The Stockdales

Easter 2011

2011-06-08T16:22:00.000-07:00

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

2011-05-26T21:39:00.000-07:00

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

2011-05-26T21:27:00.000-07:00

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

2011-05-26T21:18:00.000-07:00

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

2011-05-04T09:12:00.000-07:00

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

2011-04-08T10:56:00.000-07:00

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

2011-04-08T10:42:00.000-07:00

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!

Cruise

2011-04-04T11:42:00.000-07:00

The first week of January James and I celebrated our 10 year anniversary a bit early on a cruise to the Caribbean. We asked our good friends Krista and Ryan to come along, and it sure was fun. we loved cruising, and plan on doing it again. krista and ryan already have another one booked. (lucky) We went on Holland America, i chose this line because it hit alot of different islands for diving (james) and had cooking classes on the boat (me). We had paid in advance to do 2 cooking classes but there ended up only being one so we were pretty sad. James got to dive at each place. I forget all the islands, but the Bahama island was my favorite. i loved the 80 degree weather every day, sitting on the beach relaxing, eating anytime i wanted, sleeping in everyday, watching movies, time with James and laughing with friends. We had a great time eating the food was good, not top notch like I expected but there were a few nights where we really loved some things like the Thai Lime soup, and the goat cheese salad. We were all very disappointed in the desserts, there were alot to choose from but all really dry. except for this chocolate cake with ganuche filling, chocolate fudge icing with ice cream that i got a couple of time. (i don't usually like chocolate but hey i'm pregnant!) it was a great vacation and i did miss my kids alot. but i can't wait till the next trip.

James and I in Grand Turk (i think) loved the blue water and the perfect soft sand it was like powder.
one of the nights the boat had a dessert show, they had everything made out of chocolate, sugar, bread, and more chocolate. this is the choc Eiffel tower and a white chocolate swan, they also had awesome ice sculptures. but have to say we didn't find one dessert that really tasted that good, most just looked good.
More pictures of the beautiful beaches there. loved it!
This is our boat. we were in the middle, somewhere. but a huge ship with 5 restaurants, 3 pools, theatre, movie room, cooking demo kitchen, casino, shops, and more.
This is Biplop. my chef on the cruise. he is the executive chef on the fine dining restaurant on the boat, we never could get reservations. (and i asked if we could eat in the kitchen). i pretty much saw him every day. there were little cooking demos every day that he did, he was very entertaining and likable. (i don't know about a good teacher though) Also for our class that we got to cook at he was the teacher, well kinda he just gave us a recipe and told us to get to it. i was kinda disappointed with it. especially because there were just people walking by that would sit and watch, and take picture that we had to tell we paid for the private class, and this couple from canada who thought they knew everything about cooking that were annoying me. (they tried forcefully to tell me the Gorgonzola was not a bleu cheese) come on people! anyways i really liked my time with Biplop.

Christmas 2010

2010-12-24T14:18:00.001-08:00

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mario brothers... i mean and sister

2010-12-19T15:28:00.000-08:00

for halloween this year cullen wanted to be mario (ofcourse) so him and his buddy brady thought that they would be the mario bros. cullen mario and brady luigi. then sophia said she wanted to be princess peach. luckily my niece madie was peach a few years back and we got to use her costume which we loved all we had to get was the crown and the jewelry. but mario was definitely a hard one. there really is no such thing as overalls for 7-8 year old boys. there are baby and little boy ones or grown men ones but not for boys cullen's age. so after looking forever and deciding not to pay 20+ dollars for used ones on ebay, decided to make them. i think they came out better after we finally found a pattern started making them but rally didn't need one with my mom around. we just whipped it out (she did) and made a hat too. best mario by far. they looked so cute together on Halloween but even better with there trick or treat bags everyone knew who they were. lily was minnie (pic to follow) fell asleep and missed all of Halloween, shhh don't tell her that. but i was a little scared on Halloween because it was the first time i put makeup on sophia and man what a bombshell. she is anyways but her green eyes really popped. we had a fun halloween.

Wicked

2010-12-03T15:24:00.000-08:00

Daddy and Sophia all ready for the show. (funny thing... james and i saw wicked last year in australia very late at night come to find out after seeing it again with sophia james had fallen asleep and never saw the end and thought that elphaba had melted and that was the end)
At the ophemeum in San Fran
Mama and Sophia so excited.
Saw the posters for the first time. so happy to be there.

For sophia's birthday (witch *get it* is in November) we planned on taking her to see wicked. Her pretty much favorite thing in the world. but they had already left la but were still in San Fran. So we planned to go out to NOR CAL for Olivia's bday and go to wicked at the same time. it was hard for us to get tickets, but we ended up with partial view seats. At first when i told james about the idea of Sophia going to Wicked he said NAAAAHHH, why would she like to see wicked, she doesn't even know anything about it. Then a few days later we were in the car listening to Wicked and James saw or heard first hand that she knows alllllll the words. then he said yeah, we should take her and i wanna go. We took the Bart to the theatre but got there early and ate first but couldn't go far because it was freezing that day. our seat were on the fourth row, but on the far right, not the last seats but they were good. Sophia had a booster so she could see everything. everyone thought she looked like a princess. It was kinda funny how she would ask questions about what was going on because she had only heard the music like: why are they being so mean to Elphaba? She loved the dragon and the lights, and i had to tell her she couldn't sing all the songs out loud. but mostly everyone around us was happy with her there. Sad to say that soon after intermission she fell asleep, dead to the world asleep. that's what happened when it's a 8 pm show. so i guess we have to go back one day. the best thing was seeing her face she loved it. and Glinda was beyond awesome, off the charts best popular ever. (sophia's fav song)

aquatic center (summer)

2010-12-03T15:13:00.000-08:00

sorry for all these summer posts but i have to catch up sometime. we went down for a day trip to the valencia aquatic center (thanks Kelsi)and had a blast. a great deal and just as good (if you have little kids) as dry town. the kids loved it. they loved playing in all the splash places and going down the slides. cullen loved the high dive. i didn't think he would do it but kept going back. he had to take a swimming test first which was good because sometimes places put height and age limits on things even if they can't swim they can do it. but cullen can swim... very well so he was happy to take the test and very proud that he passed. it was a great adventure and i know we will be back next summer.
Lily in all the splash
Cullen and Lily... holding in the water.
Waiting for the water to pop out.
Cullen ready to high dive.
Sophia is in there... somewhere in all the splashes of water.

summer lovin'

2010-11-21T19:51:00.000-08:00

we love water balloons, but it takes alot of time to fill them all up and tie them just so they all get popped under a minute. can't wait till the kids can tie their own.

My boy loves him some soccer

2010-11-21T19:10:00.000-08:00

Cullen didn't want to play soccer this year, he wanted to do karate. but his best bud brady had been doing it for a couple years, and as a good mom I signed him up without him knowing. about a month before i told him and he wasn't so excited but he was happy to play with his friend. The team he was on was called Blue Lightsabers. (i loved the name and might have suggested it to the team, shhhh don't tell) most of the boys had not played soccer before so we were a small group. The coach was awesome, never cared if we lost, (and we did) just cared about everyone being able to play and learn how to play. Cullen loved it after the first game he was hooked. (i guess he has some stockdale soccer blood) he was very emotional every game almost ever play. but we hope to have overcome that.(fingers crossed) Cullen is great as a forward and has a very aggressive face and runs, kicks his hardest when ever he was out there. which did cause for a couple huge hits but he almost always managed to get back up and keep playing. He made two goals in a row one game and i was sad to say James missed that one. and once again made a goal (james missed that one too). But his true passion was being goalie. (huh? i wonder where he gets that?) He loved to play goalie and blocked tons of goals the three times he got to play, i think they only scored on him twice. James had been working with him and the last game he played goalie and wowed the crowd with his kicks. so i think we won one game and many games were scoreless, but cullen cried when i told him it was his last game. he can't wait till next year! Cullen made the most goals on his team (3) and was named the most aggresive player and mr. energizer bunny red bull. (yep that's my boy)

ps... i think i know most of the rules of soccer now, maybe next year i'll get them all. James just laughs at me because i'm so competitive and into sports i can't hold back. but i'm getting better... i think.
The day i brought my mom's camera to take pictures was the day that right before the game cullen ran into a tree and split open his eyebrow... if you noticed the bandaid on his eye.
And it was also the day we played against the Jedi Knights, my friend Cindy and her son's team where we knew alot of the players. (and a super awesome team!)
Cullen Playing goalie, blocked some good kicks that day!
Super Goalie Cullen!

just wondering?

2010-11-21T19:08:00.000-08:00

hey does anyone get my blog? i haven't gotten any comments since the blog went private. it's not like i need comments it's just that i want to know if it works.

Cullen's 7th birthday

2010-11-07T16:51:00.000-08:00

For Cullen's seventh birthday we wanted to go Mario Brothers. but not old school not mario kart not mario party but kinda Super Mario Bros. ish. Cullen loves nothing more than to play his DS. it is his favorite thing pretty much in the whole world. he has beaten lots of games and mario games are his favorite but he already beat them all so he's moved on since then. but he loves anything mario. so i saw a couple of cakes that i liked and with my friend tammy we put this one together all the background blocks and things except for mario characters are edible. They are made out of color flow which is pretty cool. i made the pipe out of rice crispies and did the rest in fondant and frosting. i loved the cake. i also spent some time during the week making mario bros balloon characters. i had a fire flower and ice flower, ba bombs and mushroom. except once i put them up at grandmas house they popped or blew away. (sad) cullen wanted to have a swim party too. so we did at the end of sept but it's warm enough here we didn't have a problem. he wanted mario pizzas and doritos (what else would you want when you are 7). I can't believe he is seven next year he will be 8 and will get baptized. Crazy! anyways the party was alot of fun. He got alot of cool gifts and loved his Mario Hat grandma made for him. Happy Birthday my big super awesome boy Cullen!
Friends in the spa, Macie, Carson, Lily, Sophia, and Brady.
Cullen and his other love... a Club Penguin Membership!!!!
Cullen and the pinata. I just took a box, filled it with candy and bought some block paperand made my question marks. super easy and perfect for the party.
Cullen blowing out the candles on his cake... had to be power star candles right?
The cake and the mushroom balloons.

Olivia's Baptism

2010-11-05T16:34:00.000-07:00

So... Olivia's baptism was back at the beginning of Sept. we made our way out there to be with everyone. We loved being there with everyone even though every day was full and busy with things to do. Olivia had asked me to give the talk on baptism at the baptism and i asked if she was sure and she said she was. I had never given one before and was very nervous especially because the room was hot and packed with people and families there to witness three different wonderful 8 year olds get baptized. There was even people in the halls. but after i calmed down and just talked to the kids it was ok. i loved it. The baptisms went great then we went to the church to have dinner. which was full of people, friends, family and everyone there to support olivia. mostly i was in the kitchen (who would have guessed) but the kids were just running around having fun with their cousins. it was a great event and i hope olivia always remembers it.
Me and my girls. Look how cute!
The Family almost all (missing the Smiths)
The kids all tired from running around doing there best "airbenders"
Lovely Olivia!

Lily's 2nd Bday

2010-09-03T16:00:00.000-07:00

lily had a mickey mouse clubhouse bday party this year. she loves "gaga" and "mimi mouse" and she does a great hot dog dance. so we had a good time with our mouska tools and games. we played duck duck donald, pin the bow on minnie, and dance the hot dog dance. it was crazy busy and i had been preparing for the cake all week, but still no luck it looked great but about an hour into the party the head fell right off. i was pretty sad, it always works out in my head but sometimes cake can be mean to me. lily had a great day... she looked so cute in her minnie costume. she was ready to blow out her candles and beaux really wanted to do it first so she just looked at him with a scowl and then blew out her candles. she loved everything she got but especially the minnie doll with dress up clothes that aunt delaine gave her. the cupcakes came out super cute and the minnie and mickey cake pops were so yummy.

Lily and Liam & trip to Oregon

2010-08-26T13:50:00.000-07:00

Grandma, Delaine her kids, mine and I all packed up in two cars to travel to Oregon to see family and see grandma and grandpa great. it was cold... really too cold for me. we went camping for 4 days at the beach which was a beautiful spot but hard to keep everyone busy being 6,4,3,2,1 year old kids. yep we were crazy. They loved everything, the trees, the beach, the hike and stuff, i bet they didn't even notice how stressful it was on delaine, me and mom. we went hiking up golden & silver falls, went to mingus park, found an indoor play area, had smores and hot chocolate, tried to make fires, tried to sleep in the cold, and visited with family. it was a full trip but a hard one. i know the kids loved just being together.

Some Picture of the Buddies Liam and Lily... always together.

Love this one!!!

Amy Day cont.

2010-08-15T15:30:00.000-07:00

While Amy went to the dentist for a little while we found a nearby (huge) park to roam around in. we found a little creek that had waterfall and lots of rocks to climb on. we almost lost a couple of shoes and a pair of glasses but they loved it more than anything. some of those rocks... dare devil children... they get it from their dad, not from me.

Salt Lake Children's Museum

2010-08-15T15:22:00.000-07:00

Our Day with Amy...
We spent our day first at the children's museum. it was pretty packed with alot of summer groups but we got around without getting lost. I think the kids liked the climbing wall the best, but sophia liked going around the little kids town and becoming the postmaster, a chef and a construction worker. Cullen also loved the wall to put the pipes together so the ball can go down thingy, but got pretty upset when it didn't work right. Lily loved all the little cars and anything that you could push buttons on. We also saw the helicopter on the roof cullen had a blast driving that thing. to be continued...

Pony rides and fun at Thanksgiving point

2010-08-15T15:05:00.000-07:00

While in Utah i had another chance to hang out with my buddy Brooke and her family at thanksgiving point. the kids loved looking at all the animals and going on the pony rides. (even cullen who didn't want to go because pony rides were "for girls" good thing they had a horse for him, he was cool with that) Lily was under the weather for days and had a slight fever which we never found out why, so she was a mellow child that day. The kids (especially Cullen again) wanted to play in the food process plant forever. Cullen became the manager of the whole production telling random kids what to do, what to pick and how to organize. he was very proud of his production and had to have a picture. The kids then just wanted to get all wet in the "plumbing" contraption that if you pull on some things water comes out some place else. they thought it was the highlight, and if i knew that we wouldn't had to pay to get in. Brooke and I had a chance to chat and have lunch while the kids got wet. it was a super fun day. (thanks brooke for the discount)

The Plumbing contraption (my kids thought they were Mario and Luigi)

Cullen's business of Food Production... So Proud, So Proud

All the kids on the large scale trying to weigh more than a cow.
Lily and her tiny pony
Cullen on his manly steed
Sophia with her cute little pony

)

Cullen's first fish

2010-08-13T16:14:00.000-07:00

while in utah Papa took cullen and sophia fishing 3 times. he was determined to have cullen catch a fish and on the very last possible trip they left about 5 am without sophia (because she desided that it was too boring) he caught 2 fish and papa didn't catch any. he was so excited but so scared if the fish even thought about moving a little. but he loved hanging out with papa and nana fishing.

This photo slideshow generated with Smilebox

ricks reunion

2010-08-09T15:16:00.000-07:00

we traveled to utah to reunite was some of my best buds from ricks college culinary program. it's been more than 10 years since school and thought it would be fun to get together have lunch and a play date. it's crazy that we all are grown up and have our kids with us but when we are together it feels like we're back up at ricks, cooking in the kitchen and freezing, well... not really that part. but super fun just to laugh and have a good time and share old memories with eachother.
TaLaisa, Brooke and Me cooking friends.
All the kids enjoying their pizza and snacks.
Lovely Ladies.

witch hat cake.

2010-08-09T15:11:00.000-07:00

i made this cake for one of my friends daughters that was turning 7. i've always wanted to make a witch hat cake for a harry potter party but thought it would work just as well for a dress up witch party. too bad i made the cake a week early so it had to sit for a week in the fridge. but everyone said they enjoyed it. These are the 7 chocolate dipped cupcakes for the candles on top.
The cake with stars on the hat.
Without the stars on.

Last Day of Preschool

2010-08-07T13:52:00.001-07:00

leaha, jensy, taylor, and emma friends in school
Kaylyn and Sophia best buddies!
Mrs. Burke, sophia and lily too.
Sophia had to finish preschool about a week early since we had to leave for our vacation to utah. so i took a couple of pictures on her last day. she loved preschool she started out in Ms. Kings class because she is one of the younger ones with her birthday at the end of novemeber. the teacher could quickly see that she was ready to move on to the older kids class and was moved at semester, but made some of her favorite friends in that class like Kaylynn, they loved seeing eachother in the shared bathrooms between their classrooms and always gave hugs before and after school. too bad they won't be going to the same ele. school. Sophia then moved to the "pre-k" class with Mrs. Burke. It was harder to make friends in that class but she still loved it. she loved playing on the computer in class the best. it was a fun year, and she's all set for kindergarten.

going private

2010-08-07T09:27:00.000-07:00

hey time to make blog private if you want to keep reading my blog please give me you email so i can add you to my list. thanks

grad night 2010

2010-06-21T12:23:00.000-07:00

james and i signed up to be chaperons for grad night this year. hey that would be fun, go to disneyland no little kids, stay up all night, don't have to pay. great idea! actually it was! we went down with our bus full of kids that we had to search before they could get on the bus. pretty much the only things they could take was money, cell phone, camera and condoms. no chapstick, no gum, no snacks and no shirts with anything on them. they were really strict. when we got there about 10:30 we had to put all our things and our purses in a clear bag (so if you did bring condoms everyone could see them) and get searched again by security. at least we knew we were totally safe going in. the party started at 11pm, i've never seen disneyland like that before, all this bumping dance music, all lit up and no children or strollers, weird! all the rides were open except for fantasy land, because they had a dance party in front of the castle and fireworks that went off twice. but we had a sweet set up. we got free drinks and snacks and either breakfast or dinner, and they had movies playing in the theatre to watch. all the lines for the rides were about 2 hours long, so we didn't do that. kyle and aly came with us so we just hung around chatted at got in trouble from a downtown disney security officer because we weren't suppost to be out there. we went into the theatre and slept through old dogs until it was time to get ready to go. walking back was a pain to get back to the bus it took an hour. everyone slept on the way home, then james stayed and taught school and i went home to do my motherly duties. CRAZY! i was pretty sleepy and cranky for about 2 days. but it was fun.
James and Kyle being... james and kyle
best buds, do everything together.
dance party disney grad nite.

student of the month.

2010-06-21T12:10:00.000-07:00

cullen got picked to be student of the month for the month of May. The value for the month (they do a new one to focus on each month) was honesty. I was very pleased that he was seen as an honest young man. his teacher said some nice things about him. it was also sports day, and i was happy that he wanted to wear his suns jersey even though i was worried that other kids would give him guff about it. he wanted me to take so many pictures. he was really excited. they also have a drawing each month for lunch with the principal, cullen had done this before earlier in the year. they earn "paws of praise" when ever they do anything good and then they pull out some names. cullen was so excited to be picked again to go to lunch on the same day as his student of the month. There were alot of kids names pulled for may and june, so they decided to have a pizza party. but cullen's class was going on a field trip the day set up, him and a few others went out to lunch with the principal the last week of school to carls jr. Super fun. he really is a great kid that works hard and tries to do the right thing. i was so excited that he was honored for that.

showing off his paw print patch to show he was student of the month.

Cullen, vincent and Mrs. Romero
Putting all his fun stuff in his envelope to take home.

Healthy Food Field Trip

2010-06-12T14:47:00.000-07:00

I went with Sophia's preschool class for a walking field trip. Being on a college campus they get a lot of opportunities for walking trips. The childrens nutrition class always invites the preschool kids to their finals. The divide into small groups and plan a healthy kids snack and teach the kids how to make it. The groups also decorate the tables or have an activity for the kids to do. It is really fun and cute, i always get good ideas, and i can't believe the kids actually eat and try alot of the healthy foods they give them.
These are the kids getting ready to go in they played a quick game of "healthy or not healthy" snacks. each kid got a card with a food on it and had to say healthy or not. they loved it.
Sophia was at the "jungle table" where they made Lion Bagels and Orange juice. She put on cream cheese and is now putting chow mein noodles for the lions mane.
Sophia making her own Orange Juice, she was trying so hard to turn it around to get the juice out, can you tell?
Sophia showing off her finished Lion, she loved the olive eyes the most, not so much the mane.
Sophia couldn't wait to start and ate a half a bagel before and i think another whole one after her lion. She's a growing girl you know!

Some of the other kids made wheat quesadillas, guacamole and horchata. One group made ladybugs out of olives and tomatoes, Fruit smoothies, Yogurt Parfaits that they changed different colors, and yogurt dipped bananas with different topping. so cute and soooo yummy, i wanted to try them all especially the guacamole but i didn't get to try.

Firestation

2010-06-08T11:18:00.000-07:00

For our quarterly activity for primary they decided to make it a fun safety day. The kids got to make 72 hour backpack, (which Cullen keeps at the front door and has already run to go get it when the smoke alarm went off while cooking), made trail mix, learned different safety rolls and lifts, and went to the fire station.
we had alot of fun, especially with our cousins joining us. the kids got to walk through the station and learn about the truck and what happens and even met the fire house pet snake. I think their favorite part was learning about the gear and trying it all on. They then got to go outside and play on the truck, not all the truck though Cullen had to get down from climbing onto of the hose, and climbing through the passenger door. It was a great activity and i really think they learned something, which is always good.
Our primary, i think they are saying "fire truck"

Sophia driving the truck, that's a crazy idea.
Cullen playing on the hose before he got told to get down.
Trying on the gear!
This is SOOOOO HEAVY!
Playing on the firetruck!

Making Cupcakes

2010-06-04T17:10:00.000-07:00

For Delaine's bday this year i wanted to make cupcakes, and i have thought about making cupcake pops for a while now but i usually have too much of a theme to make them, but this time i didn't so i thought i would try them. They took some time, about the same as a cake though and they turned out pretty cute. Lily helped me make them and she just loved licking the spoon. They were different, and very cute, kinda messy, but i was happy to try something new. I'm hoping to make mickey and minnie ones for lily's bday. they look awesome. too bad i didn't take a picture of Delaine eating them, just the cake.

Cullen's Perry Project

2010-06-04T16:58:00.000-07:00

One of Cullen's end of the year projects was a diorama of an animal and it's habitat. Ofcourse cullen picked a platypus. (because of perry on phineas and ferb) He has a couple of stuffed animal platypuses. It was good though to learn more about them and their environment, i bet that was a first for his teacher. He came home and made his "perry" out of playdough but it didn't last. i thought he did a great job. we had to use things around the house, good thing my friend Tammy and I put our resources together for the boys projects. Cullen put together a new platypus out of clay and we smoothed it together. he painted and told me where to glue the scenery. i thought he did a great job. A+ from his teacher.
Cullen and his final project. So proud!
The inside of the box, I know that platypuses aren't suppose to be turquoise and orange, but that's the way he wanted it and it does look like PERRY!
His first perry, not bad too bad he didn't last.

Teacher appreciation

2010-06-04T16:49:00.000-07:00

We made cupcakes for teachers this year that ended up so cute. the idea was from family fun and i just wrote different messages for the teachers. they both loved them, i was just excited that i got to make something, but everything has to be store bought for schools these days, but since they just went to the teachers it worked out nicely. I heard no complaints about them so i'll keep them on the list for next year.
Sophia and her set, too cute!
Cullen and his set for his teacher.
The cupcakes together. the apple is made from a skittle with frosting leaf, and the chalk is a good and plenty.

Cinco De Mayo

2010-06-01T08:41:00.000-07:00

The first Graders at cullens school had been practicing their song and dance for cinco de mayo for at least a month so that we could see them put on the show. They made there vests and flowers for the girls hair and were ready to fiesta. Cullen loves to sing and dance so he was kinda excited to have the show (don't tell his friends) They sang "de colores" which was fun because they had a hard time with the words and did the mexican hat dance. it was a fun activity for the kids to do.
All the first graders getting ready for the show.
Cullen watching intently to know when to start.
Getting in position to dance.

Muffins for Mom

2010-06-01T08:29:00.000-07:00

Cullen's school has a lot of cool events. One of my favorites is Muffins for Mom, for mothers day. ofcourse we have to go to school early but we get to sit together have muffins and juice, (even though my kids don't really like muffins) we had fun sitting with our friends having muffins.
Sophia's posing in all her cuteness.
Sophia and her muffin mouth.
Cullen and his buddies... Brady and Vincent.
ME and the Kids at the school!
all of us!

Mom, it's snowing in my room!

2010-06-01T08:23:00.000-07:00

one day i was enjoying my time while the girls were playing together up stairs. Nathan was over playing to he came down and told me that sophia had white stuff all over her room. i didn't know what he meant so i went to investigate. on the way up i heard sophia talking to lily, "no lily pull really hard like this." they had found the Styrofoam in sophia tea party dishes box and started riping it all out. it was everywhere, i told sophia she had to pick up all the big pieces, she wasn't very happy about that but i had to take a picture. it was everywhere, it got pulled into the bathroom and down the stairs to this day there are still little white balls in corners all over my house. SOPHIA!

Safety Field trip

2010-06-01T08:12:00.000-07:00

At Sophia's preschool they were learning about road safety and what different signs mean. she had made a book to share with her class about the different signs in our neighborhood. So at he school which is on a college campus they had a safety walk. I joined them that day along with lily, even though lily did not what to hold hand like we were suppost to. we walked around pointing out the different signs and finding out what they mean, then we went to a grass area and the kids played games. they played red light green light and another stop and go sign game. i thought it was so cute and fun. we ended the outing with a snack on the grass then back to school. a very fun day, i'm glad i got to enjoy it with my girls. sleepy mommy and cutie sophia at the field trip!
Having our snack on the grass
Getting ready to play our games
ready Run! wait Stop! Slow!
My cute little preschooler.

james' birthday

2010-06-01T08:03:00.000-07:00

james turned 32 in april, but with prom and him being out of town we celebrated the sunday after. we invited the usual to dinner and cake, most of the time just chatted. i made an ice cream cake for his birthday, chocolate cake with oreo ice cream, cool whip frosting with oreos and strawberries. a very simple cake but it was awesome to eat. and since james likes ice cream ten times more than cake thats what you get. james also got a few gifts, a new shirt, a couple mixing cups for his morning carnation breakfast, and a pancake griddle. (because he makes the best pancakes) it sure was a fun day i don't remember what i cooked for dinner but i think steaks and shrimp james favs. this is the flaming cake with all 32 candles on it. get the fire hose!
James and his pancake griddle, has already be in use many times over, loves it.
Blowing out the candles with Sophia, he needed a little help with all those candles.
the oreo ice cream cake. So goooooood!

Prom 2010

2010-05-14T13:58:00.000-07:00

James asked me one day if i considered chaperoning prom for his school. I totally thought that would be awesome. Get all dressed up, maybe dance a little, not have to pay, get to eat some food. ofcourse there would be tons of high schooler there that we have to make sure are not doing drugs, drinking or not playing nice but hey it would be a date, right? So the morning of my birthday james had me go into the bathroom and this is what i found... there were about 50 fish (40 live and about 10 not) in the bathtub and james asking me to go to prom. ofcourse i said yes. he was kinda sad that i wasn't giddy as a school girl, but i'm not a school girl anymore, and i wasn't even like that as a school girl. but i was excited.

So he talked his school into having "extra security" there so cindy and dave got to go with us. BONUS! i got my dress 30 bucks at burlington (ok i bought 3 and kept two but all three cost the same as one of the dresses most of the girls were wearing) Cindy and Me waiting for the kids to get checked before getting on the bus.
Our kids stayed at the Knapps, where they had the best night ever! we ofcourse had to take pictures on the lawn together. how cute. I'm the one with the white legs and arms.
I made a boutineer for James and corsages for cindy and i to wear, i took roses from my mom's backyard and our neighborhood walkway to make them and they came out pretty good, a little wabbly though to cindy and i didn't wear ours to the dance.
Prom was at a jewish history museum next to the getty. it was very pretty and large, and had extra security of their own, so we didn't have to do much. the dance floor was outside, which is good when you're hot and sweaty on the dance floor but cold if not, so i was sporting james coat most of the night.
We had a great time. but we were really tired by the end, we aren't that young any longer. James had to tap a couple of students on the shoulder and offer a couple of chairs to girls sitting on laps but no problems at all. they also had a caricaturist that drew the kids pictures and karaoke for the singers. fun night.

9 year anniversary

2010-05-10T11:32:00.000-07:00

for our nine year anniversary we decided to do something really crazy... how bout go to san bernidino and stay the night in a teepee. Great idea! this is how it came about...
James got a call from Cal schools education something and they liked his idea about this switch box they made in one of his classes and wanted him to come and make lesson plans for it and to be put in lessons plans through all of california. They said they would pay for hotel to come to san bernadino for a couple of days. the first night fell on our anniversary and i said... "you're going to spend our anniversary in a hotel without me?" but we made it work and wonderful Nicole spent the night with my kids and take them to school so that i could go with him. we went out to eat before we left at outback and my wonderful husband changed our seats 3 times so that I could watch the nba playoffs during our anniversary dinner. I think the waitress was kinda shocked when she found out i was watching the game. that man knows me well, and loves me tons to do that for me. We then made our way through snow over the mountains to san bernandino. neither of us had been there before, but the area we were in was kinda scary, i thought james was going to get mugged out there riding a bus. so we made it to our teepee, which was booked by the school board, weird! rated one of the best hotels there. (i know why now, everything else was soooo scary) I was happy to have our little teepee. It was fun to be away for a night and we will always remember and joke about what could possibly beat this anniversary. but we are already in the works for our tenth and it's looking pretty sweet.

Tea Party

2010-05-07T08:33:00.000-07:00

Sophia has some cute little girl friends from school that she doesn't really get to play with that often. Most of the friends her age that she plays with at home are boys. So I thought it would be cute to have a Tea Party Playdate and invites a couple of her girly friends from school that she mostly likely won't see much after pre school because they are all going to different kindergartens. So Kaylyn, and her sister Krista, Lorelai, and Robyn came over to play dress up, decorate cupcakes, drink pink lemonade, and just to be girls for one afternoon.
The princess tea set!
The pretty cupcakes the girls decorated
Lorelai and Lily, always together wanted to match, she loved being the big sister for a day.
Cupcake Bite!

Lily loved having the girls over and she was looking so "cheesy" so i had to share
Lily loved to dress up like all the other girls and they loved dressing her up too.
All the girls in their dress ups, even though it was a fight to get sophia to put something on, after all the girls left she didn't want to put the dress ups away because she wanted to play with them by herself. Sophia, Robyn, Kaylyn, Lorelai, Krista, and Lily
The girls sitting down for their tea, and Sophia pouring the lemonade, they all used the cutest little manners, "sophia, could you please pour me some Lemonade?"
The tea party set up, Sophia wanted pink cupcakes (ofcouse) but i wanted to make mini ones but she insisted to have big ones.

Easter

2010-05-04T13:23:00.000-07:00

Lots of cousins for easter! The ferrari's came down for a couple days and smiths came back with me. We had our egg hunt a couple days early with everyone then another with more eggs on sunday. I think we counted at least 500 plastic eggs that were filled with candy or money or little fluffy chicks (toys of course)The day was blusterous! it was cold and windy but we managed to go out and get some eggs. The kids all filled up there baskets and dumped them all out. I still have candy left over. They just liked to play and be with their cousins. We also dyed about 5 dozen real eggs, Delaine and I even let lily and liam dye some. we love using the whisk instead of a spoon so much easier. we couldn't believe that we dyed all those eggs and nothing got spilled or tipped on the floor... until we were on the last egg liam was dying it. i was at the sink pouring out some dye when delaine asked for some help. red dye down her pants on shoes and on the tile floor. we all jumped to clean it up, i held screaming liam, while they poured bleach toilet bowl cleaner on the floor. but it came out and the shoes were a little pink. But hey someone had to do it. now we can tell the story and laugh. It was great to watch conference those two days together as a family. So wonderful. On easter Sunday james made his famous pancakes...so good and the real eggs were hidden until some crows started swooping down and taking whole eggs to eat them. So the kids had to run out and find the rest (the birds took about 2 dozen)it was funny. We had a great ham dinner and just had a wonderful time together.
Kids getting ready for the hunt
All our dying of the eggs, what a mess but sure fun!
Lily picking up some of her eggs, She liked to open everyone one and eat the candy right away.
Olivia and Sophia as the easter bunny girls.

Spring Break Smith Visit

2010-04-30T14:51:00.000-07:00

So for the next week of spring break, I went to my other sisters house Delaine who lives in Phoenix. This would be my first time driving to Phoenix and by myself with all three of the kids,(james had to go back to school). Our trip was full! The kids did really well in the car and we made good time. I was happy to be there though. Our trip was full of kid fun. We went to the zoo (only 6 bucks for all of us) the library which was fun and huge, swimming everyday, the train park and picnic, the mesa temple Easter pageant (awesome),chocolate factory, and the drive in. It was packed and the kids came home exhausted every night! The kids loved being with Liam and Everett, just playing toys and legos. It was just good to spend time with Delaine and not be rushed.
Making Chocolate pizza at the Chocolate Factory
Cullen's Bacon and eggs
At the Temple Pageant
Relaxing at the zoo
All the cousins together
Cullen petting the rays at the zoo, so cool!
Lily playing peeka boo in the stroller
Sophia in the Pool
Cute babies sleeping
Lily and her giraffe (one of her favorite signs)

Easter Clothes

2010-04-30T14:45:00.000-07:00

Every year we get matching outfits for the kids for easter. This year it was blue... i'm sure cullen was happy with that. They looked so cute, i can't believe we got a picture of them all together before 9am church, but we did and here they are... so cute.

Spring Break Ferrari Visit

2010-04-27T15:45:00.000-07:00

Cullen got two weeks for spring break this year, which is awesome, and James being a teacher also gets spring break but only for a week. so we always like to spend sometime with the ferrari's up in pleasanton. So we planned our trip and left after school and spent about 5 days with them. This trip included... wii (ofcourse but mostly diane and i on guitars), waterslides, BBQs, science museum, big slide park, cleaning up day after day of 6 kids, settlers,rockets, good food, and just plain fun. everyone was so sad to say goodbye, they always have a hard time but we always see them again.
Olivia and Sophia looking cute at the park
Look at the hair fly! they were going really fast!
The BIG slide at big slide park

Building the rockets
Lily and sophia petting a starfish.
Sophia's favorites, upside down jelly fish. so cool
Sophia waiting for butterfilies to land on her finger
Lily's first time on the waterslide. Loved It!

pajama story time

2010-04-07T12:17:00.000-07:00

Sophia's preschool had a pajama party where they came at night and listened to stories from the students studying early childhood at AVC. The students had to pick a book and bring an activity or something fun that goes along with their book. Cullen got to come and was so excited to see that he could read all the books they were listening to and asked one of them if he could read the story. Some of the students were awesome one making a whole quilt with little things that everyone got to attach that went with the story. but some couldn't even get the kids to pay attention... change your major! my kids favorite was a story about a farm and got to do some dancing. they loved it. Sophia and her friend kaylyn were laughing so hard. one of my least favorites was about a little girl that didn't have a doll so she made a rock her doll. the student let everyone make things out of rocks and sticks using their imagination, but they had to give them back. booo! it was a fun night... i'm so glad i decided to leave lily home with daddy.

Sophia and Kaylyn dancing!

puppet show

2010-04-07T12:09:00.000-07:00

cullen went on his second field trip of the year to LPAC to see hanzel and gretel. i thought it was going to be a play but found out when we got there is was a puppet show, with only two guys running the whole show. it was pretty neat to watch. but the witch was a little scary with her flying around on her broom and her glowing red eyes. i was excited that i got to go too. it was so cold and windy that day i really just wanted to run back to the car and drive home but we waited till all the kids were on the bus before we left. fun day.

Girls Room

2010-04-07T10:58:00.000-07:00

I've been working on decorating and organizing my girls room for a while now and this is how it came out. ofcourse i had help from my mom, she had made sophia her princess quilt about a year ago and i wanted a matching one for lily but we couldn't find fabric that we like that matched, so being the great grandma that she is she took the fabric off of the back of sophias, cut it up to put on the squares for lily's put new backing on both and had to retie them. crazy but it looks so cute. All the squares have different princess things on them, even with their names a glass slipper, happily ever after and so forth. i covered cardboard letters with paper and embelishment and did my own vinyl lettering on my cricket. i really like the way it turned out.

disneyland date

2010-03-18T15:47:00.000-07:00

we are getting closer this was atleast in March. whahoo, i'm almost caught up. James and I went on a date to disneyland all by ourselves. He had a conference down there for a couple of days so i met him for a half day of fun. It was great james got to go on a couple of rides he had never been on before and we got to do what we wanted and go on "grown-up" rides. It was such a sweet day no traffic at all we walked on everything. so we picked a couple rides that we wanted to go on, then went to dinner at the Jazz restuarant in Downtown, really good. Then james walked me through the waterfalls at the disneyland hotel. I had never been there before they were awesome. They light them up at night and there a few tunnels to sneak away in. It was tons of fun, and we were back before 9pm.(only to find that Cullen had just thrown up everywhere at our friends house and we were there to help clean it up) how lovely!

Whale Watching

2010-03-17T09:11:00.001-07:00

We had been planning on going whale watching for a while. I've always wanted to take my kids, i went a couple of times when i was a kid and loved it. So we planned a day but with the weather always changing we changed the date a couple of times. Delaine planned on coming out to join us with her kids and her friends so with that we had alot of kids together to watch on a boat. Crazy! we went on a tuesday which was half price, and it became a beautiful day. cullen liked jumping around and playing with the other boys his age. sophia was out of sorts come to find out she was having the first stages of strep throat. and lily was great but always wanted a snack. We saw tons of dolphins swimming right with the boat, Lily even got excited and was pointing them out. We also got to see a couple of fin whale which are the second largest whale, and we could tell they were huge, we wanted to see his tale but never got the chance. But so awesome. what a fun day! Thats the best shot of our fin whale off in the distance. we were really excited to see him.

Some of our dolphins.
All the kids... Lily, Cullen, Sophia, Liam, Everett,
The kids lining up to get on to the boat, Beautiful day!

Girls Weekend

2010-03-17T08:52:00.000-07:00

A couple of my girlfriends and I decided it was time for a break, so we went away to Vegas for a girls weekend. It was full of shopping, talking, eating, and driving. We all had a great time. I was so happy that James could watch the kids and I could get away, i needed it. It was good to reconnect with friends and learn more about some of them. We stayed at the Jockey Club which was right next to the Bellagio, so we went there everyday. We had dinner at Bouchon which was at the Venetian, shopped at 2 outlet malls, had lots of sweets at Serendipity, and stayed up chatting til about 2am.

All the girls...Me, jamie,cindy nicole, lara, krista, and aly

Super Cute Suns Kids

2010-03-16T08:47:00.000-07:00

A picture we took for Valentines day for Grandma. She bought all these shirts for the kids in Phoenix and I just love them. So we took a picture for her! So cheesy cute. Two of my favs... my kids and the suns. Together!

Crazy Boys!

2010-03-16T08:38:00.000-07:00

Had to put this video on. Paul Schultz and all his craziness. He always seems to have a crazy thing for the boyz to try. This time he had gathered up old military parachutes sewed them together attached a trash can and voila! a hot air balloon, all you need is a blow torch to blow it up. So that's what they did in the middle of the desert one day, take turns going up in the balloon and crashing down. This is James' turn, he loved it. We'll have to wait to see what Paul comes up with next.

7 kids running the Stockdale House

2010-03-15T08:41:00.000-07:00

Our good friends the Harris' wanted a weekend away. They have four kids. Four Great Kids. But with them and our kids it makes 7. The ages went 8,7,6,4,3,almost 2, 18m. Now that is a crowded house! We had fun though! we played alot of wii, and a ton of Beattles Rock band. They went home knowing all the words to "yellow submarine" we also watched some movies, the girls made an easy bake cake for us to eat, and played outside. It was a big group so we kept it at home most of the time. The kids were so good! We couldn't believe Joshy (almost 2) would lay down to go to sleep without even a peep. James turned to me after laying him down and said "I want one of those!" After the Harris' got back Desiree said to me, "ok, let me know when you want us to take yours." I just laughed, her kids were so good, if i gave her ours she would go crazy because they are so crazy. But the kids had a super fun time. Colby and Sophia eatin up her easy bake cake.
All the kids watching "G force" Colby, Joshy, Sophia, Brooke, Maddie, Cullen, Lily.
Maddie and Sophia making Chocolate frosting for their cake.
Lunch time. we had a picnic on the floor it was much easier and funner when all the kids were sitting together.

Ga Ga for Gaga

2010-03-15T08:34:00.001-07:00

Lily LOVES mickey and Minnie Mouse. She calls Mickey "gaga", just recently she says "minnnii". Mickey Mouse Clubhouse is her favorite show. "gaga" She also says "oh toodles" She puts her little finger to her mouth and says "ohhhh tooooddless" it's so cute. So when we went to Disneyland I had to take her to see Minnie. I didn't know how she would react to those giant mouse people. But she jumped out of the stroller and ran saying "gaga". I even had to pull her back so that we could get in line. It wasn't a bad line for Minnie. When it was her turn I just let her go and she ran straight for her. GAGA for Gaga!

Sophia's Jedi Training

2010-03-15T08:25:00.000-07:00

One of our common places to go at Disneyland is Jedi Training, Cullen has done it many times (he always gets picked, he must get that from his dad). Sophia has tried a couple of time but i think they thought she might be a little to little. But this was her turn! i was glad that both of them got picked and even could stand together. Sophia was so excited I thought her hands were going to fall off from shaking them. She did awesome and even got to "force push" the storm troopers. Darth Vader never saw it coming. Sorry Darth no hope when your fighting the stockdale kids.
Sophia getting ready to "force Push" she got both of them!

Stockdale Time

2010-03-15T08:13:00.000-07:00

Dave and Teresa came to visit for new years to go to the Rose Bowl. We were so happy to have them. Lily was the most excited to have Bella play around with her. Even if they are a few months apart they are about the same size and like the same things. It was fun having the little ones together. We had fun just hanging out, playing games, the wii and just chatting. It was fun to see them even if it meant that the ducks lost. Dave with Bella and Lily, always together.
Teresa and the girls.
When Dave and Teresa were gone to the game this was a common scene. Bella wanted to be with James the whole time, she wouldn't let him put her down, they even took nap time together.
This was another common site for Teresa and I watching the boys play mario bro on the wii. Too bad it was hard to see the tv when all three of them played.
Full Van! Cute girls sitting cute on the way home from a playdate.

Basketball

2010-03-14T17:07:00.000-07:00

Cullen played Lancaster City Basketball in the winter. He was on the Coyotes. They never won a game, but they had fun. Their coach looked like Montel Williams. So every wednesday we went to practice and every saturday we had a game. Cullen loved playing. He even made a couple of shots one practice. He came really close in a game once. He didn't care he just liked having the ball and playing. It was fun watching a game where there was no fouls, no double dribble penalties, or traveling penalties. He learned alot in those ten weeks, by the end we had some defense and they actually knew what that meant. Cullen was sick for his last game and missed the chance to get his trophy but his coach saved it for him and called us a month later to get it, so nice. Cullen loved his trophy but didn't want to put it out for everyone to see he keeps it locked up to keep it safe.

This is what Lily and Sophia did during games and practices. Lily would run on to the court and Sophia would run after her, and drag her (till we told her not to) back to us. Thank you to this nice older lady who came every week and took pictures of the kids. Every week she just came by and handed me an envelope full of pictures of cullen (and mostly Lily) playing basketball.

Bibiddi Bobbitiy boutique

2010-03-09T11:16:00.000-08:00

More Pictures from Sophia's 4th Birthday.
We went to disneyland and she wanted to use her money for Bibiddi Bobbity Boutique. It's a cute little place that makes you all princessy. She got her nails, makeup, hair and jewels done. Any little girl would love it. Before the magical transformation. Sitting cute in the style chair waiting for her fairy godmother. She didn't like me taking this picture but it was too funny with her hair like this
Magic fairy dust sprinkled on her to make all the magic complete. The magic comeplete! what a pretty princess, all ready for her birthday as a beautiful Princess!
Gotta have some cake to go with it. Doesn't she look fabulous!

Fun night with the Fletcher Boys

2010-03-05T13:20:00.000-08:00

We had the fletcher boys over on a friday night so that the birthday girl cindy could go out with her hubby on her birthday. we made it a pajama party. They played the wii for a long time then we settled down for our own movie night with popcorn and star wars. (poor sophia really doesn't have many girl friends, so she never gets to watch girl movies. but she loves star wars (thank goodness)so it worked out ok) David and Cullen & Sophia and Parker have been buddies practically since they were born. They love having them over. Best Buds for life.

Valentines Play Date

2010-03-05T13:09:00.000-08:00

For the week of valentines day i was hoping the weekly play date a group of ladies here have. I was so excited to make valentines, make and decorate cookies and play. I had originally planned to make heart sugar cookies but decided to make one huge chocolate chip one that we all could decorate and eat. And man did I eat it, I love anything with frosting and sprinkles. (i guess that's the kid in me)There were just a couple of kids there. Joshy, Parker and Lily until Sophia and Nathan got home from Preschool. They loved putting the sprinkles on and licking the frosting from there fingers. We also made thumb print heart valentines to take home. Parker was so funny, he couldn't figure out how to get a piece so he just bent over and bit the edge of the cook. We soon gave him his own piece.
Joshy is almost 2, he loved to shake the sprinkles but couldn't get them out sometimes so he shook them right into the frosting.

Lily just wanted to eat the sprinkles right for the bottle. I guess that is a way to do it.

Valentines Day CRAFT

2010-03-04T11:14:00.000-08:00

So for Vday this year james and I went a little early, two weeks early. I don't think we have ever celebrated Valentines day on actual Valentines do, it never bothered me, we would always go when we could and count it for that day. In fact James and my first valentines day ever when i was 17 was not celebrated on Valentines day, James had to film a commercial down in the valley so we did it another day, i ws kind sad being my first one with him but come to find that that one commercial practically paid for his whole mission made up for it. So we don't think of it as a big deal much. Sooooo anyways, I had always know about restaurant week in LA and knew that it was around january, so i just happened to look it up the last 3 days, i was so excited. James was all for it. we decided to go to Craft. even though or reservations weren't until 10pm, we were going. They had a three course menu for 44 dollars. fine dining... can't beat that. The food was amazing. the service was amazing. Great place if you are ever in LA. So you can see it was raining. but it didn't bother us. We had foie gras, pate, smoked trout, beautiful salad with hazelnuts (that was just appetizers) next james had a slow cooked rib eye, and i had homemade ricotta filled pasta, so delish! Dessert: warm cinnamon sugar donuts with dark chocolate dipping sauce, and chai penna cota that was so smooth. They even gave us a banana nut muffin for us to take home. SOOOOOO GOOOOOOOOD.
I am a sucker for an awesome meal like that. Best Valentines ever. James and I agree we are going to do it every year and try some place new. I don't know if it could top Craft. Loved it. Happy Valentines day to me!

100th day

2010-03-04T10:57:00.000-08:00

Cullen had his hundreth day at school awhile back. i was fortunate to be able to help out that day with the events. They had 10 different events for K and 1st graders. each one they had to count and do the activity. some were tossing a ball, jump rope, music sticks, jumping on one foot, jumping jacks, bean bag toss... Tammy a fellow mother helper and friend of mine, and i decided we wanted to do jumping jacks because usually at that time we are at the gym so we wanted to get out workout for the day. CRAZY! but fun. i ended up doing over 800 jumping jacks, (i had to take pictures too) Cullen was really excited that i was there and that he could do jumping jacks. Ready....
GO! each group counted by fives and then tens to make 100. but there ended up being about 20 groups. ahhhh!
Cullen counting out his dominoes.

Zero the Hero came and visited (soooo cool!) and he (actually it was a she, shhhhh don't tell) brought 100 balloons to count off and let go. This is Cullen and his best bud at school Brady, they are always together. they are wearing their nifty 100 day visors, they didn't last long though.

Looking for Snow

2010-02-28T17:39:00.000-08:00

It snowed a couple of times in January here but nothing seemed to stick at our house. The kids were ready and waiting to put on their heavy coats and mittens and enjoy the snow. but pretty much we just looked out the window watching the snow fall onto the wet ground hoping just hoping for the white stuff to stay but no luck this year. (I was secretly thankful, i do not like snow not one little bit, had enough in my life living in rexburg, logan, and provo. never need anymore. James likes it so he can take the kids in it.)

mug shot

2010-02-28T17:26:00.000-08:00

So Lily is a very wild girl, normal for any stockdale i've decided boy or girl both crazy. Lily likes to grit her teeth and pull my hair and jump around everywhere. one thing that she also loves to do is, stand up in her high chair. one day she did exactly that... stood up put her hands and the edge of her tray and pushed it down until it gave out. she fell to our wood floors, luckily she had a blankie with her to help her with her fall. Her eye swelled up with a little purple bump then yellow and reddish, black eye. she was fine but we had to take pictures and ofcourse she had her 18m check up that week. (bottom 3 % for weight and height, 19 lbs, but growing just fine)

Australia

2010-02-27T08:53:00.000-08:00

It's hard to sum up our trip to Australia. It was beautiful, fun, crazy, perfect, and tiring all at the same time. My mom agreed months ago to watch our kids so that we could go to australia the week before Christmas. Lily was going to be 18m old so we thought that she would be ready for us to be gone. we used miles that we had been saving for one ticket so we only paid 600 bucks to fly there which is dang good, and couldn't pass it up. i had always told James that i wanted to go back there. We decided to make it a road trip though, driving from Sydney up to the bottom of the Great Barrier Reef so james could go diving. We didn't really plan much in between, just went and stayed where we wanted and found along the way. it was fun but stressful me trying to navigate on unknown roads and james driving on the wrong side of the road. but fun just to have time for US!
Our first night in Sydney after a 14 hour flight we stayed in China town, we walked around the marketplace and found that Wicked was playing at the Theatre right by our place. so i just had to see if they were preforming on a wednesday and how much the tickets were. too much but they had a raffle. And James is the luckiest man alive when it comes to winning stuff like this, and i was so excited because i knew his name was going to be called. and it was, the second name (james was kinda disappointed that is wasn't the first). so at about 2am our time we went to see Wicked. Loved IT! front row, 30 bucks a ticket nothing better. (except maybe being well rested so we wouldn't have been so exhausted.

Our last day we took a detour back to Sydney through "waterfall Way" it was beautiful we got to see some great falls right next to our car but were kinda disappointed to find the biggest one had dried up. still beautiful except for the flies everywhere!
One thing that i wanted to do was kayak, and we did our last day, it took me some time to get the hang of it but it was fun and pretty on the lake by the end my shoulders were killing me.

We stopped by Steve Irwins Zoo on one of our excursions! awesome zoo. You can do anything, feed elephants, pet koalas, pet kangaroos all just lying around, and ofcourse see the CROCS. had to shed a tear for Steve there it was so sad to see all his work and him not there. but CRICKEY it one of the best zoos ever!

James and my beach, (park beach) loved it there not many people, walks around the rocks, beautiful sand and great weather! we just sat there together reading, eating and napping, awesome! (except for the chinese food we got there, nasty! poor birds that we fed the food to they could have died) I wanted to go by the Sydney Temple but we could never figure out where it was, on our way back we took a different way and i said, "hey look at all those Christmas lights" we hadn't seen much there, drove by and it was the Temple out of no where. it was awesome, we walked around looked at the lights and the full Manger scene. great end to our Christmas trip to Australia!

Christmas Time

2010-02-26T08:05:00.000-08:00

Christmas time was here. It was a little different this year with james and i going off to Australia for 9 days, it was weird preparing for christmas and a summer vacation at the same time. But my kids were right on track. We got our tree and the kids were so excited that they couldn't make up there minds for once, last year they were practically asleep and picked the first one they saw. but they loved to decorate the tree and the house, we made cookies and candies and dropped them off to our friends. It was fun. But no snow this year.Merry Christmas!

Big Changes for Cullen in November

2010-02-25T18:36:00.000-08:00

Cullen had a big month in November.
He got glasses! I knew that he would probably need glasses with my eyes being so bad and all, i probably could have used them in first grade, but i didn't think it would be so soon with him. But once he looked at the chart and couldn't read the third row, i thought he was joking then knew he needed glasses. At first he was worried and said that he wasn't going to get them, and that his friends wouldn't be friends with him if he had them. But after some talks about superman, spiderman and other cool guys with glasses he was ok with it. He loved trying them on and picking out his glasses but thought he was just going to take the sample ones right home. Once he got his real glasses he couldn't believe the difference he loved them. He lost his first tooth after being wiggly for almost a month he finally pulled it out. We almost lost it in the sink when we rinsed it because it was so teeny tiny, but it made it under his pillow. The tooth fairy left him 4 dollars, three dollar bills one silver dollar, and one coin from another country that the fairy must have gotten mixed up. I thought the teeth would start pouring out of his mouth but none since.

november

2010-02-25T18:30:00.001-08:00

Cute Kid alert! some cute pics of the cutest kids ever! Lily running away from the camera!
Lily 16 months
Cullen 6yrs old
Sophia 4yrs old

sophia's birthday 4

2010-02-25T18:07:00.000-08:00

Sophia's birthday was in November... I'm getting there I know it's a little late but I didn't have my camera and i just got these pictures, had to scan them in to the computer, edit and upload them...
Anyways, she had a princess party obviously! but she wanted a sleeping beauty party. i had been planning her cake for months and so excited it turned out cute. We had alot of kids there and played some games, decorated princess cookies and opened presents. it was so fun. thanks to all my friends who helped me clean up most of the mess by the end we left most of it up for a few days later because soon after was thanksgiving and family was all here. happy birthday my four year old beauty Sophia.

Halloween

2010-01-13T18:31:00.001-08:00

So i might as well do halloween. my kids dressed up about 4 times. our ward party, grandmas trunk or treat, party, school party... whatever. so by the time it came to the real night sophia's zipper had busted, cullen's gloves were blue from his face paint and lily had about 3 dots left on her skirt. anyways we tried to take a couple pictures and this was the best one. Lily looks like a ballerina in this picture but she was a cute little ladybug i made the tutu myself, and cut up a baby lady bug costume we got after halloween last year for 3 dollars and she had a hood with a face and antennae. she was cute but i saw alot of lady bugs this year.
Cullen was Sonic this year and i tried to find a costume but couldn't so hey we made due. i bought a pair of blue sweats for about 6 bucks, used leftover fabric for the stomach, dollar white gloves, felt pieces for the ears, dollar blue spray dye, and dollar face paint. i did have to buy the shoes for 5 bucks, but sonic needs red shoes or he can't run. he loved it but wanted to run to everyone house or car for trick or treating and i couldn't keep up.
This was our ode to Bowser pumpkin, Sophia had asked me to help her and she wanted a koopa pumpkin and this is what we came up with. can you tell they are into mario brothers, sonic and everything that has a wii game attached?
Sophia wanted to be Belle so bad this year, (even though she has never seen Beauty and the Beast)but she does have a pretty dress. I started looking for her costume months before, ebay, disney store, disneyland, every party store. but i really didn't find one that i liked and even if i liked it i wasn't about to spend 60-100 dollars on it. my mom found this one at tuesday morning in Vegas. we took off green leaves, added the sleeves, put on more flowers and another layer to the dress so for about 15 dollars that's what we got and i tell you she was the best lookin belle on halloween, except when she turned around and you could see the 5 safety pins holding the back together, but hey it was good enough. Happy halloween kids, yep your mom is cheap! but you had fun so it's ok.

disneyland birthday

2009-12-09T16:55:00.000-08:00

Cullen celebrated his birthday at dland. in first grade at his school they don't really celebrate birthdays after kindergarden except to say your name over the intercom on friday, wahoo. so we went and cullen loved spending his 62 dollars. He loved his birthday button and if one of the workers didn't say happy birthday to him he would show you and make you see that it was HIS birthday.
First things first jedi training, it's not like he's never done it before, he always gets picked. but it was cooler because it was his birthday.
he fought darth vader but i had to put in darth maul, he was looking good, i mean evil.
waiting for his turn!
listen to your jedi master! he knows how to defeat the dark side.

you probably thought i quit

2009-12-09T16:40:00.000-08:00

but i didn't i just broke my camera so i didn't have any pictures. anyways i think i will post a few a day to catch up on the year. Cullen's first day of first grade. sportin the star wars gear, awesome. He loved it. no problems with first grade. Sophia actually took this picture, i think she did a great job!
Cullen wanted to take one too. me and my girls... so cute
The kids on the couch, i guess sophia didn't need to see in that picture
cullen doing the "robot dance" for school, i guess he was excited to go.
my big first grader!

Lily's First Birthday

2009-09-06T17:04:00.000-07:00

Happy birthday to my Little Lila! Yeah I know it's been a while since July 16th, when Lily had her birthday. but i have to catch up on blogging in order, or i don't know how things happen. Sooooo..... Lily turned one. One of my friends said once.. wouldn't that be an easy party if you just had an UP party with balloons and everything. Lily loves balloons, i mean LOOOOOVVVVVEEEESSSS balloons, everytime she sees one in any store she reaches out her arms and yells for one. So we did a whole party for balloons. For the invites I had found a 3D paper house from up that you could put together, so i only made 8 invites (thinking that that would be a small party) i attached a balloon on each with a tag about the party. We had diane and Jason make "balloon animals for the kids (even though i think a ballon sword or light saber was most of everyones favs) a couple of balloon games for the older kids and enchiladas, (because the movie is in south america somewhere) I made a house cake with waterballoons filled with helium attached to the top. in my head it was so cute, but the frosting wasn't working the way i wanted it to. blah. anyways everyone we invited was there so with kids and adults i think it ended up 35 people. yeah, small not so much.

Lily was just so happy just playing with balloons all day. she got a huge bouquet that she held on to the whole time. She was walking kinda by then, so she just wanted to explore. Lily got a lot of high tech presents. everything lit up, sang a song, or popped up or something. She got a laptop, a cell phone, a microphone, a radio, an electric spinning top, and alot of other pop up stuff. Her favorite though was here little pink swing, we hooked it to our playset before the party was through. you can tell she loved, it.

Stockdale reunion

2009-08-21T08:19:00.001-07:00

This year we had a Stockdale reunion. first of it's kind and definitely not the last. we had a perfect spot at Lake Shasta right below the Dam. It was beautiful. we had the whole place to ourselves. a pool, the lake, game room, horses, bikes, a dining hall, trails, and fire pit. Perfect for the whole family. we had a great time. The kids loved being around all their cousins, and getting to know all of them better. Cullen and James went to a little water park with most of the fam, went shooting with the boys, and played hard with Cullen's new airsoft gun, he loved it. sophia went swiming, played with emma and livi alot just walking around exploring, (alot of the time i had to try and find her she was always exploring. Lily decided that she wanted to learn to walk and actually took 8 steps by the end of the trip. She got a little sick by the end so wanted to stay close by mommy's side. She loved being around Bella and having another little girl around. We played games every night, watched movies, and ate alot of good food. it was really great that all of us could be together!
This is one of my favs... Adam and Sophia being "afraid" of the bear at shasta caverns.
James unhappy with the craziness of the kids at the Shasta caverns, lily just wanted to walk up all the stairs, so crazy. james: "I don't want to take a picture in here."
Sophia and her bandaged eye, she had a little incident with her eye and the foose ball table. She was fine and looking soo happy on the boat to the caves.
Grandma had everyone paint their hands and put them on quilt squares. Cullen loves anything having to do with paint, messy, gooey, yucky... pretty much anything.
some of the cousins all together playing with Lily, she loved all the attention! More pics of us at the caverns, the kids just loved cousin allie and were so happy she was there with us!

Fourth of July

2009-08-14T10:42:00.000-07:00

For the Fourth this year we went home for a couple of days, picked up James and headed back to the Ferrari's on the way to the Stockdale family reunion. we always end up seeing the Ferrari's for the fourth, it always includes fireworks and KFC. that's a must.we had made our "Family Fun" fireworks t-shirts the week before so all the kids could make their own and match. they looked so cute. we went up to the top of the hill at their park to watch the fireworks and Sophia had to potty right when we got to the top so Daddy had to take her all the way back to the house, but they made it back in time. It is always fun when the cousins get together.

But this year besides Diane's red, white and blue meal with giant prawns and steak, she made up a family challenge. Ferraris V. Stockdales. This included a three legged race, donut eating contest, ping pong tournament, and tug of war. It was so fun and we hope to make it a tradition in years to come. The Ferraris totally beat us. But the kids had a good time.

trip to nor cal

2009-08-11T21:41:00.000-07:00

James was doing training down in San Diego for 2 weeks so what else would i do but go and stay with Diane so that the cousins could play all day everyday and we could cook and play rock band every night. it was great. the kids love it, i love it. and it got my mind off of being at home and james not being there. so here are some pics of our trip.
We went to the academy of science museum in San Fran. it had everything... an aquarium, rain forest, planetarium, stuffed wild animals, real penguins, great dim sum, and a roof that grows food... totally fun.
oh yeah and a play room for all the little kids. it had a tree house, and pirate boat with kitchen and play food, sea animal dress up and an area just for little lilies. but Lily just liked chewing on the fence.
this is just a cutie eating a toquito while the older kids were running around getting their wiggles out.
at the aquarium part they got to see and feel it all. even what it feels like to be stung by a electric eel. so cool and all the kids loved it.
a normal occurrence at the Ferrari house. all the kids in a blanket i think watching Star wars. which they pretty much did every night. too fun! but after they went to sleep it was rock band until the wee hours of the morning.

father's day somewhere in here

2009-07-22T22:42:00.000-07:00

I know fathers' day was some where in here. we celebrated it early because james was going to be in San Diego for training for two weeks so we changed the day. I had to put in these cute pictures of sophia DEMANDING to make pancakes. (chocolate chip ofcourse, daddy's favorite) she wanted to do it all herself (imagine that). so i told her that she could take them out of the pan when they were done but ofcourse she wanted to FLIP the pancakes. finally i gave in and right when she was going to flip she takes her other hand and puts it on the side of the pan to steady it. HOT! no blisters or anything. good thing we were right next to the sink. she was ok. Fathers day was good. we ended up at G & G house for Steak and Crab legs. James favorites, that i only make once (or twice maybe for his bday) a year. (the crab of course, steak all the time). the steaks were good though. on the actual fathers day, it was kinda sad to sing with the primary kids and James not be there to hear, because let me tell you Cullen knew every word and definitely was the loudest. ( i was so proud of my primary kids though, *tear* they sang good.) anyways that was fathers day sometime in here.

Lily and her music card

2009-07-19T21:16:00.000-07:00

this little girl is so cute. i had to get it on video. She has one of those music cards which my kids get from grandma pretty much every holiday. she loves them. now that she knows how to open them up its so cute to see her dance any time she hears the music. for her birthday we had to get her some more.

don't pay attention to the dirty room and everything under the couch please. and yes,i am in my pjs in the video.

cullens kindergarden graduation

2009-07-19T16:51:00.001-07:00

cullen is now a first grader! he graduated from Mrs. Zirille's kindergarden class. He is such a clown. They sang all the songs they had learned throughout the year and cullen was singing every song, i was so proud. then they announced the names, it was my first experience when i realized that cullen will always be close to the end because his last name is stockdale. i had always been close to the front with chapman so i was waiting for him, then realized it was alphabetical. it was great. grandma was there with us and they had a little luncheon at the end. we were so proud of Cullen.

Sophia's Dance Recital

2009-07-17T22:13:00.001-07:00

Sophia had her first dance recital. She had been taking a tap/ballet class through the city. i loved her teacher she was great for little girls, i don't know how she kept their attention but she did. the song she danced to was super trooper from Mama mia. so annoying. That's why the song is on the blog because we practiced it at home. She looked so cute and danced great. she was the only blonde haired white girl in her class so she kind stood out, in a good way. and her bow on her shoe came untided half way though and ran off stage, but came back on right on track and finished the song.
We gave her her own flowers that she loved. james was gone in san diego for the recital so it was sad that he wasn't there to see it. but we got it on video.
She was the cutest super trooper there!!!!
Cullen loved the dance too, i really think that he was proud of sophia and he knew the dance by the time she preformed so they did it together.

Trip to utah

2009-06-28T16:27:00.001-07:00

For my best friend amy's 30th birthday I flew out to Utah. I had been looking for tickets for about a month to go out there but on her birthday i told her that I had been looking and didn't find a good deal. but out of the blue the next morning i got an email from delta and come on i never read those. but it was from la to slc for 49 each way. now that i could do. So lily and I flew to Utah and it was good because half of the stockdale family all that live in Utah had never met Lily. so it was good all around. Lily had flown before, when she was only 2 months old to my cousins wedding, but this time was different. The flight was full but no one wanted to sit by me because I had a baby (oh no the baby's going to cry!) whatever. fine with me I got three seats to myself and Lily was an angel she slept and ate and never cried, haha losers who wanted to sit cramped in the middle of two people you would have liked it better over here. I spent the day with amy. cafe rio and getting ready for her party that night. it was just good to hang out. But let me tell you I was ready at about 9 to go home and go to sleep. But i stayed up with the "singles" chatting until amy guests left, we got to grandma and grandpa stockdale at about midnight. Lily didn't really sleep well with me, she is such a rolly polly, it drove me crazy.
Lily got to spend sometime with G & G and the cousins for a while before i got home from Amy's ward. She had a fun time with the kids, I think she really missed Cullen and Sophia, it was weird just us because once the kids were playing she wanted to be right where they were.
Livy, Lily and Braxton! so much fun being cousins.
Kiera and lily. (she's taller than me now, I know that's not really difficult)
Lily playing in grandmas drawers she loved this one it was the perfect height.
Rolling around naked on the bed what a crazy girl.

tithing

2009-06-14T17:16:00.000-07:00

(cullen and Lily so cute on mommy and daddy's bed.)
Today on the way out the door to church cullen stopped me and said "what about Tithing we have to pay our tithing." I told him the Daddy had paid our tithing. He said but I have to pay ten cents. then when i thought of it he had made that money for his lemonade stand so we went upstairs and I told him he needed to have 2.00 because he made 20 at his lemonade stand. with out whining or even being reluctant he got out his 2.00 in change and we put it in a baggie for church. So we got the envelope and he wrote most of it out and almost ran up to the stand to give his envelope to the bishop before he was done, before i stopped him. Then he walked right up shook the bishop's hand and gave him his tithing. I was so proud of him. He's growing up to be a really smart young man.

Lemonade Stand

2009-06-13T07:27:00.000-07:00

For a year, Cullen has been asking me for a lemonade stand. I told him when it got hot enough. Well, a couple of weeks ago I saw the perfect opportunity. Some of our neighbors were having garage sales, and we were the house in the middle. So if you went to one you would drive past us to get to the other. And... The Sulzs were moving in two houses down and a good group of guys from the ward were helping them move. You know those guys could get a little parched from moving all that heavy furniture. Cullen was so excited and ran down to the garage sale and announced that he was selling lemonade and it was only one quarter. He was such a business man though, he would only start pouring the lemonade after he recieved the money. So many people were so generous and nice. Cullen had all the neighborhood kids around, he loved it. after two pitchers of lemonade we switched to kool-aid. So he ran down and announced again "come down to my house we have something new to drink." He did very well and ended up making $20.60 in 2 hours. He went the next week with Grandma and bought a new star wars lego set. We will probably do it again when the heat returns.
good thing he had his Light Saber just incase something bad was going to happen.

Lily's ice cream Sammie

2009-06-09T12:59:00.001-07:00

Lily was eying my mini ice cream sammie so I gave her a couple of little bites of mine. She LOOOOOOOVVVVVEEEEDDDDD it! so naturally I said "no, no babies don't eat ice cream." That's what I would have done with my first child, cullen could never have anything like that. But this is the Third so naturally I went to the Freezer and got her her own sammie. She ate the whole thing. I thought it was a so cute. she didn't have any problems the next day which I was a happy with. She must take after her DADDY when it comes to ice cream I guess.

Memorial Day

2009-06-09T12:41:00.000-07:00

For memorial day we had a BBQ in our backyard. the planning started with just a few people but the day of we realized that james had asked some and I had asked some and almost everyone was coming. So it ended up being about 30 adults and their children. But it turned out really fun. The weather was great for a backyard BBQ. James made his tri tip which was awesome. We just put out blankets in the back and the kids went swimming in the spa or on the playset. It was great there was limited mess because everyone was outside. I wish i had pictures of the fire that night. I asked Todd and Paul to make the fire and it was a bonfire. we had smores and ice cream for dessert(more pictures of that later). Carson and Macie Knapp in the spa. we later found out that Carson had left us a "gift" in the water which led to the next days drainage, scrubbing and shocking.
Todd, Cindy, David, Alyson getting there plates full of food, good thing everyone was incharge of bringing a side dish or I know I would have run out of food.
Kyle and Carter, with all the kids on the playset. Beautiful night to play.
The Sulz's, Nicole, and Bucks eating up some tri tip and watching the kiddos.
Our pretty blankets on the lawn with the Fletchers, Bevans, and Hardings all out for a fun night with us.

Liam and Lily

2009-06-03T13:06:00.000-07:00

Liam and Lily!

Delaine and her kids everett and Liam came to visit in April. Lily was 9 months old and Liam was 5 months old. But people were coming up to delaine thinking they were twins. I know Lily is small at 15 and a half pounds and Liam at the time was 18lbs. It was just so fun to see them together. what a difference 4 months make. He's such a cutie and so fun to cuddle. i love his strawberry blonde fluffy hair. we had some fun
Liam in his stroller at the feline compound. Don't ya wanna just pinch those cheeks?

Lily also in her stroller, but she did not want to stay in her stroller, we let her crawl around a little bit. Liam on the little bikes at the Bounce Palace. Grandma wasn't watching close enough and he soon toppled onto the floor.

Lily loves those little bikes. she has one that she just goes back and forth in the back yard on.
. Grandma and Grandpa with the littliest grandkids. He is quite a bit bigger than her when you see them together. It's the year of Lily and Liam.

my garden

2009-05-29T08:18:00.000-07:00

i've always wanted a garden. i mean i'm a cook and i love fresh veggies from the garden. when we were making our backyard last year we set a place aside for it and said that we would do it this year. and we did. james built a planter for me on the side of the house, perfect sun and shade. and in one day my mom and i had it ready to plant. i have rosemary, thyme, basil, tomatoes, 3 different squash (no zuchini though :(, peppers, strawberries, cucumbers (but they didn't make it) and swiss chard which i found out does awesome out here and is so beautiful. Cullen wanted watermelon and then yesterday he planted his pumpkin seeds that he saved from his pumpkin at halloween. we'll have to see how those do. anyways, it's a cute perfect little garden to make our backyard complete.

sophia's knock knock joke

2009-05-29T08:12:00.000-07:00

knock knock
who's there?
olive
olive who?
olive banana going to get your pajamas on

she says it every day and it's so silly you have to laugh.

i can't find it

2009-05-15T08:19:00.000-07:00

I asked Cullen a couple of days ago to get his PJs on so that we could go to the Fletchers to watch Biggest Loser season finale. He came down a little more padded than usual. I asked him what he was wearing under his PJs. He said he was wearing his clothes for school for the next day. they were kinda bunched up around the hips but i didn't care if he wanted to wear them. he thought he was being smart that he wouldn't have to change his clothes for school. anyways... we watched BL (go helen) and of course the kids fell asleep. so I carried them all to the car and made it to the house. I woke up cullen and he stumbled into the house. he went pee and was kinda crying about something. i had carried the girls to their room cullen was still standing on the stairs crying. i told him to go to bed and he said... "I can't find it?" so i started to laugh and said do you need me to help you find it? "Yeahhhh" so i got him to his room and then he decided he was too hot in his clothes he started to take them off. he had... underpants, long sleve shirt, shorts, then underpants (this was the bunching) then a long sleve pj shirt and sweat pants.ofcouse you are hot. anyways he was cute.

Lily at 9 months

2009-05-06T09:59:00.000-07:00

Lily is 9 months now. wow how time flies! she is still a petite little girl weighing in at 15 and a half lbs, (2nd percentile) she is still growing just fine. she still has rolls on her legs and is as cuddly as can be. She has learned a couple new things the big one is climbing the stairs. she always stayed on the bottom of the step and watched the kids go up. but a couple of days ago she just followed them right up. i found her on the 5th step, and watched her go the rest of the way. now she's quick. She is eatting a ton right now anything we have she wants to try. (that's good) but she is nursing more than normal and I don't like it. i think she is going through a growth spurt. one cute thing that she learned is getting her arms out of her car seat, when i reach to get her out. she's working on some more letters like b and p. still no M. she also waves hello and bye with a little missamerica wave, love it! she likes to just be around cullen and sophia and yell at them when she's around. she's so cute when she dances, I had to share.

James' 31st

2009-05-03T18:14:00.000-07:00

James and his 50! So, many people know that james had been losing weight for a wrestling tournament in Vegas. I just wanted to document about it. He started in January and told me that he wanted to wrestle at the national tournament, i mean it's a big deal the winners go on to the usa team. He's told me that he wanted to do it for about 3 years now, and every year i say go ahead, kinda knowing that things get in the way (family, work, and stuff) that it doesn't work out. but this year he was serious and he wanted to get down to the 167 lbs class. i did not think he could do it. that was 50 lbs in 4 months. crazy. But he cut out soda (i know right), then ice cream and worked out every day. Then ate subway for lunch and was looking hotter and hotter. and everyday he would wake up and tell me he lost another pound or 2 in one day. I am happy when i lose a pound a week. anyways, he still thought he didn't look any different. even though he did. and that last week he scared me with eating practically nothing and being super cranky (because he loves food (like me!))but he made it and called me from Vegas saying he was 166. Before people look at me and say "why weren't you there?" the answer was 3 children, vegas, sweaty gym and 10 minutes of wrestling. James got it on video and all he wanted to do was win one match but that wasn't the case. he was going up against guys that were just out of college wrestling and he didn't really know all the rules. He was happy that he went, and he looks awesome. of course he didn't stay that weight, I think he's about 10 lbs more and that's good with me. and if you want to see the difference, check out our pics from christmas... you'll see.
James' 31st. For James' birthday me and the girls surprized him at school with some brownies. too bad his students had already got him donuts for breakfast. we stayed around for a little bit and sophia sang to him... TOOO CUTE! I asked him what else he wanted to do for his big day. we usually go to outback and get his favorite crab legs but Jason took him on a man date a couple says before to Red Lobster... (ps I hate seafood and if I walk into that place the smell of if makes me not good) but i said I would go this year but soooo relieved when Jason wanted to take my place. I usually make him anything he wants for dinner, and I had asked him days before what he wanted. That night he came home and said he wanted pizza and wings. We even had a baby sitter if we wanted to go out to a movie. But he just wanted to stay in a rent a movie. So that's what he did. I was feeling kinda sad that that was his bday. we do that kinda thing almost every friday night. So we had a little ice cream party, with all the fixin's it was fun. Anyways james is 31 now a thirty something. poor him. I plan on staying 30 for a couple more years.

Turning 30

2009-04-13T17:00:00.000-07:00

On april 11th 30 years ago I was born so I decided to celebrate that day. After a lot of thinking of what to do for my birthday (i'm already going to New York this summer with Amy and Cindy, which has been planned for over a year) I decided that if I was going to have a party I was going to do it the way I want to. So I had a dinner party. I've always wanted to have one. Some friends and good food. But who would cook? I really couldn't have anyone cater because i would just tear their food apart so I would cook. I know it's kinda weird a party where the birthday girl is in the kitchen all the time, but that's where I loved to be, and I could serve all my friends and family that were there. I wanted it in the backyard and we worked extra hard getting things together so that we could have it out there. but with this valley the wind is always a factor. so we finalized plans the night before that it was going to be inside. It looked beautiful. It was a semi formal event, so the guys had to wear ties but hey they got a good meal out of it. The girls got to buy a new dress, and dress up and go out without the kids. Who doesn't love that. It turned out great. one of my best birthdays ever. Here is everyone,(almost)35 on all. we had long table from the door to the window in our dining to the living room. I really wasn't expecting everyone to come but they did. The food was great and I believe everyone enjoyed themselves. I was a great night. This is old skool. Diane, Cindy Williams, Amy Larson and me. All friends in Canyon Country about 20 years back. Amy drove all the way from Utah to come. That's what best friends are for. It wouldn't be right if she weren't there. and who would have brought the music? This was a fun picture of all of us together. except back then I know 2 out of the 4 of us were blonde.
Here is my birthday cake. I asked Diane to make it because she is the cake decorator. IT was 3 layers and 3 great cakes. White cake with lemon, Carrot cake with cream cheese, and chocolate with chocolate ganauche. I also made "the" chocolate cheese cake. I mean who wouldn't want to go to a birthday party like this. Appetizers, salad, soup and main course with dessert just to be my friend is a pretty good deal. I loved cooking it though.
Menu: Black bean cilantro Hummas with naan (indian bread)
Baked Brie
Filo cups stuffed with tomato, olive, and feta
Salad: mixed greens, crispy pears, and bleu cheese savory cake with Balsamic vinegrette.
Soup: tomato curry bisque with parmesan bread stick
Main: red pepper and Rosemary crusted beef tenderloin
Saffron isreali cous cous with pine nuts and spinach
Lemon garlic asparagus.

Lily 8 months old

2009-04-02T08:20:00.000-07:00

8 months old is my favorite age for babies. They are just fun and starting to be independant but also just enough baby to want you. Lily now has 4 teeth, her top two are about half way through and so cute. she crawls pretty darn fast and can go every where she wants, except up the stairs (thank goodness)but that is next I'm afraid. She is eating alot more solid foods and loves peas and real bananas, none of that baby food bananas those are gross. She still loves rice cereal but now it has apples in it. She loves to pull her self up where ever she is, couch, table, bed, my knees, any where. She gets to the first step but doesn't know what to do next. She also has that cute little reach when she wants me to pick her up. She is sleeping almost all the way through the night. we have tired to give her a bottle a couple of time and she just bites at it, just in case she ever needs to take a bottle. She loves to pull things off of shelves or anything in a box, or basket. She is just curious, I love it. She loves watching Cullen and Sophia do whatever. I can put her in the playroom in the morning where Cullen is playing lego star wars (ofcourse) and Sophia is just playing and she loves it, I go lay in bed for a little bit longer, (love it)! The kids made her a buildabear, that is named "princess peach" and everytime she sees it she has a very distinct noise that means "bear", it's kinda cool. I wish she had one for me, I guess mine is just cry and scream as hard as you can until I come and get you. Fun, Fun age.

vegetables

2009-04-01T13:35:00.000-07:00

cullen, said to me yesterday in the car...
mom you know why girls aren't as strong as boys?
no why?
because we keep all the vegetables for the boys so they could get the strongest.
yep that's right.

(cindy, make your boys eat their veggies or they won't be strong)

cousins

2009-03-19T18:00:00.001-07:00

We went to Madie's (Diane's oldest) baptism feb 28th. It was tons of fun and all the kids love spending time with their cousins. Cullen's especially i think if you asked him who is best friend was madie would be it. So ofcourse we played hard the night before and the day of the baptism. Maybe a bit too hard because before the program got started all three of my kids, fell asleep (hard). I never have all my kids napping at the same time. We decided to wake up Cullen because he really wanted to see Madie get baptized. It was like pulling a lead balloon down the hallway. But he made it. All the cousins were suppost to sing "I am a Child of God" afterward. but Alec, and Sophia were asleep so Madie, Cullen and Olivia sang. They did pretty well, even though during the chorus Cullen was "yawning" the words. Everyone couldn't help but laugh, it would have been a great "funniest home video".
After the baptism we had to mad dash over to the other church building where Diane was having a "light" dinner. if you think 2 appetizers, Korean Beef, Pasta with roasted garlic sauce, salad, a fruit plate, and a bread plate is light. We also had mini cupcakes, and chocolate mouse cups for dessert. it was lovely, and soooo yum. Sophia slept through all of it, just like this. when she woke up though she said "madie aren't you so excited that you're almost baptized?" no one really had the heart to tell her that she missed it about 3 hours ago. we had to take a picture of her, so cute with her bum in the air.

we rarely get pictures of diane and my kids together... happy, smily, looking at the camera. So we were so happy to get this shot. isn't Lily so cute, all there looking cute in the front. we sure do have a good group of cousins. it truly was a special day and you could tell that Madie was touched, was a super good girl. (i can't believe she is 8 though.)

Sophia Name Game

2009-02-25T11:52:00.000-08:00

James picked out Sophia's middle name when she was born, and it is Dawn. I wasn't really happy about it but it goes together nicely. So we were talking about middle names the other day and Sophia asked "what's my middle name and I told her Dawn." She said No it's not, that's your name. I told her yes it was mine but it's your middle name too. She refused. "No Mom that is not my middle name my middle name is Sophie". I said "Your name is Sophia Sophie Stockdale?" (wouldn't that be a terrible name) She said yes, I thought that she got confused with nick names so I asked her what Cullen's Middle name was and she said "Benjamin" and that was right. Then she turned to James and said, "Daddy what is your middle name?" He said "Earl" She said, NOOOOOO dad your middle name is "JIMMY" I thought it was pretty funny. So we have Sophia Sophie Stockdale and James Jimmy Stockdale.

Lila at 7 months

2009-02-20T14:11:00.000-08:00

Time goes by so fast. Lily is now 7 months old. She now can totally crawl anywhere she wants, which means my floor had better be clean, because if not she is the vacuum. On valentines day she picked up one of the kids Hersey kisses in the foil and when i found her with chocolate all over her face, she had managed to suck all the melted chocolate out of the foil so that was all that was left in her mouth. She is still very petite though, even though she is growing just fine, she only weighs 14 lbs. 1 oz and is 25 inches long. She's in the 5th percentile for height and 10th for weight. but you know me i'm totally ok with her being short. it was just fun to call up Delaine and tell her because her 2 month old son, Liam, is 13#10oz. which is pretty close. So now that Lily can crawl she has new tricks, she can sit up great and go from crawl to sit easy and vise versa, and hold on to things and get on her knees, as you can see. but the shocker of it all is one morning after her nap i went to get her and she was STANDING holding on to crib, i guess it's time to move her bed down. she's got two months to walk,(sophia was 9 months) so i better get ready for that. She also decided that she likes to scream, not cry at night. i've been trying to let her cry to sleep but now she's smarter and just screams like crazy until I come get her. but i'm ok with her schedule now, she goes to sleep at 8(with my other kids) wakes up about 11:34 then sleeps till 6:00 so that's most of the night. Her hair is coming in more now and her eyes should stay blue, but they are different than Cullen's her's are more gray and his are light. Still No "MAMA" yet, i'm kinda tired of hearing "dada" all the time. anyways, she's cute and we love her around, still a super good baby.

"LOOK MOM ONLY ONE HAND"

Ska Show

2009-02-06T08:21:00.000-08:00

Yeah I know i'm turning 30 this year but hey, who says you have to act 30, right?! So Cindy and I have always said that we wanted to go to a ska show together, because we both went to them "back in the day", and we never knew each other. I thought that would be fun but never thought I would find a show that I would like to go to. But just for fun I started looking especially because Cindy is turning 30 this month, I thought it would be a good gift. And I found one. The Toasters, Buck O nine, Deal gone Bad, and VooDoo Glow Skulls. So we had our plan the show was at House of Blues on Downtown Disney, so we would go to Disneyland that day with our hubbies and kids then they leave and we dance. (i'm still nursing Lily so i fed her right before they left.) Good thing Dave and James were good sports about the whole thing driving home with all 5 kids. (they all went to sleep) I was totally excited that the man asked us if we were over 21. I just said thank you, and Cindy told them we don't drink anyways that we have Carpools in the morning. I was super excited when I walked in seeing rudies everywhere, patches, buttons, suspenders. So we danced and skanked and couldn't hear a word eachother was saying. I even made it through the pit. The Toasters were awesome, BuckO9 was great and even Deal gone bad was good. It was fun to feel like we were 17 again. I didn't feel old at all, there were alot of people older than us, and most of them were in the bands we were watching. and that little old man about 60 who had an old patched jacket, all stars, and was skankin' along with the youngsters. (totally cool). I loved it. now i'm paying the consequences. got about 5 hours of sleep, and being a mommy all day, made me sick and tired. I guess i'm not as young as I used to be.