Max in his cool birthday crown he got at preschool. He is licking the batter from the cake I was making him.


His birthday banner. He wanted a monkey theme, which was really fun.


The cake and cupcakes I made.


The birthday party table. We celebrated at Pappy's Pizza with some family friends. It was a great time!



Blowing out the candles.


All the fun gifts he received from friends and family. Thank you! He was one happy boy!

We visited the High Desert Museum this weekend. They had 2 new exhibits that we haven't seen. The butterfly exhibit which was really cool. They created a tropical environment in one of the rooms and the butterflies just fly all around you. There is also a new Chinese exhibit which was interesting and the kids got to make chinese laterns. The otter was also out on this unseasonably warm day and the kids had fun watching him swim around.

Ellie was invited to an ice skating birthday party. She was SO excited. She has been asking us to take her iceskating since October but niether Ryan or I really like to iceskate. She had a great time and did pretty well considering she has never really been on iceskates before.

In Ellie's 2nd grade class they are studying different communites, including different cultures. The entire 2nd grade is working together to create their own miniture community. Each student came up with an idea of what they could make to add to the community. Most kids chose stuff like a library, city hall, grocery store. Ellie chose a water park. She got here inspiration from Cowabunga Bay, a park we visited in Utah last summer. They were to use mostly recycled materials and objects they had aroudn the house. Parents could help, it was to be a fun family project. This is what we came up with. We used pieces of Caden's marble track for the slide and everything else was cardboard and paper and a milk carton. We get to go to the school this Wed. and see everyone's projects on display.

We had a great Christmas! This was the first year that all 3 kids were beyond excited for Santa to come and to open all the presents under the tree. Just before 5 am I heard footsteps upstairs. Ryan went up to investigate and all the kids were in Ellie's bed snuggling and talking about the pillow pets that Santa had left by their bed. Ryan snuck away before he was spotted and at 5:30 I went upstairs to get them. They said they didn't want to come down and wake us up because it was still to early. How sweet. They were thrilled with all their gifts. Max got a green DSi and Magformers, Ellie an ipod nano and Harumika fashion designer kits, and Caden a lego castle and Star Wars action figures. We also got a Flip video camera so we can now capture the kids and their activities on video. We also recieved many fablulous gifts from family. I think we all were a little spoiled this year.

We had tons of snow in December. We spent some time during Christmas break to play in it and make a giant snowman. The snowman was as tall of me. We had to use a ramp to get the top two snowballs on. It was fun but a lot of work.

Santa came to visit at the Ward Party. The kids were super excited to see him but soon figured out it was the Bishop by the sound of his voice. Next year we will have to get the real santa to come.