I’m going to give blogging another shot.

Let me recap by showing the things we LOVE… (sorry, they are all from my phone… to make it easy… and in no particular order but all from the past year and a half)

The most life changing event of the last year was the passing of our dear nephew and cousin.  We will miss the happiness he brought to each of us.  We LOVE Max!
I LOVE moments like this

The boys LOVE their grammy and papa

We LOVE San Onofre summer nights

We LOVE hikes

We LOVE  adventures

We LOVE visiting Nana and Grandpa and riding ATVs

We LOVE playing in the snow

I LOVE food

We LOVE our time at the beach house

Tate LOVES to dress up.  He dresses up nearly every day.

We LOVE exploring the local sites.  This is Griffith Park Observatory in LA.

We LOVE sand and the fun we have in it

We LOVED our trip to the Outer Banks of North Carolina

We LOVE living close to our cousins.  There are 8 within 20 minutes of us!

We LOVE friends

We LOVE music

What is there not to LOVE about Mustaches?

Gavin LOVES surfing

So does Tate

I LOVE to redo furniture.  This piece was my grandma’s.  Just needed a new color of paint.  Now I love it!

We LOVE our cousins

Even this one

And this one

And this new one!

And these rowdy ones

And our cute girl cousins

And the newest girl cousin, Ryan

Tate LOVES Goofy

Miles LOVES soccer

And Tate LOVES to pretend he plays soccer

We LOVE that Gavin wanted to be baptized

Tate LOVES watching surf contests with his dad

I LOVE my time in Vegas with these girls

And Florida with these girls

I LOVE working in the young women program.  I get to do cool things like this and be with some of the most amazing youth around.

They LOVE to make a buck

We LOVE the skate park.  That’s 2 year old Tate (red shirt) keeping up with the big boys

The big boys LOVE their pocket rockets

The kids LOVE to “clog” the ditch behind our house

Gavin LOVED his last day of basketball.  We made him try it… he did… and he’s done

Tate and I LOVE our walks on the beach

We LOVE Disneyland, and that we can go whenever we want

They are still LOVING Legos

Miles LOVED his Kindergarten teacher Mrs. Ettinger.  She even has a son named Miles who goes to the same school.

Gavin LOVED his 2nd grade teacher who has been at his school since it opened over 35 years ago

We LOVE Halloween (disregard Tate’s face here… I think it’s because of the scarey looking guy holding him).

Gavin LOVED scout camp this summer.  Umm… I wonder why?   guns, bows, fire, rock climbing…

I LOVE going to the beach

I LOVE this man

And I’m going to LOVE being pregnant as soon as this nausea eases and I start looking pregnant and not just fat.

Yesterday we took Miles to the dentist for the first time. He was so nervous going in but by the looks of it (notice his arms and legs) he got real comfortable with it. The office staff was getting a kick out of it too.

Nothing too exciting. I do have to say I love where I live and I love my family. Here are some of the reasons why…

I started my day riding my bike to the beach with this little cutie

Then we picked up the other boys from school and headed to Anaheim for some training

Jedi Training, that is

Miles fought Darth Vader!

Gavin fought Darth Maul

And Miles was sporting this silly, sideways face the whole time. What is that about?

Miles learned to ride a 2-wheeled bike with the help of some friendly competition with his best friend Jack

I’m loving that it’s feeling more like summer around here (not that we have harsh winters or anything I started a very little garden

And this is what spring break looked like. I love spending time with my family. I’m glad my parents are within driving distance. 7 out of 8 siblings were able to get together.

The Easter bunny found us



And we were so glad we got to spend time with our grammy and cousins this weekend

“Hey mom, come look at these lizards cuddling!”
Uh, ya. There is a little more than cuddling going on. One of the lizards has the other one’s head in his mouth. The kids were getting super close to them and they didn’t move a muscle. Lots of lizards around here lately. And I’m guessing there will be more… if you know what I mean

1) He has great ideas
Two of Miles’ favorite stores to go with me are Costco and Target. Target because he gets an Icee and Costco because he loves their dogs. So the other day he had a bright idea while enjoying his “costcodog”. He took a seed off the bun and said, “I’m taking this home and planting it. I want a costcodog tree!”

Just look at the joy it brings him

2) He lives half his life in some galaxy far, far away.
These days everything has jet packs

3) He is very expressive with his face

Some day I’d like to make a collage of all the fun faces he’s made in photos. It is very rare to capture a simple smile with this guy.