It's Been A While

Caden decided to play football this past season. I was a little sad that he wanted to play football more than soccer. Since soccer and football seasons overlap, he had to pick one. It was a ruff start, since practice began mid summer and the coach would only cancel practice if it got to be over 105 degrees, so it was pretty miserable for Caden, in the pads and all. Not to mention they practiced 3 days a week and sometimes 4 times! He wanted to quit a few times but he stuck it out! Once the games started he was sold on football! He loved it! They only had to stop the game twice from him getting injured! One injury that required a trip to see the doctor the next day, but besides that he only had bruises and no broken bones! They lost their first game and we thought it was going to be a quick season, but I guess they got the hang of playing as a team and ended up coming in second place overall! I guess it's football again this next season!

The end of the season party was at a fire station that one of the dad's worked at. They had a ton of fun, and they even gave the kids rides in the fire engines!

Christmas seemed to come and go so quickly! We had a great time, as usual! We did all the traditional Holiday activities, and this time it was Nixon's turn to put the star on top of the tree! The kids are almost to heavy for Brad to lift over his head, so we'll have to work something out different pretty soon!

New PJ's, opened one gift and ready for Santa to come!

Nixon's birthday is so close to Christmas, I just set aside some of his gifts to give them to him on his birthday! He was excited to get a Dsi just like his cousin Blake!

He wanted to have a sports party since he has been obsessed with football after being at all of Caden's football practices! He starts flag football at the end of February! I am not to sure if I like my boys wanting to be into football, it's so dangerous! Oh well, boys will be boys! At least Carsyn won't get many injuries from playing the piano!

Summer has come and gone.

So now that my kids are all in school, I have a lot of time on my hands! Seriously I have to space out my errands so I have something to go do everyday! When my school starts that will change I'm sure, but for now I have time to blog!

The summer went by so quickly! It lasted just long enough for us to fit in all the activities we wanted to do.

4th of July was fun. We had Brad's family come to our house for food and fireworks. The only thing missing this year was we didn't go to the lake in the morning! Next time we will for sure!

Every baseball season Brad likes to go to Anaheim and watch a Red Sox vs. Angels game. He loves the Red Sox! In a few years we plan on actually attending a game at Fenway park in Boston! Since Brad is such a Red Sox fanatic our children are pretty much forced to be too! Not really but Brad said he would disown them if they like another team. :)

This year we decided to do a different beach trip with my family. We usually go to Leo Carillo and camp, but this year we rented a house near Pismo. It was fun, but my kids say they would rather camp at the beach next year. We were sad not all of the family could come, but we still had a lot of fun. I loved that when we got home from the beach every night and took showers, that we didn't get dirty again until the next day. When we camp, you are clean for a few minutes until you get to the camp site and get right back in the dirt. I guess I'm just not a true camper!

While at the beach we celebrated my parents 40th wedding anniversary!

Brad and I got to go away for a weekend! I love little weekend getaways! Brad's company had a softball tournament in San Jose. It was so much fun!

My little brother Josh had his first biological kid on 8-9-10. He was so excited, I am so happy for him and his cute family!

Carsyn has been doing singing lessons all summer long and had a recital at the end of summer. She enjoys doing anything that is not sport related! So piano and singing are perfect for her. I am so proud of her, she and her cousins did a great job!

Like I said school started last week and my kids are doing great. I was so surprised that Nixon didn't cry one time! He goes everyday without a problem. You don't know how happy that makes me! Caden started 5th grade and is not loving the school work that comes with being in 5th grade, but loves the social part of school. Carsyn is in 3rd grade and likes her teacher but doesn't like that most of her best friends are in other classes this year. She likes that she can see them on the playground though. Nixon started kindergarten and so far loves it!

Now that summer is over, it's back to routines which I love having! Caden started football, Nixon started soccer, and Carsyn is back to piano lessons, so we are pretty much busy every night! Pictures to follow!

Triathlon and Carsyn's Baptism

My sister and her family came into town for Carsyn's Baptism. The day before the baptism Will, Becky's husband, mentioned to the boys that his friend was putting on a triathlon for kids and he asked them if they wanted to be in it. Both Caden and Camden said sure and jumped in our pool to practice swimming, and then had to go out and buy swim caps. By the way neither of them are swimmers. Well they swim but don't know strokes or anything. The boys were excited. Caden got pretty nervous when it was about time for it to start. First was the swim, then the bike ride and last was the run. They both did an awesome job!

Nixon and Blake were great spectators! All the kids had to have their own swim cap here is Blake sporting his!

Caden and Camden right before the race.

Caden

Camden

Blake decided to finish the race too. He was so cute, he received a medal just for being so cute!

I can't believe Carsyn is old enough to be baptized! They grow up so fast!

My mother in law was nice enough to make Carsyn a baptism dress, it turned out so pretty. Carsyn picked the fabric and the pattern, and Penny made it beautiful!

Most of the family that made it to the baptism! Thanks for the support guys!

I am so proud of her and her decision to be baptized!

Our Busy May

Since school is just about over, we have had assembly after assembly at the kids schools! Awards, plays, talent shows and graduations! So needless to say we've been busy.

Caden had his 4th grade play, How the West was Won, and he did an awesome job!

Nixon Graduated from Preschool! I can't believe he is growing up so fast! He has been my little buddy for all these years and next year he will be leaving me to go to Kindergarten! Which is a bitter sweet thing for me! Here he is with his best friend from preschool, Faris. By the end of the year Faris had the same hair cut as Nixon and once he saw Nixon wasn't wearing a tie at the graduation he ripped his right off. They both loved to copy each other! Too Cute!

I love to take pictures of these kids, because just for that second they act like they love each other! (They really do, but don't show it very often)

Bass Lake came quickly and went quickly this year! It was a fun time, just a bit too cold though! It kept the mosquitoes away, but also kept us out of the lake most the time! It was still good times spending it with family!

Avery and Carsyn

One of the nights we were there, they had a dance at the store by our cabins. The girls loved it, and to be honest, I thought it was fun too! Line dancing is always fun especially watching people mess up. :) I have video of Brad dancing and man was it funny! I won't post it just because I want him to still be married to me!

The guys checking out the dancers. Don't let them fool you, they got their groove on!

Roy, Penny, and Kenny

Every year a family is in charge of making shirts, this year Brad and I (actually just Brad) designed them. I thought they came out pretty cool. My kids practically wore them the whole week!

Here is Gavin, Caden, and Nixon

This is how my kids were at the lake.. bundled up! The water was freezing!

They braved the tube for a little bit and then came off of it with blue lips!

Brad and his brother Greg.

Most of the time during the days we hung out in the game room at the cabins. The kids did crafts and played pool and ping pong.

I caught Kenny stealing the pool balls. Haha.

Okay so this year we had a friend visit our cabin, and it wasn't welcome!! Caden spotted the mouse right before he went to bed, we searched and couldn't find it anywhere. Good thing the other kids were already in bed asleep, they would have gone nuts! So if you are a big animal lover don't look at the next picture. I don't consider mice pets since people feed them to snakes, so I was ok with what Brad did! Well after the kids were all in bed, we were about to turn out the lights and I see the mouse run out of the kids room into the kitchen behind the oven! So Brad gets a frying pan and gives me one of Nixon's light saber swords to poke at it from one side of the oven. It runs out and Brad is chasing it banging the pot on the ground but keeps missing it! It was a sight to see, I don't think I could have laughed more, and not to mention very noisy! The kids never even woke up! Brad finally hit it and no more mouse!!!

May 23rd was Brad's Birthday, so we celebrated at the Lake! Happy Birthday Bradley!

The last day we were there it rained and hailed, so we hung out at the store under their patio, for hours!

The first day we got to Bass Lake we went and looked at some other cabins that we thought we'd maybe like to stay in next year. Well we shouldn't have done that, because after we saw the new cabins we didn't want to leave and go back to ours! I am talking flat screen t.v's, wi fi, granite counter tops, huge bathrooms and nice furniture through out! Looks like we've stayed at the PG&E cabin's for the last time! No more spiders, bugs and more importantly Mice!!

Happy 8th Birthday, Carsyn!

This time of year we have birthday after birthday! Now it's Carsyn's turn! Happy 8th Birthday Carsyn!! We love you!!

Happy 10th Birthday Caden!

Caden turned 10 yesterday! Happy Birthday Caden!!!

Here we go again..

Ok so we have had a lot happen since I posted last!

On March 22, 2010 Brad and I had our 13th anniversary! Time flies!! We didn't have a babysitter to go out of town for our anniversary so we decided to make a mini family vacation out of it! I won tickets on the Breeze radio station to Monterey Bay Aquarium, so we planned a trip in that area. First we stopped in Santa Cruz, where we lived 13 years ago, right when we got married. (What a awesome place to start our marriage!) We stopped by the Boardwalk to play mini golf at Neptunes Kingdom and to ride some of the rides. Our kids want to move to Santa Cruz, and so does Brad. I would love to again but I rather be near family!

I had to get a picture of the first place we lived in! Yes it was a motel and yes it was a little scary! We borrowed pots and pans to cook from the manager. Haha. It was an adventure! Then while we were trying to save money to get into an apartment our Bishop at the time, Pete Pearson and his awesome family let us stay with them! Our payment for staying with them was to plant a ton of flowers etc. in their huge garden. Well I feel sorry for them because anything I plant does not stay alive for long! I don't think any of the things we planted even grew a bit!

After we took the kids to The Boardwalk we went to Monterey and stayed in the PG&E beach houses. They are tiny but pretty nice actually. We went to Monterey Bay Aquarium the next day. I had been there a long time ago, and I forgot how cool that place actually is! My kids loved seeing all the sea creatures!

Check out this Sea Horse! Amazing!

Here is a hammer head shark and a huge school of sardines!

I made Brad strike a pose! Haha.

We had a blast and the rest of the day we spent at the beach and watching "Diary of a Wimpy Kid". I am glad we decided to spend our anniversary with our awesome kids! Next year though, will be just the two of us! :)

You know school is almost out when the school tries to fit in so many different activities! They just had their school track meet. Carsyn and Caden were pretty excited to compete in the races. Carsyn ran the 100 yard dash and did the softball throw. Caden ran the 280 and the relay. They both did great!

Here is Carsyn coming in second! I was so excited for her. If you know her, you know she is not an athlete! But she sure was that day!!

Here is Caden getting ready for his race!

To start out our Spring Break, we decided to go to the beach with my cousins Amy and Emilee and their kids. We went without our husbands, it made me appreciate Brad, because normally he hauls all the crap down to the beach! We handled it though!

Here are the kids before going out to the beach. Caden wouldn't get in the picture because he was mad that I forgot his swimsuit! I at least brought him an extra pair of regular shorts!

After awhile Caden forgave me and joined the kids in playing in the sand!

The kids had a blast!

During "Spring Break" there was this day called EASTER, That we thought we'd celebrate! I love Easter and hanging out with our families! We had 3 different Easter egg hunts! The kids ate their share of candy, that's for sure! So did I actually, haha!

Here are the Race kids minus Charley in Indiana!

Torturing our kids by making them take lots of pictures!

Here are the Simpson grandkids minus quite a few others that we really missed too!

This is at the first Easter egg hunt at my cousin Amy's house. Did I mention how much I love to spend this time with family!!

Caden hanging with the little ones!

This week the kids returned to school! Yay! But with school returning so do all the school activities!

Nixon had a class field trip to the most popular school field trip spot, the little fake zoo, Calm. I usually hate going to Calm, because when I've gone in the past it has been really HOT! This trip was actually pleasant since the weather was really nice that day!

Here is Nixon with his two best friends at school Faris and Breyden.

So now I'm caught up! I'm sure I will have a lot more to post about in a week or so since there are so many different activities coming up, like birthdays and us moving!