Trip to California - Part 1

Like I mentioned in an earlier post, we had a lot going on before, during, and after Christmas.  It made the holidays just fly by and kept us more than busy!  One of the most exciting events (other than the holiday and Hailey's birthday) was our trip to California.  We had been planning this trip for over a year and had the details worked out for quite some time but didn't let the kids know about it until Christmas day - mostly because we knew the news about going to California would overshadow most of the excitement of Christmas.  Turns out it was a good decision because once the news was out, we had some pretty excited kids on our hands for the week or so we had until we we left.

One set of the kids' grandparents live near San Diego, so we were excited to make this a two-part trip, hence the name of this post.  The first exciting part was going out to see Nana and Papa in California.  We hadn't seen them since July and were so excited to be able to see them.

Unfortunately, it was a little bit crazy staying in a hotel and I admit I forgot my camera more often than not, so I don't have pictures of everything we did, but I do have some that I'll post to show how much fun the kids had. 

Since we were headed to Disneyland towards the end of the week, we decided to just stick around Temecula and do some lower key stuff for the first part of our trip.  Zach and Hailey were just excited to be around Nana and Papa and it didn't matter to them what we did.  Nana and Papa took them to Mulligans on one of the days we were there and the kids loved it.  It was just like Boondocks around here.  There were so many things to do ...

Like play video games,

Skeeball (Tate loves this as well), 

Air hockey,

and of course the go karts!  It was hilarious watching Zach and Hailey go around and around the little track.  There were no lines, so they rode it 3 times right in a row.  The funniest part was when Zach lapped Hailey and then she got all excited because she was about to pass him!  :)

Tate loved watching the kids ride the go karts, he would run up to the fence, squeal at them, then run back to me - over and over and over.

Just a picture with me in it to prove I actually was there!

When everyone else went in to get clubs and golf balls for miniature golf, Tate and I hung around outside near this little car.  He loved it and would pretend to drive.  I thought it would be fun to put in a quarter and let him actually have it move - turns out I was wrong, he wanted nothing to do with it when it was moving.  But as soon as it was done, back in he wanted to play some more.  Good thing it was only a quarter!  Silly boy!

Once they were ready, a grueling round of miniature golf began.  Here's Zach - he's really getting good at this.

And Hailey.  We're still working on making contact with the ball the first 3 or 4 swings, but she was still cute to watch!

Nana, Tate, and I just watched - we had already learned our lesson about Tate and mini-golf. Needless to say that if he were around and you hit your ball down the green, it wouldn't be long before it was picked up and either thrown or held on to. Not exactly the most enjoyable mini-golf experience, as you can imagine.

Needless to say, the kids had a great time at Mulligan's.

Another day we were there, Nana and Papa took the kids to a Children's Discovery Museum while I stayed at the hotel with Tate while he napped.  We learned it's hard going on vacation with a little one that still needs to have a nap in the afternoon!  Anyway, this was a day I forgot to send the camera with Jeremiah, so I don't have any pictures of the fun time they had, but from all accounts it was a wonderful time!  They learned so much and had a blast with some hands-on experimenting.

The day before we headed up to Disneyland, we heard about a duck pond and thought the kids would absolutely love it.  So Nana and Papa met us there and we spent some time feeding the ducks.

Zach absolutely loved chucking a whole handful of bread out and watching the ducks all fight for a piece.

Hailey was a bit more meticulous and would only throw out one or two pieces at a time.

Tate wasn't exactly sure what was going on, he has plenty of books with ducks in them, but had never seen any this close before.  He kept an eye on the ducks behind us on the grass as well as the ones in front of us in the water.

The kids had a blast feeding them and the whole loaf of bread was gone before we knew it!

I was amazed at how many ducks there were there! 



We had a blast on the first half of our vacation and loved spending time with Nana and Papa.  Thanks for having us and taking us to such fun things!

More details to come on the second half of our vacation.

Hailey turns 6!!!

Well, after much waiting, Hailey finally reached the big 6!  She was so excited, it was funny.  She knows her birthday is just a few days after Christmas, so once Christmas is done, she is constantly checking the calendar to see just how many days are left.

We started off the morning with the house decorated as a surprise and a special breakfast chosen by the birthday girl.  Yep, those are purple pancakes!  We seem to love food coloring on birthday meals!

She absolutely loved them and kept telling me how much better they tasted than the regular pancakes!

Zach didn't want to be left out, so we had to get a picture of him and his sister on her big day.

Tate could care less whether he was in a picture or not, he was just busy eating his "cancakes" as he calls them.

Later that day we had a bunch of people come down to celebrate with us.  Nana, Papa, Taylor, Aunt Shell, Ashton, Branson, Aunt Awa, and Libby.  It really made Hailey's day to have everyone come.

She got some wonderful presents and she loves them all!

The umwrapping was just so exciting, she was shaking the entire time!

This is the Lalaloopsy doll she so wanted!  She was a little disappointed she didn't get it for Christmas, so she was so relieved when she opened it for her birthday.

After dinner and presents, it was time to blow out some birthday candles.  She decided she wanted cupcakes again this year, so we did pink and purple frosting - she couldn't decide between the two, so we just did some of both.

I couldn't help but include this picture - SUCH A CUTE FACE!

And after the traditional singing of Happy Birthday, she blew out her birthday candles.

Happy Birthday Sis, you are growing up so fast and we love you so very much!  Hope this birthday was a wonderful one!

Christmas 2011

It was somewhat of a crazy Christmas for us this year.  Besides seeming extra busy, we had a lot of upcoming things after that had our minds a bit occupied.

I admit that I didn't take a ton of pictures this year.  I've started to realize that the more pictures I take, the more I miss the little things that happen trying to get that "perfect picture."  So I took it easy this year and just enjoyed watching the kids and snapping an occasional picture here and there after the excitement died down.  To be honest, it was great!  I loved not having the camera in front of my face the whole morning.  So excuse the random pictures, it's more of a small summary of a very fun day.

Probably one of Tate's favorite gifts was the Mickey Mouse he got from us.  He kept hugging and loving it and carried it around pretty much all day long.

Zach and Hailey were pretty excited about the Mario Kart Wii Game we gave them - they just couldn't wait to play it!  Notice the colored steering wheels we got them - they were so fun I just couldn't resist, Tate even got a green one to play with now and use later!

Another favorite gift for each of them was the pillow pet and blanket that Santa brought them.  They all had to test them out right away.  Here's Zach with his cars blanket and puppy pillow pet.

Hailey got a princess blanket and unicorn pillow pet.

And Tate got a Mickey Mouse blanket with a monkey pillow pet.

The big gifts from Santa this year were a little hard to use right away, so we waited until after church to get those out and set up.  Zach got a remote control crane, Hailey got a new scooter, and Tate got a sports climber slide.  I didn't get picture of the other two, but I did get the 3 of them to stop for a quick second to get a picture with Tate's present. 

Santa was worried that Tate might not like the new sports climber slide, but boy was he wrong!  Tate absolutely loved it and played on it the entire evening after we set it up.  It was the perfect height for him to climb up and slide down all by himself.  He started by sliding down backwards until he got the hang of it, then moved to sliding down frontwards - so cute!

He can even dunk the basketball!

There were so many fun pictures that I caught of Tate on his slide.

While I was taking pictures, Zach and Hailey decided it was time to pull out their cameras to take pictures of Tate as well.  They got the cameras from Jeremiah and I and they loved them!  In fact, I think they had both taken close to 200 pictures by the end of the day.

After we opened all the presents under the tree, we decided to give the kids their final present.  We had set up a scavenger hunt around the house and they ran from clue to clue with so much excitement.  When they finally found the last one, they found a wrapped present to open.  Inside was an envelope full of money and a note from us telling them that 6 days from then we were going on vacation to California to see Nana and Papa and going to Disneyland.  At first they were a little bit stunned and didn't know what to say.  They just kind of sat there.  I caught this on video and it was hilarious!

I turned off the video and had them both look at me and said again "we are going to Disneyland!"  Finally it sunk in and the celebrating began:



That's the reaction I was expecting.  They were so funny.  Even Tate started jumping up and down and squealing, although he had no idea why.  We had been planning this trip for quite a while and had somehow managed to keep it secret until Christmas day.  I had almost given in and told them at least a dozen times, but I'm so glad I didn't.  Telling them on Christmas was the best and well worth waiting for!

Yes, it was a fun Christmas.  Watching all the kids open presents, get excited, and love everything they got was definitely a day full of memories I will never forget!

Uncle Taylor's Home!

After a very long 2 years, our Uncle Taylor finally came home from his mission on December 8th!  We were very proud of him and the service he gave to the people in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.  It didn't take Zach and Hailey long to remember how much fun he was to climb on, jump on, and lay on.  It's taking Tate a little bit longer to warm up, but that's not too surprising since he was born while Taylor was gone and he's just now seeing him in person instead of in pictures.  But he's warming up to him faster and faster each time he sees him, so before long he'll be climbing and crawling all over him too.

The first thing Zach and Hailey asked after he got home was when he was going to come down and spend the night at our house.  A week or two later, down he came and poor Taylor pretty much got tackled when he walked in the door.  I swear the kids didn't let him go the whole time he was here.  One of my favorite things was when they all fell asleep on the couch for a few minutes.  I couldn't help taking it a picture, it was so cute.  They didn't all stay asleep for long (or maybe they really weren't all asleep to begin with), but it was fun none-the-less.

They certainly love their Uncle Taylor and really missed him while he was gone.  In fact, he's been down 3 or 4 times in the past month and a half to spend the night with us, I think the kids are making up for the lost time the past two years!

Hailey's Kindergarten Christmas Program

On Decmber 15th, Hailey's kindergarten class had their Christmas Program.  We were lucky enough to have Aunt Afton, Uncle Bubby, and Uncle Taylor all come down to see her program.  Her daddy also took the morning off of work so that he could be there.  We had quite the group to support her.  She was very nervous, but did a great job.

She knew we were all coming, but was so excited when she saw us finally walk through the door.

She was so funny, she was always looking around.

She was really good and sang all the songs and did all of the actions (when she wasn't waving at us, which she spent at least 50% of the time doing).

Her little class was so darling and I loved watching her along with the rest of them.

And of course we had to include some video of some of the songs.  Here's the first ...

And the second.  You can tell how excited they were to ring those jingle bells!

And this is her turn with the microphone to tell the audience what she asked Santa for for someone else.  The teacher explained that they were talking about the joys of giving, not just receiving.  So they each chose something to ask for for someone else.  She said she wished for a kitty for her cousin Branson - so cute!

I have been looking forward to this program for a while and was so excited to go and see her.  She was darling and so happy to have everyone there to see her. 

This is just the first of many programs we'll be able to see of hers and we can't wait until the next one comes along.  Way to go Hailey, you were darling and we are really proud of you!

Downs Family Christmas Party

A little over a week ago, we drove up to Logan for a family party with my Dad's side of the family.  We always have a great time and even though it's a far drive, it's definitely worth it! 

This year a few of my cousins put together a little rendition of the Christmas Story with all of the grandkids.  It was so much fun to watch!

Hailey was thrilled to be an angel, she was the angel that visited Mary to tell her that she would be Jesus' mother.



Zach was so excited to be Joseph.  He took his role very seriously - taking care of Mary and Baby Jesus is a big responsibility!  Isn't Kase cute as Baby Jesus?

This is the scene where the angels visit the shepherds and tell them to find the baby.

And here's a picture of all the actors.  Aren't they cute?  Tate was selected to be a sheep, but he had a hard time with everything going on, so he stayed in the audience with us, but he was a sheep in spirit!

We also took a big group picture for Landon and Jamie who are in Virginia and couldn't make it.  They are going through some tough trials and we wanted to send them our love!

And what would be a family get together without a silly picture?  The kids think this is great!



Yes, we had a very fun night.  Thanks to Shauna and family for a very fun evening!

No More Curly Hair (sniff sniff!)

Yes, the curly hair is gone.  And it's all my fault.  Before you have crazy ideas start racing through your head, I had better tell you that it was just Tate's first haircut, nothing sinister.  But even though it was needed, I was still so sad to cut off all those cute curly baby locks!

Here are a couple of before pictures:

Look how long and curly it was!  Yes, it was getting too long, so it was time!

At first, he didn't quite know what was going on, although he was a little resistant.  He did pause once or twice to say "cheese" for the camera though.

Once we got going a bit, the major problem was just him wiggling all over the place.  I can't tell you how many times I would get a section ready to cut only to have him wiggle at the last minute and not cut anything!

Towards the end, he got a little fussy and was ready to be done.  He kept begging for his Dad to pick him up and hold him to get away from the crazy lady with the scissors.

Although it was a little crazy and there were a few tears, the end product did look pretty good.

I wasn't originally going to cut it so short, but after seeing what a crazy process it was going to be, we decided to cut it short and then maybe let it grow out a bit.  Thus preventing another haircutting episode for a while!

It looks so much different!  In fact, it really made him look quite grown up.  All those curly locks really made him look like a little baby, now he looks like a little boy!

Yes, toward the end, it got a bit difficult, the little pouty lip was coming out quite often.

We definitely were ALL ready to be done!

Luckily after we got him bathed and calmed down a bit, he was fine.  And I have to admit that although I was mourning the loss of his curly locks, he did look really good!