Spring Break... Disney Style!!

We went to Disneyland and SoCal for Spring Break! We love this place!!! Our tradition is to always go on Pirates first.....YoHo YoHo a Pirates life for me!!!!
We got Josh a "just graduated" button.....that freaked me out a bit, but I made him wear it ha!ha!
Even though I've been a million times, I still get really, really excited to see the Big Mouse himself!!!!!!!!!!!!
We went to the new World of Color twice, we absolutely love it! It's the coolest water, light show, makes me want to sit and watch all the Disney movies from when I was little, and all the newer ones too. It really is so fun!
We went to Laguna Beach for one of the days and had a blast playing in the waves, sand and just relaxing.

We love this trip, we do it often, and every time there are memories made. This time some of the favorites were:

The kids quoting Megamind and saying "Unfathomable...without Fathom" over and over and over.

Gracie telling me the Princesses were absolutely ADORABLE and that it was "worth the loooong wait to see them"

Jaemon saying that Indiana Jones (or just Inny, as he calls it) "just makes his day"

The new Electronic "Tron" show and watching the kids dance to the cool DJ's in California Adventures

Jaemon watching his ice cube melt at dinner and saying when it finally melted "the whole world will come apart" (it was hilarious)

Waiting in lines and laughing

People watching and laughing

Playing fun games in the car and laughing

We love family vacations!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

April Fools Day!!!

For breakfast we had Spaghetti and meatballs, peas and carrots, corn on the cob and mashed potatoes. Oh, and delicious fruit punch.
Everyone read their chores for the day. They weren't hard, just cleaning the cows and chickens with windex, and bleaching the cow corral, eating 2 lbs of brussels sprouts and raw fish, organizing their closets according to moms favorite candy bar, cleaning each blade of grass (only the back yard) with a Q tip, ironing their socks, taking apart all the electronic devices and cleaning out their innards with lysol, cleaning out the sandbox with a spoon and writing "April Fools Day" 15,ooo times in their best handwriting.
Hmmmm, enjoying their "fruit punch" (it was actually jello)!
Loving those "corn on the cobs" for breakfast!!!!!!
The funniest face was Tyler, who read the chores and then said ,"Really? I have to do all that before school? But the bus comes in just a few minutes, can I do them later?" and Gracie who went to the drawer and got out her Cinderella spoon to head out to start cleaning out the sand box.

Happy April Fools Day............... FUNNY!!!!!

A pretty girl and a HOT date

Jen gets to go to her first dance on Friday.......no not with a hot date, she has 4 months and a few hours till her birthday (ask her, she'll tell you the exact moment she turns 16!) but she is helping decorate with her dance company, so she needed a dress. It was so fun to go shopping for her first formal dress and shoes, and necklace and earrings. I love my teenagers, this is such a fun time in their lives and I hope they know how much I love these great, exciting events in their lives!!!!!!

THIS IS MY HOT DATE!!!!!! With my two favorite Jon's. My own personal Jon and Mr Bon Jovi. Jonny gave me tickets to my FAVORITE band ever, for Christmas. I had such an amazing time......I know I may be a bit of a groupie, but I was like a little 14 year old girl when I saw Mr Bon Jovi himself come out on that stage, I almost cried. Really.

Sad. Well, not sad, it was SO AWESOME!!!!!!!!!

I love both these Jon's.

OK, not really, I love one of their music, and I love the other one heart and soul.

Thanks for the hot date babe, it was great!

Salem Hills Basketball-life lessons.

This has been quite the ride for the Salem Hills varsity boys basketball team this year. There have been many life lessons learned. They started out very hopeful, and with lots and lots of potential. They had a few major set backs, like finding out one of their teammates has cancer, and losing some very important games. They found out what it means to be a team, to rally around each other, to depend on each other, to win and lose, with dignity and sportsmanship. They supported and loved their cute manager, Zeke, who has autism, and helped him get his first and last winning basket. They sweat, and swore a lot! They wrote the number 5 on their arms, shoes, and wore "strong" shirts in recognition of Eric. They travelled together, ate together, spent every single day together and played their worst and best together. They got frustrated, they lost, they pulled it together and they won! These boys are like brothers, family, teammates on and off the court.

As a mom, I felt like part of my heart was out there on that court, in that locker room, on the bus, being yelled at, being praised, being frustrated and heartbroken, and being so happy. I am so proud of my biggest boy for learning so many life lessons this year. His character has grown, his compassion has increased, his passion and love of this game has dwindled, faded, burned brighter and gotten stronger and will always and forever partly define him. I'm sad that it's over, I'm so glad he had the opportunity to play all three years of high school, I am thrilled he got to play with such amazing kids and know these memories will shape his outlook on life for many years to come. Way to go #23!!!! We love you!!!!!!

Aloha!!!

If I just went to this beautiful state for nothing other than the sunsets, that would be enough! Hawaii has the most beautiful, amazing sunsets in the world! I love them!!!
We went with the Trapnell's, some good friends. We had a blast!!! (Cousins !!!)At the Polynesian Cultural Center, I became a MASTER at the Ukelele (ha!ha!NOT!)
Waikiki Beach was the sight of Jon's first surfing experience, he did pretty dang good!!!In Maui, we went to the top of Mount Haleakala, which is a dormant volcano that if measured from the bottom of the ocean to the tip of it's highest peak, is higher than Mount Everest. We were way above the clouds for this sunset, it was an absoloutely incredible sight. 50 degrees felt very very cold compared to the 85 we were getting used to down below!
Don't look at me, look behind me to the right, yes that's a whale fin. We went whale watching and had about 10 whales all around us. We saw them come right out of the water a few times, their fins, their huge faces, their tales. These massive whales weigh up to 90,000 lbs! We got so close we could smell their breath (which was disgusting!) and could reach out and touch their dorsel fins. It was a bit freaky, but OH SO COOL!!!!
We went on a helicopter ride around the huge sea cliffs of the island of Molokai. We also saw 1000's of feet high waterfalls and lush green valleys. It was incredibly beautiful and so fun!
Did I mention how much I lOVE Hawaiian sunsets?
Oh.....it was SO nice to be warm!!!!!!!!!
We went sea kayaking! Jon was so hoping we'd be overturned by whales or at least a massive tortoise. We did see lots of whales in the distance, but thankfully, none of them wanted to go swimming with us!!!!
We had a great time snorkeling and saw beautiful fish, turtles and coral.

It was such a great vacation! I love Hawaii, I love traveling with my hubby, and I love seeing the wonderful places our Earth has to offer us! It is definitely one of my passions. I love it!!!

Christmas!

I love Christmas.
Going carolling and visiting with Great Grandma Dyer. She is about the sweetest thing on earth and we love her dearly!
Grandma and Grandpa Chisholm always give gold dollars, which the kids look forward to with great anticipation! This year they were in cool glass ornaments, all the boys got balls and all the girls got purses, shoes or nutcrackers! So fun!
Brotherly love in front of the Christmas Story lamp........
Me and my sissies with the stockings from when we were kids! We love them!!!
The whole family gave my parents a "Count Your Blessings" quilt, a lot of love, time and energy was put into it, it was really neat!
Visiting with special people is always fun.....even if this "special" person was "DEFINITLY NOT THE REAL DEAL", Jaemon figured out real quick that it was Uncle Richard and thought it was HILARIOUS!
Don't ask......well ok. We go fishing for ornaments on Christmas Eve, the ornaments are wrapped in paper bags tied with festive ribbon. Somehow, someone got the fantastic idea of tying the ribbons in Josh's hair, it's quite the masterpiece, really. And it has stuck, so every year, Josh has about 28 ribbons in that big massive curly head of his!!!!
On Christmas Eve we always make candy cane cookies to leave out for the fat man, everyone fights over the red dough, and no-one really knows how to make the balls into the canes, no matter how many times I've shown them. We usually end up with red and white swirled balls....not sure what old Kris Kringle thinks of em.....but we like them!
Special gifts for special people!!!!!
A little arts and crafts moment, amid the all out, drag out, craziness of the season.
We LOVE Christmas jammies and special books on Christmas Eve!
Our first EVER snow day! We spent OUTSIDE!!!!! We built 3 beautiful snowpeople!
A 13 year tradition, going on the Polar Express, except this year it was the "North Pole Express". Still lots of fun, but not quite the same!
My kids think the treat giving is out of control, I love it, I love making things and delivering things for friends and neighbors. The other thing they whine about is the Christmas cards we make and that I enlist all their help in. I think it's a great thing, they need to learn that making things is part of giving of ourself!
Sleeping under the Christmas tree with Christmas books on December 23 is a well loved tradition!
And this, this is my favorite. (well, this and watching SCROOGE, the original black and white version at 11:30 on Christmas Eve night, I LOVE IT! I love these funny, cute costumes. I love singing carols around the piano. I love reading the Christmas Story and just being together as a family. Cozy and Warm, just having fun and re-enacting the true reason we celebrate this season. I am feeling melencholy that my babies are growing up, but they will always have these memories, and so will I. Yes traditions take time to carry out, but the memories are worth every single second.

This is what it's all about, Family. Time. Memories. Traditions. Most importantly, a Christ Child that made it all possible.

I love Christmas.