Why don't we live here?....

Venice Beach, California....Morgans question, "why don't we live here??"

Jumping over a wave...(note, I did not prompt them, they did this all on their own)

Running out of the way, because as we got out of the car, I said "lets not get too wet" - yeah, right....

Ring-a-round the Rosies, in the ocean - what else to say??? So cute!

Morgan and Jensen playing together, a very proud mom moment!!

Can't you just see the joy on their little faces?? I love this picture.

Drew and Jensen. They are really great friends, they are lucky and so am I.

My teenage daughters (yikes)!! Morgan and Brenna are so good for each other. I love them.

Our cruise....

So this morning I woke up to Ella saying "it is not fun here, only on our cruise boat is it fun"... so,I thought today would be a good day to blog about our awesome Christmas present and fun trip. We had an amazing time. I feel so blessed to be able to share a week with my family to create life long memories and spend time with friends. For those of you who don't know, we went with my girlfriend from high school, Jenn Griffin and family. We have alot of fun with them. Her 2 older girls match up exactly with Morgan and Brenna, Megan and Ashlyn, and she also has a 4 year old, Addison for Ella. Jensen was great to hang out with her 9 year old daughter McKenna, and Drew is good for whatever. He is such an easy going boy. This is a picture of right when we got on our ship. The "Paradise"...


We started off early, eating ice cream every spare minute!!!

I am not sure who ate the most, but we all got into the action, I am sure Jensen won!! He and Drew had one every spare moment. After breakfast, even. Ending with a late night of pizza and another cone at around 10:30 every night (and you wonder why we gain weight??)

This is our 2nd day on the ship and we were pulling into Catalina Island. Ella had a cone that she had almost finished and I stuck it on the ships railing. Without 10 seconds passing a seagull came out of nowhere and got her cone!! She was absolutely shocked, surprised and excited at such an event...it was awesome. She giggled forever!

This is my cutest family in Catalina Island. It was a tiny little town, very quaint. We had a nice morning walking around and enjoying the sunshine. Flip-flops, and capris were so nice to pull out of the closet in the middle of a cold Utah winter.

My silly boys just goofing off on the island. Jensen could barely make a straight face the entire trip, he is such a clown. We enjoy his personality everyday.

Walking around, Morgan luckily landed upon this handsome young thing....what a cute couple!!

On the ship there was a miniature golf course and one afternood while J.D. and Ella napped (one of his favorite activites) I took the boys. On this particular hole Jensen got a hole-in-one!! It was awesome. I love spending time with my kids when we can be blessed with little to no interruptions, cell phones, friends, or T.V. They are a joy to be around.

My five beautiful kids (I know I am partial) the night of our formal dinner...they can clean up very nicely. We had a nice dinner together wearing "church clothes" , as Jensen would say.

See what I mean, the kid is crazy!! This is only one of a few of him being absolutely nuts!! He and Drew are complete opposites, Drew would never do anything like this and we cannot stop Jensen. He makes us laugh.

One of my very favorite pictures, Ella and her Dad. I don't know if you can quite see the look on her face, but she looks angelic and her eyes are all for daddy. She really loves him alot. She is an amazing part of our family too!

This is the morning we were getting ready to get off of the ship and go into Ensenada, Mexico. Ella woke up with a raging fever. We didn't know it at the time, but ended up seeing the ships doctor and she had strep throat. So fun on vacation!! Once we got the antibiotics, she perked up and ended her vacation just as happy as it started, but for that day, she was pretty pathetic.

My kids all in Mexico!! Sunny and 72 degrees - what more can I say??

Well, as you can see we had a great time. This is only a handful of the nearly 225 pictures that we took in 7 days. Wow. I am so grateful for the time that we got to spend together. We feel blessed everyday for the lives that we lead.

Drews black eye...

On Wednesday, Drew came home with his very first black eye, ( not bad for a kid as wild and crazy as Drew, after stitches and concussions when he was little, to make it to 12 witout a black eye is surprising).
They were playing football at recess and things got a little out of hand. They are supposed to play 2 hand touch, but it turned into more. Drew thinks that a boys jaw hit him in the eye, but he is not sure. There were several injuries and some crying, so needless to say football has now been taken away from the 6th grade boys for the rest of the year. It is actually a blessing in disguise for me, because that seems like when Drew would get in the most trouble at school. He loves the sport and cannot play without going "all out". In fact, Drew came home yesterday, surprised that he had not been called down to the office to meet with the principal. He said that everytime the overhead came on he was fully prepared to hear his name called with a "come to the principals office please" attached.....I don't know if that is something I should be blogging or not, oh well. Just another day in the life of ours.

Just a side note, the picture really does not do the eye justice, too bad!!

New Years Eve...

Last night was our annual "taco night" celebration for the New Year...anyone is invited and J.D. and I spend a good part of the day making stuff for tacos. I can't remember, but I think last night was our 4th year doing it. Each year is different, in terms of who comes, but the food is always the same. Tacos. They are good, and I think that everyone enjoys themselves. To be quite honest, it is not my favorite party, only because I feel like I can't visit enough with the people that come. My good-old stand-bys, my family I am sure, understands. I am sure everyone understands, but it is my worry. So, being too busy refilling empty dishes and making sure that things were kept kindof in order I forgot, really didn't even think about taking pictures. My bad. Better luck next year, because now that it has started there will be a next year. I think it is one of J.D.'s favorite nights of the year, he loves to serve others and loves to eat tacos...ha ha.

We did take down Christmas today though, so not fun. So in honor of our tree...here is one last pic!!