More February!

 For Valentine's Day mom and dad went on a date with the Rowley's and Weir's while the kids were being babysat in the Long Beach building by Ashcraft building to pay for daughter's mission. The kids had a BLAST! We had fun going to dinner with friends and daddy laughed so hard at the restaurant he leaned back and broke the back of the chair! The next day we made homemade pizza in the shape of hearts for dinner and they were yummy!

 Mommy helped at Austin's school with Art to Grow On. Love how excited Austin gets when I come into his classroom!

 Look like Van Gogh?

 Grandpa is in town which we LOVE! Funniest game of Battleship I have seen or heard! Grandpa can't hear well so he kept yelling what?! The had to communicate b as in boy, c as in cat, d as in dog, or e as in elephant accompanied with a number so grandpa could understand. Austin thought Axel was cheating to help grandpa and the top of grandpa's board fell so he couldn't tell what he had already guessed and was frustrated. Grandpa was glad we had to end early to go to Taekwondo haha!

 We celebrated Chinese New Year in primary! Tom shared the Joseph Smith scripture in Chinese and the Spirit was so powerful! We ended with a dragon dance and the kids LOVED it!

A couple of days ago Austin asked if we could make bacon and make a smile for dinner? Here is my non-worthy Pinterest creation. The kids loved it!!

February 2015

 It took Austin 2 months to earn 100 stickers. He got to choose who he went on a date with and what we did. He chose me yay! We went to see the Spongebob movie. Love my boy!

 Two things Axel loves are soda and snuggling nonstop with mom or dad. We enjoyed a Fresca together and it was so much fun!

 We decided to try a new local place to eat and went to Paviche's and got the "Mercedes pizza", three different kinds of pizza. So good!

 Trying to step up our sandcastle building skills! Pretty proud of ourselves!

It is tough to get this girl out of her Little Mermaid nightgown and Queen Elsa costume from Halloween. I ordered a Minnie Mouse nightgown to mix it up so we can wash the other two. She was pleased! Wears these outfits all day long...not just to sleep in!

School happenings

 Austin won an award for reading and Math! Mrs. Dragovich does not give praise easily. So PROUD of Austin! We cashed in his free pizza at the Blaze and celebrated as a family!

 For the 100th day of school the kids had to make a project and Austin came home with his own idea of getting an empty plastic water bottle and adding 100 legs onto his squid. I helped with the glue gun but he did everything else. So fun!

 With tithing settlements in December, we were unable to send packages to our family missionaries for Christmas so we sent Valentine packages. Big Austin got numbchucks and Taekwondo headbands since he is serving Korean people in New York.

Sharanne got happy socks and globes since she is freezing in Pennsylvania. So fun to send these!

Love California in January!

 Still hitting the beach in January and loving it!!

 Made it to Disneyland with our friend Hunter over Christmas break!

 Our cousins got Disneyland passes for Christmas and we had a fun day with them!!

Austin is on the front row with aunt Cynthia. He loves to pretend he is asleep on Space Mountain in Disneyland!

Finishing Carolyne's birthday!

 This girl had 4 birthday cakes this week! Durham was born 2 days after her and we always enjoy a cake with his family;)

 Durham gave her the Little Mermaid with a couple of outfits to change into;)

 Opening gifts from her cousins at her birthday party at aunt Keri's house.

 Aunt Jenny made her an Olaf birthday cake and she LOVED this thing!!

 All of the kids got kindles for Christmas and it makes my days easier!!

The boys wanted to make homemade lemonade since we got a bunch of lemons from a friend and Austin read a book at school about making homemade lemonade. Looking at this picture reminds me how much crap we jam into our student housing townhouse of 1,000 square feet haha!

Happy New Year 2015!!

 We all went to bed early on New Year's Eve and headed to California Adventure right when they opened on New Year's Day! Carolyne is so into Sullivan and we were so excited we got to meet him!

 She was too cute in these Minnie Mouse ears!

 My boys waiting for the Frozen sing-a-long!

Frozen exhibit. Daddy went sledding with the boys, Austin made snow angels and we all threw a snowball even though we were not supposed too!

Closing out 2014

 Christmas Eve dinner. Our kids were so excited about "chips and cheese" for dinner and didn't want tamales....kids haha!

 Grandma and grandpa Mead bought the kids Christmas pajamas and they were all very happy! So much personality!

 We went to Newport Beach on Christmas Day to enjoy the Mead timeshare. It was so fun we ended up staying three nights!

 Here is our Christmas Eve attempt to act out the Christmas story. Carolyne was busy yelling "No, I don't want to be an angel" and the boys were super obnoxious. We made memories right?!

 We took grandma and grandpa to the Griffith Park Observatory and enjoyed the trains.

 Shirley wanted to throw a birthday party for Carolyne and got her a cookie monster cake and put the bright blue frosting on her face to make the kids laugh. She made more food than a Thanksgiving feast. We love Shirley! She spoils us!!
Austin put on some fancy Mickey Mouse ears to bring in 2015! We went to bed early on New Year's Eve and went to California Adventure right when it opened on New Year's Day!

December 2014 continued

 We also tried to make it to Disneyland a few times to enjoy the decorations and awesome feeling there! One night when we pulled up Carolyne stuck her finger in my face and said, "We need to find Minnie OKAY?!". So we found Minnie:)

Boys were begging for Mohawk haircuts so they got them! They were thrilled!

 Axel wrote this at preschool. Favorite answer "If you're not too busy, could you bring my mom and dad....earmuffs so they don't hear us complain". Our answer is "Yes-please!" Haha!

 This looks like a ghetto picture since we took a photo of a photo....this is from Tom's work Christmas party.

 You know your kid is cute when the photographer asks if he can take pictures of your little girl all by herself!

 I didn't know where Tom went and I found them taking their photos together. So sweet!

 Here is the Bishopric photo that went out in the Christmas card this year.

 We found Santa at Disneyland. Carolyne wouldn't go near him without me.

This is the Santa at the ward party and Carolyne screamed her head off haha!!

Christmas 2014

 Christmas is enough to suck the life out of anybody. Somehow the combination of small children, elementary and preschool programs and parties, mixed with church Thanksgiving and Christmas parties 3 weeks apart, Tom having tithing settlements this year as Bishop, everyone in our house got sick, buying gifts for all the teachers, primary program at church, etc.... I'm sure I'm forgetting stuff, I was bummed we didn't get to do a lot of our normal traditions. However, Christmas was good and it was wonderful to enjoy the break from school after the mega stress load!

 Glad I got to join Austin's school class for the cookie decorating party.

 Axel was so mean to his little friend Saylor (who dishes her own amount of meaness too). Christmas was almost canceled over here!

 Enjoyed Baymax at Disneyland!

 Carolyne was consumed with Ms. Claus at Disneyland!

 Axel with his best friend Nolan from preschool for their holiday performance!

 Grandma and grandpa had flown into San Diego the night before from Texas and were driving up to Sacramento to babysit Randy's kids and were able to catch Axel's show on their drive up. Tender mercy! Axel felt so special and had no idea they were coming. They sat in traffic for 3 hours and made it right before the show started and had to leave right after. Awesome grandparents!

Austin wrote his teacher a card for Christmas with her Target giftcard. I swear she has been nicer since we gave her this card. First grade writing is the cutest!