Travel Town and a visit with Santa!!

During December we decided to make a trip up to Travel Town to take the the train to go see Santa Clause. We hadn't planned on anyone meeting us there but we were very excited to get a surprise visit with most of the Barty Family at least all the Boys!! Jonah, Ashton and Braden Met us there and the boys all had so much fun running around and playing together. They had not seen each other for at least six months so it was lots of fun to see them act as though a day had not passed.

Here they are waiting to take the train!!

the tree lights were programmed to "dance" with the music..very exciting

On the train...Choo Choo!!!

there is a picture of our family with Santa but I have misplaced that, of course...When I find it I will add it in. 

After Travel Town we decided to go see a couple of dueling houses for Christmas lights in Burbank they were pretty amazing...I can't imagine all the work it would take to make these into the wonderland they are

It was a late night by then so we headed home with 3 sleeping boys and some memories with some good friends and a good dose of Christmas fun!!

Los Angeles Temple at Christmas!!

It may seem like since we used to live so close to the Temple and because every year Bryan helped put up the Christmas lights on the grounds we would have gone there to "see" the lights, but this was our first year doing it.  It was such a fun thing to do.  We brought some hot chocolate along with us, which was nice because it was pretty cold out.  Here are some the pics from our small adventure :D

Doing Disneyland!!

Kevin's best friend, Kien, wanted nothing more than to go to Disneyland with his Best Buddy, Kevin, for his birthday this year...so although we had to say no at first through some magical blessings (my Sister and brother-in-law winning 4 tickets to Disneyland off the radio and then deciding to give them to us) we were able to go after all.  It was so much fun and all the boys had an absolute blast together.  We were joined by some of the Cooke's friends as well who had 6 wonderfully well behaved children of their own, so it was quite a party!!

We started the day on the tram from the parking lot which for Isaac rivaled any ride in the park!!

truth be known the circus train was Isaac's very favorite ride and he was talking about it days later still :D

We met up with all of our friends in the park!!

we split early on at Splash Mountain for the braver souls to ride Splash mountain and we kept a couple of the less brave that day to ride Winnie the pooh!!

Caleb actually rode Splash Mountain but we did a second run on Winnie the Pooh ride and he and Adam got to ride together   (Adam sat Splash Mountain out this time)

so much love...

We rode rides with our friends throughout the day then ate dinner.  After dinner we separated by height...the taller kids went with Bryan and Joel and the Shorter ones with Shel and I.  This is where we got to ride The Circus Train, Dumbo, Mr Toads Wild Ride, and the Carousel...the Tall kids Rode Space Mountain, Star Wars, The Matterhorn, and Kevin (the tallest as of now) got to ride Indian Jones.  They had a blast riding the big rides!!

Then we finished the perfect Disneyland day out with some Fireworks and a Monorail ride to Wetzel's Pretzels (outside the park). 

by this time Isaac had succumbed to his "ganky and baba"... :D 

What a Day!!!

A 6 Year Old is Roaming Our House

So this year we rented out the brand new pool house in our community for Kevin's 6th birthday party.  It was extra special because we were the very first party at the Pool House!! We broke it in so to speak and what better way than with a 6 year old birthday party :D

Doesn't our minivan look awesome in this pic??

how the venue looks when it is not overtaken with 6 year olds!!

 clockwise:  Kevin, Ryan, Dillon, and Adam

 at the back of the table by Bryan is Brandon and Vincent.

 We opened gifts!!

 the cute girl with the ribbon in her hair is Alexis!

 Now can you guess what we did for Kevin's party?  It may not be clear by the pictures :D

 we did not have a wrestling party...

 Although it looks that way and Alexis would have totally won even though she was the only girl...

But we had a "Cars II" Party and watched the movie on the giant screen with popcorn and treats and it was the loudest craziest movie EVER!!! but everyone had tons of fun and I am sure everyone involved slept very well that night.  Kevin had a blast running around with his friends and Isaac loved collecting all the little cars he had gotten as gifts and putting them in a bag and keeping them away from anyone who wanted them.  It was lots of fun renting the pool house which was enclosed and pretty soundproof.  Also I didn't have to clean my house for the event...yay!!

A Better Late than Never Return to blogging!!

Ok, Ok I know I have been a serious slacker on blogging. And the longer it has gone on the harder it is, because I have so much to catch up on it is practically daunting!! It gets a little crazy around here come fall with birthdays, Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas all within 2 months of eachother and add pregnancy and just the fact I have 3 kiddos to that (oh and that I am a procrastinator anyway) and you get this...a backlog of blog posts...

Halloween!!!

Superman, Iron Man, and Captain America!!

this year we got to celebrate Halloween 4 times!!  Once at Kevin's school, then at two different trunk or treats, one in Agua Dulce and one in Anaheim, then on Halloween night!! So it was a crazy weekend and as Mom I was a sort of glad to see the festivities pass!!

 at Kevin's school we played games in order to win prizes like Dracula teeth and stickers!!!

 We decorated pumpkins!!

 and Isaac had his first experience trick-or-treating.  by the end he was definitely a believer in this game and loved filling his basket with candy.  He has gotten an insatiable sweet tooth!!

 Our Second Party took us to Agua Dulce and hanging out with our best buddies the Cooke Family!

 We got our faces painted so we could zombie, Captain America....hhhhhhmmmmm....

 Best friends, Kien and Kevin!!

 a rowdy group of boys!!  Except Isaac he looks a little bewildered...(he is rowdy too, though)

 the cute Cooke Family. 

So there are more pictures from Halloween but I have not been able to get the hubby to send them to me from his phone so I have waited to do this post long enough and decided to post with what I had so that's it!!  If anyone has Halloween Pics they think should have made it, please send them along :D I'll add them in!!

We then went to the trunk-or-treat in Anaheim with Grandma and Grandpa which was tons of fun and the boys loved going through the haunted house that they had helped Daddy make!!

Then on Halloween Night we went to Papa and Mima's neighborhood and went trick-or-treating and got spoiled there too.  The boys had a blast at all the events and I had fun finding ways to donate candy wherever I could :D