in the time and then soon enough Brock with steal your heart!
We went to Jump On It, like always.  John can't help but get in on all the jumping fun. 

The day before we left we wanted to take the kids up to Salt Lake to the Children's Museum.  A friend suggested we go to the Dinosaur Museum instead - this was good because it was minutes away.  I thought we might kill a couple hours there and then do something else... oh no, 7 hours later more like it.  The kids LOVED it and didn't want to leave.  I couldn't' believe it!
Paige's favorite part was digging for bones... well "dusting" for them anyway.  This museum had a bunch of hands on things for the kids to do and this was one of them.


We even saw a 3-D Dinosaur movie.  I loved watching the kids reach out to grab the dinosaurs.  Note to self: Brock is still too young to go to movies.  I don't know when we'll learn our lesson - the guy was a disaster and John had to take him out.  It's a problem when your almost 2 year old tries to climb on other people.  Geeesh!



Another activity they loved was creating there own island and land for their little dinosaurs.  They had this area where you could move sand and water and create your own island.  It wasn't too messy because of the bibs, but fun.  I think our kids took most of the toys in there for themselves.  


After the Dinosaur Museum we started to drive off and saw two reindeer fenced up nearby for people to see.  We pulled over and ran to see who it was.  
Why, it was none other than Comet and Blitzon... well according to this cute boy who was taking care of them.  He went into great detail for Paige about how Santa dropped them off to be babysat while he got ready for Christmas.  He told her all about the reindeer and what they like to eat and how they help Santa.  He was super cute to her. 
Then he tried to scoot them over so she could pet them.  Very nice young man.

Halloween Night!

What a great Halloween it was. The kids were so excited to get dressed up (minus Brock) and were even more excited for it to "get dark so we can go trick-or-treating!" I think seeing them so excited gets me all excited. Paige said earlier that day that our house wasn't scary enough - so we hung a few extra lights and tried to scare it up a bit.

Here are all the kids dressed to go out. We have Hannah Montana, Mr. Incredible, Fancy Nancy, A Monkey, and Fancy Nancy's little sister. Brock was not having it one bit! We'll see how he does....

Owen grabbed on to Paige and said, "I scared!" I just laughed every time I saw him. That mask kills me!
This girl thought she was so "HOT" in those fake lashes! Look who's warming up to Trick-or-Treating! By the end of the night you couldn't keep this kid away from the houses. He loved it and in fact he lasted as long as Paige and Owen did! Great job Brocky Boy!
What a great shot of all the kids going door to door!