Overnighter

After we came back from Vegas Samantha, Erika, and Tess stopped in for the night because Erika had a volleyball tournament in L.A. It was Miss Tess' birthday! She is one year old already! She is a doll! Apri loves Tess!! Well........we all love Tess!

The Birthday Girl!!

It was a bummer that they were only here for a few hours. We did go shopping for jewelery for Erika's dance so that was fun. We didn't have time for much else. :) It was fun even if it was short!

Vegas Baby!

We spend a lot of time in Vegas these days! :) Wayne had a work conference and he knew he wouldn't get to go there without the whole crew! His conference was mid-week so he took a few days off and we spent the whole week there. I had fun spending time with my sister and her kids. Matt was out of town as well so it was nice that me and Samantha got to keep each other company. We got to go to one of Harrison's track meets he is one speedy dude! He is a running machine. We visited some parks and did some shopping. It was a great fun week. I have to say my sister is superwoman!! She doesn't get a moment to rest she is running all day long. I don't know how she does it....good thing she has an awesome hubby and kids who help her out!

Cute little Tess playing on the slide

Tyson swinging away

My handsome little Camden

Apri could have played on this teeter totter all day!

One night while we were there I met Wayne and we had a little date night. Samantha was so nice to watch our kids. I wish I had some more pictures of our week.....oh well! So glad to be close to some family again! It makes me miss my brothers......I have such awesome siblings I am so lucky! 

Beach Bums

I LOVE THE BEACH!! I wish we lived just a little closer so I could go more often. Wayne had a day off of work I can't remember why so we spent the day at the beach with some friends. It was a little cold but we still had fun! :)

I caught Wayne playing with the trucks!

Audry and Apri

Chillin on the beach

I think he is having a good time....how about you!?

Apri begged to get burried

Bakersfield

At the beginning of February we took a trip out to Bakersfield California to visit my Cousins and Grandma who live there. It was so fun! We stayed with my Cousin Karen and her family. The kids had a blast together. I am so glad that we live so close to them now so that we can get together more often. Unfortunately my Grandma hasn't been in great health recently. My mom was in Bakersfield helping her sister and mom out for a week so we got to see her a little bit too.

Charles Karen's Hubby is a patrol officer so the kids got a kick out of checking out his car.

We met up at the park with 2 of my other cousins Jen and Steph and their families. It was fun to catch up a bit. They have cute kids and they all played together so good.

2nd Cousins Lorali, Katherine, and Apri

Dewar's Ice cream!! Best Ice cream ever!!

Cute kiddos outside Dewar's

4 Generations

We also watched the Superbowl at my Aunt Trudy's house, and I got to see my cousin Matt. It was awesome to see everyone. It had been way to long. Karen and I had some good laughs. We played Kinect on her xbox! It was sooo much fun we also played some guitar hero. Thanks for an awesome weekend Karen we had a BLAST!!

Fingerpainting

Sometimes....not very often....I let my kids do fun things like finger painting. I don't like big messes so I don't do things like this as often as I should. One day I might be a more fun mom! :) It was kind of funny because Apri chose to use a paintbrush anyway. She didn't want to get messy!! Ha Ha!! Camden had a ball getting his hands dirty.

Crafty Girl

Apri has been really crafty recently. She loves to color, paint, cut, glue and draw. One day I found a project I thought she might like to do. It was similar to cross stitch but more simple for kids. I thought she could work on it bit by bit over a few weeks or something. Well my determined little girl completed it in one day! She sat all day working on it. I kept telling her that she didn't need to finish it in one day but she just kept on working. She did a good job!

So Cute!!

FYI this is my rocking chair from when I was little.....I love that she uses it!

6 months old

Just a few things about Tyson at 6 months old.

Tyson is such a happy baby he loves attention. He has beautiful long eyelashes that everyone seems to notice. He has just started crawling around and he is fast. He seemed to learn how to do it faster than Apri and Camden. They all started around the same age but he started scooting and the next day he was crawling it seemed like. He is very active so that keeps him skinny. No cute fat rolls on this baby boy. He loves food. Almost anything we give to him he enjoys. He gives great cuddles and still likes to be swaddled. He still has a Binky Apri never took a Binky and Camden didn't have one for long so I am enjoying the Binky. It is so great at church. When it is time to take the Binky away I probably wont love it anymore! :) He has an adorable laugh and it sounds just like Camden's laugh. We just love this little guy!! SERIOUSLY SOOO CUTE!!

Best Day Ever

We went to Disneyland again in February. I left my camera in the car by mistake!! It was the perfect day for Disneyland. It was raining but it wasn't too cold. We were all bundled up and we walked on to almost every ride we rode that day!! It was fabulous!! I am bummed that I don't have pictures of it. We spent most of the day in Adventure land and did alot of things I had never done before. The kids liked the rides in the Bugs Life area. My favorite was talking to Crush from Nemo. We also watched a show with all the characters from the Disney Junior Chanel the kids loved that. We saw a ton of characters that day too. I was a mean mom and forced Apri to go on the tower of terror. I felt horrible I had not been on the ride in years and didn't remember it being so scary! Oh, well she lived! It was the perfect day to be a Disneyland!! :)

Sickos

We had a rough start to our year. Nothing major just a run in with the stomach flu. I don't care to ever see throw up ever again. First it was Camden then Tyson then Apri! I washed clothes and sheets and floors all day long!! IT WAS HORRIBLE!! Camden got it the worst. I was so worried. My kids had never had the stomach flu before so it was a rude awakening. Lucky for me Wayne and I didn't get it but I sure was tired from taking care of all the sickos. So glad it didn't last too long.

New Years Eve

We celebrated New Years with the Smiths and the Larsen's. They are our new great neighbors. We love to get together with them. We were at the Larsen's house. We played games, had a toast and went to bed early! I can't stay up late anymore I am a wimp. We had a pretend countdown early so we could get the kids to bed at a decent time, because we have church at 8:30 am this year!!! Yep....it's early! 

Audry, Ava, Thomas, and Apri playing a game

Madi, Ava, Audry, Camden, Spencer, Apri and Thomas ready for the New Years toast.

Apri Banging pans to ring in the New Year

Tyson and Wayne

We had a very blessed year. It was a very stressful year with the arrival of Tyson, our move to California and Wayne adjusting to his new job. We survived through the stress! It amazes me how each year that passes by my love for my family grows and my appreciation for the things we have increases. We are so lucky to have good, healthy, happy kids, a nice place to live, and many friends and family members who love us. We look forward to the NEW YEAR!!! :)

Christmas Part II

The day after Christmas the Kelly's came and stayed with us for a few days. We were so excited to have them come. We had some great laughs while they were here. For example Samantha is now constantly telling me she can't hear me because I am using my Larson voice. Apparently us Larson's are very quiet!! He He! We also learned to play pterodactyl which is hilarious and made my mouth so sore. My favorite was when Harrison fell asleep on the couch and we couldn't wake him up to get him to bed. When he is a asleep he is asleep!! :) Oh, and we had yet another sliding war down our hallway that ended with me falling flat on my butt! It was Fun Fun Fun! Here are some pictures of our time together.

no explanation needed :)

zonked out Harrison and Matt

Erika, Samantha, and Tess playing some tunes

While they were here we spent a day in San Diego.
We spent the afternoon in Lajolla which is amazing. It is a beautiful beach. You can go and climb over the rocks and wade in the tide pools. You see all sorts of neat things in the tide pools. We were glad that we went there. (thanks for the recommendation Larsen's) There is always a bunch of seals there as well so the kids loved watching the seals and playing in the water.

looking at the seals on the beach

playing in the tide pools

Samantha and Tess

Jackson, Harrison, and Erika exploring the tide pools

Me and Tyson

Camden digging in the sand

The Kelly's

The Larson's

WOW!!!

After we watched the sun set we headed over to the San Diego temple to see the Christmas lights. It was beautiful of course. It was a nice way to end our fun day.

Our whole group at the Temple

Harrison giving Apri the ride of her life!

The Nativity

Christmas Dinner

After a fun day of playing with our new toys and relaxing together as a family we had the Larsen's and the missionaries over for a big Christmas dinner. The Larsen's live just around the corner from us and just moved in last summer. They are in our ward and we get along great with them. It was nice to have someone to celebrate the holiday with. :) We had a festive ham dinner and then we played Spot it. It was a great way to end our Christmas.

Camden, Spencer, and Thomas

Audry, Apri, and Madi

Me and Cashelle! I just love her! Such a great friend!

Camden and the Elders

Thomas and Tyson....he loves Tyson and is so cute with him.

Playing Spot It