Early to rise

I love this picture! Years ago when we lived in Colorado Springs, I was in the kitchen cleaning up after lunch and heard Amelia and Eli giggling and playing together nicely! Oh what a good big sister to dance and play for her baby brother and keep him happy for two minutes while I finish up.
I walked in on her "coloring in" Eli's face with a marker! (of course it wasn't a washable one so this lasted a couple of days!) Soooo! hard not to laugh hysterically while I reprimand her and ran to grab my camera!

WE LOVE YOU MOM!

I woke up early and couldn't fall back to sleep. The clock read 5am. I had the choice of laying there bitter about losing an hour and a half of sleep or getting up and being productive. I laid there for a few more minutes before starting my day early. It will be nice to shower before lunch today I thought. I heard Abe cry, ready to start his day as well. "Oh perfect timing", I thought, "I'm dressed and ready to go". Finally a day that I'll finish feeling that I've done everything I needed to do. We all went to the kitchen and I started to get breakfast and school lunches ready. I'm so on the ball today! I was so proud of myself for making pancakes and eggs for the kids on a school day.

I glanced out of the corner of my eye at the clock on the microwave. WHAT is THAT! It said it was 5:09am! Ok, that can't be so! I woke the kids up and was feeding them already. Could it just be a mistake from last week when I changed all the clocks for daylight savings time? I ran to my cell phone to check .... sure enough that one said it was 5:09am! The kids said, "Oh by the way Mom, Abe was playing with the clock yesterday". Thanks guys! That could have been helpful oh, I don't know like ... about 8 hours ago! So much for being "awesome Mom" today!

Well, I guess the kids still thought I was. Pancakes and cartoons on a Tuesday morning before school!

Elijah's 6th Birthday Olympics Party

I think I must have more fun planning my kids birthday parties than they do at them. They'd probably be happy just running around with nothing planned. How can I resist though! We handed out medals and trophy bags full of candy. We had team headbands and competed in relay races, discus throw (frisbee style) and high jump ... on the trampoline!

Happy Birthday Eli!

Of course there is the cake and we even tried cake pops this year. Great tasting and fun...easy to clean up too, but so glad I got the traditional cake as well, since the kids felt something was missing until they got the "official" slice style.

Quick picture of the team flags we made and fun sports water bottles as take home gifts. Four boys all huddled together in awe of a Transformer Bumblebee toy. One of my friends even came up with a little game to open the presents that I just loved. The kid giving the toy had to disguise their voice and the birthday boy had to guess who it was correctly or he couldn't open the gift! The kids loved it. So many giggles!

We Love you Eli!

http://myemail.constantcontact.com/Take-time-together.html?soid=1103684771650&aid=GH6i0FPSxyo

http://myemail.constantcontact.com/Take-time-together.html?soid=1103684771650&aid=GH6i0FPSxyo

Amelia took this picture. Isn't she a wonderful photographer!

Fred and I were in town for his 20th reunion, so we dropped in to see who was there....not very many people! Oh well, at least we looked good! The evening wasn't lost since we had a romantic fire on the beach!

Our family visiting Grandma Arthur. We lived just down the street for many years and went to church together in the same ward. It was such a treat to come back and visit. Can't wait until the next opportunity to visit!

SeaWorld

I couldn't believe the Shamu show! We learned so much and had were amazed! Thanks SeaWorld for giving the military families free admission!

Time to snuggle a turtle!

This was the "petting zoo" area with starfish and sea cucumbers and sea urchins.

Disneyland

This is Eli and Dad flying on the Dumbo ride. Fred is already teaching kids how fun it is to fly! Wish they had something like that for accountants!











After a long day at Disney here is the crew, still smiling!














I think the adults had more fun this day than the kids! I love the parent switch out passes! We got to go on as many rides as the kids!













We even saw a parade!

Families can be together Forever!

Hiking at Big Bear

We had a wonderful hike up to Castle Rock in Big Bear, CA with the Wilson Family Reunion. Ok, so we decided to blaze a new trail led by the two adventurous Gooch boys on the right. By the time any of us old folks caught up to stop them we were far off course! This was the point of regrouping when we found the correct trail! It was a blast and what a view!
Do you see these amazing pine cones that are almost 1/3 the size of my son! It was great!

Ken Robinson says schools kill creativity | Video on TED.com

Ken Robinson says schools kill creativity | Video on TED.com

Eli learning to ride his bike....

Fred is trying to raise the next generation of professional Cyclists .....If only we could get him out of his pajamas first!

Abe on Two feet....

It's official! Abraham is now a walker, wobbly at first, but now turning corners with more confidence and getting in to even more trouble....how is that possible! I love that Abe's first order of business was to take care of this poor starving baby doll! He walked over, said "Mama" and proceeded to feed and nurture this poor starving creature. Kids just have to stick together!

Walking on my own is SO MUCH FUN!

Where to go and what to do!

Fourth of July Fun!

Boys just want to BLOW STUFF UP!

This is only what was left after an evening at our friends party. It was a "Bring your own Explosives!" party. What could be better! We were the little fish compared to everyone else! It was a lot of fun, but Abe wasn't sure he like all the loud noises. Bottle rockets are NOT his favorite!

DAD training a daughter to be a PYRO!

Mom has to get in on the action too! Got to love a country where you celebrate liberty via fire and flames!

Lobster Quadrille

ALICE IN WONDERLAND

Amelia stars as a Lobster! She looks amazing!

We had a fun week of practices and worked hard to perfect Amelia's role. She danced, she sang and she had a blast! Eli and Abe even enjoyed the daily practices by watching, singing along and cheering her on. What a bunch of cutie pies!

Do we make some awesome lobsters or what! GET those claws ready! We loved the costumes and the songs. What a great opportunity for the kids to learn and participate. They included as many as they could and still put on a great performance.

Abraham's First Birthday

Kodomo-no-hi
Children's Day
For centuries Japan celebrated Boy's Day but recently the festival became known as Children's Day or Kodom-no-hi which celebrates the healthy growth of all children. Families with a son fly fish-shaped windsocks outside their homes on a long pole. The Koi nobori represent carp swimming upstream. Parents hope their sons will overcome obstacles as they grow up and become men. I thought this would be a great theme for Abraham's first birthday. I'm so glad he's reached his first birthday with health and strength. We wish him well in the trials he is sure to face.
This is one of my favorite times in Japan. I love seeing all the flags big and small flying. Eli's school Fuji yochien would have these absolutely huge ones that would fly in their courtyard that must have been easily 12 to 15 feet long.

Abraham had a wonderful yet seemingly unexpected first birthday. He was constantly amazed that we were all singing and clapping for him and whilst smiling and clapping he joined in all the fun and merriment. I'm sure he's still wondering why everyone was soooo nice to him yesterday!
What a beautiful cake! It was the centerpiece to our celebrations. I'm so glad we decided to go in to the Covered in Cake lady. I was telling her a little about Abe and she came up with the idea of having waves around the bottom of the cake and I decide to add in the fish flag and "rising sun" a nod to the Japanese flag.

We put everyone to work creating those fish flags. It took a lot of love to color each scale a slightly different and unique color. Abraham even got in on the action.

He sure loves them!

Abraham has such a sweet warm spirit. He's always "flirting" with everyone by waving, smiling and wanting to make others happy. He's curious and adventurous in all that he does. He never goes half way. Timid is not in his vocabulary. If he wants something he doesn't just look, he'll go up and pounce on it!


We went to Abe's first Baseball game! It was a lot of fun. I had forgotten the first time Abe had seen fireworks. It was the Fourth of July in Japan and we had a flash flood that knocked out our power making it hot, muggy and basically miserable with a new born. (No food, no air conditioner, no communications etc.) Well, I didn't feel like even getting in the car to drive down to the fireworks so Dad and the kids jumped in the car and went to watch them. I was left holding a fussy Abe. He usually calmed down if I brought him outside so I was walking around the front of our house with him when the fireworks started exploding in the air. I thought this would startle him, but he started looking around and amazingly stopped being fussy. We sat out front snuggled together watching the fireworks in the warm summer evening. It all came back to me as I held him last night, as we snuggled together while he was barely holding his eyes open (since it was almost 11pm). It almost brought me to tears.


To complete our theme we brought Abe to this great pool so he could splash to his hearts content. We also HAD to bring him to the "Flying Fish" a place downtown that has the best fish...which he loves! OH, and there are cute "stuffed" fish all over the walls.


Abaraham your family loves you so much and we know that you will grow up to be your namesake....Strong, faithful, honest, a leader and a beacon to many generations to come. Ok, so we just hope to have lots of grandkids that are as cute as you! WE all LOVE YOU so much sweetheart!