Bike Party

Ever since Keaton has been able to ride his bike without training wheels, he has been talking of a bike party he is going to have. He was telling everyone in his class almost everyday that they should come to our house and then he would say a time.

Well, I finally put together some invitations after about a month of Keaton bugging me, so he can finally say he had a bike party. It was quite a hit with his class.

Since we live so close to the school everyone rode the bikes over after school and we decorated them, ate pizza and decorated cookies.

Keaton is the person where the more the merrier, so he loved having everyone ride their bikes on our cul-de-sac.

Biker gang! I always forget the camera until the last minute so some already went home.

Finally,Snow

We had so much fun sledding in Utah, that we bought 2 slides before we headed back to CA and couldn't wait to use them.

Well, we had to wait and wait and wait and didn't think we were going to use them this year. Finally a storm came and the boys couldn't wait to be out in the snow again.

There wasn't a lot of snow, but just enough for the basics:

-sledding

-snowman

Keaton and Kate were preparing for a snow ball fight.

Xander and Sara enjoying themselves on the sled.

A snow trip is never complete without a snowman and Keaton made sure to remind me to bring a carrot for the snowman he was going to make.

Always Beach Time in CA

On Martin Luther King holiday we headed out to the beach to enjoy 80 deg. weather in Jan. I only planned on stay a few hours, but it was a perfect day and we spent 6 hrs. relaxing and having fun at the beach.

Keaton having fun with Kate Thompson.

Keaton working hard to build a pool. Check out those muscles.

The pool is complete, it originally started out as a bath, but it got bigger and bigger and the children were then calling it a pool.

I was only willing to do a bath(because it is smaller), but some of the Fathers came to help dig and that is how they got a pool.

Digging Buddies

Xander loves Sara Thompson, actually both of my boys love the Thompson girls. Xander and Sara spent most of the day digging.

2000 stripling warriors

Keaton got some dress up clothes for Christmas and he loves this one outfit. Instead of saying he is a Knight, he calls himself A STRIPLING WARRIOR from the Book of Mormon.

What, no hot water

The water heater went out and if you are ever at our house, the boys must get a bath everynight because they are dirty from head to toe.

Luckily, we had hot water at one end of the house, but no showers or baths, so we improvised and the boys loved it. >

Xander never wanted to get out of the sink, >he thought it was the best bath ever.

Utah fun

The top 3 things we did in Utah:

1. sled

2.shop (pretty much julie only)

3. sled, while visiting with family

Keaton wanted to spend all day outside sledding, since we aren't used to the cold I bundled the boys up, especially Xander, his arms looked like branches from a tree, they would barely go down.

I just really wanted to shop without the boys. sChris made that possibe because he said he just wanted to spend time with his family. So off Heather and I went shopping. It is a whole new world shopping for clothes without a 2yr. and 4yr. old and a bonus of having my sister with me.

Xander ready for sledding, but not quite sure if he can breathe with all the layers.

Keaton ready to sled, sled, sled.

The sledding was great and in the perfect location, on the hill in Heather's backyard. Not a better location for beginners.

You can't go a Christmas without eating one of Heather's beautiful creations of a gingerbread house and the boys were enjoying everybite. Travis was very patient and had to wait until we got to his house before he could touch the gingerbread house.

Travelin' Horseback

After some days in Ivans we went up North to visit more family in Utah and stayed in Springville with Heather and Eric.

Each day they were able to go out and spend time with Honey (the horse).

yep, these are my 3 dudes!! They are cityslickers, but that is what you get when you are growing up in Los Angeles.

Unless a professional is taking a picture it is one very hard task to get everyone ready for the camera. We were so happy to spend time at Cheryl's house everyday and to have Jeanette, Nathan and Kyley come by. Keaton and Xander love spending time with cousins.

Christmas Time

For Christmas we headed up to Utah to visit family and could not have asked for a better time.

We spent Christmas in Ivans, UT at Grandma and Grandpa's new house (and we didn't break anything) and loved the beautiful scenary of the red rocks.

The best part was having Jenine's and Cheryl's family there. I loved it when a couple of families are all under 1 roof, you get to know each other really well that way. It was actually great and I think we were spoiled because our little family got our own room a bathroom.

Chris loved spending time with his family and hiking with his parents and Cheryl.

Keaton couldn't wait to play in the snow, the 1st thing he did when he saw the snow was build a snowman and Trini (the great cousin she is), was outside with him and at this point it was raining. Brrrrrr, I was watching happily inside the nice warm house.

The snow didn't stay too long in Ivans (thank goodness). Keaton loved climbing on "elephant rock" in the backyard and him and Elias found a hiding spot.

Sara, Trini, Esther, and Mercedez are having too much fun with Keaton and Xanders new christmas present