Someone needed a haircut.

Christmas in CA

This year we decided to go celebrate Christmas at Grandma's in California. We were so excited to go see family and be amongst the warmer temperatures too. Christmas Eve we gather to read from the scripture's about the story of Jesus' birth. My Mom was the donkey this year and Jonah and Breck were Joseph and Mary. Haha. These are the "costume's" we use from the bathroom and closets.



My brother Jeff came from Michigan to have Christmas at home.

Each year we also read a story form Norman Rockwell's Christmas Book. It is read by my little brother Jay since the main character in the story is called "Jay Bees Daws".

Jeff and Trent hanging out.

My family has the tradition of photographing the kids on the stairs Christmas morning before they go see if they got anything for Christmas:) My Dad used to always say,"Kids, Santa didn't come." We always just laughed and ran past him to see our gifts in the living room. He was a joker, my Dad.

Here are our kids, bed head and all.

Here is our family picture on Christmas Day at my Mom's.

Breck got a few little things that she was so happy to have. I love her little face below.

We finally got the boys a Wii this year and it has been fun to have. Jake and I now compete against each other. Look at Gavin's face. He is my child I have to really be careful with video games. He loves to play them too much.

All of my siblings came over for lunch and to open presents from each other. I had to shoot a couple of pics while we there together. Here are my two beautiful sisters below.

The 3 sister's always have to take a pic together:)

Jonah and I goofing off on the trampoline with my camera and dusk.

Superman!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Creative People

I have not been very good about updating my family blog lately. I've been so busy I guess. We are good though. Excited for Christmas to come!

For now, I wanted to share a funny video that was made a while back from a friend I know. He does all sorts of things and is really creative. He is actually really good friends with my brother and that is how I know him.

He makes funny videos for his cute wifey too.

I thought I'd post this so you can enjoy a little laugh. I did. Listen to his lyrics, they are deep:) Hahahaha. I only wish I could have this much fun and make silly videos that are actually good. My favorite part is when there is the harmonizing happening with sock puppet. Hilarious.

Watching this made me realize I need to be nice to the dummy's out there.

;)

The Halloween Costumes-2009

This year, I wanted us to go trick-or-treating as a family.  I am tired of having either Jake or I at home handing out the candy and missing all of the fun.

Instead, we locked the doors, turned off any Halloween lights so nobody would be knocking and wondering.

It was so much fun!  We walked around with our kids who were running from house to house.  At one point, Breck turned to me and said,"Mom, I am having so much fun!"

The only downfall with doing Halloween this way was the huge bucket of candy we had left over since we only had maybe 10 people come to our door since we were gone for the rest.  Oh well, I threw it away!!!!!!!  I did eat a few before though:)

PS- In case you were wondering: Gavin=Soccer player(2nd year in a row)

Jonah= Smarty pants

Breck=Medieval princess

Life is Better

Life is better when you have good tunes to listen to. I love, love, love music. It runs in the family. My family is musical. My family could have been more musical had we all kept up with our instruments we were learning as kids. Don't get me wrong, a couple of my brother's still play and my youngest brother, Jay, is at BYU on a drum scholarship and is majoring in music.
My sister, Melinda, can play the piano quite well still. Robyn can sing until no end, really, she does that. Hahahaha! I miss it and the whistling too.
I guess I'm talking about me. I learned to play the piano as a kid and probably could have been really good. I then learned the violin and played up through high school, but alas, I quit that too.
I thought soccer was a better route. Silly me!
My Dad played the saxophone and clarinet and my Mom, of course is a piano whiz. She is amazingly talented with music. She is even writing songs now and might be publishing some of them soon....... My parents used to have a band and they would go play for different parties and wedding receptions.
Me? I love to play my stereo, and really loud too.
I love the feelings music give me. I love how music creates memories and brings back memories.
I have said before that Jamiroquai is my favorite music group. They still are. I love them. I love their funky sound and I love that they use real instruments instead of electronic randomness on a keyboard for the whole band.
I love to bounce to Hip-Hop, but only certain Hip-Hop.
I enjoy Q-Tip, yes that is his rap name. Q-Tip sometimes does not use the best language in his music, but I really like his style and sometimes I can find the "CLEAN" version of his songs.
I posted a video of him featuring Norah Jones. Random duo, I know. But I like it.
Enjoy!






Now, go listen to your own tunes while I enjoy mine:)

October=Pumpkins and Stuff

It is October!  Last week the kids and I went to Cornbelly's at Thanksgiving Point with my friend Lori and her two girls.

We had a lot of fun.  There were many things for the kids to do, which is why I wonder why they charge adults to come in and watch.  

Here are some pics of our day.

Pumpkin Pyramid

Brothers.

Huge bounce pillows for jumping.

Huge rocking chair.  Breck with Naomi and Leilani.

Really cool bikes to ride.  I did ride those!

Huge monster thingy to walk through.  Apparently at night they add freaky looking people to scare you.

The boys fighting the monster's uvula.(sp?)

Me in the Cinderella carraige.  

Princess Breck.  They had an area for little girls to play and dress up and ride on the carraige.  It was a very pink place to be that day:)

Growing older today!

Jonah- 4 years old.

Jonah- 9 1/2 years

It is strange to think that my baby, Jonah, is 10 today. He is almost a teenager! He is almost old enough to drive, to go on a mission, to get married. Ok. I know it is still years away, but it is just around the corner. These first 10 have flown by for me. I get a little misty when I look at this picture above. I can see what he will look like as a teenager.

He is such a good boy. He got teary-eyed when we sang Happy Birthday to him this morning before school. I asked him later if he was upset because we got him a different game instead of one he asked for last week. He said, "No, I wouldn't cry over that. I was just happy."
What a sweet boy he is!

Don't grow up Jonah. We love you.

Here is a cute video of Jonah. We were walking around Thanksgiving Point and came to this little "dance hall" so he had to dance. My favorite is his ROBOT.

I love that they do this.

Sit quietly reading.
Lately, they have been hooked on reading Calvin & Hobbes.
You would be surprised with the large words they learn from it. Seriously!
Jake has the whole collection and he also grew up reading them.
It will be quiet and then all of a sudden I will hear bursts of laughter.
So funny.

CA Trip part 3- The Finale

The last part of our CA trip was in Lake Arrowhead. It is so beautiful there. It is up in the mountains near San Bernandino County. My uncle's friend has a cabin and we stay there every year now. It fits all of us......barely. I love it though!! It is fun to swim, kayak, play board games/cards and eat good food. I don't care where we are as long as I'm with family. Good times!

Group photo before we left the lake on Sunday. We were missing some that were out running errands though.

Jonah loved to kayak.

My brother Andy. Sweet shades.

It was very bright outside:)

My brother Jay is a good uncle. Niece's Julie and Taylor.

Melinda with Tay Tay.

My niece Kenna girl.

Jake and Breck floating around the dock.

Dave and Robyn Inc.

Lukity-Luke.

Jay and Robyn "engagement" photo. haha.

Melinda and Luke.

My cute Mom.

Jake and Gavin going on a kayak adventure.

Jay, my brother.

Robyn and Jenna girl.
Andy and Shawna. So cute!

Jeffrey, my bro.
(pic a little blury, sorry)

Julie and her silly mask she made.

Mom and her daughters:)

It was hard to leave the family, as usual.

CA Trip Part Deux

We drove up to LA for a day to visit The Griffith Observatory. We drove a lot this trip. We just wanted to visit so many places this time I guess. I had to snap a shot of the freeway, since we spent a lot of time on it:) At least the traffic wasn't too bad.

Griffith Observatory above. It was a neat place. If you haven't been, go and take your kids to a cool show in the planetarium. We saw "Water Is Life". If not, there is a lot to see for free inside the building. Plus, there are incredible views outside since the observatory sits high up on a hill.

Too bad for a hazy day, or the views would have looked better.

We met my Uncle Allan, who lives nearby in Burbank. We hung out, grabbed IN-N-OUT on Sunset Blvd. and had a nice time.

We headed over to La Brea Tar Pits afterwards. It smelled a lot like Tar, I don't know why though. (wink, wink)

Random cement cubes calls for random poses inside them.

We drove down Hollywood Blvd. to see the weirdo's dressed up like Spiderman, Batman, Storm Trooper, etc.... Chinese Theatre, Kodak Theatre, Hollywood Walk of Fame, etc... Neat-O!

You know you are in CA when you drive down palm tree lined streets. I love it!

Back to Grandma's home.


Part 3 coming soon......