alone after 5 years, 2 months, 1 week and 2 days

...but whose counting!

We took advantage of having Ann at our place to go out of town for a night. We left around noon on Friday and drove to Half Moon Bay, CA (actually to the northern outskirts of HMB in Princeton). We found a quaint restaurant by the docks and had some clam chowder.
It was good.


We walked on the beach and picked out some seashells for the kids.

Then we drove around to find a place to feed Loula (we did bring her, but she was very easy).
When she was feed and happy Daniel and I walked around, again.



Then we went and checked into our place we were staying and watched the news. I am out of touch more than I want to be with what is happening in politics and news in general, so I enjoyed watching cable news. (I am tempted to get cable at home, but it might be a good thing if we stay without it.)

When we had our t.v. fill, we went out for a late dinner to the HMB Brewing Co.
http://hmbbrewingco.com/photos/photos.php
I had an amazing hamburger with onions, mushrooms and cheese. Daniel had a sandwhich with shimp and crab. After dinner we went back to the place we
had soup at this afternoon and had a huge bowl of pumpkin ice cream.
In the morning we had breakfast and had a nice conversation with an older couple and their sister, whom is a HMB local. Then we came home.

At home

Well, here we are a few days away from being 3 months old. I think slowly we are growing into our eyes!

See the pretty flower Dad got mom.

Here are Sam and Liv being crazy.

Dinner after blessing

We had a nice warm white bean soup (thanks Kaylene for the recipe). Then we had some yummy desserts. Barbie brought some baklava, Ann made a cherry cake/pie/clafoutis, and I made chocolate silk. After dinner the kids went in Sam's room and played and the adults enjoyed talking for a few hours.
Here is Erla and Barbie.

Home teacher Todd reading to our kids.

Doesn't Spencer look great with his braces off!

Here is Zion and Olivia- they always hit it off!

Zion did such a good job holding Loula, but Talia kept close just is case.

Chloë had dinner and went to bed. She was very pretty is this dress. Thanks Andrea.

Loula's baby blessing

In the LDS church we do not baptize our babies. (We do that when they are 8 years old-the children can then decide whether or not they want to be baptized) but in do give our babies a blessing. Daniel gave Lauren Bell a beautiful, full, rich, yet tender and simple blessing. I know Lauren-'Loula' will fill her life with what our Father in Heaven wants her to do and be.

We are so blessed to have such wonderful family and friends. Thank you everyone for loving and taking care of us.

Aaron has taken a similar picture with all our babies.

(Here is Aaron with Olivia on her blessing day)

Grandpa Mike, Barbie, Loula, Mom, Dad and Grandma Ann.

Here is our complete family. Aren't we beautiful!!

This is all of our friends and family.

back row: Ann, Daniel, Loula, Andrea, Todd, Mike, Barbie, Erla, "Home Teacher Todd"- as Olivia calls him.
front row: Sam, me, Darci (Daniel's secretary), Chloë, Chase, Olivia, Aaron, Zion, Talia, Hyrum, and Casey.

Halloween night

That night we went trick or treating with Miles, Philip and their family. Chloë took things very slow. She wanted to get the perfect candy at each door .

5 little pumpkins

Olivia's class memorized this cute poem. It was a fun way to end the Halloween day at school.

Olivia's kinder Halloween carnival

Mrs. Englehardt is a great teacher. She loves these kids. You would have to to dress as Mini Mouse! Here is Olivia's class.

This is Olivia with her friend Cory- the pirate. He says Olivia is his girlfriend. "And I am serious!" says Cory. He is a darling boy.

In the afternoon the entire school had a parade. Sam was a little bored. There he is in his Pirate costume.

Grandpa Mike can fix anything!

Grandpa Mike came into town for Loula's baby blessing.
While he was here he helped us fix a FEW things around the house
(jammed doors, door locks broken, curtain rod tie backs, outlets, light fixtures
and the list goes on and on).

The most important thing Grandpa Mike did was install a very nice rod iron gate
in the brick wall into our front entrance.
Now I don't have to worry about the kids running into the street.

But the most memorable thing Grandpa Mike did was help the kids build a nice big sandbox.

Sam and Chase helped tow the sand from the car to the sanbox.
Everyone (even Chloë) helped hammer and screw the box together. Thanks!

Trunk or Treat

Here we are outside the church building waiting for Olivia's friend Paige and her mom Regina. We had a lovely evening with them.

This is our little Tinker Bell, Captain Hook and our lovely pirate!

silver lining

This pictures just highlights one of the great memories over the past few days.
I have titled the picture:

Focus and Zoom. . . who needs them.

Like all great works of art we must acknowledge the artists. Photo by Sam of Chloë.

To ease my pain I have written the good and bad of each situation:

1. The camera broke- bad. I appreciate pictures of my kids that are in focus-good.

2. Chloë jammed the DVD player with 2 DVDs-bad. Kids can't watch DVDs-good.

3. After a year of waiting, I painted the living room-good. Sam's forehead painted my couch-bad.

4. The t.v. analog converter broke-bad. Sam and I fixed it-good.

5. I made bread WITH 7 kids from Sam's joy school-good. It was crazy-bad.

6. I decided to make soup for my sick sister-good. She was not sick by the time I made it-bad.

7. I took the soup to her house-good. The soup spilled in the front console of my car-bad.

8. I sewed Olivia a church dress-good. Chloë pulled the sewing machine off the table, it's broken-bad.

9. Took the 3 younger kids to go grocery shopping- good/or brave. Left my wallet at home- bad.

1o. I am trying to organized a demonstration march in support of prop 8-good. Having a hard time connecting with prop 8 community leaders to get people to come out-bad.


BUT, because of my loving husband, Andrea laughed with me, and Dory's help, I would say we had a great week.

With LoulaBell

Some days the kids don't even look at Loula, but today was different.

Everyone wanted their chance to hold and help her.

Here is Olivia with her little sister. They have the same eyes.

Here is Sam. He says, "Loula is so cute".

Prop 8

This video addresses some concerns I have heard about Prop 8.
Please take a few minutes to watch the link below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vI-GjWY-WlA

This is something that is very important to our families, California voters and everyone else because California will be setting a precedent for your state and your family.

messy peanut butter

crazy kids

Notice the sign at the entrance to the slide where Sam is playing.

Imagine the kind of trouble my kids get into when I am watcing all 4 kids!

There was a big gash in the slide.

Oak Meadow Park, Los Gatos

We went to this great park with my friend Angelina and her little girl Sabrina.

This plane was fun to explore.

Sabrina and Sam were exploring all parts of the plane. Chloë was not as interested.

Sam peacefully enjoyed the carousel. Chloë on the other hand was terrified, until it stopped.

the drop off

She LOVES school and she LOVES dad dropping her off in the circle outside of the school.