Winter at the beach

Nothing like a little sand between the toes!

Nate, Jenny, Porter and Aubrey

This was Porter and Aubrey's 1st trip to the beach. Even though we didn't swim in the water. The kids got their feet wet and played in the sand. Malachi, Naomi and Cassidy helped look for seashells for them to take home. We got quite the collection.

Malachi

Naomi

Cassidy climbing up a sand hill.

Jenny was so sweet to Malachi. I had Liberty straped to me so Jenny went and kicked the soccer ball with him.

My little brother Nate and I. O.k. what happened to my hair???

Return of the Nudy Dance!

The day started out normal kids playing laughing and enjoying their selves. Well Cassidy is our nudy child. She's the one kid that will strip down and run wild. After she does her nudy dance where she shakes her hips side to side singing "nudy, nudy." So once she striped down our Porter and Aubrey thought it was funny and decided to join in. Naomi and Chi couldn't let them have all the fun so they all took a piece of clothing off and ran wild. They were laughing like it was going out of style. Silly kids! I can assure you none of the adults joined in. \"/

"I'm 40% sure this is the San Diego Zoo"

Of coarse it's the San Diego Zoo! (For all you Madagascar 2 fans Melman the Giraffe keeps thinking they are in San Diego and says the quote I used for the title) This was the 1st trip to the zoo for my kids as well as Nate and Jenny's kids. Jenny and I took the kids for the day. They were such troopers with all the walking, but had soooo much fun seeing all the cool animals.

Giddy up Polar Bear!

Cassi and Aubrey hanging out in the stroller.

We got to see the cute Panda.

This is my favorite animal the Elephant. They are amazing!!!

What a day... ya all come back ya hear.

We're waiting!!!

Malachi, Naomi, Cassidy, Porter, and Aubrey all ready to jump in the pool. The hardest part was waiting for it to heat.
We went into the hot tub one of the first few nights. All the kids were so anxious to get in.

Naomi swimming like a fish.

Malachi goes in for the dunk over Uncle Nate.

"No fear" Aubrey jumps right in to Nate.

Let the games begin!

Jenny, Porter and Aubrey.

The kids love to swim so we decided to heat the pool for a day of swimming. They were in and out a few times that day. It was a lot of fun.

Did You See The Junk Drawer?

I came to the conclusion today I can no longer handle having jobs half done in our home. Since I cleaned out the laundry room this week I wanted to finish by cleaning out the junk drawer. So I spent a good hour cleaning it out and yes organizing it. I am very obsessive about being organized. Everything has a place in my home. So after completing this project I felt pretty good about our laundry room. About an hour later Darren and I were in the kitchen and I said, "Did you see the junk drawer?" His answer was "Did you see I took the trash out?" My answer: "Touche." Even though we complete these little projects and feel good about tackling them. They usually are thankless and go unnoticed. So here's to all you junk drawer people! May we continue in our little thankless, yet needed organizing of our homes. \"/

We're Yellow Belts!

Malachi and Naomi started taking Karate in November. They just tested for their yellow belts this month and passed. They were so excited. Now all they do is go around the house yelling "Ay" which they are asked to do when they kick or punch. So they are loving Karate so much I wake up to a loud "Ay". They love to practice all hours of the day.

Let's Go Fly a Kite!

When I was a kid we would have Special Nights. We would get to stay up late and do something special with our mom or dad. So I wanted to start implementing that in my family. So one day each week one kid gets their special night. So today was Naomi's special night. She has really wanted to fly her kite the last week or so, but there has not been enough wind. Well today was windy (and cold) but not raining yet. So I got the kite out and said lets go. We went down to the park and I taught her how to fly a kite. At first she was pretty nervous to take the kite by herself, but she did it. She had a lot of fun. Her smile was priceless. Kite flying, what a great pass time. Well after a good amount of time the rain started to fall. So we packed up and walked home in the rain. It was fun to have the one on one time with Naomi and I look forward to the next special night with the next kid.

TWISTED!

Our family are huge gamers. Even the kids love games. Naomi got Twister for her b-day. The kids thought it was the funnest.

Easy does it. Cassidy falling over trying to reach for a spot.

All that game playing tuckered Cassidy right out. She fell asleep in our bed for a nice long nap.

Break time!

Malachi loves games so much he couldn't resist a new one. Even if it's called Pretty Pretty Princess. He said it was all Prince Jewelry. Right!