Adrenalina

Aubrey's friend had a birthday party last week at Adrenalina. Its basically this surf/skate shop with an indoor "flowrider"(surf simulator type thing). I wasn't sure if Aubrey would do it, but she did! And she did so awesome boogieboarding on the wave! We were really proud of her! Heck, I don't think I'd do it:) Check out the video to see her in action.

Who also decided to try it out that day was my main man Joey. As most of you know he was a big California surfer dude back in the day(and can still rock a wave:) so he thought it would be a little different his first try on the board....I've watched this a million times and it never gets old...

Ouch is right. But I still laughed(and laughed and laughed...after of course I made sure he was okay:) He wasn't sure he wanted me to post this- I had to get special permission and basically beg! He is the type of guy who loves to watch other people fall off stuff and get thrown around(America's Funniest Videos being one of his favorite shows) so I told him he should let us all laugh at his expense too:) Thanks Joey for being a good sport and letting me post one of your thrashings! I love you!

Oh, and here is a video of when he was getting the hang of it. He said this was nothing like surfing. He said its like standing on a skateboard(with no wheels) behind a speedboat holding onto nothing. Yeah, I'm glad I didn't try it:) Now, THAT would have been really hilarious. I would be the $100,000 winner on AFV.

Chillin like a villain

Nothing like kickin back on a weekday afternoon, watching snowflakes, drinking V8 splash and eating chocolate.

And there's nothing like seeing this cute funny face.

A fun FHE!

As members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we practice something called, Family Home Evening(or FHE as its sometimes called). We have been asked by leaders of the church to reserve one night a week specifically for family activites and a lesson. Most families do Monday nights. Sunday nights work best for us. But whatever night you pick, nothing else should get in the way of having it. The activities range from anything like, learning a bible story, writing in journals together, planting a garden, going out to dinner, crafts, going on a family walk, whatever! Its good to incorporate a lesson of some kind, but you don't always have to, it can just be family fun! I think you can do with it what you want as long as you do it and are consistent. And if you do it, you are promised blessings! I already know that making sure we have our FHE has blessed our family tremendously and I'm grateful for a prophet who has asked us to do this. Our kids really look forward to it and though I have to admit there are weeks we miss(oopsie), I have a goal to make sure we don't miss a single week this year. It brings us closer together, creates lasting memories, gives us opportunities to teach our children, and also it teaches us as the parents. The kids seem to open up more on these nights and we learn so much from them.

Last year we started our first annual Family Olympics. It was so fun we've decided to do it again this year (and hopefully every year!) We start out with prayer/song/lesson(we talked about health and taking care of our bodies, how important and special our bodies that God gave us are, etc) This led into exercise and we talked about the importance of exercise. Then, the games began! I found on playlist.com, the "Olympics Theme" and played it from the laptop. The kids marched around the room while Joey announced their names, they loved that:) Then we had them compete in different events: discus throw(paper plates), jumping on one foot contest, obstacle course, shotput(with cotton balls), long jump, etc. We ended with an awards ceremony. I saw these little plastic trophies at the dollar spot at Target and surprised them at the end. They thought it was pretty cool! Here are the girls at the awards ceremony...

The champions

Silly, silly champions
Mormon or not, FHE rocks y'all. I totally recommend family night to everyone!

Star of the week: Aubrey!

Aubrey got to be Star of the Week last week! Here are some of the things she wrote about herself on her "all about me" poster....

I am 8 years old.

My birthday is Sept. 10, 2001.

I live in Texas

I am in this grade: 2nd

My teacher is Mrs. Hart

I get to school by a black Expedition

These are the members of my family: Joey, Holly, Me, Ella, Cali, and Zachary

When I grow up, I want to be...a artist.

I am a star because...I show love to others.

I show others I care by...being nice.



3 super-cool facts about Aubrey:

I have a new puppy.

I love to do gymnastics.

I LOVE to go on vacation!



Favorite Things

Color: Blue

Animal: Dog

Food: pizza

Book: The BFG

Sport: Gymnastics

Things to do in school: Writing and art

Things to do at home: Read, draw and play wii.

Ft. Worth Museum

A couple of weekends we decided to check out the brand new museum in Ft. Worth. We bought the planetarium/museum pass for the day and had lots of learning fun! And of course, we took lots of pics(how could we not?:) The planetarium was my favorite part, but of course we don't have pictures of that, even though a little bit into the show, Ella busted out her camera to take a picture. I stopped her just in time! That would've been interesting:) So, I just LOVE planetariums. I hadn't been to one since I was a kid! I just love star gazing and learning about planets. I don't see how anyone can not absolutely know there is a God, when you see the workings of the Solar System. Everything is so perfectly lined up. There has to be a supreme being! Its always a testimony builder to me. It was the first time our kids had ever been to a planetarium. They thought it was awesome. And it opened up great conversations about earth, planets, heaven, stars, etc. on the way home.

The museum in Ft. Worth is great, lots of fun stuff for the kids. A little smaller than I was hoping, but still there is a lot to do. There is also an IMAX theater there, but we didn't do that. The building and exhibits were brand new, clean, and cool. Its organized really well and it wasn't crowded at all. Anyways, I'd recommend spending a day out that way if you live in the DFW area!

Gotta pose in front of the sign with the big alligator mouth:)

There was this experiment area where the kids made stuff and then threw them in a wind tunnel to see how far and how fast it would fly up and out. We could've stayed there all day. The kids really loved it.

Cute picture of our cute girlies

They had this fake trolley ride where you sit in a trolley and this screen next to you(through the windows) makes it look like you are riding through town in like the 1800s or something. Anyways, Aubrey thought it would be funny to get out and run between the trolley and the screen like she was chasing us. Not only did it entertain our family, it entertained others too:) Thats my girl!

Cali chillin in the trolley with her cute little tongue sticking out


Great photo op
A big ole dino. I'm glad these things are extinct. Sorry dino, but I'm pretty sure you would eat me.

In the children's area, there was a fake grocery store. This was another place the kids could've played at for hours. They had so much fun pretending. Funny how the things that excite you as a child, no longer excite you as an adult:) Grocery shopping-yea!!!

There was also a baby doll hospital that was pretty cute.

Uh oh. Baby got hurt.

This was really cool. You stood on this thing and the giraffe told you your height. I guess hes a mind-reading giraffe. Or just plain magical.

And last but not least, we had to take pictures of these cool bubble tubes. They were quite mesmorizing.

Cheese!
The museum is probably the BEST place to visit on a cold winter afternoon. Lots of indoor fun for the whole fam! We ended the day at a buffet and after stuffing our faces, we rolled ourselves home:)

Happy 18th Austin!

Today is my little brother, Austin's, 18th birthday! 18 sounds so old, seriously, it feels like I was just 18! And it seriously feels like yesterday that he was born. Austin is and has always been a WONDERFUL brother. He is really sweet, really thoughtful, really smart, really clever and really funny. Oh, and I think he is really handsome too:) He will be graduating highschool this year(crazy!) And then next year he'll put his papers in to serve a mission. He has been applying to colleges this year and I think every college will be fighting for him because he is like, a genius. I'm not just saying that, he actually is people:) So, anyways, he has lots of big and exciting things coming his way-life is about to begin Austin and I know you will meet everything with success. I am so proud of my brother and I just had to say it right here on my blog! I hope you have a wonderful birthday Austin. Enjoy tonight with the fam! We miss you and wish we could be there. Your gift will arrive late(sorry!) but I hope you like it:) LOVE YOU BRO!

Blast from the past(me and Austin 1992)

I couldn't find a good pic of us together recently, but heres a good pic of him and my mama- 2009. Sorry ladies, he won't be available for a good 3 years:)

How to enjoy a Fun Dip: Cali style

A little bit of snow

On Christmas Eve, while we were in Corpus(of course!), in snowed in the DFW area. We were not happy to say the least! The only thing we'd seen this year was a little flurry in December, but not much. I prayed we would have another opportunity to really get to play in it and my prayers were answered. About a week into January, we got a little bit of snow, not a ton, but enough to have some fun in.

Our little snow angel

Yummmm

A very excited face

Zac's first snow play. He loved it.

I think he mostly enjoyed eating it.
Aubrey watching while warming up her hands under her armpits?

Cute Cal. This is the first year she has really gotten to play in it. It was so cute to see her running around and making her sweet little footprints.

A happy Mom watching(thats me:)
A snowball fight begins
And almost ends when Ella starts to cry and hides under her hat.
But then we chanted, get revenge, get revenge! And she did.
Victory was hers:)

Oh, the excitement we Texans have for snow-lol. We were so disappointed the next morning when we woke up. It was totally melted and gone! I didn't get any good pictures of the accumulation we had gotten:( I'd say an inch? I don't know, but it was pretty darn exciting:)

Popcorn Poppin

We received a really cool popcorn maker for Christmas and tried it out last week for a fun movie night. I had no idea the kids reactions would be this good!

And this picture is my favorite. Sheer delight. I crack up every time I look at it:)

The word

As the new year begins, its time for resolutions and thoughts on ways to become better, individually and as a family. We always have an FHE about things we can work on as a family together. We make a family list of about 3 things we want to focus on and I put the list on the fridge so that we can see it all year long. This year, we still talked about things we can work on, but we decided to something different and come up with one word to focus on(I've stolen this idea from other friends and bloggers. Hey, imitation is the best form of flattery, right?!).

And our word for 2010 is. . . . .

SERVE

We played around with lots of words, but we knew this was "the one." :) I believe service starts in the home. If you can teach your kids to serve each other, they will love each other more. They will become more Christlike. They will be more happy and get along with each other better. They will also learn to serve others, friends, classmates, teachers, etc. They will be shining bright examples of kindness and love to those around them. I love the scripture, "When ye are in the service of your fellow beings, ye are only in the service of your God. "(Book of Mormon, Mosiah 2:17) What better thing to focus on that serving Him? I'm excited to focus on this word this year and I'm hoping to see great things happen! I'm hoping our family can learn to think more about others instead of themselves. And I'm hoping we can do more to help those in need. I plan on making something with the word on it and putting it somewhere prominent in our home, so that we can be reminded daily.

Did your family choose a word this year? If so, what is it? If not, did you make any resolutions? Or are you anti-resolution? Just curious....

Zac & Diesel's family reunion

When we bought Zachary, a friend of mine the very next week bought his brother-we were thrilled! I think its so cool our dogs are bros:) We've been trying to get together for a doggy/kid playdate for quite some time, but kids kept getting sick, holiday craziness, and other things kept getting in the way. Finally, this morning we had the family reunion! They were so funny together! They did a little doggy butt sniffing, chased each other, and played non-stop for an hour and a half. I think they definitely remembered each other:) I hope we can get together every month Kirstin! The dogs played well, our daughters played well upstairs and of course, Kirstin and I get along...for the most part:) j/k! Here is a cute video clip of the puppies playing and some pictures below...

I couldn't get a shot of both of their faces side by side- darnit. They move too fast:)