San Antone

Thanks to Trevor's hard work, we got to go on a weekend vacation to San Antonio on his company. I am sad that I didn't get any pictures of the cool resort we got to stay in. It was complete with a water park, trails for riding bikes, outdoor movies and a lazy river! Needless to say, it was awesome - and like nothing we've ever done before (or may ever do again!).

The Alamo

River Walk in Downtown San Antonio

San Antonio Temple

Lots of fun and late nights means little girls get tuckered out at dinner!

It was a great trip. We wish we could drive the short 4 hours every weekend and have that much fun!

Howdy Y'all!

Yes, we made it to Texas! Here are some picture highlights of the past 3 months:

The girls and I took a trip up to Plumas Lake right after Christmas to visit the PL Family.

The annual Gingerbread decorating contest. Always a fantastic time had by all (especially Hu).

And what Christmas break in PL would be complete without a 1,000 piece puzzle?!?! Many-a-mornings were spend working on this bugger (well, mornings, afternoons, evenings and nights!).

Family bowling day in January (Katie spent the weekend with Grandma and Grandpa)

A quick visit to the Newport Beach Temple. By this time (mid-February) we knew we were leaving California and moving to Texas...

Huhtala and her babies came for a visit!

Trip to Balboa

Ruby's on the Pier (oh, how I already miss it!!)

Thanks to Haylie and Katrina for the photo-op

During the packing days, there were desperate times. I love that Haylie fixed a Caesar salad for her and Audra in a pot!

One last trip from our Melines! This picture pretty much says it all.

Getting in our last Disneyland days. Front seat on Space Mountain!

Katie is quite the diva taking a trip to the American Girl Doll store in LA

Lunch with our girls

More Disneyland

These are out of order....

First day of school at Villareal Elementary. This shot is taken in our driveway. We live on an acre out here -- it's the country!

Audra riding her bike in the driveway. She thinks she is big, but she is really just a baby still.

Rasacas are everywhere here in southern Texas. They are these cool lakes that used to be part of the Rio Grande. The make everything look so pretty!

Audra enjoying some watermelon that we bought off a man in a truck on the side of the road.

Thanks to Nana and Papa for making the trek down here and helping us unpack! This day we took a visit to South Padre Island, about 30 minutes from our house.

The beach!

The bridge to the island

Typical landscape as I drive here in Brownsville

This rasaca is right in front of the kids' school. There is no gate or anything! Rasacas are seriously everywhere! We see lots of turtles and ducks in them. Still not sure if people swim in them.

Some random parade going down the street.

Well, that about sums it up. Hopefully I'll update again before another 3 months passes by!

December 2009

This month has flown by -- and thank goodness that it as since I have been rather Grinchy! Christmas in a new place makes Christmas feel a little odd! We have missed all our PL family, but have enjoyed our time with our family here.

December started with a visit from MerriLein! She had a school board meeting in San Diego and I drove down to be with her. We had a great time (except for the part when we paid $20 for one of those street massages --our bodies were badly beaten....)

This picture was taken right before the beating. We were still smiling.

Next, out little Haylie turned 8! Where does the time go? We only let our girls have birthday parties on their even birthdays, so Haylie had really been looking forward to her big party. Unfortunately, since we just moved here, we had no friends to invite! Thank goodness for family! The Kendigs, Grandma and Uncle Blake all joined us for a fabulous party at Chuck E. Cheese!

Happy Birthday Haylie Mae!

Trevor's family made a trip from Utah to join Haylie on her special baptism day.

Haylie and her cousin, Makyla

Beautiful girl

Haylie and Trevor


Happy day!

Tavin (Trevor's brother), Kimmie, Warren (Kisha's (Trevor's sister) husband)

Yes, we made this all by ourselves!!

Poor Trevor works about 100 hours/week (no joke) so he falls asleep every time he sits down. Here he is spending some quality time with his Dad.

Our attempt of the annual picture by the tree.

Little baby Audra

Cute Katie!

Well, it's been quite a year! We started in Plumas Lake, moved in January to Camarillo and moved in October to Corona. Lots of packing and unpacking! To be honest, I am not one bit sad to see this year go! Here's to a more settled 2010!

Fudge and Fires

Trevor has been working a ton of hours and Haylie has been sick for a couple of days. We were feeling a bit cooped up (Audra's picture below is a good illustration of this), so we called Grandpa and Blake to ask them to come out for a visit this afternoon.

First thing first -- Blake to the rescue! My birthday balloon got away and has spent the past week on our ceiling. Blake used all of his super uncle powers and got it down....and provided plenty of entertainment in the process!

Next, we decided to get out the little Christmas tree and let the kids decorate it. The girls loved looking thru all of their ornaments and putting them on the tree. Although we were sweating as we decorated the tree (it was 81 degrees here today), the air cooled off once the sun went down. We opened all the windows and lit a fire!

After a yummy dinner (thanks Grandpa!) we made Grandpa's famous fudge. It's quite the science and it was pure chaos with all the little girls helping, but it sure is delicious!

More Pics from Halloween

I have a confession....this is the first year we've ever carved pumpkins. We really only did it because my Mom, Dad and Blake were here and they thought the kids should get to carve them. There are certain things that I try to keep from my kids for as long as possible (because they require work for me) and this is one of them.

So, thanks to Grandma and Unlce Blake, the carving was a success....

Haylie decided that on the actual Halloween night (as opposed to "Truck-or-Treat")

she wanted to be a witch. My BBF Whitney will probably recognize

this dress from when we were in the 3rd grade!

Glad Halloween is over....now we can get on to the real holidays!