McKena turns 8!

This past week has been busy with birthday celebrations for McKena. The celebrating will continue through next month, as she will be baptized on April 9th. It's crazy that my little girl is this old! We are proud of her and the blessings that she brings to our family! I'm so glad I have at least one girl!

Weather Issues

This is what happens when amount of snow (below) starts to melt.

You can imagine how nice it looks now, because since I have taken these 2 pictures it has rained for 2 days. It will continue to rain through tomorrow. Now, I wanted the snow to melt, but come on Mother Nature, enough moisture!


SPRING?=FAR AWAY

New Table and Chairs

This is what we did with part of our tax refund this year. We have been using a table with only 4 chairs (for our family of 6) for long enough! Now all that's missing is the delicious dinner to go on top!

McKena's School Program

Every year the 2nd graders at our elementary put on a "Patriotic Program". This year, Mckena was chosen to be a narrator with another little friend. She worked and worked on her lines and did a wonderful job performing them.

Zack's 13th Birthday

So, here I am going to try to catch up a little, after 2 months of non-posting. Back in February Zack celebrated his 13th birthday. It was a little of an after-thought because he spent his actual birthday in St. George at a soccer tournament. But, we are glad he's made it another year and we are proud of the young man he is becoming. I guess John took these pictures, because of course I would have insisted he put on another shirt over his undershirt. Also, I would have taken one that wasn't from the side. Oh well, it's the best we've got.

What we've been up to:

My sister-n-law's grandpa owns a yacht in Huntington Harbor. He was nice enough to take us all for a little harbor cruise.

Zack helping navigate.

Colin and Bryant

Kade and McKena making use of the lounge chairs.

Loved seeing all the neat houses on the harbor. Some were pretty fancy.

Bigtime rollercoaster. Brett and Derik in front, Kade and Zack are behind.

Kade and his favorite, Lightning.

All the girls got matching hats.

Of course we have to pose with this guy.

John loves any and all vacations I make him go on.

I think this is called "Seal Rock" This is a little park where there is a look-out.

Nieces and McKena can't resist climbing all over the sculpture. My Mom and Gage in the background.

Kade insisted on having himself a picnic, and he did.

Most of the gang, the men and boys went to a LA Clippers game.

My sister-in-law's grandpa also has a house overlooking the ocean, this is his roof-top deck.

We spent a couple of days lounging by the pool. The weather was wonderful the entire time--10 degrees warmer than usual. Lindsay said it had been colder in Florida.

Kade and Campbelle enjoying the hot tub.

McKena, May, and Emma swimming.

Lots of pick-up games at the sports court.

We just got back from a week of vacation in sunny California with my entire family. We had a great time! The place we stayed was great and just right for a family reunion. There were lots of things to do on-site, as well as being next to the ocean and 20 minutes from Disneyland. We did a lot of sight-seeing, spent 3 days at Disneyland (always great), and spent some quality time together at the hotel playing games, swimming, visiting, etc. All of my family was able to be there for the week, so that was neat. Unfortunately, we had a bout with food poisoning on the last day (never great), but we'll try to forget that ever happened. Today we are back to school and work--sometimes reality is a hard thing! Thanks to all my family members for making the effort to come and to my parents for funding some of it!

Christmas

So all of the presents were opened and I was lounging around on the couch when I realized "I didn't take any pictures!" In order to preserve some memory of Christmas 2010 I took 1 picture of each kid, except as you can see Zack refused to pose. John did pose for me though, he got a treadmill. As we have no room in our house for a treadmill, its home is our front room. Nice, huh?