Easter 2011

we had some fun this year for easter most of the festivities were on saturday the day before. (which was also James Birthday. Ferrari's were here so ofcourse we had something like 400 plastic eggs hidden in grandma's back yard, and about 5 dozen eggs that we dyed. oh yeah and not to mention the 3 foot bunny pinata that we filled with toys and goodies. we invited some friends because how were we going to find all those eggs with 6 kids. it was tons of fun and everyone got some extra prizes. The next day we went to church and enjoyed our time together and i tried to get a couple of picture, yeah that didn't go so well, but they are pretty cute...
One of the funny things cullen said around this time... he came down very serious and asked if i would tell him the truth. he asked if the tooth fairy was real? i ask what he thought. he said well, some kids at school say their parents just give them money for their teeth. i said "why would we want your teeth." he said well, there is no proof. I said what about other things you can't see? I then said What about Heavenly Father? He matter of factly looked at me (like duh?)and said "mom, we can feel Him." such a cool moment.

Sunny Beach day

One day we had a sunny day so we went to the beach, James wanted to go diving too. so he took all his gear and we went for the day. i was cold (ofcourse) but the kids weren't. they played in the sand, built castles, giant holes and played in the water. while we were there we saw a little seal laying on the beach. at first we thought he was dead but he moved around. he was very close to us and the kids went to touch him. he was fine (maybe a little sick) so that was cool. James, dove alittle but couldn't see much because a storm had just gone through there. Sophia wanted a starfish and lily wanted a crab. too bad the crab got out of the bag when james resurfaced. but sophia got a beautiful blue/purple starfish which we put back in the water. (live free and in the wild). a good break from the same old days.
james taking lily over to see the seal.
Lily and Sophia's "castle/cage" for her stuffed pet turtle she brought along.
sophia being cute and silly
Sophia and her pretty starfish.
How she got buried, all by herself.

Our little pet seal.
Beautiful waves.

Wild, Wild, Wild Kratts

So my kids LOVE the show wild kratts on pbs. i guess these brothers have been around with a couple older shows that we didn't know. but it's a great show all about animals where the brothers have to help out in some way and use creature power to become one the animals. I found out that they were going to be at the children's science museum (which is free) and we could see them and get tickets. so ofcourse we got the tickets and it was sold out a day later. we had been to the museum a few times so we didn't need to spend all day there anyways. we took our friends nicole, bernie, and nathan (loves animals) with us. but he wasn't very happy when we got there early for good seats and he was bored the whole time. the brothers soon came out and told a story about one of there adventures, answered questions then ran out. Cullen was so sad that he didn't get their autographs, but actually wanted their address to write to them. he was just bawling. anyways. we got some stickers, and posters and stuff it was a fun day.

we had to wait an extra 30 minutes for a bus full of boy scouts to come and they just kept playing the wild kratts theme song over and over so what do you do? dance to it!
Cullen so excited with his poster and wearing his "creature power suit" he designed and grandma sewed for him for that day.
Sophia showing off her sticker.
So happy to be there Nathan. bored, bored, bored.

Papa's 60th

For Papa's 60th birthday we all tried to get out to vegas for a stockdale party. we could really only make it for one and a half days but we had some fun and got to see lots of family. james and i got a hotel for 15 bucks, and it turned out to be super nice. the kids got to play with their cousins. we got to chat with adults and announce in person that we are expecting another one. we had some good food, went to the m&m choc factory which was "closed" that day.Super swimming at the hotel pool and had a party for papa. way fun fast trip.
can you count the candles on that cake! yeah we had a blast.
cullen and hunter, pretty much together the whole time and look so much alike they could really be brothers.
Dave, Bella, and Lily. I think there was an ipod and an iphone involved in the picture to keep them occupied.
Emma and Sophia also long lost twin cousins, had a blast just being silly little girls.
Cullen and Papa, loves being with him.

fun with cousins

In january we were sad to hear of the depleting health of my grandpa who had Parkinsons. we knew that his time was short and were planning on going to visit. but he passed peacefully sooner than we could get there. but with this sad news, it was also glad news because not only was his pain gone but we could join with family to talk about his life.
Delaine and her boys came back with my mom from Europe to go to the funeral and spend some time. it was great to see them. We were all very lucky to get to spend weeks with them. Everyday we would try and see them and join in some adventure. Liam and Lily were inseparable. they would do everything together and keep eachother busy. Everett was just a fine young man always laughing at the crazy things my older two do. i wish we had more pictures of those weeks but here are a few i had.

Train Park

Baby Brooklyn out in her stroller, what a good girl for a day out.
Parker, david, lily, and cullen trying to drive the train.
3 kids messing around!


One day in January it was so warm and it was a holiday so the kids and james had the day off. we decided to take advantage of the good day and go down to the train park, and griffith park to play. the kids loved it and it was all free. we met up with the fletchers down there and had some fun playing on all the old trains taking a train ride and walking around. then we went up to the observatory (closed) and looked at all of the city right at sunset. it was tons of fun. we went out to ihop to eat and the kids just had a super day away from the cold.

Florida

When our cruise was over we had to get off the boat by 9 am but our flight home was not till the next morning so we spent a day in fort lauderdale. it was kinda hard to be there because at that point i was ready to go home and see the kids. it was funny to see everyone on their cell phones again right when we docked because we had been without them all week. i think ryan had almost 100 messages on his phone. crazy! i just wanted to call my kids, and i did talk to them right when we got off but it was hard the rest of the day because i wanted to be home. but we spent our time taking one of those air boat tours where we could see alligators and we did see 4-5, which better than the rest of the boats there. we also went to see a crazy guy play with big alligators. we went to lunch at this crazy "captain somethings" seafood place, and walked around downtown. we ended up at cheesecake factory for dessert and stayed at a place called "red carpet inn". i know scary right? kinda.but good for a relaxing day in florida.
Ryan eating a big blob of whip cream. since we were so dessert deprived on the boat we were happy to get some good ones in Florida.
Krista paid to hold this baby alligator and kiss it, no way i would do that. she looks happy doing it though.
The crazy alligator guy that pretty much put his whole head in his mouth. CRAZY!
One of the Alligators we saw on the side of our boat, we got pretty darn close.
James, pretending to be happy to take a picture with our boat. SMILE!