Whiting Family

thirty something over par

2011-10-19T21:07:00.000-07:00

Will is full of surprises

2011-06-15T20:07:00.000-07:00

Will played baseball this year and really surprised us with his new talent! He went from not knowing a thing about baseball to being a really good player. He won the tough guy award. He took some hard hits by the pitching machine as catcher and didn't even shed a tear.

He came home from school one day and said, mom I need a shoe box. So I got one out for him and a bunch of art supplies and he made this whole diarama himself! The only thing I did was print out the title and photo for him. So creative.

His first grade class put on a play at the end of the year called "stone soup, a rock opera". He had so much fun with it! I was surprised at how outgoing he was, singing, dancing, and acting. Mike and I built the cardboard houses and pot. I took them into the classroom and let the students all paint them. They did a great job and had so much fun painting!

Nate's projects

2011-06-02T20:11:00.000-07:00

Nate has been involved with a bunch of projects lately which is just his thing...he loves to create and build. It's just a little stressful when the odyssey of the mind competition, pinewood derby race, and due date for model of a California mission along with written report are all in the same week. For the Odyssey of the Mind competition his group had to make cars powered by mousetraps The cars had to complete certain tasks such as going up and over a seesaw and going a certain distance then stopping. The competition was in Palm Springs and covered a large area of schools. They came in 6th place!

For the expert fair he decided to do his project on Guatemala, where his Dad served a mission.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

2011-03-17T23:30:00.001-07:00

We had fun celebrating St. Patrick's Day today. Normally we just wear green and leave it at that but today I made green eggs and pancakes. Jimmy woke up after everyone was already gone to school and I told him a leprechaun came in and turned our pancakes green.

I volunteered in Nate's class today at their St. Patrick's Day party...a great excuse to do some fun math games, science, and crafts. This is a 50 ft. long wind bag.

And of course, we all wore green.

Leprechauns came into Jimmy's preschool too and made a mess of gold glitter everywhere.
Here he is in the hat he made.

And last but not least, corn beef and cabbage for dinner (with potatoes and carrotts). So Good.

Will's first book

2011-02-19T13:57:00.001-08:00

Will's been getting better at drawing and is really into it. He also like's to make up stories. His favorite types of books to check out from the library are comic novels. So one day he just decided to make his own book. He wrote and illustrated it. He drew it in pencil so it's a little hard to see. He says he's going to sell his books for ten dollars :) I can't believe how well he draws for age 7.

I especially like the how to draw Max on the back page.

Coming soon... Max and the Robot Factory

Happy Valentine's Day!

2011-02-14T22:13:00.000-08:00

We didn't have school today because of budget cuts so we decided to make use of our passes for Disneyland/California Adventure. It wasn't too crowded but we thought so since we were spoiled from our last trip when we were able to walk right onto rides. We went a week and a half ago on a wednesday and our longest wait was 10 minutes. Yep, even space mountain and Dumbo. But we still had a great time today...the weather was perfect.

Gotta Have a Party!

2011-02-05T23:00:00.000-08:00

Will chose a pokemon party this year and wanted to invite only a few close friends. Fine with me! So we had it our house. I had my boys decorate using the many many many pokemon stuffed animals they own. As the boys arrived they played with balloons for almost 45 minutes! They made their own pokemon cards, we had a pokeball cake and pokemon pinata. I had other games planned but they had more fun just hanging out and playing. One of Will's friends told his mom it was the best birthday party he had ever been to.

Andrew played his Clarinet while we sang happy birthday to Will.

Andrew is 12!!

2011-01-30T22:39:00.000-08:00

Andrew's 12th birthday happened to be on a Sunday so how cool is that receiving the priesthood on your birthday! Nani and Papa, Grandma and Grandpa, and Aunt Tracy all came for his big day. Andrew is such a good boy. He makes such good choices, is very responsible and successful in all that he does. I forgot to get a picture of him after church but here he is when we went bowling to celebrate his birthday a couple days before.

Here's another photo of his first trip to the temple in San Diego to do baptisms in March with all of the youth in our ward.

Santa Barbara

2010-12-04T23:33:00.000-08:00

Mike and I went to Santa Barbara for a Christmas party/opening of his art at Cabana Home.

The food was yummy and we met a lot of great people. A couple of his art pieces were sold that night. We stayed in a beautiful hotel right on the beach...the Oceana. They had complimentary beach cruisers, so before we left for home we went for a ride along the coast and out onto the pier. It was a really fun getaway.

My baby's starting school!

2010-11-29T23:26:00.000-08:00

Disneyland decorated for Christmas

2010-11-28T23:20:00.000-08:00

Andrew's band concert

2010-11-16T21:51:00.000-08:00

Andrew is learning to play the clarinet this year at school. They have an excellent band program. He has gotten so good in just two months! They had their first band concert and it was so good! He's a natural. Unfortunately our video camera was out of commission. I'll have to try to video him playing at home sometime.

STAR WARS sugar cookies

2010-11-10T22:11:00.000-08:00

Nani and Papa sent star wars sugar cookie cutters, aprons, and sprinkles to us in the summer. The kids LOVE making sugar cookies. We finally got time this month to make them! Now everytime I make dinner Jimmy gets out his apron to wear and help me cook.

Halloween at Disneyland

2010-10-25T22:59:00.000-07:00

Will was totally into all of the decorations for Halloween.
Mike always wanted to try a turkey leg. Andrew and Nate ate most of it.

Waiting in line for the Toy Story ride.

Jim ate a ton of cotton candy and couldn't stop jumping up and down.

A Harry Potter Birthday

2010-10-15T23:11:00.000-07:00

For Nate's birthday we had a Quidditch match...Ravenclaw versus Hufflepuff.

Hufflepuff was ahead until Ravenclaw caught the snitch and tied the game!

Then we went to class. Transfiguration, care of magical creatures, and...

Potions

We finished the party with a feast. Pizza and pumpkin juice (cactus cooler).

And a Hedwig (the owl) cake

Happy Birtday Nate!

Yipee! Jim is 3!

2010-10-05T22:35:00.000-07:00

A few days before Jim's birthday we went out to buy the stuff for his party. He chose Toy Story as his theme. He was so excited about it! The next day he said, is today my party? Is it my birthday? Finally today came. We went to the park with friends despite the cold weather and played games...

comet toss

find the hidden army men

ate lunch

played on the playground (Jim was the captain of the ship)

and sang happy birthday and ate cupcakes.

When his brothers got home from school we had another party...

opened presents

played with presents

sang happy birthday again and ate more cupcakes.

When we were getting ready for bed Jim got sad and said I want my birthday again. I said you had such fun day you don't want it to end? Jim said, Ya.

Happy Smurf Day!

2010-09-21T23:14:00.000-07:00

the Perfect Beach day

2010-08-02T23:00:00.000-07:00

All summer has been so cloudy and cold at the beach. I was worried it would be the same when my sister and her family came to visit from Utah. But we got lucky and had a beautiful day at Moonlight beach.

We ended the day at Juanita's Taco Shop. mmmm... fish tacos....yum.

Padres Game

2010-07-31T22:47:00.000-07:00

What is summer without a baseball game? We went with our friends the Johnstons. The Padres have a picnic area in the back where you can watch the game, the kids can run around, and you can bring a picnic lunch.

Comic Con

2010-07-27T08:10:00.001-07:00

Here's just a taste of what the boys saw at the Comic Convention in San Diego.

Voltron Trying out new video games
Papa Smurf

Comic Book author, Stan Lee Boba Fett

Pac Man and Ghosts

The car from the Green Hornet

Characters from Harry Potter made completely out of Legos

Special Edition Graffiti My Little PonyStar Wars Toy DisplaysBumble Bee from TransformersSpeed bike from TronLive long and prosper (Star Trek)

Happy New Year!

2010-01-02T09:37:00.000-08:00

We ended our year with a day of skiing! It was Will and Jim's first day. Will picked it up great on the first run and Jim LOVED it.

Baptism Day

2009-11-27T23:40:00.000-08:00

Today Nate was baptized. We are so proud of him and his decision to follow the Savior. He was baptized with his cousin, Isabelle. Many of our immediate family members were able to attend. Izzie sang a beautiful solo at the baptism. There was a very special feeling watching these two. They are both so good and always trying to do what's right.

Happy Halloween!!

2009-10-31T22:34:00.000-07:00

Today was so beautiful. The weather was perfect. We had such a relaxing Halloween. We went for a bike ride during the day. In the late afternoon we got our costumes on and went trick or treating right in our neighborhood.

Halloween Parade

2009-10-29T00:04:00.000-07:00

We were in two parades...church and school.
Andrew's bat costume wasn't ready yet, so he dressed as a vampire.

Jim just liked pushing the trash can around instead of marching in the parade.

Will couldn't wear his ghost costume to school so he went as a ninja.

Nate is the cat in the hat.

Jim is a giraffe (he thought he was a leopard or something and would roar)

Snow before Halloween?!

2009-10-27T23:48:00.000-07:00

I can't believe we are already having our first snowfall for the year! The kids were so excited they put on all of their snow gear and played out in it using everybit of snow they could to make snowmen and snowballs.

Carving Pumpkins

2009-10-27T12:24:00.000-07:00

Every year Mike lets the kids draw a design for their pumpkin and he helps carve it.

Uncle Dan and his design of one of the characters from Monsters vs. Aliens.

Chuck O' Gramma

2009-10-20T23:39:00.000-07:00

My father in law is a pediatrician and one time one of his patients told him excitedly we are going to chuck o gramma for dinner!

It's actually Chuck O' Rama. It's an all you can eat restaurant. We went there for Mike's Grandma's Birthday. The kids were in heaven because they could pick whatever they wanted to eat for dinner instead of having to eat what's put in front of them at home.

Mike's parents, Great Aunt Nadine, and Grandma on the right.

First kindergarten fieldtrip

2009-10-19T23:29:00.000-07:00

I got to help with Will's first field trip... to the pumpkin patch. We saw the pumpkin patch, went through a corn maze, played on a playground, and picked out our own pumpkins. He loved it.

Nate the Great is Eight!

2009-10-17T22:48:00.000-07:00

What better place to take a bunch of boys for a birthday party than Jump On It! Lots of trampolines hooked together in a big warehouse. They jumped for an hour strait. Then back home for cake, ice cream, and presents. How lucky we are to have him in our family. I love his energy, creativity, friendliness, desire to do what's right, intelligence, and cheerfulness. Happy Birthday Nate!

A Monster Bash

2009-10-05T21:52:00.000-07:00

Jim had a monster 2nd birthday! Complete with pizza, monster bean bag toss, monster match, monster eyeball relay race, and monster cupcakes. Everyone got to create their own...

New Wave Funky Chicken

2009-09-29T21:36:00.000-07:00

Alpine Loop

2009-09-27T21:20:00.000-07:00

I love the fall.

My little artists

2009-09-18T21:07:00.000-07:00

India Fest

2009-09-12T20:47:00.000-07:00

When I was at BYU I went to an India Fest in Spanish Fork. It was on a farm with llamas and a house part of which was used for their prayers and worship. There was great Indian food, Indian dancers and all kinds of pictures about their traditions and beliefs. A couple hundred people attended. Since we are here again during India Fest Mike and I decided to take our kids to experience a little bit of another culture without having to go to the other side of the world. The llamas are still there but now there are a few thousand people who attend this event every year, a large temple has been built, an outdoor theatre for the dancing and the food unfortunately is not as good as it used to be.

24 hours in Austin Texas

2009-08-31T23:33:00.000-07:00

Don't mess with Texas

First day of school!

2009-08-21T21:49:00.000-07:00

It's a new school year and a new school! The kids get to ride the bus and they LOVE it! They are making new friends quickly. Will's response to the first day of school was, "It's too long." (he's only there for 3 hours :) )

keeping busy

2009-08-18T22:53:00.000-07:00

Utah is keeping us busy! We love being close to family. We went to the Spanish Fork fair with Mike's family, grandma, and great aunt., to my cousin, Jordan's, beautiful wedding, and to the Sundance outdoor theater with Mike's parents to see the Fantastiks.

Lehi

2009-08-10T21:06:00.000-07:00

We are living in the town where Footloose was filmed while Mike teaches at BYU for the semester. This is also the town where my grandmother and great grandmother lived. Our neighborhood is really cute. The chapel, a small library, and park are right around the corner.

Our summer ended with...

2009-08-05T22:01:00.000-07:00

a day at the children's museum in San Diego

and a day at the Beach for my dad's birthday.

And continued with...

2009-07-24T22:52:00.000-07:00

The school art show and auction. Each student in Andrew and Nate's class participated in making a Jackson Pollock style painting that was then auctioned off to raise money for the school.

All the students' personal artwork was also up for display.

Will's preschool (I mean kindergarten readiness) graduation.

Camping on the Beach (Carlsbad State Beach Campground) The kids love most riding their bikes, playing in the tent and making smores.

Breakfast at Leucadia Donut Shoppe

Cub Scout Camp

Wild Animal Park and San Diego Zoo

I'm not sure who's more wild, the animals or my boys.

4th of July. We camped on the beach (San Elijo Campground) with cousins...

and had a BBQ at the park with the Whiting traditional flag cake.

"Gus's Gang" Radebaugh family reunion on a ranch in Grover Utah near Capitol Reef. We went on hikes, saw petroglyphs, went to the swimming hole, played volleyball, jumped on the trampoline, caught lizards, played in the fort and on the swings, rode go carts, motorcylcles, and 4 wheelers, ate food, played board games at night, watched an occasional movie, held a special family home evening, and had a picnic lunch in the park...all in 3 days.

We also had visits from friends and family and many trips to the beach and pool.

Our summer began with...

2009-06-14T00:09:00.000-07:00

Mother's Day Tea Party at Will's preschool.

Nate's final baseball game and party.

Helping Andrew and Nate with science and family history projects.

Disneyland and California Adventure

School Open House

butter

2009-06-13T00:47:00.001-07:00

Why you shouldn't let your child butter their own pancake. The syrup is beading there is so much butter on there!

Strawberry Fields Forever

2009-04-20T22:28:00.000-07:00

My sister wanted to go to the strawberry fields in Carlsbad to pick our own strawberries so after 4 years of living here we finally went! We ate strawberry everything for a week. Strawberry shortcake, strawberries in our cereal, strawberries dipped in sugar, strawberries on waffles with whipped cream, strawberry jam. Yum Yum!!

New Pets

2009-04-15T00:07:00.000-07:00

A pair of mallord ducks have been hanging around the area and after feeding them some bread they decided to make our place a regular stop. The kids named them turk and chick (short for turkey and chicken). One day Mike was sitting at the kitchen table, looked up, and the female duck was in the middle of the living room. Jim gets extremely excited when the ducks come and can't stop yelling "Duck". And when they're not there he says, "Duck, wheawou?" (where are you)

Easter

2009-04-13T22:58:00.000-07:00

Coloring Eggs

Following the jelly bean trail to the baskets Easter morning.

Easter Egg Hunt at Grandma's

Aunt Tracy's cupcake chicks.

Pinewood Derby

2009-04-01T22:44:00.000-07:00

It's Andrew's third pinewood derby. This time his car looks like a snake. He took 4th place!! The night was fun with a potluck dinner, real racecar stuff decorations, the races, and Cars the movie in the back with coloring pages and popcorn for the little ones.

These are pictures Andrew took of his races.

Take me out to the ballgame...

2009-03-07T22:46:00.000-08:00

It's baseball season again! This time only one boy in our family is playing :). Nate is playing on the Phillies this year.

GO TEAM!

Legoland

2009-02-11T22:26:00.000-08:00

Last week was our last to use our Legoland passes before they expired. So we took the kids out of school one day. They were upset about that actually until we got there and there were no lines for the rides and they got to go on them again and again without even having to exit the roller coaster. It was heaven. Until it started raining, but we stayed anyway and the kids had a blast. We'll miss you legoland! (good thing we can go for free the last hour of the day!)

FIVE

2009-02-07T21:24:00.000-08:00

Will turned 5 today! We celebrated at Chuck E Cheese. It was a rainy day and I have never seen Chuck E Cheese with a line to get in. Will is a very funny guy but he does not like being laughed at. He used to get angry at the baby in the sun on Teletubbies because he thought the baby was laughing at him. He has an amazing grasp of sarcasm and dark humor for a child so young and is not afraid to say what he is thinking or feeling. He also has quite a grasp on words and how they are used. I keep meaning to do a "Will quote of the week" on my blog but haven't so here's the TOP 10 for tonight, Quotes by Will:

10. At the dinner table Will says, "I want Milk!" Mom says, "That's nice". Andrew says, "Mom, will you get me some milk please?" Mom, "OK, thank you for asking nicely." Will says, "I SAID I WANT MILK!" Mom, "That's nice." Will, "Why aren't you getting my milk?" Mom, "Because I'm waiting for you to ask nicely". Will, "But you said it was nice."

9. After the trunk or treat Halloween party we stopped by Ralph's grocery store and there were a bunch of college kids there in their Halloween costumes. One guy was dressed as a Roman gladiator (wearing only a loin cloth, sandals, and helmet). Will (age 3) sees him and says quite loudly, "Ha Ha that knight is naked!!"

8. If you know Will this is funny. At the toy store another 3 year old comes up and says "Hi my name is Timmy what's your name?" Will (he's only 3) looks at Mike and says, "Why is this kid talking to me, I hate this guy."

7. Will got a new beenie that's brown and yellow striped. He calls it his beehat. I asked him if he wanted to wear it to school and he said no. I said why not and he said because people will think I'm LOCO!

6. We were on our way somewhere and Will asked why we were going and I said, "Just for fun." Will said, "No not just for fun. I won't be having any fun."

5. Jim was just a couple months old and he was in his bed crying and before I could come in to get him Will calmly says, "Mom, take care of your baby."

4. At the grocery store Will started laughing and said "mom, mom what is this fruit called?" I said "it's a plum." He said "No, It's a bum fruit!"

3. We're at 7 11 to get a slurpee and Will sees the donuts and says "I really want a donut." Mike says, "I don't know, those donuts look old." Will says, "Your beard looks old."

2. At McDonald's Will was eating apple dippers and got caramel on his fingers and exclaimed, "AHH! I've been caramelized!!!"

1. Will's getting out of the bath and mom says, "Here's your towel, wrap it around you so your cousins won't see you." Will says, "Ya, so they won't see my penis [peeness] ....... and my poopness"

Andrew is a Decade!

2009-01-30T23:12:00.000-08:00

I can't believe my son is 10! What happened? He's only 2-3 years away from being a teenager. AHH! Have I taught him everything? Has he had a great childhood?

Here are 10 things I love about Andrew:

He loves to organize everything.

He likes to take care of young children and is good at it.

He is smart.

He plays every sport well, especially soccer.

He is good at getting William to cooperate.

He is helpful.

He is funny.

He likes good music.

He has great hair.

He is beautiful--he's my boy!

Inauguration Day

2009-01-19T23:04:00.000-08:00

We attended inauguration day at legoland! We saw Lego President Obama and many other lego political leaders.

low tide

2009-01-10T22:53:00.000-08:00

We're having a warm spell so we decided to go to the beach for a bit and then get tacos at one of our favorite places, Juanita's. It turned out to be low tide so we went to Swami's and saw lots of great stuff in the tide pools. Starfish, clam, sea anenome, we even saw spray from the whales out in the distance!!

Happy Holidays!

2008-12-25T23:21:00.000-08:00

A Green Thanksgiving

2008-11-30T23:42:00.000-08:00

For Thanksgiving my whole family came into town. We had a great time going to Disneyland, eating a big turkey dinner, playing at the beach and just being together.

Soccer

2008-11-15T23:30:00.000-08:00

This fall has been full of soccer. Andrew, Nate, and Will all played this year. We had practice 4 nights a week and games all day saturday. It was fun but we are ready for the season to be done. Good soccer playing, boys!

Raingutter Regatta Winner

2008-11-05T23:21:00.000-08:00

Congratulations second year in a row winner!

Happy Halloween!

2008-10-31T21:36:00.000-07:00

Halloween was a busy day this year. The kids all had parties at their school. Then after school we carved pumpkins. The kids drew their own designs and Mike cut them out. Jim even did his very own design which Mike interpreted into a face for the pumpkin. Then after a quick dinner the boys dressed up (Andrew-pumpkin, Nate-Ninja, Will-commander Cody star wars clone trooper, Jim-monkey) and we were off for a very warm evening of trick or treating.

Beach in October?

2008-10-30T23:07:00.000-07:00

We had a warm spell so I took Will and Jim to play at the beach. I love California.

Trunk or Treat

2008-10-27T22:13:00.000-07:00

Our church has a trunk or treat every year before Halloween. The cars line up in the parking lot with trunks decorated for the kids to go from trunk to trunk to get candy. Jim was in heaven with his newfound treat.

Seven

2008-10-18T22:45:00.000-07:00

Nate is 7! It was a long weekend from a birthday shout and book donation at school to his clone trooper party at the park and a special outing to see Weezer in concert, the boys favorite band, followed by his early morning soccer game the next day, at which he could barely run, complete with cupcakes for the team. Phew.

Nacho-o-o-o

2008-10-17T23:06:00.000-07:00

Will got out of the bath, saw his curly hair, and decided to be Nacho Libre for the day.

"drawrings"

2008-10-13T21:58:00.000-07:00

my kids love to draw...

"ice cream mustachio people" by will

"pig" by Will

"Wall-E" by Will

"Phanpy" by Andrew
"Ralts" by Andrew

"pumpkin patch" by Nate

"toilet" by Nate

Jim's 1st Birthday!

2008-10-05T22:14:00.001-07:00

Mario Kart Weeeeeeee

2008-06-15T21:36:00.000-07:00

Dinner Cruise

2008-06-07T23:31:00.000-07:00

My cousin, Jessica was married today. I feel like it was just yesterday I was babysitting her as a baby!!! She had a beautiful reception on a boat in Newport harbor. Dinner and dancing. She and Raimo met in ballroom dance so their first dance together as a married couple was amazing.

Tracy, my parents, Mike, James, and me.

James enjoyed the ride on the boat and trying to walk on the dancefloor.

Did someone say battle?

2008-06-07T00:12:00.000-07:00

My boys LOVE pokemon and they love to have their own battles: wrestling.

2008-06-06T23:58:00.000-07:00

Mike taught an art lesson in Nate's class. The students made sculptures based on Mike's work; Making an image using the fewest squares possible. The kids assembled pre cut wooden blocks together using wood glue and then painted them. They loved it.

Joshua Tree

2008-05-10T23:12:00.000-07:00

At the end of spring break we decided to camp at Joshua Tree. The campgrounds are on a first come first serve basis and unfortunately we got there at 6pm on a Friday night and every campground in the entire park was full and had been since Wed. So we found a motel in Yucca. It was very cool.

We spent the next day in the national park.

From all of the rain this year the desert was blooming. Gorgeous!

We were able to secure a campsite for the next night as we found someone leaving. We camped in Jumbo Rock campground. Each campsite is surrounded by huge rocks on which the boys loved climbing.

Skull rock is just a short hike from our campsite.

The Cholla Cactus Garden is amazing.

At the end of our trip the boys received their Junior Ranger badges.

Mind Control

2008-05-05T23:03:00.000-07:00

Happy Easter!

2008-05-01T23:26:00.001-07:00

Easter morning.

An attempt to get an Easter Sunday picture

Easter egg hunt at Grandma's

The Lovebird Wedding

2008-04-25T23:23:00.001-07:00

My cousin Alison was married in March and had a theme for her wedding, lovebirds. Her wedding planner (Heather Balliet) did an excellent job. She is in my ward and was my sister in law's roommate in college. My sister, Tracy, made the wedding dress and did Alison's hair and makeup for the big day. We took baby James to the reception and he had a blast dancing with everyone!

The lovebirds, Eric and Alison

the table setting

Jimmy dancing!

Harry Potter

2008-04-25T23:09:00.001-07:00

When Andrew was 4 he had two favorite movies, Harry Potter and Star Wars Episode I. Since then he has had nothing to do with Harry Potter. Then in February, out of nowhere, he started reading the Harry Potter books beginning with book 2. He couldn't get enough of it. He read constantly. I could only get him to stop to eat and barely to go to school. He read all 6 books in a month and a half. I am glad he loves to read.
Here he is reading...pretty much everywhere we went.

Cousins

2008-04-25T22:31:00.000-07:00

At the last minute we decided to go to Arizona for the weekend to see Mike's sister and her family, his brother, and his mom who was there visiting from Utah. The kids were excited to meet their newest cousin, Oliver. (This was in March. Yes I am trying to catch up on my blogging.)
James and Oliver

the whole crew

CAKE

2008-04-22T21:32:00.000-07:00

My favorite dessert is cake. I never realized how much fun I would have making creative cakes until I had kids. For the cub scout blue and gold banquet each scout had to make a cake to auction off. Andrew wanted to make a R2D2 cake. He did all of the mixing and baking. I helped with the decorating. We threw in some Ewok cupcakes at the last minute. Here are some more cakes I had fun making from the past.

New Year's Day

2008-04-20T23:05:00.000-07:00

On New Year's Day we went to Newport Beach with our cousins the Sims. We ate at our favorite burger place, TK Burger. Then we relaxed and played on the beach. It was a very clear day. We could see Catalina Island. The lighting was amazing. The kids had a blast playing in the sand.

Sisters

William chased and chased the birds until ...

he dropped.

Kya was hilarious.

Finding Sea Shells.

Christmas 2007

2008-01-25T10:56:00.000-08:00

Christmas Eve at Lego Land

Jim's First Christmas!

New Pajamas!

Homemade cinnamon rolls for breakfast. mmmm... mouthwatering.

Christmas Dinner at Great Grandma's.

Visit to the Air museum at March Air Force Base. My grandpa flew this type of plane in WWII.

FREE Frozen Yogurt at Grandpa's Golden Spoon.

Cousins.

what we've been up to

2007-12-19T23:51:00.000-08:00

Two weeks after the birth of James we had to evacuate our home in the middle of the night from one of the many San Diego fires. Mike was out of town and luckily my mother in law was with me and able to help. We evacuated to our church building. Later that day my mother in law flew back to Utah and I went up to Riverside and stayed with my parents until Mike returned home and things were safe. This photo is a view of the smoke from our church building.

Mike was out of town because he was setting up for his show at Plus Gallery in Denver, CO. Here he is on opening night and a view of the whole show.

James's first bath. He loved it. As soon as he got in the warm water he peed strait up in the air. His brothers thought it was the funniest thing they'd ever seen.

James's first smiles. William can't get enough of holding him.

Nate's first lost tooth. It was very loose and the new tooth was already coming through so Mike tied floss around it to pull it out, only it still wouldn't budge and the floss was stuck on the tooth. He called Uncle Ben (dentist) who advised us to grab it with a tissue, twist, and pull. It came right out with the floss still stuck tight.

Halloween. Andrew was a ghost, Nate a vampire, and Will a ninja.

Andrew won first place in his first raingutter regatta. He built a catamaran and named it carrot sticks.

We spent the week of Thanksgiving in Utah. The first half with my family, the second with Mike's. It was a great week!

The boys are adjusting well to the new baby. Andrew is very good at holding and rocking the baby to sleep and also cooking meals (cheese quesadillas are his specialty) for the family when I have to nurse. Nate and Will also love to help. What good big brothers to read to James while I make dinner.

"We saw Santa in his little house wearing his pajama shirt." --William

And what have I been up to? Nursing the baby mostly and taking care of all of my men!

James Robert

2007-10-15T11:35:00.000-07:00

Our new baby boy is such a joy to our family. The boys love to take turns holding him. William can't wait for him to play video games. We love you Jimmie!

8 lbs 15 oz

2007-10-08T21:19:00.000-07:00

Oct 5, 2007

Smiling in between contractions

Ewok Gatorade Whiting (as named by William)

4 boys!

Camping at San Elijo State Beach

2007-07-27T22:46:00.001-07:00

A week after we got home from Seattle we decided we needed to go camping again. We camped a few miles from our home at San Elijo Sate Beach. We had a good time playing at the beach and hanging out at our campsite.

Nate tried to eat all of his lunchables in one bite.

Getting buried wasn't as much fun as Andrew made it look.

At the campsite the boys spent a lot of time in the tree trying to see the trains go by. Andrew said the top of the tree looked like a small jungle. He took this picture to show us.

It's a boy!

2007-06-19T21:14:00.000-07:00

We are having another boy. number four. He's due Oct 11. We are having difficulties coming up with another boy name. William thinks we should name him "Awesome Baby" or "What The". Andrew and Nate keep coming up with Pokemon names we should use. What do you suggest?

Road Trip

2007-06-18T10:12:00.000-07:00

To start the summer we took a road trip from San Diego to Seattle and back again. On the way up we took the 1 and 101 the entire way along the coast. Our first stop was in Los Angeles where we ate lunch at Tito's Tacos. Our second stop was in Santa Barbara. We stretched our legs and the boys played at the playground on the beach. The next stop was in San Luis Obispo. We visited gum alley. People have been sticking their gum there since the 50's. The California coast is beautiful. We camped in Big Sur that night.

The next day we stopped in Santa Cruz and went on some rides on the Boardwalk then walked down to the beach. We ate curry for dinner in San Francisco and drove across the golden gate bridge in the fog. We stayed in a 50's motor lodge in Fort Bragg.

Our third day was mostly spent in the Redwood Forest. We drove through a tree and went on a hike in the rain looking for Ewoks. We didn't find any. We spent the night in a yurt on the Oregon coast.

Our fourth day we drove up the Oregon coast ending in Olympia WA. The Oregon coast is beautiful. We made a lot of stops. The kids loved running along the beach looking for rocks and shells. We stopped at Mo's for lunch and ate the best clam chowder and homemade bread. We walked to the top of Yaquina Head lighthouse, the tallest lighthouse on the Oregon coast. We toured the Tillamook Cheese Factory, ate free samples of cheese and yummy ice cream. Before heading to Olympia we made a stop to see the house from Goonies in Astoria. Goonies never say die!

In Olympia we stayed with our friends, the Pendrods. We were able to visit many friends and family in the Seattle area; my cousin Peter and family, friend from high school Miriam and her three girls, Mike's cousin Aaron and family, and Mike's Uncle Todd and his family. Mike worked on his sculptures at the skateboard park in Kent getting ready for the grand opening. The boys played on the climbing walls and in the bowls while he worked. It rained during the opening so there wasn't much of a bike and skateboard team performance. But a band played, raffles, prizes (Andrew won skateboard bearings), hot dogs, speeches from those involved with the park, and the ribbon cutting. Mike's parents flew out for the event. In Seattle we went through the EMP (experience music project), saw the space needle, walked through Olympic sculpture park and along the Puget Sound.

On our way south to San Francisco we stopped in Portland, Oregon and ate at VooDoo Donuts. They make the yummiest donuts with the craziest concoctions on top. Donuts with Captain Crunch on top, grape pixie stick, voodoo doll donut, and the evil donut to name a few. That night we stopped by Mt. Shasta and stayed in the Railroad Park Resort. Each pacific railroad caboose was a motel room.

In the Bay area we stayed with our friends, the Fullers (from Brooklyn) and I saw another friend from high school, Sara who just had her 2nd baby. In San Francisco we went through Fisherman's Wharf and Pier 39, saw Alcatraz, the Golden Gate Bridge, drove down Lombard street and rode on a trolley car. The kids were definitely ready to get home by this point.

I finally started a blog.

2007-06-18T09:22:00.000-07:00

I'm not the best at keeping in touch except for the yearly Christmas card. So I thought this would be a good way to let everyone know what our family is up to. I hate writing so we'll see how long I can keep this up.