Josh's 9th Birthday

Another birthday in our house! With 7 people in the family, it feels like we have birthdays quite often. We always try to make it a special day. I can't believe Josh is 9..where have these last 9 years gone?
For his birthday, Josh wanted to go to a glow-in-the-dark miniature golf course with some of his friends. Louie picked up him and his friends that were in his Thursday classes, in the RV, and brought them to the place. They were so excited!

This is a horrible picture but gives an idea of the "glow". They were all told to wear white for the black lights.
After golf, we picked up dinner and brought the kids to the park to eat and play. Then, back to our house for nerf gun wars....what a dream!

Lastly, cake and presents! Josh said it was one of his most favorite parties! I'm so glad! I think it was because some of his favorite people were there with him to do some of his favorite things!

Spring at our house

We LOVE spring at our house. We all love to garden and plant new things. However, we get most excited over all the new buds on our fruit trees (and then disappointed when wind blows at least half of them off!) Here are some of our trees this spring!...they make me smile!

Above: our Apricot tree!

Above: Our nectarine tree!

Above: Our Plum Tree!

Above: Our newer Peach Tree!

Above: Our Kumquats...which I think are so cute and quite a conversation starter on our front doorstep!

Easter-better late than never!

Just for documentation sake: Here are our Easter pictures from this year! It cracks me up because Julia was so excite to wear the hat and purse that she picked out with Grandma when getting a dress! She was so proud! Though, not what I would pick out, I think it is sweet that she isn't worried about looking "cool" yet and still loves being a little girl! I love that sweet girl!

There's a few extra of Jonah since it is his 1st Easter and he looked so cute!

Spring Break- Santa Barbara Zoo

We LOVE the SB Zoo. So many times, during our marriage, (before and after kids) we have made lots of special memories in Santa Barbara. We almost got married there. We have gone to that zoo with all of my kids, no matter what age, and they love it. This is the 2nd time Jonah has been there. The 1st time, however, he was only weeks old. This was the 1st time he went when he "knew what was going on." He gets so excited over animals and creatures so we knew he would have fun. He loved every animal he saw...even the rattle snake (which creeped me out a lot). There is something unsettling about seeing your baby try to grab a rattle snake with a big smile on his face. Anyway, we bought a family pass for the year and I hope we get to spend many more days up there, as a family, this year. It was a very good day!

The pier--another place we love!

Spring Break Field Trip-The Science Center

So, our homeschool co-op group has slowed down quite a bit this year. I ad a new baby and Stefanie was on bedrest for the 1st semester. Then, she had her baby 2nd semester and the kids started attending 2 days of classes, rather than 1. All of that to say....meeting every Friday was a bit too much this year. (How did I manage to do it last year-pregnant for the whole school year and working for 2 schools?-so crazy). Anyway, we started out with the intention of meeting every other Friday and this semester, it has become about once a month. We love the book we are using...it allows for almost no prep-work. We look forward to it so much! Weeks are just so full and we would have no days to homeschool if we did it every week! The 1st year of co-op, we took like 4-5 field trips. The kids remember those most. This year, we just took our 1st (and maybe last) one. It makes me sad because the kids love them so much! Anyway...we studied the human body this year. The CA Science Center has some really cool stuff in this regard, so that is where we went. We chose to go during our spring break from classes, rather than cram it into a week with 2 days of classes. It was lots of fun. I really hope we will plan more next year! :)

Funny how our group continues to "grow" yet no one new has joined! :)

Even cute Jonah got to participate and daddy came this time, which was a treat! :)

There was this cool "ecosystem" exhibit. It bag with a "film" and our group pretty much took up the whole room!

The Happiest Place on Earth!!!!

We had such a great day! All 5 kids and I went to Disneyland with my parents. It has been a while since we have been because we didn't get Disney passes last year. This was Jonah's 1st time to Disneyland and he had such a fun day. I was worried about him getting frustrated about not being able to crawl. I was also worried he would be crazy without being able to take a normal nap. Well, he didn't sleep much, but he did so well. He stayed busy all day with all that their was to look at. He would jumps up and down and make funny noises every time a character would walk by. It was so nice to spend the day with my parents. The kids had a blast watching Jonah experience Disneyland for the 1st time. They all wanted to be the ones to sit by hi on rides! Can't wait to go again!

Jonah-waiting with grandma while the kids went on Tower of Terror!

Jonah's 1st ride ever!!!! Monsters Inc. at CA Adventure

1st time meeting a character....he LOVED him!!!!

Big Brother holding Jonah in line for the Pooh ride!

Baby FINALLY got a much-needed nap!

Good-Old Carpinteria

At the beginning of March, we went back to Carpinteria. We do love it there. WE went into the section without hook-ups again. It's such a hard decision. We LOVE hookups, but then we feel like we are in a parking lot. In the loop we camp in, we have tons of grass and space for the kids to spread out. We had gorgeous weather and a great time. We left to come home on my birthday. It was a drag to be packing and unpacking on my birthday but great to wake up at the beach! The night before my birthday, my husband and the kids surprised me with a birthday cake out by the fire. They thought they were so funny by giving me "trick candles"! Lots of air was wasted trying to blow those candles out. Then, we were surrounded by raccoons....who seemed to be stalking us for the left over cake! :)....Oh...Jonah also learned to pull himself up and stand confidently in the RV on this trip!!! Life will never be the same! :)




First time on the beach.....trying to shove sand in his mouth. Daddy quickly put a stop to that.

VERY hurt feelings that daddy stopped him.....

Jonah didn't like the cold water on his feet...so Jeremy carried him....so sweet!

March Photo-shoot of the kids

I am continuing to play catch-up. Surprised? Thought not! Anyway, I wanted to take pictures of all the kids together, so I decided to try to set up a back drop and play around at home. I took tons of pictures. I'm sure you can imagine how hard it is to get everyone looking half-way decent when you have 5 kids in the picture and one of them is a baby! :) My husband wanted to video tape the entire ordeal because of the stress involved. He couldn't believe I was expecting them to smile after the pressure I was putting on each of them. Maybe I'll do better next time! And maybe it's better when someone other than their mom is the one taking the pictures! :) Anyway, these are some of my favs.



This one cracks me up! Jonah is protesting the fact that Jeremy is holding his arms down.



The kids are posing like uncle Rico on Napoleon Dynamite....where he is getting his photo taken for his ID badge! :)

8 Month big boy!

Jonah got to sit in a shopping cart for the 1st time without his car eat clipped on! Shopping became a new experience! He was suddenly happy to shop with me because he could sit up and look around. He has been so bugged lately being strapped into his car seat. I was laughing that he wanted to face backwards the whole time to watch where we were going! So cute!