Fun visits & Merry Christmas!!!

We have been very spoiled in the past few weeks with visitors! My little sister Natalie ( just 5 1/2 years younger) flew out at the beginning of the month with her sweet little Ellie (who is 1 yrs old). We had so much fun! It doesn't matter what we do...we just always have a blast. I love her so much! I didn't want them to go. It made me want even more to be closer. Thank you Natalie for coming!!!

Oh I miss her!

Allie & Ellie in their matching pink sweaters. So cute!

Loves pictures!

Jake got his first award at school for academics. He is SUCH a good reader!

Last Monday we got to go to Disneyland! Grandma & Grandpa came to visit & gave us a trip to Disneyland for Christmas. We are spoiled! This was Allison's first time seeing Tinkerbell & all the Princesses...she was in shock and very happy!

Loren & Lindsey up, up & away!

Sleeping Beauty's castle was open this year. Disneyland looks amazing with all the Christmas decorations. We've gone to Disneyland at Christmas time before & it was hard--1 1/2 hours to wait for It's a Small World for example. That is basically all we could wait for with really little kids so we watched the parade and left. This trip was just the opposite because of the drizzling weather in the morning. We were prepared with ponchos and didn't let the weather change our plans. We got on all the rides we wanted & had such a wonderful time!

Allie & I.

Grandma & Grandpa with Loren, Lindsey & Jake. We are so blessed to have such giving & fun grandparents!

Allie's favorite of course, Small World, & all lit up for the holidays!

All of us...a little cold but happy! Thank you again Grandma & Grandpa! We miss you!

Merry Christmas to all of you!!! We love you all & are so grateful to have you in our lives. It has been so fun to be in better touch through blogging. Even though I don't blog as frequently as I'd like, I love being able to share our family doings & reading about all of yours. This is one of the first Christmas holidays that we aren't going to drive to family...and it's hard...but it will be nice too ;) I love spending holidays with ALL the family we have! We just couldn't do it this year. We felt very blessed to have my parents & sister come out & we will have BJ's Mom & sister with our best friend cousins come out after Christmas. Thank you to all our family & friends for all the support & love you continue to show us! Have a wonderful holiday. Love you!

State!

This past weekend we had our first little road trip in our new 2005 minivan--complete with DVD player. Nice. Allison was thrilled to be in the car on our way to Bakersfield for the State gymnastics meet for Lindsey! Lindsey did so well. She competed against other 7 year olds. She got a personal best on 3 of her events. On vault, she got a 9.1 which earned her a 7th place medal and got her in the coveted "9 club" at her gym. The first place on vault was a 9.3. It is amazing how close it always is! On bars she got a 8.8, her best ever. This time the bar was set to the right height and she wasn't wearing those large grips. :) On beam she tied her sectionals score with an 8.3 and on floor she got an 8.35, a personal best even with a little fall on her landing. Her all around score was 34.55. She did amazing & we are very proud her. She has worked very hard & it has been so fun to see her grow & improve at each meet. Thanks Grandpa H. for making the 4 hour trip to come watch! I've uploaded videos of her events. Enjoy!

Lindsey on floor.

Awards...she is 3rd from the right. Pretty awesome!

Lindsey with her coach Ola and her teammates Carolina & Bella.

Let's catch up...and WE'RE GOING TO STATE!!

Time to catch up & finally post about some things we've been up to! We've already had our ward Halloween party. Our kids scored at the Trunk or Treat. Hopefully Halloween night can be a little easier & SHORTER this year! Loren is a "Pirate Cutie" this year & loves to pose for us.
Jake couldn't decide, but then an hour before the party announced he was going to be a cowboy!

Allison is a "fairy princess". Wonderful to bring out those bags of dress ups & be set for the next few years! She's catching on REAL fast what Halloween is all about: chocolate!

Lindsey is a Jeannie. We finally had the perfect opportunity to use a birthday present from last year...her curly, braided hair extension. She was in heaven!

Had to throw this one in. This is one of Allison's favorite faces. She say's, "Look at my scary face! Ahhhhhhh!" Cracks us up! At the party she twirled & danced for everyone at the cosume parade. She's not afraid to perform. So cute.

All dressed up & HAPPY.

Few weeks ago Allie was on the kitchen table & rolled over thinking there was more of it and crashed to the floor on her face. This is a picture taken 3 days later. It was black & blue & swollen before. We weren't sure if she would lose a front baby tooth, which was bleeding & the gums all swollen & bruised. So far so good. All healed & still trying to get up on everything!

Nice cheeser Jake!

Thank you Chuck E Cheese!

We did have a fall break since I blogged last. We stayed local this year, no big trips. It was nice. A great highlight was taking the kids to the beach, just Mom's & kids. It's always a hit.

Big news...Lindsey qualified at an earlier "Prelim" meet for "Sectionals" in gymnastics. I never put on pics from prelim but this past weekend at Sectionals she qualified for State!!!! Yay! She has been working so hard. I attached video of her four events below. It was pretty nail biting exciting! Emotions were high for all the gymnasts. The pressure was on. We were more stressed & nervous than she was probably but it was a lot for her too. She got a personal best score on 3 of the 4 events. You need a 33.0 or higher to qualify for State. She got an 8.15 on floor, then an 8.7 on vault, then a 7.85 on bars (later that night Lindsey told us for the 1st time, getting teary, that she hadn't been using grips on the bar in practice but thought she had to at the meet...but they were too big! She had a hard time holding on to the bar! Wrong time to be using something you're not used too. We'll know better for State). Last event was the beam. Adding up her scores we knew she had to get an 8.3 or higher on the beam to qualify. She got an 8.3. We were screaming! She ended up getting a 6th place medal for her beam score. She was competing against other 6-7 yr olds. She is one determined & focused 7 yr old. State will be in Bakersfield the weekend before Thanksgiving. The next day, Sunday, was our primary program which for the first time I had the opportunity to write :) It was a BIG project. The kids did amazing. I probably teared up 3 or 4 times! Loren & I accompanied "I Love to See the Temple" with a duet. She was a brave girl! Pretty exciting weekend! Phew! :) Take care!

Lindsey and her buddy Carolina from team.

Fun weekend

Here is Lindsey on the beam. Lindsey's gymnastics season has begun & last weekend was her first ever meet. She did great. Tough competition. She was a little sad that she didn't get a medal. It's a hard lesson to learn that you aren't getting a medal even though you did a good job---especially at 7 yrs old. Her best score was on vault. She got an 8.8 and the sixth place, which got a medal got 8.875. Pretty close! We'll see how this weekend goes. For the next few months, almost all the weekends will be spent in meets.
BJ's Mom came down for the weekend & after the meet we found a beautiful beach in Oxnard. Why is the beach SO relaxing & always just fun!? We love the beach.
BJ & Allison--testing the waters.
My little sidekick! I'm never in the pictures much (I'm always behind the camera). Thanks to my mother in law for having the camera!
Our own little "slimming pool" in Allie's words.
Beach= Happy kids

We have been so busy with all the school work, house work, activities, etc. Something about the beach breeze & waves that rejuvenates---ahhhh!

End of summer play & school begins!

We've had a jam packed end of July-August! We had the cousins to our house as soon as we were back from Utah. So we introduced them to the Kidspace Discovery Museum! Here is Lindsey & Ally climbing up the "ant hole".
Spider web climbing

Jake LOVES this place!

All the gang climbing the "roots" . This place is in Pasadena. It is a hit. My kids love love love it

This beach made our top of the list for S. California beaches. To be able to park right up to beach, swing & slide & climb & then walk a little further to the water. Perfect! Santa Monica, off of Wilshire & California St. I believe. A must!
Having a blast jumping the waves!

Silly poses

Allison's favorite thing in the world! Swinging! Besides tuna of course.

Such a fun beach! We'll be back soon!

Our last get away before school started was to the Santa Barbara Zoo with our good friends, Pam, Eden & Reece. It was beautfiul there & so fun.

As you can see, Lindsey & Eden are such good buddies. They had a ball walking in hand around the zoo together.

To say Allie loved the zoo would be such an understatement! She LOVED naming off all the animals she saw for days after!

Giraffe zone
First day of school, August 13th. The shortest summer ever! Loren is in 4th, Lindsey, 2nd & Jake in kindergarten. Growing up so fast!

Big kindergartner! Jake was counting down the days/months to school starting since April.! He has been SO ready to go to school. Only probem: he has to wait until 11am to go everyday. Dying! He started playing the piano like his big sisters & that has really helped him to have something else to do while he's waiting. Some Mom's are just sad when their little ones go to kindergarten but I'm the opposite. I'm so excited for them! Mine have all been so ready & so excited to go to school.

A few days after school started we took a day off to drive up to San Francisco for a wedding! BJ's sister Paige & Andrew were married Augst 16th.

Loren, Lindsey & cousin Ally were flower girls & very proud.

It was freezing!

It was a party weekend! The wedding was beautiful & the kids danced till they dropped. The band LOVED Allison's moves!

We're all in the routine of school, drop offs & pickups, homework, activities, errands....a very familiar list to many of you! Hope you are all wonderful. We love you all!