Visiting Great Grandpa and Grandma

We were able to spend a weekend visiting my Grandparents. After stopping off at our hotel and getting a bite to eat we met them at their house then headed to the beach.

It was a little chilly, but the kids didn't care. We had such a wonderful time!

Luke loved the water. It was fun to just sit and relax at the beach and to watch the kids enjoy it. (I love this picture!)

Violatte was so happy to be at the beach again! She just loves it there!

Annalee loved playing in the water.

Grandpa watching his great-grandson play on the beach.

After playing at the beach we headed back to my Gradparents' house for Thanksgiving dinner. We also played games and the girls helped decorate their Christmas tree.

The next morning we met at Balboa island to ride the ferry across. The kids absolutely loved it, especially Luke! He wanted to ride it many more times.

I absolutely love this picture of Violatte and her Great-Grandpa looking out across the water.

Annalee loved watching the water and the other boats.

I took this picture just after we got off the ferry.

I took the girls on a ferris ride. Annalee was scared, but Violatte was so excited to be riding it. Annalee gripped the bar in front of her the whole time, and leaned her head on her hands. She also had her eyes squeezed shut almost the whole time. Violatte kept laughing and shouting, "Wheee!!!!!" We had such a wonderful time. (We're in the blue seats.)

After the ferry ride and the ferris wheel we all went to the Santa Ana zoo. We had a wonderful time. There were lots of monkeys and fun animals to see!

Next, we went to the Rainforest Cafe. That is one of our favorite restuarants to go to when we visit Grandpa and Grandma.

While we were waiting for our dinner, Annalee started to get sleepy. It had been a long, fun day!

Luke loved coloring on the papers while we waited for our dinner.

My handsome husband. He's so wonderful!

Throughout the meal there were "lightning storms" and animals that moved and made noise. Violatte especially loved the gorillas that were standing right behind Jim.

Luke wasn't quite sure what he thought of the lightning storms and the animals all around.

The very last thing we did was take a ride on the carousel. Violatte knew what it was all about and was so excited to ride. (In this picture she is wearing the balloon princess crown that a girl at the restaurant made for her.)

Annalee loved the Carousel.

Luke really seemed to enjoy it. He was especially fascinated with the lights.

We had such a wonderful time visiting! Thank you Grandpa and Grandma!

Memory Lane - Violatte

Here are some pictures of Violatte from the past year.

Violatte drew this Christmas tree all by herself. She is really talented with art. (And she is such a beautiful little girl!)

This was her Halloween costume last year. She felt so cute in it. Wow, she has really grown up from a year ago!

At a primary activity. She loved going down the water slide and kept going over and over.

Coloring her princess pictures. Princesses are her favorite things!

She is such a funny girl!

Memory Lane -- Annalee

Here are a bunch of pictures of Annalee.

This is Annee with one of the first eggs we got from our chickens. She really loves to gather the eggs!

Although I look scary in this picture, I was actually very happy. I don't get many chances to cuddle my sweet Annee. I sure do love her.

Coloring her princess pictures. (She loves princesses!!!)

Annalee loves to draw on the whiteboards we have for school.

I really loves this picture of her. She is so darling.

Annalee loves her dolls. She is so sweet with them. (And can I mention what beautiful eyes she has?!?)

It amazes me how much younger she looks in this picture! This was probably taken about a year ago. My, how time flies!

This is during conference. We set up a tent facing towards the prophets and the kids had packets that I put together for them to color and write in while they listened. Annalee loved the tent and spent so much time in there.

Memory Lane - Luke

Here are more picture. This time they are some of Luke from quite a while ago. He sure has grown!

Ah, what a handsome little guy.

Jim and Luke. I can't believe how small Luke is in this picture.

Luke fell asleep in his swing like this one day. It looks so uncomfortable to me, but he seemed absolutely comfortable.

Luke loved to put his binky in his mouth backwards and upside down.

A Whole Lot of Random Pictures

I found a whole lot of pictures that I have wanted to post on my blog. They're not in order by date -- there's just a whole lot of random pictures.


Yup. That is Luke. Sitting in the mud in the garden drinking from the sprinkler.
Yup, that's him doing it again . . . the very next day.

I found this poor man tied up on the chair like this one day after the kids went to bed. If I remember right, he was Captain Hook from "Peter Pan".

I giggle everytime I see this picture. This was taken at a homeschool meeting. The kids were pouring rose petals on him and he made this face just as his picture was being taken each time. What a funny kid!

Jim and Violatte were bored one morning. . .so they decided to take pictures.

Hee hee. I love these two!!

This is Luke helping to water the chickens. He loves to help and he loves the chickens!!


Luke and his daddy.

Annalee and I had fun playing with my camera one day.

Annalee with Charlotte the chicken. This sweet chicken was given to us by some of our friends. She is soft like a kitten and actually likes to cuddle.

She even likes to cuddle up to your neck if you put her on your shoulder.

Jim really loves this motorcycle that we got recently. Luke loves it too! (Don't worry. I don't let Jim ride it with Luke on it.)

. . .and this is why I dread doing the girls' hair in the morning.

This is Luke and I. He loves to sit with me when I play the piano. He's such a sweet little guy.

Halloween 2010 . . . finally

Halloween was a lot of fun this year. We had a ward trunk-or-treat as usual. It was freezing!!! But, we still had a good time. Violatte was a witch (the cutest one ever, I might add!), Annalee was a sweet little princess, Luke was tigger, and Jim was a cowboy. (I love how he looks in his hat!!!!!) I did dress up as a pirate as well.

Unfortuantely, we were having too much fun and I forgot to take pictures for most of the time, but here are the few I did take.

It was getting dark by the time I took this picture, but here is my fun family!



A candy in each hand! What could be better?



Luke had the time of his life! (Notice the chocolate in his teeth?)