Joshua turns 5 and Legoland day!

My little guy is 5! Crazy! He has been my little easy going buddy ever since he was born. He is funny, easy to please, low maintenance and very right-brained! The funniest things come out of this guy's mouth and I wish I could live in his head for a day.

We had one of our good friends over to sing Happy Birthday to Joshua. Their little boy, Christian, is good friends with Joshua.
Only Joshua would want Night Goggles for his birthday! James just laughed. He loves them!

I gave Joshua the option of either having a birthday party with friends or having a day at Legoland with just him. Well, he chose Legoland. Smart little boy! We had the greatest day and it was so much fun having a day just with Joshua. He is so easy going and was such a treat for me to be with him!

The Dragon ride!

Playing the Lego instrument sounds

Joshua hard at work at the Lego play station building to his heart's content. He has been my only child will sit and create with Legos or any build-it toy. He loves it!

He loved the Lego mini land. It really is amazing!

Baseball finatic!

So, Joseph has found his passion in life, at least for now. Baseball! The Brea Little League out here is great, a little intense, but great and he learned a lot from his coach this year and became a great hitter! His team was the Dodgers and he loves the sport.
Last Saturday I took Joseph to an Angels baseball game and this little guy was in complete heaven! One great thing about living in California are the fun things to do with your kids. Joseph LOVES the Angels and comes home after school and the first thing he wants to do is check the score of the Angels. He knows all the players, their stats, their positions, etc. My brothers were big baseball lovers, so it is fun for me to watch Joseph want to call Nate and talk Baseball with him. My dad can't wait to come back and play catch with Joseph. Also, the game we were at, Joseph's favorite player, Kendry Morales, hit a game-winning grand slam in the bottom of the 10th inning! It was great, until he broke his leg coming into home plate by jumping into his excited teammates. Bummer! Joseph almost started crying.

Disney and James' birthday

So, our annual Disneyland passes are officially expired. We had the GREATEST year using them and made some great memories and definitely got our money's worth out of them. Hopefully come next September we will be pass holders again! We spent our last day celebrating James' birthday.Three great buddies! So funny that Joshua will go on Space Mountain, but not the Haunted Mansion. He says the Haunted Mansion gives him nightmares.

Happy Birthday to James!!

Mormon Helping Hands day!

We were privileged to participate in the state wide Mormon Helping Hands event! It was so awesome! Mormons all over the state of California were seen wearing these yellow vests and meeting at hundreds of different parks to do service. It was a great thing for my kids to be a part of and it was such a wonderful opportunity!

Daniel turns two!

Well, my baby is two! His energy is enough to kill me, but we are so grateful for him and his cute, busy, talkative, curious little personality. He makes us laugh, keeps me insanely busy, talks nonstop and my 3 older kids absolutely adore him.

Hannah gets him out of his crib every morning, if he needs milk, Hannah fills his sippy cup. She is like his second mother, and she is only 6! I love it!

(Just have to include cute Hannah with her missing 4 front teeth...two top and two bottom)

The kids were SUPER excited for Daniel's birthday and loved making him feel so special. First of all, Daniel is obsessed with Starfish. He LOVES starfish! So, in the morning we made starfish pancakes and Daniel almost didn't want to eat it. He just kept yelling over and over, "Look, starfish, mom, starfish, mom!!" He was super excited. (He says "mom" after almost everything he says. So cute)

Along with starfish, Daniel LOVES balls; basketballs, baseballs, footballs, you name it. Since Joseph has been taking baseball, Daniel has been really into baseball. So, we got him a little T-ball set and it was a winner!

My parents mailed Daniel the best gift! Plastic starfish! He could have just opened these and been completely content. He takes them everywhere he goes. He LOVES them!

Giving them a kiss

The funnest part was watching him get so excited over his last gift: Elefun. He jumped all around so excited trying to catch the little butterflies. Caught this on video, thank heavens.

Sunday night we had a little get together with some friends, the missionaries and some possible investigators. With no family around, we have really needed to reach out and invite people over. It is the only way not to get lonely out here. We had a great time.
I made Daniel a seascape cake, featuring starfish. He loved it. Unfortunately, he got into the cake without me watching right after I took the picture. Oh, well!

This is Mia (the most darling lady with 4 kids who we are really hoping wants to investigate the church. I really like her). The other lady on the chair is another family we are hoping takes an interest in the church. Great families and we were so glad they came over.

Fun beach weekend with Spencer!

Spencer came into town for a physical therapy conference in San Diego and flew in a day early to spend with us. Yea! We met him in Newport and with the crazy weather California has been having, we lucked out having a BEAUTIFUL and warm weekend! We met at the beach, had a great time and he came and spent the night at our place. Crazy thing is how much Daniel loves him! We haven't lived in Salt Lake for almost 8 months and Daniel must remember Spencer living with us. All he wanted was for Spencer to hold him. So crazy, figuring that Daniel is a mama's boy and wants no one else but me. When I put him to bed, he even asked for Spencer to "rock you".

Spencer found this huge fishing boot in the ocean and my kids wanted to try it on! Seriously, this boot was enormous. Instead of a boot, it looks like a "boot mermaid fin". We were laughing pretty hard. Josh kept trying to squirm his way out of it and looked like a fish out of water. Wish I had my video camera!

My favorite beach picture so far. Love it!