12 Posts before Christmas

On the first day of school, my true love gave to me, two cute boys now in 5th and 3rd grade...and as tall as can be.

Back to school means we get Kalei back at our house! These 2 have missed each other, and are no longer as quiet as a mouse!

Then we were so proud of our "cousin" CP when he was baptized and chose the right; I sure love these kids with all my might.

Can you tell Ash is excited about her first day of school? She thought her Tink backpack, teacher Wendy, (and mom) were so cool.

September brought many new things, and finally Uncle Kelly gave Aunt Jena a RING! Well, that happened in April, but to celebrate with them in Savannah, GA mom flew with her girl. Gorgeous southern homes, rides on the ocean waters, Piggly Wiggly stores, and shopping on the boardwalk with Dad's daughters.

We headed to our Atlantic beach for some warm sunshine fun, then that night celebrated with new family at the boat docks 'til one. (Well, some of them stayed that late, but not us old folk). Oh, and did I mention the great BBQ and oyster bake...Uncle Kelly showed us how; but I just couldn't take!

Jena's family treated us to a delicious breakfast, and we all enjoyed being together 'til the next wedding celebration that Kevin & Amy better give us!

Here's the parents new beautiful place, but it's too big for them to retire in, so if you want to buy it, it's got plenty of space! I hurried home for Jantzen's ninth birthday, a soccer cake, and too many presents I must say.

Fall brought soccer for us all, as we cheered our niece Harley-where Lehi almost made it to State (except for some horrible calls!)

Halloween was dark and light, but tons of candy was had by all that night. With Starkiller, Darth Maul, and Belle this year, the little sister was full of fear.

November was 11 years old for Hayden, with an Alex Rider spy glass cake for boys, not men.

Randy finally brought a friend for us to meet, and we loved Stephanie...isn't she sweet? So here it all is, it flew by like a flash; now the year's almost over, and I'm as tired as if I took a dash. If you're waiting for me to post Christmas too, you may be waiting a long time...when you know how much I do! Sorry this took so long, but I tried to make it sound like the song! We hope everyone had a great Christmas holiday as we did, and hold on to each of your family members and kids!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

...and finally

Yes, I know, this is still what we did over the summer, but I'm a little OCD so I guess that everything's gotta be in order and I need to get Halloween up before Christmas, so here's the last of the summer vacation in California with Legoland on the second day (which was just as fun as the first, if not more!) If you've ever taken a daughter to Disneyland to see the princesses, this is better than that for boys (although I wouldn't know since our girls never been to see the princesses because she went to Legoland)!! They couldn't wait to get back there...

and the boys were too busy building their own Bionicles to come out and get their pic with the real life one, so guess who got sent out for the picture!

Yeah, so here they're putting out fires against other families, and our team WON!! Even with Ash helping to drive!

Here's the LEGO family on their way into Legoland! Ashtyn ready for 3-D Bob the Builder, and the Lego pirate ride! Again cool creations!

And then the funnest, sickest ride ever from Knight's Kingdom that you can choose your level if the right size, from calm to high terror. Here the boys are being twisted all over, up & down.

No, not the NY city skyline, but the Lego city skyline! (Why won't my small images let me shrink them anymore to fit more on???)

Guess how many legos on this guy??? SOrRy, no idea! But too cool!

Recognize these famous sites? Yep, all Lego created right down to Pres. Obama at the White House. Now to mom's favorite place-the WARM beach! How nice that sounds as I watch the snowflakes falling outside right now at the end of October...we made it to Coronado Bay and the kids played in the CoLd (to me!!) Pacific waters. We buried Ash, saw dolphins, chased sea gulls, and relaxed. Then we headed inland for Nathan's reason to come back to San Diego-The Tin Fish. He's been craving sea food from here for 6+ years; and the place was still here next to the Padres baseball stadium!

We loved staying on the air force base and had to enjoy the airplane museum before heading back home!