4 Families and a Baptism!

 My family was able to come for a visit in November.  My sister Christie and her 2 boys (minus her hubby who is in school), Alex and her husband Chad; and my Dad, Step-Mom, and brothers David and Jonah were all here!  We had a full house with 4 families living under one roof, but it was fun!  We went to the beach, and it happened to be the most gorgeous day ever!  75 degrees outside, no wind, and not a cloud in the sky!  Some of us got to try our hand at surfing for the very first time, myself included(yes, I was awesome.)! 

 Christie and Jude.

 

 Maxwell and Henry.

 

 Everyone! 

David and Jonah are in the distance on boogie boards.

 

Chad even figured out how to skim-board!

The next day was a special day for our family.  Aiden was baptized.  It was an awesome day, we had so many friends and family there with us to celebrate Aiden's decision!  It was a day we won't soon forget.

Trevor, Aiden, and I.

 

Oakes Family.

 





Downs Family.

This is Halloween, Halloween, Halloween!

You don't even need to say it.  I know it is December and I am just now posting Halloween pictures.  Let's just agree that I am a stinky blogger.  We had a fun time this Halloween; decorating, carving pumpkins, and picking out costumes!

 Max's "scary face" pumpkin.  Carved by yours truly.

 

 Aiden's pumpkin, he drew it and carved it all by himself this year!

 

The Avengers.

We're missing Hawkeye and Iron man.  But I'm just not dedicated enough to Halloween to birth 2 more children.



Cub Scout!

Along with turning 8, Aiden started Cub Scouts!  He looks so handsome in his uniform!  Totally crazy that he is this old, it's blowing my mind...

It's Great to be 8!

Trevor and I are now the proud owners of a brand new 8 year old!  It is hard to believe that Aiden is 8, I'm not old enough to have an 8 year old son, right?!  He is growing up to be such a smart and handsome young man.  We are so proud of him and are so lucky to have him in our family!

Skimboard from Bumpa & Grandma Susan, Scooter from Mom & Dad, Smashball from Max.

Aiden asked for Key Lime Pie for his birthday dessert!

 

Aiden LOVES The Mythbusters.  He will watch episodes over and over and over...  So, naturally, he wanted a Mythbusters Birthday Party!

 

Trying to fold paper in half more than 7 times.

 

Making a "container" to keep an egg safe for a 2 story fall. 

Aiden was actually able to do it, his did not crack like the rest of them!

 

Mentos & Diet Coke.

This one was a big hit, a few boys even stood under the geyser on purpose!  Trevor did not let those boys back into the house again until he sprayed them off with the hose.  Don't know if people will be letting their kids come to our house for parties anymore...

 

All of the myths we tested were Confirmed!

 

Mythbusters Cake.

 

"Happy Birthday to Aiden!"



Back to School!

It's that glorious time of the year again!  School is in already, thanks to the crazy California school system thinking it's cool to start school again in the middle of August!  Actually, I love summer vacation and having the boys at home, so starting school is a bummer for me.  But, I pretend to be excited, you know, for the children's sake...

 Aiden: 3rd Grade, Mrs. Hroch & Mrs. Holmes

 

 

Maxwell: Speech, Ms. Juli & Ms. Heather

Projects

We have been constantly doing all sorts of projects for our new house!  I am so tired, I could sleep forever, just call me "Rip Van Winkle".

 Aiden and Max making art for their playroom!

 Chairs I bought off Craigslist!

 Table for the chairs.  I paid $150 for the whole set; table, 6 chairs, and fitted glass for the top.

 Painting the table and chairs was a family affair!  Aiden was so proud that he painted a whole chair!

 Trevor couldn't handle watching me paint by hand any longer and took off to Home Depot.  He came back with a paint spray gun.  Most amazing invention EVER.

 Handyman Trevor.  We are renting our new house from Trevor's parents right now, so he has been trying to fix some of the things in the house on his own for them because, you know, we like them better than our other landlords and such.  He fixed the toilet and garbage disposal!

 Table: post makeover.  Amazing, I know.

 The table turned out so awesome, I figured, "why stop there"?!  So I bought an armoire from Craigslist(my favorite website, second only to Pinterest) for $30.  A big shout out to my husband and brother-in-law, Matt for picking it up for me(and other brother-in-law, Paul for subsequently moving it into the house with Trevor when I was done beautifying it).  I was informed that it is in-fact "the world's most heavy piece of furniture".  I didn't believe them until Trevor and I tried to move it 5 feet and I ended up with a fat lip.

 The corner was gouged beyond recognition.  This is a picture of the wicked awesome patch job I did.  Feel free to bask in my glow.

The end product.  I know, it's purple!  I love it!!!

Life has been crazy, don't judge me!

I am aware that school has been out for a month.  As stated in the title of this post, "don't judge me"!  We moved out of our house, into my sister-in-law's house, and into our new house all in the past 3 months.  So, I imagine now you are nodding your head and feeling bad for me rather than judging me because I am just now putting up pictures from the last day of school.  You're welcome for saving you from unrighteous judgment.

 Miss Heather, Max, and Miss Allison.

Max learned so much from these wonderful ladies this year!  They were awesome and so patient with him.



Mrs. Starr and Aiden.

Aiden loved second grade!  He was sad to leave his teacher, he loved having Mrs. Starr this year!

Glasses!

Maxwell got glasses!  His left eye turns in from time to time because it is weaker than his right, so he has a hard time focusing.  Hopefully, the glasses will help the little guy!  Lucky for us, he has a cousin his age with glasses.  We took Mason with us to pick up his glasses in hopes that seeing that they were twins would make it fun.  We'll see how long the "fun" lasts...

Mason & Max on the way home from the eye doctor! 

Cuteness!

Joney Baloney & Easter!!

My youngest brother, Jonah was able to fly out for his spring break and stay with us! Aiden was so excited. We even made a paper chain to count down the days until Jonah came, because he kept asking me every single day(sometimes twice a day) "how many more days until Jonah comes?". We were able to do all kinds of fun stuff when he was here! Like going to the beach:

Eatin' pringles at the beach, life can't get much better.
Aiden wanted to try to surf...

He was very excited until about 5 seconds after this picture was taken. Then he freaked out and Trevor brought him back in.

Trevor and Jonah, going body surfing. I would like to point out to all of my readers, that Jonah hated putting on that wetsuit. He complained, got mad, and then sat with it halfway up his calves for 20 minutes (as I told him he would be sorry if he didn't get it on because the water is freaking cold) before finally getting it on the rest of the way. He was later quoted as saying, "That wetsuit was so warm! I wish I wouldn't have had to go to the bathroom so I could still have it on!" Yeah, told you so.

Running in the waves. Trevor and Jonah are in the background.

Jonah and I, with buried Max.

Trevor's cousin gave us 5 2-day tickets to Disneyland!

Max, Jonah, and Aiden in Toontown!

Joney Baloney at the pool(this was Aiden's favorite thing to call Jonah, he did not love it)!

Yeah, Water!

Jonah, in Max's Lightning McQueen goggles.

Jonah, showing Aiden that he is the "world's best backwards driver"...NOT!

Easter! Looking for Easter baskets after church!

Hurray! They found them!!

Me, looking for where we hid the eggs...it's amazing how you can forget where you hid all the eggs 10 minutes before.

Hunting for eggs in the backyard!

Max found some melty chocolate in his eggs.

California Adventure! Phineas and Ferb dance party!

Trevor had to drag Aiden and Max out. Jonah chose to watch from the sidelines so he could observe the "cute fireside girls" better.

Max, playing in the water!

Jonah, forcing Aiden to play in the water!

Aiden and Jonah doing the Tango.

Trevor, Jonah, and Aiden rode Grizzly Rapids 3 times in a row, at 6pm... Not so smart. It got chilly later.

Trevor and Max riding the Jellyfish!

We are so glad Jonah was able to come for a visit! The boys had so much fun!