the bates motel

we were lucky and got to stay in ca for almost 2 weeks.  bren had to come back to work in between holidays, but it was great to have him come back on new years eve!  we always have gone to the same ultra sound place in costa mesa to find out what we were having!  so i didn't want to break tradition!  this year was all about just dance on the wii.  the kids loved it, the adult kids loved it, and the grandparents loved it!  what a great way to party!  woop.

one of my besties from hb was moving to oregon, so she came to say goodbye w/ her cute kids!  we both are expecting our 4th babies in june!  we've pretty much had all of our kids w/in the same time frame.  so sad to see them leave!  hb trips won't be the same.  love you sherri!

we went to ca for christmas and had so much fun!  it always makes me so happy to be back there.  every year on christmas eve we go to a couple fire stations and sing songs and bring treats and they usually let the kids climb on the fire truck and check out stuff.  i can remember doing that since i was 10 at least!

so i didn't do a good job of documenting thanksgiving!  i forgot my camera and have no pics to show for it!  we had a great time tho.  we went to ut for about five days and played and had lots of fun!  we took the kids to see santa on a rainy night in december and so the normal set up wasn't in comish, so we went inside the santan mall.  so lame they won't let you take your own pics, so we bought the cheapest deal and this is a pic of a pic!  pretty cute kids!  merry christmas!

i always like to drag out christmas as long as possible!  i love that time of year.  so we got our tree the week after thanksgiving for family night!  that was always a fun thing to do as a kid, go and pick out the tree.  i hope my kids grow up loving that too.

wow.  looking back at these pics is making me sad realizing how fast these kids are growing up!  i'm post dating all these posts, but actually writing some on (aug, 11, 2011).  all for my future knowledge.  anyway, we went to the az fair at the end of oct and it was hot, but the kids had fun! 

i had horrible strep throat thru most of the halloween festivites and then found out i was pregnant on oct, 28th, so it was a crazy bit of emotions, but luckily we have some pics to post!

so it's not a good excuse, but life just kinda seemed extra crazy and i fell off the planet of blogging for a long time! i don't even know if i really remember how to blog! since i eventually wanna turn this into a blog book i've decided to go back. waaaay back to oct 2010.

i was able to go to my grandma's funeral on oct. 15th, 2010.  she had passed away a couple nights before after a long history of health problems and her feeding tube fell out and she was done.  it took 16 days for her body to finally say goodbye to this life.  i'm soooo happy that she can be reunited w/ my grandpa and her parents and so many that she lost long ago.  utah was absolutely beautiful.  i love when the leaves are changing and the mountains just look amazing.  it was fun to see some family that i hadn't seen in over 15 years.  the program was great.  the life sketch by karla cattani, and the grandchildren all sang "when he comes again" and then each of grandma's 7 kids spoke.  i'm so happy i was able to go!  the rest of the weekend i got to hang w/ adri and chill at mike and kari's house.