A day together

So my blog published my photos before I typed my text - oh well! Today we had a great day with nana and papa. It was our last day together as they are heading out tomorrow before 9 am. We are all so sad to see them go but hope they come again soon.
We enjoyed a day at Golf 'N Stuff, all the kids played a super round of mini golf! I love the photo of my mom with a hat that Molly got for Christmas - so cute. After mini golf my parents treated us to lunch at Austin's ice cream parlor. One of our favorite places! They spoiled Reid with a birthday gift of cash. He was so excited, even writing them a thank you note saying "Because of your gift I now have $51.25 - thank you!" So funny and cute!
Tonight Molly is off to her first church dance - it should be fun for her since it is a New Years Eve dance with a midnight breakfast. Our family is off to friends to celebrate the New Year.

mini golf and Reid

Watch yourself while driving!

My son is now old enough to drive! Wow - not sure how I feel about that... James took him the day after Christmas (a great day to go to the DMV by the way!) to take the test to get his driving permit and he passed on the first try. Way to go Austin! Now we have many hours of driving practice ahead of us - I think we'll try some off-roads first.

The other photo is of Austin with the kids' new favorite toy from Santa, Guitar Hero 3 for the Wii. I am o.k. with it as long it the sound is way down low. HA! I am old. It cracks me up that the game has songs from when I was a teenager like "Rock me like a Hurricane"...It sounds so funny to hear my kids sing along and actually think it's 'cool"

dinner with the Gordons

James and I just got back from having a lovely dinner with our friends the Gordons. It is so good to see good friends. They moved away just over a year ago and I truly miss their entire family. It was so great to get a surprise call from them saying they are in town for the holidays and wanted to get together for dinner. Don't you love being with people that you can just be yourself with and that you just genuinely love!?! I'm just sad that I didn't bring the camera as I would have loved to have gotten an updated photo of this sweet family. Cindy Jo - will you move back? Please! :)

Christmas photos

Here are some photos from our Christmas. We had such a nice holiday! I am truly looking forward to a new year - 2008. Wow - seems unreal. But with each new year the possiblities are endless...

Santa Claus came to town!

We had a very jolly visitor last night!
Santa Claus came and visited our family - such a great surprise for all of us! Chase was beaming ear to ear, gave Santa a big hug and was the first thing he talked about this morning when nana and papa came over. We were lucky to have a camera nearby so we got pictures of the kids with him, all except for Ryan who was too shy. However, Ryan did stay on the couch nearby and watched, wanting to see all the happenings which is great. Santa brought each of the kids a nutcracker and some candy with a promise that he would be coming again that night if they got to bed on time. And sure enough he did! He brought the kids Guitar Hero 3 and DDR for the Wii: just what they all wanted! Santa sure is a jolly 'ole elf! Reid was just disappointed he didn't think to follow Santa out the door so he could see the reindeer as Santa flew away- darn! Maybe next year!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas! Will you do me a favor a leave a quick comment - even if you see this in a week or a month...and you can share any message you'd like! I'd love to hear from you...Wishing you well in the New Year!

A trip to the gaslight theatre

James and I and my parents got tickets to attend Scrooge at the local dinner theatre, The Gaslight. We were very lucky to have gotten tickets as they begin selling them in the spring! But we got back row center seats and actually they were pretty good seats. We had a great time booing for Scrooge and cheering for all the townspeople with Christmas cheer!
The other photo is of some Christmas decorations that were on our family tree when I was little. I hold them dear to my heart, keeping them safe year after year.
Tomorrow is Christmas and we are very thankful to have my parents here. Today we make cut-out sugar cookies for Santa and are about to deliver some treats to our neighbors. The kids are so very excited for Santa to visit tonight...
Merry Christmas!

a fun day with nana and papa

Since Friday was the first day off of school since it is winter break nana, papa and I took the kids out for a day of fun. First we went bowling. Everyone did really well considering this is something we don't do very often. Ryan didn't want to bowl so I gave him quarters and he and papa hit the video arcade for awhile where he earned a bunch of tickets. Next we went to Target so Chase could redeem a gift card he received from his yoga teacher - that was so kind of her! He found a pokemon character there that has become his new favorite toy. Next was on to Austins ice cream parlor. The kids got to chose whatever they wanted from the menu and everyone was happy with their choice. A very fun day!

Molly and Korby and gifts

Molly went to her last voice/piano lesson on Monday but we found out her instructor, Korby Myrick, has scheduled a recital for January and we want Molly to participate in that, although I know Molly would be fine not too! She will perform one piano piece and one vocal selection. She is considering singing When She Loved Me from Toy Story 2. Such a beautiful song...Her teacher has proven to be exceptional. She has taught Molly so much and it is sad to leave but it just is too busy schedule-wise. Musical theatre will be beginning at her middle school when school resumes in January and that involves four days a week, add young women and homework and it is just too much. Plus Chase is beginning soccer in January and that will take a lot of my attention. I'm nervous about him playing in an organized league, but we are going to give it a shot. I'm hoping for an understanding coach who has some knowledge of autism but recognize that dream is a long shot and understand I will need to be right there all the time - possibly even assistant coach I suppose.

These other photos are of some of the gifts we gave this Christmas. The cute felt buckets (I love them!) we filled with goodies -ornaments, hot chocolate packets, candies, a family photo- we gave to all the bus drivers of Chase and Ryan. Chase has one to school and one home. Ryan has two on the way to school and one home so that is five gifts. I think these were perfect. The cute thing was they were all so intrigued with the family photo. I suppose it is a little unusual having five kids - in our LDS world no, but to others it really is - they had all sorts of questions about all the kids: very cute! Chase has a teacher that loves tootsie rolls so of course we gave her a big container with her gift of flowers. Chase loved bringing that in to her! I wish the photo I took of the flowers showed off more of the green vase. It was perfect for Christmas and very fun.

Nine year old Scrooge

Which one of these photos would you choose?

Reid, the nine year old Scrooge standing in the middle, really shocked us when we looked at these photos. One partial smile out of many, many photos that were taken. We had him look at himself when we reviewed them and he just laughed. Apparently this is nine year old humor...:)

The Monarch of the Seas

James and I are back from our four night Baja Mexico cruise and we had a fabulous time! So many experiences - so much relaxation! We left on Sunday after sacrament meeting and drove half way to L.A. All traffic ended up being stopped on the freeway for three hours that evening just a few exits from our hotel-there must have been a fatality although by the time we reached the accident point it had all been cleared. Not a great way to start a vacation but regardless we spent the time together.
Monday we woke up and headed into L.A. and found the ship pretty easily, although L.A. traffic isn't really fun. The boarding process went quickly and soon we were on board enjoying our cruise vacation!
We had three ports: San Diego, Catalina Island and Ensanda, Mexico. In San Diego we took a trolley tour and did a little shopping in Old Town. We spent four hours on Catalina Island. We went on a glass bottom boat, saw many beautiful fish, had a nice lunch and went in all the shops. Catalina Island was especially beautiful. In Ensanada we took an excursion shopping and seeing a folkoric dance festival. We bought the little boys some mexican wrestling masks. We both enjoyed the dance festival - the traditional costuming of the dance attire is so beautiful.

We really enjoyed our first exposure to cruising. Only unpacking one time and not having to drive to different attractions as well as not preparing any food was great! Having someone make our bed and bring us clean towels wasn't bad either. The food was delicious and beautiful-our waitstaff was wonderful! It was fun to make new friends. We enjoyed the constant entertainment - we will need to go again just to experience everything we would have liked to have taken part in. We hope to cruise again!

cruise photos

Molly is 14 today!

Our sweet miss Molly was born this day back in 1993. I had a great birth experience with her and she's been a great kid ever since. We tried to find out if she would be a boy or a girl and did have several ultrasounds but each time she would hide herself so we were so happily surprised that she was a girl at the time of her birth. A little sister for Austin. Little did we know back then that we would go on to have three more boys and that she would be our only girl. She has blessed our family!

Some of Molly's favorites at 14:
color: red
meal: crab! or honey mustard chicken
school clubs: drama and musical theatre
pastime: singing
t.v. shows: Sabrina the teenage witch, Hannah Montana, Full House

Happy 14 birthday Molly, we love you!

living life

Not much going on around here. We are enjoying being with my parents and eating my mom's yummy cooking. Yes, I have not cooked one meal since they got here on Thanksgiving day - heaven!
I am so looking forward to our Royal Caribbean cruise. Counting down the days! James and I are going to leave after we attend sacrament meeting on Sunday and drive part of the way to CA so we can take it slow and not miss the boat Monday afternoon. I'm having fun trying on different outfits, deciding what to pack, what to leave behind...We have received our tour documents and it's fun to look through them and look through them again. We've booked our day excursions, I've bought a couple good books and magazines, and we are just genuinely thrilled for the chance to get away as a couple.

Rat Pack Live at the Sands!

James and I had a date night yesterday and enjoyed the music of the Rat Pack Live!
Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr. were fabulous. The crowd was quite a bit older than James and I and they really appreciated the show, commenting how similar these performers are to their true counterparts. A fun night!

Molly's birthday party

Molly turns 14 on Wednesday so we celebrated with a party Friday night. She invited 10 friends to help her celebrate. The girls had a great time singing karaoke, watching the movie Hairspray and playing a couple fun 'getting to know you' games. Molly and I agreed on the decorating colors of red (her favorite!), pink and silver so I had a lot of fun with that since Christmas is soon to be here. It was a fun night - Happy Birthday Molly! We love you!