Pitiful, I know

Hopefully I'm back on track and will keep my blog updated more regularly. Things are going well here. Christmas (I can't believe I haven't updated since November) was great. We celebrated in CA with my parents. In January my brother married his wonderful wife, Julie. She is so much fun and they seem so happy together. We are truly thrilled to have her as part of the family, and it's also fun to be connected to her family through her. Her siblings and parents are just awesome! I'm still waiting for my dad to give me a disc with wedding pictures, so I can't post any...but follow the link to Reed All About It to meet Julie and Brian.

February FLEW by...what did we even do then???? The beginning of March brought with it some rain, and as usual, rivers of water leaking through our windows. We finally decided that the band aid solution wasn't going to work this time and we had to get serious about fixing the problem. The result is fantastic...re-installed NON-LEAKING windows! We're also re-painting because, due to the water leaking problems, we had a LOT of rotten wood.

My grandmother turned 92 this year (or was it 93???), so to celebrate her birthday we're meeting the Oregon McFarlands and families at the Oregon coast for an unofficial family reuntion the first weekend in April. Hopefully the weather will be nice, but we'll have fun regardless. I'm sure I'll have some nice pics to post-the coast is SO beautiful.

Our friends are moving (boo hoo)...we used to go to Disneyland with them all of the time when Tyler and Elise were little. Here is a picture of the old crew one last time...
We will miss them very much, but know they will have a blast in their new place.

Jason didn't want to pose for the picture...here he is with Tyler trying to get him to stay...super funny! This is such a classic picture. Sadly, this is what Jason looks like many-a-day when I ask Tyler to grab him before he runs off or before he does something naughty. The classic "arms pinned to his cheeks" is an image I will not soon forget! Sorry buddy!



In February (something we did that month!) I signed Elise up for ballet at a fantastic studio with a friend of hers from school. The teacher is just amazing and Elise loves it. Here's a bad pic...but all I have is video and I don't have the patience to upload it. Sorry! She is SO cute in her class. I LOVE to watch her.

Here's a really cute pic of the boys at...you guessed it...Disneyland.

Tyler is playing t-ball again this season...this time for the Mets. Yes, we know. Here's a pic of him taken by Wayne while posing for his official pic...
I think he was going for the "cool athlete" look. He's having a lot of fun and has a goal of hitting it out of the park. Go Tyler! I think he's having ALMOST as much fun playing as we are watching him play. It's the best!

Jason loves to steal Elise's bike helmet and go for a drive in his police car. You can also occasionally find him trying to ride Tyler's big bike (thankfully he can't get up by himself...although he's gotten close!). He is also INCREDIBLY obsessed with balls...basketballs, soccer balls, and baseballs. He steals Tyler's mitt and tries to catch the ball. He puts the basketball on top of the tee and tries to hit it. He throws the baseball in the basketball hoop. Yes, he's a little confused. He really gets it right more often than not, but it's not as fun to talk about! Wayne and I are hoping that he'll be our future meal ticket. :)

I guess that ought to do for now. I'm going to try and be better!

UGH!

So, can I say that we've been crazy busy and use that as an excuse for not updating our blog?????
I'm afraid that'll have to do. I'd better back up to November.

The last week of November brought with it adorable Thanksgiving feasts. Elise's school put on a darling program for the parents. Here's a little video I took with my digital camera. Elise was feeling a little bit shy with the video camera on her. Can you believe she's my daughter!!!

Sorry, it was taking over a half an hour to load the video. Here are some pics of her and Jason at the feast:

Jason played in this boat on the playground while Elise did her program.

Tyler's feast wasn't as elaborate, but was still fun. The kids got to create Native American vests which they wore to the feast. They got to eat all sorts of yummy food on the playground and then play for the rest of the school day. How fun is that! Elise and Jason got to come along for the fun.



After the Thanksgiving parties (or was it before????) I hosted cooking club at my house. It was great fun and we had 12 women there! That weekend was Tyler and Elise's final soccer games and soccer parties. Elise was so excited because her coach got all of the girls little Ariel polly pocket dolls. She slept with hers for a week! Here's a picture of Elise and her trophy. Tyler's party was at the same time so Jason and I went to his and Wayne to Tyler's. Wayne had a camera and I didn't. Well, I guess I had my phone. Sorry Tyler!

Following the soccer parties Wayne and I went to see Twilight with three other couples. Wayne actually read the book in order to "more fully criticize" the movie and ended up reading all four books in the series! It was so fun talking to him about them. Hee hee!

The video is taking forever to upload, so that's why this blog is getting longer and longer...........
The week after Thanksgiving was the bookclub Christmas party...SO much fun. Sorry, I don't have pics., followed by the ward Christmas party and Wayne's work holiday party. (Yes, the two were on the same night). My parents came up to take the kids to our ward party and Wayne and I were actually able to come to the beginning of it before we left for his work party. We heard that the kids had so much fun participating in the program and decorating gingergbread houses. Congrats Rachel on an awesome party! The pic of Wayne and I at his work party is so yucky that I will NEVER show it to anyone (Wayne looks great, I look awful). But here's a fuzzy pic from my phone of the club where it was held.

This past week we had parent/teacher conference, Wayne's brother's birthday, Tithing settlement, an Enrichment Cookie Exchange (went well, lots of people came), and a wedding on Saturday! This week isn't as busy...I'm going to Tyler's school on Wednesday to help him decorate a Gingerbread house and baking cookies to take to Elise's class for her Christmas party on Friday. Friday afternoon we'll head down to my mom's to decorate for her Christmas party (she's activities chair) and attend her party. My future sister-in-law (who I love!) is coming into town and we'll get to hang out with her and my brother at the party Friday night (hurray!) and then we're having an early partial Christmas with her Sat. morning before heading out to see BYU play AZ in the Las Vegas Bowl. Oops, I forgot to mention Wayne's birthday tomorrow! They set up an ice skating rink on the BEACH here and we're going to go there tomorrow night with some friends and my parents. PHEW! I'll try and post some more pictures after this weekend. It should be fun! All right, I'm done now. :)

California Adventure!

We had a great and busy weekend, which you will see from back to front, I'm afraid. Still need to remember to post the last thing first!

Anyway...Friday, Tyler and I went to see Cinderella (scroll down and you can see pics).
Then Saturday morning we went to the Tide pools (again...scroll down and see pics).
Saturday night we had promised the kids we would go to Disneyland. Despite the fact that geographically we are very far from the fires, the Santa Ana winds are blowing due West, so the smoke and ashes from the Yorba Linda fires are hitting us in full force. The kids' soccer games were cancelled because of the smoke, although it wasn't too bad at that time. Because of our promise, we thought we would try to go to Disneyland anyway. The smoke on the highway to Disneyland was really bad, but we thought we would see if it was better at the park. Miraculously, as we started heading south, the smoke cleared and the park was just fine! We ended up going to CA Adventure and had a great time.

They have an amazing playground that's based on the Redwood Forest that we had never been to before. There were slides, rope bridges, rock walls, little hiking trails and a cool tire swing activity. The kids had a blast!

Here's Tyler coming out of a redwood slide.

One of the rope bridges. They were super fun...even for big kids like Mommy and Daddy!

Our brave girl went on the tire swing, but Tyler was afraid it would go too fast. Elise was afraid of the rope bridges, however.

After we played on the playground the kids wanted to go on the river rafting ride. Thank goodness it was still a beautiful night! If you squint really hard you can see Wayne in this tube! The kids are beside him.

The Tide Pools

Saturday morning dawned very hot and sunny. The kids didn't feel like going out on the jetski, so we decided to head down to the tide pools. We arrived at high tide, so we didn't actually get to see any of the marine animals, but we still had fun hiking, collecting rocks, and wading in the water. The shoreline is made almost entirely of large rocks which make a really cool crackling noise as the water recedes. It was amazing to see the water crash almost at the base of the cliffs. When the tide is out, you can actually see sandy beach before the rock shoreline begins.

Here's Wayne and a rosy-cheeked Jason at the beginning of the hike.

And who could forget Elise and Harry Potter! There's a little nursery school at the base of the cliffs with a playground the kids like to play on.

Jason got all wet by a wave, so we had to take his shorts off. He loved being free to walk around and play in the rocks and sand.

You can't go to the beach without a sword fight...right?

Whachu talkin' about Willis??!

Mommy and kids...but where's Tyler???

Jason sacked out on the hike back up. Poor kid!

A Trip to the Theater

We've been reading Harry Potter to Tyler and he just loves the stories. A good friend let him have her Harry Potter glasses and he's been wearing them all weekend.

Look out! Tyler's using his favorite spell, "Alohomora!"











Tyler's Sunday School teacher gave our family tickets to see the musical Cinderella at the Armstrong Theater Friday night. It started too late for little Leesy, but not for our night owl Tyler! Daddy was very kind to stay home with Elise and Jason so that Tyler and I could enjoy our first trip to the theater. Tyler said that he would have liked to be one of the mice.

Trick o' Treat!

The kids were so excited to go Trick or Treating. Even Jason got into the spirit of things, despite being frightened by some of the decorations. He had a death grip on his little pumpkin pail and when we finally went home, hollered like mad when we took it away! One house gave large candy bars and he wouldn't let go of his great big Nestle Crunch bar. We had to distract him and hide it. He looked around for a good two minutes before he moved on to something new! It was fun having my parents come up too. My dad ended up carrying Jason on his shoulders the majority of the time.




Tyler went as a Jedi knight...he alternated between Obiwan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker, depending upon who asked. Here's a picture of him at his costume parade at school using the force on me.



Elise went as a fuzzy pink bunny. I think she just liked the costume because it was pink and soft! Sadly, her ears kept falling forward so she took them off for the majority of the trick o' treating. She was still cute though!



















Jason went as a cute little pumpkin. He, too, didn't like his headware and I couldn't get a single picture of him with it on. Oh well! He's still a super dooper cutie in my book! In that last picture he's thinking, "That pumpkin's got nothing on me!"

Disneyland!!

We love going to Disneyland. When Carol came to visit we said we were going to drag her there and assured her that it would be a different experience with her grandchildren than with teenage show choir kids. Sadly, one of the differences was she twisted her ankle boogie boarding (I forgot to mention that earlier!) the day before, but toughed it out. Despite the crowds and ankle injury, it was still fun.







We were lucky to also have one last evening at Disneyland with dear friends before they moved.



















I had to include these cute pics of Elise and Jason sleeping. Of course our "night owl" Tyler, as he likes to be known, was WIDE AWAKE! :)