{It's About Time...}

I know, I know...it's about time you heard from us; but it's been one of those years of Life!! No new babies; just busy with our babies-and since ours is almost five and the last post is when she turned four, I figured I better hurry and catch you up on her brothers first.

January- Ashtyn turned four as you've been reading about all year now (sorry about the stretch of time in between; but for those of you on facebook, it's just easier to post pics and not have to write about them:) Oh yeah, and this was Jantz's year in 3rd grade where they have book reports EVERY month...it was wax museum this month so of course we were busy dressing him up as David Beckham (yes, notice his awesome shirt that mom made with vinyl!!). He rocked in futsol too!! Ashtyn started her first dance class with Teacher Candice (our next door neighbor). She now wants to dress for dance every hour, every day!

February- We celebrated Nath's birthday and ran kids to basketball practice & games. Ashtyn decides to cut her hair, again, and we're back to a short hairdo!

March- blah! Always the longest month of the school year for teachers. No breaks, and inside recess. We did get to celebrate Kalei's 2nd birthday (Ashtyn's "sister") with her. These 2 girls are inseparable and she is one of our family!!

April- My favorite sister got married!! We traveled to North Carolina for her beautiful wedding in the Blue Ridge mountains. That was fun being home in the spring and seeing everyone; and getting some good cookin's! Did I mention that Ashtyn got to be her flower girl...she did great! We got to head up to Grandfather Mountain and spend some time with my sis and her new hubbie Kevin at the end!

Here's the family picture updated...luckily Randy proposed to Stephanie after; and well, maybe Brian will propose to Claire??

May- TONS more outdoor soccer but Jantz is playing more offense and doing great, Hope of America at BYU with Hayden but it was more for the social event for him to be there, dance recital for Ashtyn (who's wiggles made her the star of her dinosaur dance), and then many tears on the last day of school as I lost my best teaching partner/sister of many years. If I say much more, I'll not finish the post and end up in tears again (yeah, after this long, still missing Sydney!) Bye, bye, bye...I really have worked with some great teachers and miss them all; but Syd was always good to stay behind with me. I'm so happy she gets to be home with her girls though; and I can be here to keep everyone informed on the gossip I guess!

{Our Four Year Old}

January 18th Ashtyn turned 4 (even though sometimes it feels like fourteen with the new attitude she's getting!) We celebrated with family and she loved everyone thinking of her with princess's, horses, dance clothes, and her butterfly cake.

Some of Ashtyn's favorite things are books besides Fancy Nancy! She loves being read Green Eggs & Ham, The Three Little Pigs, and all the princess fairy tales. When asked what her favorite color is, she started to say pink; but stopped and said she loves them all...ALL the colors mom! Dancing has become her new love, and she got to start her first dance class at the Dance Depot in Lehi. She loves showing off for Teacher Candice (our wonderful neighbor too) and works hard to be the Star of the Show! This year she finally got to go to Sunbeams, and had a hard time at first, but now loves it and her newfound friends. The later schedule helped her fall asleep once during sharing time; and after falling off her chair, wouldn't go back easily. Now she can't wait to go and see her teacher Bro. Fautz!

Most of all, her new thing this year that we love is how she is always asking the funniest questions; like "how the roads are made". Where do kids think of these things? "How did Jesus make our bodies?" We were watching TV, and she noticed they were watching TV on TV...so she asks, "Is somebody watching us on TV mom?" And our favorite, she wanted to know where we could get India's puppies from...if they would be in a box, or at Walmart? Love this girl!

{Playing Catch Up}

So, I'll apologize beforehand...this year has been one of our busiest, and most trying (but I can blame that on my dad since he warned me of that during a father's blessing earlier in the year); thus no posts since my last break at Christmas. And now once again, I get to play catch up over summer break. We have a few changes to look forward to next year; I will still be teaching part time-but am loosing my other half (literally). I don't even know how much I'll miss teaching with Sydney Tea...but I know once August rolls around, I'll be feeling it profusely! Nath is also changing positions due to "budget cuts". He gets to teach kids at the prison next year; and is SO looking forward to that! I'll try to keep updated on that...after I catch up from 2010 so far!

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!