Sawyer turns 4!!

Sawyer turned 4 on November 17th. We had a family only party on Wednesday. When I took Sawyer to his school he couldn't wait to tell everyone that he was 4 "so now I get to eat food in bed!" We gave him breakfast in bed and apparently he thought this was a rite of passage and now he no longer needed to come down for breakfast. On Friday we had a Scooby-Doo themed party, it was so much fun. Lots of little boys running around. When it was time for cake, I brought out a box and opened it up and there was NO CAKE! The boys had to solve the mystery of the missing cake. It ended when they found Derek hiding in our entertainment center in a costume. They had to unmask the swamp thing and reveal the cake thief. Afterwards we hit the heck out of a Scooby-Doo Pinata. It was so much fun and Sawyer was so happy to have his friends over.
Sawyer is our youngest and has the soul of a comedian, he keeps us laughing and you cannot believe the thing he says. He is so loving and always wants to snuggle with me and his buddy (blanket). We love him so much and are so happy that he is growing up to e such a wonderful boy.
WE LOVE YOU SAWYER!!

HaPPy HalLowEen!!!

Soren was a bloody Dr. The backstory was he was operating on someone that had a grenade in them and the grenade blew up.

Riding on the back of the golf cart

Every witch needs a cat.

This was the only picture I could take of these 2 because they took off to get as much candy as fast as possible.

Friend from trunk or treat

Cute Kids!

We had a fun Halloween with the trunk or treat and trick or treating with cousins.

Family time

My kids have been having so much fun with their cousins. Having family around makes a huge difference. I love the fact that all my kids are matched up with 1 or more cousin that is near in age to them. I did not grow up with cousins around and did not know what I was missing. These are relationships that will last their whole life. It is also fun to travel and see other cousins. Sawyer is super excited to see "his Jack" this October. See you soon Utah cousins!

Funny blog

Check this out. I grabbed this from another friends blog...pretty funny

http://catalogliving.net/

Swimmers take your mark......

Soren had his first swim meet. He swam in 2 races and got 2nd and 1st place respectively. I had so much fun watching him.
Way to go Soren!!

Cali is 6!

Six years ago and 5 weeks early I had an emergency c-section because Cali was too impatient and wanted to GET OUT NOW! My Dr. was great and told us what to expect... that she would probably be in NICU for awhile and that we were hoping that she would be home in a week or 2. They did the c-section and out comes this tiny little baby and then she let out this really big cry and the NICU were sent on their way as my Dr. exclaimed hmmm nothing wrong with her lungs after all. I was then told that since she was so tiny 4.09 that she would not have the strength or maturity to know how to nurse. About 3 minutes after that she was nursing like a champ. A day and a half after I had her we left the hospital (I HATE hospitals).
Cali has been true to her birth day she is loud and has a lot of energy and does not like to wait for anything. She has a very single minded determination and will decide that she wants to do something (jump roping, handstands, walking on her hands) and she will practice 24/7 until she has figured it out.
She is a great helper and loves to surprise me by cleaning up a room out of the blue. Somehow my uncreative, uncrafty self gave birth to a very girly girl who loves art and crafts (and is good at it too).
She has her Dad wrapped around her finger. Her and I have already had a number of arguments about hair and clothes...at 5!!
She keeps us entertained and we love her so much she is so full of life and our family would be so empty without her.
WE LOVE YOU CALI HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!

Happy 8th Birthday Soren!!!!!

I don't know how this happened, but somehow I went from being a new mom to a mom of an 8 year old boy. Derek always says that the only reason we had more kids is because Soren was such a good baby and we were fooled into thinking all babies were that easy. He slept for 5 hours at a stretch and was hardly ever fussy.
He has grown into such an amazing boy, he is so loving to all of us. He still gives me kisses and hugs in public, every morning he takes his sister's hand and walks her to her class. The principal saw me and said that he was so impressed by what a good big brother he was. Soren said the principal yells out almost everyday for everyone to see what a good big brother he is. It completely embarrasses him but he still holds her hand and walks with her. He is so excited to get Baptized and I am so proud of how he says his prayers every night by himself without reminders (I still need reminders)
Soren loves to race remote control cars with his dad and play video and computer games. He loves to ski and he just gets up and goes down the mountain and we are lucky if we see him for the rest of the day. He also loves roller coasters. For his birthday, all he wanted for his party was to take a friend and go to Knott's Berry Farm. Luckily we found another boy who also likes upside down and crazy roller coasters, so I took them out of school early and off we went. On Friday we took another friend and the whole family went to see How to Train Your Dragon.

Soren you are so special and dear to all of us. Thank you for being a beyond wonderful son we love you so much!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!

Under who? Under What? Underwear!

(Imagine the Hallelujah Choir singing)
After almost 8 years and countless diapers, wipes, Balmex and swim diapers (is there anything more disgusting? The smell...oh the horror!) We are a DIAPER FREE house!!!! Well mostly, I am still put Sawyer in diapers at night just to be on the safe side. He has woken up the last 2 mornings with a dry diaper so I am pretty sure we are DONE! Yipeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

More Vacation Pictures

Snowmobiling Boys Christmas Eve

Piggy back sledding

Sawyer going down Homerun at Park city Soren going off a jump on "Fire Rock" hill at the Chalet
Taking a break from snowmobiling to eat snow

Derek helping Sawyer down the hill on his first run.

Riding the rope pull to go tubing

Winter Wonderland

Every year after Christmas we go up to Derek's parents house in Midway, UT. We lovingly call it the "Chalet". This year since we moved to California, we did not have the family parties that we usually have in Arizona. Derek and I decided to head up to Utah for the whole break and have a white Christmas. I thought that it would be nice to have a relaxing week before the cousins and in-laws came....I don't know what I was thinking. we had a TON of fun we went skiing, snowmobiling and tubing. We were exhausted every night but the next morning we were off on some other adventure.

We put Cali in a ski class one day and Derek decided he wanted to teach Sawyer himself. Sawyer was a natural. He was skiing down a green run (not the bunny hill) by the end of the day. Cali was great after her lesson. She was a little hesitant on some spots of the mountain but we made it down. Soren goes down the double blue runs and just looks for jumps.

On our way back to California we heard that it was a loooong trip with lots of traffic. So we stopped in Vegas. Derek signed me up for a massage and he took the kids to Circus Circus. We saw the white tigers and the sharks. We then headed home and luckily just missed the traffic. We had a great time but now i am so T

I

R

E.....

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

I love Christmas time

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving up in Arizona. It is so much fun for me to see my kids playing with their cousins. I love that they will have that bond their whole life.

I wimped out of black Friday and ate waayyyy too much food. We just had a great time. Thanks Paula and Steve for letting all of us converge on your house for the week!

Now the Christmas season can officially start.