cutie pies

Man I love this boy:



This one too:



And this one:



But this one the most:




Lucky girl I'd say

Baby Jackson is Here!!!

Jackson decided to wait for his due date to join the family. Personally, I would've too. It has to be way to comfy in there. I got to go and visit this afternoon with the kids. Sammy was most excited. He has asked Aunt Stephie when baby Jackson was going to "come out of time out" several times,(does that mean that I put Sam in time out too much) so he was excited to go and see him. Anyways, Jackson is absolutely beautiful. He is so soft and squishy and I just love that new baby smell. He weighed 7lbs. 10oz. and was 20in. long. He has quiet a bit of light brown hair. He looks a lot like Scott. He does look a little bit different to me than Madi and Carson, maybe he has a longer face than the other kids (I'm sure that next time I see him he will be completely different) I would have loved to see Carson's reaction to him because he is such a mommas boy and is incredibly protective of Steph. I am pretty positive that Madi will do great!! Congratulation guys- he's beautiful!!


I apologize for the picture quality- I really need to fix my good camera!!

Dress-up

Look out people- there's a new superhero in town. He may be short, but he's dangerous!!

Avila Beach

We took a trip to Avila Beach this weekend for an annual men's motorcycle riding weekend that John, his dad and uncles do every year. I just love Avila. It is my second favorite beach that we visit. We stayed in the Lighthouse Suites with John's parents and sister. The room was great and was right on the beach and across the street from the park. The hotel has a pool, ping pong tables, a life sized chess game and putting green. Lots of fun activities for the kiddos. We left on Friday afternoon and arrived early evening. We checked in and took a stroll down to the street fair that was taking place. After eating we went back to the room and attempted to put the kids to bed. Max had other ideas in mind- such as a pajama party. Yeah no fun for us, but apparently lots of fun for him. We ended up separating Max and Sam and Sam went to the other room to sleep with Aunt Katie. Bad idea. Who knew Sam was such a bed hog and that Kate would end up sleeping on the floor because Sam thought he was king of the bed and wouldn't scoot over. We all finally fell asleep around 11:30pm. The next day the men headed off for their ride and I took the boys down to the beach and then to the park with Karen. Sam loves to run from the waves and didn't even mind when the waves kept knocking him down. Max was not as fond of the water. Later that morning Karen's sister-in-law and two girls who live in Avila, met us at the park to play. John absolutely loves these girls and has such a close bond with his cousin Sofia. They are like two peas in a pod. We then headed over to the Avila barn for a very healthy lunch of ice-cream!!(Max and Sam did have PB&J) They barn is a great family place. They have hay rides, all kinds of farm animals and a cute little store. Next we went up to Julie's house. She lives up in the hills in Avila in a gated community. I love this house. It is directly on a hill and they have deer that come right up to their house. They also have a club house that has a great pool, so while Max napped Katie and I took John, Sam, Cascina and Sofia down to swim. Those kids swam for three hours. Karen calls John and Sam chocolate bunnies because they are so dark. After swimming it was dinner time so we went down the hill to their Deli. SOOOOO Yummy!!! At that point Sam was so tired because of the long day, so we took them back to the hotel to get ready for bed. They didn't protest that night. Little John was lucky enough to get to spend the night at his cousins house so John and I got to go for a motorcycle ride up to their house to give Little John his P.J.'s and clothes for the next day. Then we rode over to Fat Cat's diner to have a late night snack. Jeez that was a busy day. Sunday was much more relaxed. We spent it at the beach the whole day after getting Little John and the girls. We ate a late lunch, got an ice cream cone and played at the park some more. The ride home was incredibly long because of rode work. Thank God for the DVD player in Karen's van. We got home around 9:30 and all crashed.


funny story: while we were down at the beach I asked Sam if he wanted a PB&J sandwich. Max heard the word "sandwich" and came running. He loves food and can always eat. Later that morning he spotted some crackers on the person's blanket next to us and slowly crept over to try to snag some. He was just about to bend down, ever so sneaky, when I caught him and ran over to get him.


look at my beach bum son. He has an unbuttoned shirt on with no shoes in the resturant!


Our find of the day- a sand crab


Max almost asleep on Papa's shoulder. He was so good for how tired he was.


Mommy and some of her boys playing in the sand. Mikey aquired quiet the attitude while around his cousins. He was too cool for baby stuff, like digging in the sand.


Love this picture


This one too!!


Playing frisbee


building a sand castle


The kids loved the motorcycles. The girls wanted to ride them so bad!


These kids are stuck like glue- as you can see!








Sam with his seaweed "weapon" He finds some sort of weapon where ever he is




















They were so tired on the way home. Sam and John are in the zone watching Kung Fu Panda

Happy!!!

I got a new phone yesterday. It is shiny and blue and has no scratches on it. I am a happy girl!

mind reader

Apparently my middle boy is quite talented. He is a mind reader of hot dogs! Today at lunch he told me, in a very serious voice, "mom the hot dogs are speaking to me. They are telling me to dip them in my ketchup". True story!!

an evening at the lake

My mom and dad joined us at Pine Flat Lake last week and we had a great time. Mom was able to get off and hour early, so when she got to our house we loaded up and took the short drive. We cooled off by swimming when we got there and then blew up the "torpedo blaster" tube. We all took turns riding it- even Sammy!! He loves that thing. Little John was being a big sissy at first because he didn't want to go too fast, but after some coaxing by Mema, he was going as fast as the boat would pull him and he ended up loving the speed. We have used the boat quite a few times this year and it just gets easier each time. The first time we went out this season was a nightmare but this last time was great because Max is getting used to being on a boat. He was actually quite pleasant!!





Hey mom, have dad send me the pictures of everyone on the torpedo via e-mail because I didn't get any with my camera.

The car ride home wasn't much fun though. Sam cried the entire way back:



And, Little John almost puked in Mema & Papa D's car. Guess that's the price you pay for a fun day!!

Pool Party

So John brought a pool home last week and set it up for us. I was really weary of him setting it up this year because I was scared of the danger that it would bring. But, to my suprise it has been fine, if not really fun. The kids have been following my long list of rules. It couldn't have gotten here at a more perfect time because it has been blazing outside. Here are some pictures:

chubby butt

My most recent nickname for Max is "chubby butt". This is why:



Don't you want to just pinch it?? I do!!

technology sucks!

Why is it that I cannot keep a cell phone working for longer than 6 months?? My phone is broken yet again and I don't want to have to pay another 50 bucks to get a new one. Unfortunately I just need to suck it up and pay the money cause I hate being with out it! UGH!!!!!!!

4th of July weekend

We had a fabulous but busy weekend. On Friday, big John was able to score some free tickets to Wild Water Adventures for our whole family, but I decided I didn't want to chase after two little kids (especially with one who doesn't listen at all and throws many fits) so I stayed home and big John took little John for some one on one time. They rode a few rides, then watched the firework show. They had a great time and big John said he was glad the little ones didn't go- too much work and a really loud band.

On Saturday we went to my mom's early to enjoy some swimmimg, BBQ and a neighborhood firework show. The kids had a blast and the food was so yummy!!


what is up with this weird smile John does??








This picture was taken right before Sam punched my poor dad in the neck for no apparent reason. Guess he thought it was a good idea!





Everytime I see Carson he has some sort of vehicle in his hand. Today it was his train!





I have not posted a picture of Alyssa yet on my blog. This is my cousin Deren's baby. She is so beautiful and such a sweet baby.

Funny story- I have never seen l. John so excited in my life. When we were doing the fireworks, he was throwing these pop-it things into the fireworks that were going. As the firework would pop and sparkle he kept throwing the pop-its in and he thought that he was making the fireworks sparkle. It was so cute that everyone was laughing at him and we were all cheering him on. He has never been so excited in his life!!



here are some dark pictures of him in action

We didn't get home until 11:00 that night and boy were we tired!!

The next day we headed to Visalia for a family reunion/swim party at my Aunt Debi's house. I have cousins from all over the country and my aunt is nice enough to host a party every time they all come into town. It is so good to visit and catch up with everyone and to see how all their kids have grown.





When ever we go swimming Max always stays in the spa part of the pool if they have one. It's just his size.



This is a picture of my cousin Kristi's baby Parker. He is such a little squishy guy. He has some of the most beautiful blue eyes and long eyelashes that you would just die for. I love this guy!






My beautiful sis. A.K.A "Aunt Mo" My kids just adore her. They get so excited when they get to see her because she plays with them and always gives them extra special attention





It was such a fun weekend that Max slept in until 9:00 and John and Sam until 10:30 on Monday morning. Maybe we should do that every weekend! Just kidding