Merry Christmas 2007!

Merry Christmas to everyone.

We're foregoing sending out Christmas cards this year and sending our yuletime wishes the electronic way.

We hope everyone has a safe & happy holiday season.

I'm trying to skip the unneccessary fillers of Christmas and devoting my time to things that bring the Spirit of Christmas and include family time together.

Happy Halloween

Hope everyone had a safe and fun Halloween! We carved pumpkins the night before, all 4 kids each get their own to decorate or desecrate. We all dressed up this year as we do every year. Mom was a scary Vampire Bride, Dad was a Pirate Captain. Andrew & Braeden were Jedi Master and Apprentice. Samantha was also a Vampire Bride but a pretty one. Westin was a Vampire Baby. We started with Trunk-or-Treating at the church to get the majority of our haul and finished up by old fashion door knocking in our neighborhood. We still have candy left over but the kids have been diligent and steadily eating it up, taking it one day at a time!

Hawaii trip

Chad & I just returned from a wonderful 10 day vacation to Hawaii. The kids stayed home with Grandparents Simmons. We missed the kids a lot, more so towards the end of the trip. We went with my parents and stayed mostly on the island of Maui. I love the background in this picture.

We snorkeled alot and every time we swam with Sea Turtles. We stayed in Honolulu for 3 days and while there visited Pearl Harbor and the LDS temple grounds. Then we stayed on Maui for the remaining 7 days. This was our first visit to Hawaii and my parents 10th (or more). They were the best tour guides and very familiar with the best shopping and snorkeling spots.

While at Pearl Harbor we also visited the USS Missouri battleship. Here we are posing under the big guns. Also nearby was the submarine "Bowfin". The sites were completely interactive with all sorts of weaponry equipmt. for you to sit on and test out and take pics on.

Here we are at the temple grounds and at the famous Pali (probably spelled it wrong). The wind is so strong you can't wear hats or loose fitting shirts.

And last but not least our favorite pic from this trip. We took a hilariously eventful drive to the inactive volcano on Maui 10,023 feet above sea level. We were above the clouds, where Chad teetered on the edge for an awesome shot!

The holidays are approaching.......yeah!! Hope everyone is happy and well.....Mahalo.

August-Back to school......almost!

This picture is actually a little old. I think from last summer (oops). But I posted anyway because we're all in it! School starts again Aug. 27th.....summer break is always wonderful and the last month always difficult. Kids and Mom are anxious for school to start again.

Andrew will be starting 5th grade and then the year after, middle school! Samantha will be starting 3rd grade. Braeden will be in pre-school this year. Westin will be the only one home with Mom, although he freaks out everytime we drop off the kids to school and he can't go. Hope you all are enjoying a safe, and fun summer!

Summer Fun

Summer means hot-hot weather here in Vegas. So far we've only been having less then 115 degree weather.... We recently built and filled our new pool and spend everyday out in the water. The water temp. was about 98 degrees the other day, a little too warm for us. No matter how much sun screen I lather on the kids they seem to always turn brown over the summer.

Hope you all are enjoying summer break as much as we are!

Happy 4th of July - 2007

Hope you all had a Happy 4th of July! We enjoyed a nice, quiet holiday at home. Chad grilled us up hot dogs & krabby patties. After long, late naps we began the smoke bombs around 7:30pm. We didn't make it thru all our fireworks, but ended with a grand finale @ 10pm. Braeden (4yrs.) pretty much watched with his hands over his ears. Andrew (10yrs) helped Chad light the fireworks this year again. What a big boy!

We've been inspired by others that have started family blogs and began one of our own. Please enjoy! Hope others also join the blogging movement, a creative way to keep updated with friends and families no matter where they are in the world.