the rest of the day

After the baby woke up from her nap we went to Sea Port Village to fly our kite.

We enjoyed just sitting, talking and of course some running.

Sam had the kite way past those tall trees, can you see it?

After we flew the kite we went on a carousel ride. Sam's horse was the fastest!

Beach in February

We had a great morning at the beach. The kids made sandcastles, ran from the waves and Olivia went boogie boarding.

Valentine's Day

We pride ourselves on making our own Valentine's. The kids had a great time. We got an early start and everyone made enough for their friends.

Part of Olivia's Valentine party at school consisted of the kids tie dying baby shirts. Each child was able to dye a shirt for Miss Cyndee's new baby.

Here is Olivia with Aida, Nina and Frank.

Can you tell Sam is enjoying ALL his Valentine candy!!

Album from Engagment thru first year of marriage

Sycamore Park

We met Casey, Talia, and their kids at Sycamore park in Livermore. We had a great afternoon exploring trees and eating lunch. This was the best family picture I could get!

Olivia just loves getting together with Zion. I am glad our kids are friends because Daniel and I love hanging out with their parents. Zion does have a little brother Chloë's age, so that should be fun in a few years.

Here we are exploring the sticks and dirt!

Chloë's 3rd birthday

After church the Miners came over for dinner and cake for Chloë's birthday. Olivia and Dad decorated the house for her birthday. It was such a nice surprise.

Chloë opened some really fun cd's to dance with and a fun stroller.

Twins

After temple babysitting we decided to go shopping for Daniel. We have not bought him new clothes for years. (Other than our moms buying him a work shirt or two for his birthday) Just so you know Daniel HATES shopping so much that before he would go into the mall he had to take a nap in the car!! So I took the older kids and went to get lunch. After Daniel and the babies woke up we got them something to eat and headed to the stores. Our best plan was to get Daniel and the kids trapped in the dressing room while I picked out clothes for him to try one. The kids were pretty good. Our best find of the day (in Sam's mind) is this blue and red rugby shirt. Sam said he had to get it because it was just like his. Then Sam insisted Daniel wear it at the same time as he did. It was so cute.

p.s. This is Chloë wild hair. I do my best to keep it up and out of her face.

Chloë as herself

I saw her standing here and had to take her picture. This is her to a T. She loves chips, her boots, and Sam's undies! This picture also happened to catch part of her personality. She is very calm and soft. I love you Chloë.

Happy New Year!

We were so excited for today because Dad decided to stay home and play with us. Yeah!! We love our remote control airplane. The kids loved flying it and running after it.

Before they left

We had to get out and play some football with all these boys around.

We spent several hours on this field running,

flying a remote control airplane (and getting it stuck in trees), dog piling,

talking and just resting.

I love having my sisters and their families around. I come from such a great family!

Mario Cart

This is Sam's first introduction to video games. I don't think we will be investing in a wii anytime soon, but if I say NEVER.... then it will surely happen!

Surprise

The Wilsons got a huge Christmas surprise. Their dad found tickets to the Rose Bowl!!! Ohio State vs. Oregon. They were so excited. It was also a treat for us, b/c this meant they would get to come see us for a day. We had so much fun playing with all our cousins.


Sam LOVES this race track. Lucky for Chase, Sam got his own set this Christmas!

Kate is always such a good friend.

Christmas day at home

On 'Christmas Eve' we acted out Luke 2 and Poppie Mikie read us "Twas the Night Before Christmas." It was a wonderful night. I hope to repeat in the future. Here is Sam as a Wise man.

We woke up Christmas morning to wonderful surprises under the tree.


This was the best picture I had of our wonderful Christmas dinner. Maybe Todd will have a photo for me.

luke 2

Christmas in St. George

Our Family in the Red Rock (of St. George, Utah) 2009

This year we were lucky enough to have 2 Christmases. As soon as Olivia's school was over we began the 11 hour drive down and over to St. George to visit Grandma Ann and Great Grandpa Jack. The kids are really great in the car on these long trips. They don't even watch that many videos. I am glad we trained them from when they were young to endure these trips. This makes these kinds of long trips much more tolerable with the kids behaving so nicely.

Great Grandpa Jack is living with Ann for a while as he recovers from his surgery and a MINOR stroke. Olivia had to show him all her artwork that she brought on the trip.
The first thing the kids wanted to do when we arrived in St. George was to go to "the purple tent with the slides", AKA the indoor swimming pool. We were able to do this 2 of the days.

Ann lives in a wonderful neighborhood. They always have block parties. This block party was a lot of fun. Neighbors brought out their fire rings and we roasted marshmallows and made s'mores. Sam just loved the fire. I had a least 6 marshmallows!

The other activity that was great was this little boat that someone was pulling behind their truck. They were blasting Christmas music from their speakers. This was their way of caroling. Definitely a southern Utah Christmas.

Hi Dad and his big girls!

Wednesday night we went to a Nativity play at the Tuacahn theater. Before the Luke 2 reading we went on this train ride and after the reading we had HOT Cocoa and listened to some ladies with wonderful voices sing Christmas songs. The kids liked all 3 parts of this evening. Daniel and I are so blessed with such great kids. I loved watching Luke 2 with the kids, but it was also very rewarding to watch the kids drink their cocoa and listen to the singers.

This was our 'Christmas morning' at Grandma Ann's house. A tradition I love is making cinnamon rolls for Christmas morning. yum yum

Lula had fun exploring everyone's presents.

Just before this picture was taken, Olivia realized we were leaving. She always gets very sad when it is time to leave her grandmas' houses. She has such a tender heart.