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| Here's the family at the beginning of the trail through Cascade Springs |
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| Over exposed picture of Maddy and Emma at the Balloon launch. Seriously, I have some many cool pictures of that morning, why am I too lazy to replace this one? |
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| Beautiful Sundance |
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| Matthew walking into the park. Our hotel was perfectly located and we walked into the park each day. |
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| Provo parade. So fun. |
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| While up at Sundance Mark and I snuck away for a peaceful hot cocoa and to watch the rain (which only lasted an hour). |
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| Playing in the Virgin River. Are you wondering why my pictures are all out of order? So am I. |
It is easy to see the beauty all around you when you start off your day on the right foot. This morning, after dropping Matthew off at preschool, I was headed to the grocery store. I was over in Encinitas near the local Sprout's--I was also fairly close to the ocean. Well, not really, I couldn't see it from where I was, but it called to me. It said something like, "you can grocery shop later...come, walk along the 101...I promise you'll be glad you did...the dolphins are out playing, maybe you'll see one (I did)...It's beautiful out today..." CRAZY. The next thing I knew, I had passed the store parking lot and was pulling into the lot at Swami's. What a perfect way to begin my day. I promise to always listen when the ocean speaks to me.
Later, at home after my lovely three mile walk along the coast, I noticed many other beautiful things. Like this little guy. He's almost four months old now and is the sweetest baby we could have hoped for.
And..I can't decide whether I like the pink bougainvillea that are finally growning on our hill more, or if I like the sight of a chocolate covered cinamon bear with his head bitten off better . They are both beautiful, if you ask me.
I love seeing this guy eat a good lunch, even if he had a few gummy worms on his plate next to his sandwich. He usually eats like a bird.
Today was a beautiful day for Luke's Blessing. We were so happy to have some of our family drive down to join us. Mark gave Luke a beautiful blessing with Don, Dave, and the bishopric standing in the circle.
I couldn't help but think of all of our children today and their journeys to our family. I remembered that there were many times that we wondered if we would be blessed with more than one child. And thought of the years that we tried to be content with just two. After our third child was born, I finally felt at peace and the constant longing for a larger family had ended, though in my heart I still wanted more. What a welcome surprise Luke was!! What a joy Luke is!! We feel so blessed today for our beautiful family, for the abundance of love and happiness our children bring to our lives and the feeling of completeness that came with our Little Luke.
Look at our little man. So cute!
Tough guy.
My blogging spree has ended for this evening. Currently my blogging pattern seems to be silence for several weeks, followed by brief catch up posts, and then more silence. Tonight I just intended to post a Happy New Year shout out, but kind of got on a roll. Unfortunately my enthusiasm fizzled out before I had a chance to blog about Christmas. I'll just say that it was wonderful and that we'll be playing hooky from school and work on Tuesday to renew our Disneyland passes. Thanks Santa. And speaking of Santa, we caught him in the act of filling our stockings. We tried to pry Emma and Matthew out of bed to sneak a peak, but they were sooo sleepy that they couldn't really wake up and don't remember a thing. At least we have it on video!
Christmas Eve. It's got to be the best night of the year, wouldn't you agree? This year Dave and Jess hosted the family for our annual get together. We had terrific food, a fun gift exchange, and of course, the Nativity. Monica was in charge which meant out-of-this-world costumes and sets. SO fun. Three of my kids can be seen in this picture. Matthew as a shepherd, Abbie as a wiseman and Emma as Mary.
Danny and Emma as Mary and Joseph.
Abbie and the three amigos as the four "wise guys".
One of the adult tables. Ever since my mission we have celebrated with English Christmas Crackers. You've gotta love the paper crowns and corney jokes.
Mark and some of the cousins enjoying some appetizers.
Mark gave Luke a taste of his candy cane. Guess who is on my naughty list
Mark had to travel to Tucson over the Christmas break, so since we didn't want him to be away during all of the fun we had planned, we decided to cancel our plans at home and go along with him instead. The JW Starr Pass Resort had a lot of fun activities going on during the weekend we were there. Everything from sledding to a "santa's workshop", to horse riding, an elf "tuck in bed" service, and much more. Mix that with a little hot tubbing and the kid's favorite breakfast buffet, it was a great, quick trip.
We did, however, have a frightening car accident while in Tucson. On our way back to the hotel after church we hydroplaned while driving on the freeway. It had been raining quite a bit that morning and the roads were slick. We were in the fast lane when we lost control and started spinning across the lanes of traffic. At least one time we got within inches to hitting another vehicle, but luckily we just continued to spin until we slammed into the guard rail on the other side of the road, stopping on the shoulder. The moment we started to lose control, I felt so shocked. I couldn't believe this was happening to my family and as we spun, I felt like we were on a roulette table and I wondered which of my family was going to get hurt. I felt so grateful when we finally stopped. Though stunned, everyone was OK. The car was even drivable. We were hauling a steel cargo carrier on our hitch which took most of the impact of the crash. It was smashed, but had protected the body of our SUV very well. The baby slept through the accident, Matthew wanted to do it again. The girls were shocked and grateful and both felt protected by our Heavenly Father. Mark and I were shaky, and couldn't stop reliving the situation over and over again. When we finally got back to our hotel room, we knelt in prayer to thank Heavenly Father for watching over our family that afternoon. I felt so much gratitude for His protection and also so much love for my family, knowing that in a matter of seconds life could have dramatically changed for us.
Happy New Year everyone! To celebrate the end of another great year we headed to the beach for a quick bocci ball tournament before getting dinner and going home for an early night. Yessss, we are party animals! 
Does this little green man even need an explanation?? 
Luke's first trip to the beach. Burrr.
Bath time. Like alot of babies, Luke loves the warm water at bath time. He is so content to sit in his tub and feel the water. Really, who doesn't love a good bath?
A friend gave Luke this adorable sock monkey hat. He wears it all the time when/if we go out in the cold.
Can you read Luke's mind here? I can. He is thinking that he's pretty lucky to have such great siblings. 
This picture is just too sweet not to include.
These are for you, Grandma and Grandpa. Looking at the photos, I realize how much he has already changed in these first short weeks. His bum, legs and cheeks are so much more squeezy, he his strong and now able to stand with help. He is alert, melting the heart of anyone who catches his gaze and earns a smile. Luke equals pure joy in our home. We are all in love and can't imagine our family without him.
...and it's time for a party! A PIRATE party, that is. Matthew was joined by Pirate Captain Daddy-O and a few of his matties for a backyard pirate adventure. They played "captain says", found hidden treasure, played on our "pirate ship" and said, "argh!!!" more often than most would think necessary. Very fun day!!
Matthew couldn't wait to get his "hook" into this treasure cake.
Walking the plank in search of treasure.
Matthew and the rest of the pirate crew. Yo Ho!!We shared such a nice day with Emma last weekend. Her baptism was last Saturday. I loved to see how excited she was to be baptized, and how well she understood the whole experience. The service was very nice. She was baptized with three other girls from the stake and all of our families were able to participate in the program. Aunts Monica and Debbie said prayers, cousin Rebecca led the music and uncles Don and Allen, and Mark and Steve (cousin in laws) stood in during the confimation along with our home teacher, Randy Lang, our Bishop Brian Rhodes and a few friends. Emma was eager to get baptized and felt lucky to be first. When I took her to the font to meet Mark she was so happy. After her baptism she beamed and said that she wished she could be baptized over and over again. She felt the Holy Ghost tell her that her choice was correct and that made her very happy. All evening she smiled. After the meeting was over our family who attended the baptism came over for a BBQ. Emma felt so much support--imagine being surrounded by thirty family members on such an important day! It was great to be able to relax and enjoy the family after such a busy day. After everyone left, Emma wanted to get down to business and record her feelings in her journal. It was a sweet experience to hear all that she remembered and felt. What a wonderful day!
Whew... our summer sure went by fast around here. I had to laugh that my last post was on the first day of summer, because sadly (for Emma at least, Abbie has two more weeks) summer has come to an end. We have teacher assignments for the new year and everything. Monday morning marks the beginning of school, soccer, violin, piano, tennis, art, activity days, mutual, etc., etc. . Not to mention a new baby being thrown into the mix. But, I digress. Let's talk summer one last time.
Mostly our summer days were spent here at home. We went to the beach alot, we swam alot, saw some movies, Abbie went to Girl's Camp, we all went to Cousin's Camp, continued with some lessons and had swim team practice, and also went to the fair, etc., -- all without my camera. So, needless to say our summer won't be well documented. I did, however, take pictures of the girls birthday's and a trip to the strawberry fields. So here goes...
Here's the handsome man that I married 13 years ago in July. In this picture he is in the backyard setting up for Abbie's 12th B-day party. Our anniversary was on the 16th. We went to Coronado and had a great dinner, spent the night, window shopped, etc. It was the best 24 hours of my summer.
Abbie had a great birthday party this year. They had a BBQ, played fun games and watched a movie on this giant screen once it got dark.
Nothing says happy birthday like our traditional ice cream cake--I mean nothing.
The party girls.
The girls played "Bigger or Better" after dinner. Each team started off with a plastic fork, and at game's end one team was carrying a dog crate back to our house and another team had a hamster!
The kids are always really excited for breakfast in bed. Abbie choose home made hashbrowns, blueberry muffins, sausage, and strawberries and whipped cream.
At her party we decided to tie dye t-shirts for one of the activities. The girls did a great job and made some really cute shirts.
Pass the parcel...
A little excited about opening her presents this morning.
Fresh squeeze OJ from our trees toppped off Emma's breakfst of sticky buns, hashbrowns, sausage, and fruit.
They paid the price for these fresh berries with some very muddy feet.
