Chug! Chug! Chug!...

We have some new additions to our family...

Meet Moh and Rocky.

Moh and Rocky are Chugs- part chihuahua and part pug (though their parents are both Chugs as well). We adopted them from a couple in our ward. They are about 10 weeks old, and are brothers. They were born Thanksgiving weekend. Anna and I gave them to the kids for Valentine's Day.

The puppies are a bit overwhelmed by the attention from the kids so far, but I'm sure they'll get used to it.

As far as the names, they are "geologic" in nature. Rocky is pretty obvious- Duncan thought of that one. And since my other names were getting rejected, I came up with "Moh", as in Moh's Hardness Scale. The names I was campaigning for were "Bert and Ernie" or "Billy and Bob". That way, when we are calling to them, it would be pretty easy... "Billy Bob!, get over here!".

If you like that new puppy smell, you're welcome to come and meet them.

Friday Flashback 10.29.10

Well, I just don't have (or make) the time to blog like I used to. Maybe someday I'll get back into putting something up every day, or every other day, we'll see.

But today, I have some time...

Look at this old Halloween picture...
Only four years ago... crazy!

This year, we couldn't be less prepared for Halloween. We are mostly recycling costumes this year, except Duncan. He's the only one that wanted to be something we didn't have. He'll be a Bakugan character named "Dan". We'll hopefully carve pumpkins tonight. Our ward "Fall Festival" is tomorrow night, and we'll be spending the day in Pasadena on Sunday. Should all be fun.

Spring Break Trip- 1st half

Anna's spring break was last week, and we did our best to fill it with fun stuff! She did have to teach Monday evening... at Cal State San Bernardino! Yep, she's got a college teaching job right now. She's teaching an Earthquakes and Public Policies class. It's just this semester. She's hoping they'll want to use her regularly.

On Tuesday, Anna went out to lunch with an old friend from H.S. and Sara at Ernie's in Eagle Rock. She had a great time.

Wednesday morning, after breakfast, we loaded up the van and headed out to spend the next five days in Arizona! First stop- Bullhead City, AZ (and Laughlin, NV) for a couple days.

We stayed at the Colorado Belle in Laughlin. We went to visit Kristi and Jason, and help out with the building of their house. Kim, Luis, and Isaac drove out to Bullhead the same day to do the same.

We were there earlier in the day, and went by the house to see if there was anything to help with. As I helped, Anna entertained the kids (that was the plan). She gave them wheel barrel rides, took them on walks, picked up rocks, etc.

They taped down a hopscotch game. It was fun, but it didn't last long enough. After this, I think they went and watched a movie in the van. Here's Jennan getting some pretty good air in her hops.

That evening for dinner, we met up with Kim, Luis, and Isaac, with Jason and Kristi at the Buffalo Wild Wings. Our five days in AZ were somewhat planned around places to eat. BWW was on the list. I REALLY like the food there.

The next morning, Thursday, we got up early to go to breakfast. There's a place called "The Black Bear Diner" in Bullhead. I remember the food being pretty good, and the portions being rather generous. It had been a few years since then, and I wanted the whole family to try it. We all met there- party of 11! Here are the kids posing with some of the bears out front.

That breakfast was REALLY good. Anna ordered a breakfast called "the Bigfoot". A large Chicken fried steak, a mound of hash browns, 2 eggs, and 2 huge biscuits. She finished everything but one and a half biscuits. She can EAT breakfast!

After breakfast, Luis and I went with Kristi and Jason to work on their house, while Kim and Anna took the kids to play in a local park.

Bullhead City sits right next to the Colorado River, so there are lots of spot to "play" in the water. There's just something about rocks and water that keeps kids happy.

The park they went to is covered, so that makes it a really nice area to spend some time. This park is right next to the river in the same area as the picture above.

Tegan, with Isaac in the background.

Later that evening (5:30pm-ish) the moms and kids came by the house. It was a good stopping time. My energy tanks were running low. With that huge breakfast, we didn't even stop for lunch.

Kristi keeping an eye on the nieces as they play on the pile of dirt and rocks next to the house.

This picture looks hilarious! It looks like Duncan is hosing down Jason! Great shot by Anna.

Jason let Luis and I take a turn with the back hoe. Here I am with Duncan on my lap, as we "play" in the dirt.

That night after we all got cleaned up, we went to dinner at a restaurant called "The Mohave 'King of Steaks' Steakhouse". ( I think that's what it was called?) Here we are, leaving our hotel. Across the street is the Tropicana(?) lit with Green lights. Liam really liked it.

Friday morning was our last time in Bullhead. We all had cereal (Anna and I shared the left over biscuits from the day before), and loaded up the van. Here are the kids in our hotel room. Good sized rooms there at the Colorado Belle.

We had a great time in Bullhead. It was a lot of fun also having Kim, Luis, and Isaac there. Hopefully Luis and I helped to shorten the time the house takes to build. I hope to be able to go out there again and help out some more.

From Bullhead, we are now headed off to Queen Creek, AZ to visit Kevin and Dawn and family. Look for the pictures from that visit in a different post.

Good times!

Easter 2010

We had a fun Easter.

Anna got the baskets out the night before, and prepped all the eggs with bunny shaped marshmallows. The kids also each got an Easter bunny pezz dispenser (except Tegan, she got Cinderella).

After breakfast and getting dressed, the kids went out to hunt for eggs. I hid them while they were dressing. Most of the eggs were pretty easy to find. The ones that were at eye level were the last to be found because their eyes were always looking down. We played "Hot and Cold" to help them find the last few eggs.

Our video camera hasn't worked in a while, so Anna used the video setting on her camera a lot, and I used a cheep generic "flip" type video recorder I got at Big Lots for like $30. The really grainy pictures are from the "Jazz" camera.

Here's a couple of the eggs found via "hot and cold".


Almost more than he can carry!

Looking everywhere...

A shot of Anna recording the action.

Now she's just taking pictures instead of video...

After all the eggs had been found!

Egg counting.

Then we headed off to McAlister's for more Easter fun. Here's what it looked like for the egg hunt there. The youngest kids come out first till they're all out. And everything is found. There's even eggs for the adults. (Cadburry eggs and a golden egg with a Tommy's gift cert. inside.)

After being at the McAlister's for a bunch of the day, we headed on down to the Foutz compound and hung out there as well. No egg hunting, just visiting. Had some great food all day!

Thanks to everyone for making it such a fun day!

April Fools Dinner 2010

Found some really good ideas for this years April Fools dinner.

Here's what we had...

For "dessert"! Pink frosted cupcakes!! (meatloaf with mashed potato "frosting")



Then, for "dinner"...


Chicken nuggets (wafer cookies coated in peanut butter and crushed cornflakes). I put them on the cookie sheet to add to the deception.

Grilled cheese sandwiches. (toasted pound cake with dyed frosting)

Corn and carrots! (Shaped starburst candies)

We're ready to EAT!!

Since is was April Fools, we had "dessert" first...


Tegan was all excited to have a cupcake... until it wasn't what she thought it was. It took a minute for her to figure out it was mashed potatoes, which she likes.

Jennan wasn't so sure about them either... but she came around, and ate hers.

Duncan was not happy that he didn't know it was mashed potatoes before he took a big ol' bite. He's not a fan of mashed potatoes. We let him scrape them off. He ate the meatloaf part just fine.

Liam was a happy camper! He loves mashed potatoes! He ate 3 of these.

Then we started eating "dinner"...

Liam was quite happy with his "grilled cheese". He didn't like the look of the "nuggets" so he didn't eat any.

Duncan liked the "chicken nuggets" the best.

Tegan was really happy about the "grilled cheese" too.

Jennan had a little bit of everything. Anna and I had to keep reminding our selves that this wasn't actually dinner. We kept trying to get the kids to eat. Then we'd remember... this is the dessert, they don't need to eat it.

They also had a special "drink" with "dinner"... jello!

The kids had a blast. We really enjoyed watching them have such a fun time at dinner. Hope you had a fun April 1st.

it was snow fun

This is a bit late to the blog, but better late than never. Plus it was pretty darn fun.

On Dec. 28, we drove up to the McAlister's cabin in Wrightwood with Kevin and Dawn and kids. On the way up, there was hardly any snow, even when we got near Mt. High. They make their own snow, and that was just about the only snow we saw until we made the turn that leads up to the cabin. Then there was some snow still on the ground. Luckily, where the cabin sits, there was plenty of slightly compacted snow. We were even able to drive in from the street, instead of leave the vans on the street. It was pretty cold that day. It seemed pretty close to 32-34 for most of the time we were there.

We got in, got the kids ready to play outside, started a fire in the cabin's fireplace, turned on the water (which had some issues that day, but we made due), and started having fun. Anna got the snow "toys" out, and...

We all began sliding down the hill.


Daddy and Tegan on the toboggan.

Jennan just got done with a slide.

Kevin, Ethan, and Aidan tuned around by the time they stopped.

Duncan sliding in a disc.

This is the view from the "top" of the hill, where we start sliding down. It's not very steep, so it's not a hard little walk.

Tegan in her favorite spot on the toboggan, and getting a free ride up the hill too. By the end of the day, she was walking up the hill with no problem.

Ethan getting a tow up the hill too, via mommy power.

Daddy and Jennan on a snow "boogie" board. I think we ended up in a bush during this ride.

Kevin and Dawn and kids.

Us. I think the two family shots were taken right before we headed in for lunch. So we did some more sliding afterward.

From the "top" you would normally stop sliding at about the driveway, because it's a long flat spot. But just on the other side of the driveway it slopes down. Every once in a while, you'd have enough momentum to get across the driveway, and go right down the other side to the next cabin's driveway. There also just so happened to be a small "ramp" down the second slope. The kids started just sliding from the driveway and over the ramp. There's Aidan just as he's going over the ramp.

Anna and the girls heading over the second slope. I don't remember if they started from the driveway or the top. That toboggan got the best distance of anything else we were riding, so it was really easy to go down both declines.

Hunter in mid-flight!

Hunter on his belly.

Here's Liam on the "snow go", which is what it says on it. Liam was a master at riding this thing. In the past, no one's been able to control it, but Liam figured it out. He could make turns, and avoid trees and bushes. He would go down pretty darn fast, but always kept his cool. He easily could go down both declines and even went past the cabin below us a few times. He had some long runs. Some of the other boys tried too, but none of them could do it like Liam could. Anna thinks he'll be good at snowboarding. Once, (by accident) he caught the ramp on the way down. He wasn't ready for that, and it "bucked" him off, and he landed pretty hard on the seat. I told him I thought it was awesome.

Near the end of the day, as we're all winding up our rides and just about to head inside to warm up and get ready to go, Liam remembers he hadn't made a snow angel yet...

And there's Tegan doing her one too.

It was a very fun day. The kids had a blast.