December...

So I thought I blogged Christmas already, but apparently I didn't. Here are a few pics from December, from our holiday in California.

My kids just loved Parker. It was fun watching them interact with a baby, especially Alex who is the only one to grow up without one.

And of course, Jimmertime. The boys were so excited about this. We surprised them with a Kings game in Sacramento. I have a video of them when we told them, but for some reason every other video I take won't upload to my computer, and of course that is one of them. I'm still working on it.

This was the sunset on I-5 on our way to Benicia. Isn't it pretty?

Even thought we weren't going to be home for Christmas, we still wanted to get a tree and deck the halls. I think this may have been a record year in that no ornaments were broken during decorating!

Cameron's Robotics

I am way behind on blogging, but back in December Cameron had a robotics competition. Lego has a program for schools to get kids involved in building and programming robots. It's really cool. Cam's team, the RoboHawks's had 5 kids. They spent about 2 months programming their robot to do certain tasks. It involved a lot of problem solving and teamwork. Anyway, this video is so cute. His team took first in the Robot Performance portion, and he is so excited in the video. His team was one of two to advance to the state competition. I think he loved it, but was kinda glad to have it over with since it took up a lot of his after school relaxing time :)

Happy Birthday Kate!!

Happy Birthday Kate!
We love you and we are so thankful you are part of this family.
I love you because you are a great older sister, you are a good example of humility and patience. You are fun, smart, beautiful and funny.

"I love Aunt Kate because she always tells me I'm her favorite nephew, and she laughs at my wide open mouth all the time. " Love, Parker
{ok, the fav nephew thing isn't true but the other part is}

Why do YOU love Kate??

What a day!

It was the perfect day in San Francisco!
Delicious lunch at Fisherman's wharf!
A Cable car ride, with everyone adoring
the babies - I loved it.
We had such a fun time together - thanks girls!
I'm going to miss that Haley.

Daughters and Grandbabies!

Kate and high school/college friends!
We had such fun doing the shower for Kate - 3 mos. to go!
Haley and Parker chatting and playing. SO cute!
The Crowley kids - I love 'em!
Mike and Parker apparently saw something shocking!

We were in needs of a few laughs the other night, and came across this (clean!) SNL skit that had us in stitches:

http://www.hulu.com/watch/215177/saturday-night-live-british-movie

If you're poking around for more laughs, there's another one that's HILARIOUS with Michael Bolton...but be forewarned, there's a few cuss words.

Also, I hope everyone had a wonderful New Years! We enjoyed a great weekend with our friends Matt & Julie Mizukawa in St. George. They used to live in Las Vegas, then they moved to Tennessee for more schooling, and they've been there for the past 4 years. This past summer they moved to St George for good, and we went up this weekend to see their new house and enjoy the smorgasborge that is New Year's for them. Authentic Japanese fare was had in plenty- including restaurant-quality sushi- and was so fun. Matt's parents are incredibly hospitable and had about 50 people in their house! The kids had so much fun running around with all the kids there and we loved the great company and good food. And we were reminded again how beautiful St George is....we could definately live there!

My Boys and BYU

I know I'm a bit late on this, but here is Devon and Troy all suited up for the priesthood session of conference in October. Aren't they cute? I mean studly handsome :) Hard to believe he is 12. He enjoyed going to the session, especially out to dinner afterward with Troy.

In October the boys, along with all Troy's brothers, Glenn and 3 cousins all went to the BYU/Oregon State football game. They got a hotel and made a weekend out of it. They had a blast. After the game they watched it later that night, and Troy paused it on his iPad and took a picture when they showed up on TV. Pretty exciting stuff. You can see Devon standing with the brown sweater, a little of Cam sitting on the right of Dev. Ashlynn is on Dev's left, then Troy and Tyler. Nathans is behind Troy, you can see part of his hat. They rest of the crew were sitting a few rows back. Good thing no one was picking their nose.

And the highlight: One of the players before the game (Pendleton) gave the kids five. I love the smile on Devon's face, and I can tell Cam is smiling too. It was a big moment for them!

We have big BYU fans here in our house. They are trained young. Before football season, Troy actually puts all the televised games on the calendar, so I will know not to schedule any conflicting activities involving him. I have learned he is serious about that :)