We ended our trip by going to the beach with Jordan, Amber and Mavrik. Chris, Jordan, and Nick rented boogie boards and a surf board. The waves were giant that day and Nick was pretty terrified. I was going to try and show him how to boogie board, but one big splash sent me running back to the blanket. IT WAS FREEZING!! Chris and Jordan gave it a try for a while and caught some good waves.

I pent my time digging holes to bury my kids. They got a real kick out of it, doing it over and over.

It was a great way to end our vacation. Hopefully we will get back to the beach before this baby is born!!

I know!! Picture overload!!

We spent the entire first day at Disneyland and boy were we pooped! So much to do and so little time. We thought we picked a great time to go, but it was California's spring break so it was pretty busy.

We still had lots of fun waiting in line and chasing characters around.

Day 2 was St. Patrick's Day! My mom got all of us matching shirts to wear, so that was fun. I am still a little bummed that we never got a picture of everyone together. It was kind of funny, lots of people would see us walk by all in green and say " I guess today must be St. Patrick's Day."
I guess so!

Chloe got an autograph book and loved trying to collect all their autographs. And I was really excited that all my kids would go see them. I was shocked that Cooper wasn't scared. He absolutely loved seeing all them. Sometimes he even tried to cut in line he was so excited to see them!

Now that I have 4 kids that all have their initials in CALIFORNIA it was very important that our new baby start with one too! (So next visit it will be N- C- A- C- A)

Next time we take a trip to Disney we will have to devote a whole day to character chasing!

Thanks MOM & DAD for a fun trip!! We had lots of tiring FUN!!

Our little Trip

A couple of weeks ago my parents took the whole family on a little vacation to California as part of our Christmas present last year. The first day we were there we headed to the beach to play in the sand a little. Josh and Amber and their kids joined us.

Chloe loved looking for shells, Nick and Alex loved throwing sand at the seagulls, Cooper and Everett made cakes in the sand, and little Ellie had herself some sand!

After the kids soaked their pants we headed off to Shakey's Pizza to meet my mom and dad and Jordan and Amber for dinner.

Playgroup Egg hunt

Yesterday was our ward's playgroup Easter egg hunt. The kids were super excited and walked away with lots of candy!
So we spent the majority of the day hanging out at the park enjoying the beautiful weather and good company!

Cooper has been on this kick that he wants to just run home from wherever we are. When we are leaving church every week he always asks me if he can run home. Most of the time I make him angry, telling him no, and buckling him up, while trying to explain that it is way too far. But since we had nothing else better to do I figured I would let him go for it. I knew he would never make it home , but he could sure try. Nick was his running buddy while I drove next to them. They barely left the parking lot of the park when they spotted the peacocks. I guess I have passed my scare of birds onto my children. They both refused to go any further!

We always stop and feed them on our way home from the park. I throw whatever leftover snacks out the window and roll it back up as fast as I can. And the swarm appears. I think we have had about 20-25 peacocks surrounding our car at one time. So when the kids want to continue feeding them I have them throw out the snacks and scream at them to move their arms so I don't roll it up in the window. It is all fun to see them come until one of them gets greedy for more and tries to fly into my window!! Everyone laughs at me when I tell them this, but after seeing one on a roof I KNOW that one could come into my car for sure!

My baby isn't a baby anymore!

Three years ago today I had what I thought then was going to be my last baby. I was determined that he was going to be a 'mama's boy'. Little did I know I would really get what I wished for. But over the last year he has changed into my little buddy!

Cooper is different than the rest of our kids. We call him our troublemaker. He brings alot of spunk and mischief to our family and also alot of LOVE.

Most days Cooper and I have this coversation:

C: "I missed you."

M: "I missed you too!"

C: " I love you."

M: " I love you-u!"

C: "We best friends. Huh?"

Some days it is tiring, that he doesn't want anybody but me, that he always cries when I leave him, that he gets away with everything, that I still carry him all the time but I wouldn't change a thing... we are BEST FRIENDS!

Happy 3rd Birthday Buddy!!

I love you!!

Yesterday we had a party to celebrate Cooper's 3rd birthday. He has been waiting patiently for a very long time. Most days he would tell me, it is taking forever!". But the day finally came and he was grinning all day! I found a Buzz jump-a-line (bounce house) that made the party a blast and wore out all the kids! He totally made out with tons of cool stuff, mostly Buzz stuff. I think that his party was everything he wanted it to be. I am glad he had a great day!!

Already an embarassment!

Last week Nick took his first bus ride on his first field trip. I was one of the chaperones and we went to the Natural History Museum. I wasn't really excited that that was where we were going, but it was actually pretty neat and Nick had a fun time learning about all the different stuff.
Nick is so bashful that all it takes is for me to smile directly at him and he gets all embarrassed. So for me to smile at him with his friends around was the absolute worst! When we got back to the school parents had the option to stay and have lunch with their kids, but Nick asked me to leave. He had had enough embarrassment for one day. Chris asked him why he was so embarrassed to have me there and just as I thought he would say, he said, "she always smiles at me!". At least the kids in his class thought I was cool. They fought over who got to sit by me on the bus.