After Christmas fun

My boys love to hear their own voices on a microphone (which is one of the reasons they love to give talks in church), so we gave them a karaoke machine. I have to exchange it because the CD player doesn't work well (it was pretty cheap), but they love the microphone best anyway. They hook it up to our sound system, and it can get really loud. As Spencer told my parents today, we had a loud Christmas.

Even Levi loves to yell into it.

I love his trying-not-to-smile face.

Here's Dallin doing some stand-up comedy.

And Spencer playing ba-dum-ching! on the drums after the punchlines.


We crack ourselves up.

It was hard for Dave to leave the party and go to work everyday, so we met him for lunch at a nearby park one day.

Levi loved having everyone off school to play with him for two weeks.

Mormon Helping Hands

Last month we participated with a big service project our church does every year, called Mormon Helping Hands. There's an article about it in the Paso Robles Press with a picture of Dave and Dallin and my friend Nancy. I had fun chatting with her the whole time.

This year we went to Centennial Park to pick up trash and pull weeds along the walking path.

Levi learned the word trash while we were there. He was so good, just hanging out on Dave's back and saying "trash" the whole time.

Here's Spencer and Dallin with Nancy's daughter Kaitlyn.

And Tyler with her daughter Madelyn. This picture cracks me up. Tyler's just standing there with his hair sticking up, and Maddie's posing all cute.

The boys worked pretty hard, but there were so many distractions, like the huge caterpillar they're looking at here.

As Brennan saw me working on this blog, he said, "Remember the dog poop mom? That was nasty. Let's go back and see it again."

Lunch date

We like to meet Dave for lunch on Wednesdays, since he works closer to home and usually has a lighter schedule. We either go to a restaurant or eat at his office, but it's starting to warm up enough to go to the park again.

Levi was sick last week (fever and fatigue), and he's had a residual runny nose, cough and lots of crankiness this week. But he happily climbed all over the playground. The french fries may have helped his mood too.

The other boys get a bit jealous of these outings, so we have to remind Brennan not to brag about getting a kids meal at Wendy's and playing at the park with dad. School really gets in the way sometimes.

Levi's finally getting some hair! I mean he's always had at least a little bit of fuzz, but now it's long enough to stick out and light up in the sun. I love the lighting in this picture.

After we take Dave back to work, we always go in to visit with the ladies - his secretary and nurse.

As we were getting out of the car, Brennan said, "They think I'm cute and funny. Today I will show them my muscles." It's true. They laugh at everything he says, give him candy and let him dust the office and look at X-rays. It's a highlight of our week.

Helping Hands

Last Saturday we participated with the Mormon Helping Hands service project. There were 3 different parks in our town to choose from, and we went to the one closest to our house. There weren't nearly as many helpers compared to the park we went to last year, but we felt like we got a lot done in 2 1/2 hours.

We picked up trash and pulled weeds, and everyone was able to help out. Then when they got tired, they just played at the park. So that worked out well.

Levi was happy the whole time, which was amazing because it was during his morning nap. Then he slept all afternoon, like 5 hours.

It was a beautiful day - sunny with just a slight breeze, so we didn't get too hot.

When we came home we wanted to work on our own yard, so Spencer mowed the lawn while Dave and I trimmed all the bushes and even took out an ugly, overgrown rosemary bush that's been bugging me. I'm not used to manual labor, and I was wiped out that night. And super sore the next day.

Jacob's baptism, Dad's birthday

Saturday was my nephew's baptism, and he was so cute and excited. They did this thing I'd never seen before but really liked. While they were changing out of their wet clothing, we wrote messages on little note cards to the 2 children who got baptized. Wouldn't that be a cool thing to have from your baptism day? Then the whole weekend felt like a holiday - what with all the family around and not feeling like we had to do anything but eat and hang out. The baptism was in the morning so my dad could be there before heading off to work. Then we went over to Kristen's house for pizza. The kids played together happily all day, the men played sports and games, and the women visited and copied our favorite recipes to give to a friend for her wedding. Whenever one of the husbands came into the kitchen, he'd say, "You're still doing recipes?!" Actually, it was a lot of fun, and we only stopped because we had to get dinner ready before leaving for the reception. The kids hung out all evening watching movies while the men played more games (it's a good thing they have each other or else they'd never get to play their games) while the women enjoyed a beautiful wedding reception. It felt like girls night out, and we decided we need to do that more often. Then yesterday was my dad's birthday, so we all got together again after church for french dip sandwiches and cherry pies. You'd think by this point the kids would be sick of each other, but we went to the park this morning with a mom's group from church, and they were all excited to see each other there. Cousins are awesome.

Freezing at the beach, sweltering at the park

My sister-in-law Megan and her 4 kids are visiting from Maryland, so we all went to the beach yesterday for Memorial Day. Unfortunately it was cold and windy, so we didn't stay too long.
Here's Elizabeth warming up after playing in the waves.

Spencer & Tyler started out boogie boarding; but the waves were choppy and they kept getting pulled closer to the rocks, so we had them get out. They all played in the sand instead.

Then we went over to the shell shop where Spencer bought the leopard shark he's been wanting for months.

This afternoon we went with them to the park, and it was hot and sunny. They played on the playground for a little while, but soon they were all too hot. So they had a blast cooling off in the water fountain the rest of the time.

They had such a fun time and came home all happy.

Happy 1st day of spring

It's officially spring, and we've been enjoying the warm weather and budding trees. This week it was in the upper 70's, so I called Kristen and my friend Monica, and we all met at the dragon park. Eric and Brennan had both been cranky all morning, but they perked up once they got there and had a fun time. Sometimes we need a change of scenery to get us out of a funk. Dallin and Preston (in the orange shirts) have a funny friendship. They are always SO excited to play together and never want to leave each other, but they spend most of their time together fighting. They are both stubborn and always have to win. We get them together to play once or twice a week, but their relationship is almost comical. It will be interesting to see how they like being in Kindergarten together next year.

Naturally the kids all ended up down by the creek, throwing rocks in the water. It is just such a fun activity, and it never gets old. It's supposed to cool down today and tomorrow with possible rain, which is good. But it's been nice to have a taste of perfect weather.

Dragon Park

Yesterday afternoon Emily and I took 13 of the kids to the dragon park while Kristen and Nathan spent the day together for their anniversary, Dave and Troy worked, and Brennan napped.
They spent most of the time climbing this cool castle and dragon.One by one they each made it to the top from Peter on up, and everyone encouraged and congratulated along the way.

I just love Peter's smile in this shot.Whew! They made it. It was touch and go there for awhile, but when the younger kids got up they had to get up too. Talk about peer pressure.

Outing With Cousins

Today we dropped Brennan off with Kristen to take his nap, then picked up Jacob and Peter and headed over to the library. The boys all collected their first prize of the summer reading program - bugs that expand in water.
Then we played at the dragon park and enjoyed another beautiful not-too-hot day, which I could really get used to. This is totally acceptable weather, in my opinion (high of upper 80's to lower 90's). Afterwards we hung out at Kristen's house until it was time to pick up the big boys from camp. They came home with huge walking sticks, napkin holders and swords. It was a big craft day. Plus they went rock climbing on the climbing wall. Too bad it all comes to an end tomorrow.

Plan B

Yesterday we decided to go to the water park after school. It was a beautiful warm day, and I figured it wouldn't be too crowded since school isn't out yet. So we all got swimming suits on and lathered up with sunscreen. But when we got there the place was empty - closed, in fact. Turns out they have limited hours 'till summer. Slightly disappointed, I suggested we go across the street to one of our favorite parks and wade in the man-made pond. The boys loved the idea.

We had just woken Brennan up from his nap. Subdued, he mostly just watched from his stroller. This made my life much easier.

The pond has a fun little bridge and waterfall with lots of huge rocks to climb on. I worried the whole time that someone would slip and get hurt, which is why we haven't done this before. My excuse has always been that we weren't prepared with swimming suits and towels. But this time we were prepared, and they just had a blast.
Even Dallin went right in. I'm telling you, he used to want nothing to do with water, except for baths. At one point, as he was walking up the waterfall, I overheard him say to himself, "I'm one of the big boys. I can do this too!"

Spencer spent the whole time trying to catch fish with his bare hands. The pond is stocked with a ton of huge, really slow goldfish. He even recruited a couple of hispanic boys there to help him trap the fish. He kept almost catching them before they'd slip out of his arms. Finally, he figured out he could hold onto them easier if he stuck his finger in their mouths. Sure enough, he caught one, held it for a little while, then put it back in. That's when I figured we could go home. Afterwards he thanked me profusely for taking them there.