Random Pictures From California

Cami and Riley shared a bed at Grandma and Grandpa's house. One night when Chad and I were going to bed, Chad decided to check on the girls. He came out of their room smiling and laughing. He said "They're holding hands!" I went in to check and sure enough, they were both sound asleep still holding each other's hand. So sweet.

We found this wig and thought we'd put it on Paityn to see what she would look like with hair. Here it is. This is what she'd look like. I'm sure her hair will come in a lot lighter and not so thick or curly.

What's a trip to the ranch without a day or two of work? They ALWAYS have a project going on. This time, the deck around the house NEEDED to be replaced. So the job was to rip out the old deck. Chad, Trev and Cam helped. It was rainy and cold and muddy. Trevor LOVED it. He was a workin boy!

Chad and Trev rippin up the deck.

Cami was covered in dirt from head to toe when she decided she'd had enough. What a good worker she was. She even smashed her fingers a few time and kept on workin.

This is how Trevor was most evenings. He would go go go until he couldn't go anymore. When we could finally get him to sit still he would fall asleep in seconds. Tired boy!

Trevor and his cousin Jacob. These two would play together ALL day long. Trevor loves his older boy cousins. He went through some major withdrawls.

Paityn was being silly one day and decided that she was going to put herself in a cubby on Grandma's shelf. She's so silly and her personality is really starting to blossom.

Grandma and Grandpa's dog Sweetie had a litter of puppies around Halloween. When we got there for Christmas there were 4 puppies left. They were so cute. Paityn wasn't too sure, but she loved watching them.

Polar Bear Swim 2010

Every other year, when we all meet in California for Christmas, we have what we like to call the Polar Bear swim. The bravest of the brave choose to swim the length of the pond (about 50-60 yards)in the freezing cold water. Now I know what you're thinking. "Oh come on. It's California.How cold can that water be really?" Let me tell you how cold it can be. Imagine if you will, sitting on a beach on a hot summers day. The sun is shining down on you. You're wearing your swimsuit and you're getting a nice golden tan. The radio plays a Beach Boys song in the background. In your hand is an ice cold cup of ice water. The coolness of the glass feels good against your hot palm. It's refreshing to the taste. You are feeling good. Life is AWESOME! Now imagine that you are still wearing your swimsuit but now the temperature outside is roughly the temperature of that glass of ice water, and instead of laying out under the sun, you are jumping up and down to try and stay warm. Can you feel it? Can you feel the cold?Now imagine wearing a swimsuit, cold temps outside and then jumping into even colder water. Water so cold that when your body is immersed in it, it goes into shock and lacks the capacity to move. Can you feel it? Are you shivering?That's how cold it was. FREEZING!! This year the ante was raised.First,there was now the prize of a trophy complete with Malibu Barbie and Ken on top. Second, Papa offered 20 dollars to anyone who would swim to the end AND BACK! All participants received a 10 dollar gift card to In and Out as well. The competition was on. It was fierce. Who won do you ask. Not me. My brother Matt came in first, then the newcomer Jenna.Jeff got out without swimming back and therefore did not receive his 20 dollars. I came in third, then Andrew, then Nate. There were some close calls of drowning due to hypothermia but we all made it out alive. We are also ALL looking forward to the next challenge two years from now.The trophy is mine

All the participants: Nate, Cara (yes Cara did it too), Andrew Me, Jenna, Jeff and Matt

My swim outfit. My underwear say "Believe in this"

Riley watching, contemplating on attempting in two years.


All the onlookers cheering us along

We'll Be Home For Christmas

CHRISTMAS!! I love Christmas. It is my most favorite holiday ever. I love the sounds, the sights, and the smells. Christmas has a smell. Christmas trees, snow, rain, wrapping paper, new clothes, candy canes, cookies. Put them all together and you have the smell of Christmas. I LOVE IT! We got to go back home to California for Christmas this year. Everyone was there this year. Matt and Amy and their family, Nate and Penny and their family, me and Chad and our kids, Andrew and Jenny and Tanner, and Jeff and his FIANCE Jenna. Jeff Proposed to Jenna on the 23 right after we all arrived from Utah. We are all so excited to have Jenna in our family. She is a perfect match for Jeff. On Christmas Eve we did our annual Polar Bear Swim (pictures to come) and made cookies. The air was filled with excitement as we all went to bed. Bright and early Christmas morning we all got up and opened presents. It was so much fun. This year I actually waited a little bit to open my presents so that I could watch everyone else open theirs. The kids were so excited. Jeff and Jenna were cute and bought all the kids presents. The kids loved that. The kids this year got toys and clothes. Chad got tickets to a Jazz game and I got an ipod Touch. LOVE IT!! We also got a new camcorder. We are loving that too. Christmas day was spent playing with our new toys, visiting with family and napping. We had so much fun. It was great to see the whole family together again. It's a rare occasion that we can all get together, but when we do I'm reminded how blessed I am to belong to such a wonderful family.

All the stockings lined up in front of the tree before Santa came. Isn't that crazy?20 stockings!

Christmas Morning before the kiddos came in. Santa Definitely found his way to Grandma's

Chad opening his Jazz tickets. I was able to keep this one a secret this year.



Paityn opening her new Cabbage Patch Baby skunk. She LOVES babies.



Paityn and Riley. Paityn was not too happy right here because she had just gotten up and she wanted something to eat before opening presents. Crazy girl, I don't know where she got that from. Forget food, give me presents!



Riley and Cami with their dolls and horses.

The aftermath

We all made stockings on Christmas Eve. This one is Paityn's. I made it but I think it was the best one.

Riley's stocking. She did a great job on hers too

My stocking


Chad's stocking

Cami's stocking. Cami did an awesome job painting hers

Trev's stocking...hmmm...way to go Trev!

Trev and his stocking.

Me making my stocking.

All the kiddos painting away.

Grandpa and Trev shooting the gun. Before we went to CA my dad told Trev that he was going to take him out to shoot the guns. For the whole week before we left Trev was walking around the house saying "I'm gonna shoot Grandpa!" We corrected him of course but we knew what he meant. So sure enough, Grandpa took him out shooting and he LOVED it.

Here they are again. Trev did not want to stop. He kept saying "'Gin grandpa!"

Feeling the Christmas Spirit

I have the cutest kids ever. I was out doing some grocery shopping one day and Chad was watching the kids. He called me and said, "Our kids are so cute. I can't wait for you to come home and see what they're wearing." So I rushed through the rest of my shopping and dashed home. Out they all came wearing their red and green and smiling from ear to ear. I smiled too and told them how cute they all looked. I love when they all want to play together and do things together. This was one of those times and it was so much fun.

My sweet three

And here's a silly one just for a laugh.

Temple Square Lights

This year we went to see the lights on Temple Square in Salt Lake right before we left to go to California for Christmas. We were lucky enough to be accompanied by some very good friends of ours, the Beus family. We spent all day Saturday together in Salt Lake. We ate, laughed, shopped, laughed some more and just had a great time. We made it to temple square about an hour before the lights were to turn on so we went and watched the movie, Joseph Smith: The Prophet of the Restoration at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. It was so good. I was so happy that we were able to go see that and I know that my testimony and the testimony of my girls was strengthened immensely.Afterwards we walked around and looked at all the lights. I am in awe every year at the sight of all the lights. All the detail they put into placing lights on every single branch. It's amazing. We have definitely started a new tradition with the Beus Family. We can't wait for next year.

My attempt at being creative with my photography. I think it turned out pretty good.


Paiters all bundled up. It actually wasn't too bad this year. It still was cold though.
Riley, Cami, Trev and Brooklyn in front of the nativity on temple square. Cache and Bells did not want to participate in the picture taking.

Cami Trev and Chad in front of the nativity. I love this picture. So cute.

Riley, Brooklyn and Cami at the fountain.

All of us in front of the temple. I just looked at this picture for the first time and thought,"Wow, those are all my kids! I have a big family!" I'm so blessed to have these cuties as my own. I'm also blessed to have such a sweet husband who also happens to be the GREATEST dad ever!

Eden and I. This girl is HILARIOUS! I love hanging out with her. We have so much fun together and I CANNOT wait for the next time...(wink wink)!

King Family Christmas/ Paityn's Birthday Bash

We celebrated Christmas early this year. Santa heard that we were going to go to California this year for Christmas, so he made a special visit to Layton to visit us all together. The kids were so excited. I thought Trevor would be more excited then he was, but he was more scared then excited. We had a good dinner put together by Kathy and Jim. We played games, and visited and laughed. We did a gift card exchange with all of the grown ups including Tyler and Kelly via instant messenger all the way from Wisconsin. We had a great time and it was fun to get together and feel the Christmas spirit.

Riley and Santa. Santa asked Riley if her and her family have family prayers morning and night. She hesitated and I knew I had been made. Her answer, "sometimes!" Shoot now Santa and everyone knows that we don't say our family prayers every morning and night. For the record I would like to say that we do say our family prayers at night but struggle terribly to say them in the morning. So Santa if you're listening, I'll be better this year!

Cami and Santa. Cami would not look up at Santa's face this year. He jokingly said , "you know Cami, you can look up at me." Do you think she did? Nope. She didn't budge at all. She posed for her picture, giggled a touch, grabbed her present and was out like a light.

Trev and Santa. Trevor was a little hesitant this year. I was a little surprised but not really. Santa tried to get Trevor to come up and help him with handing out the presents. Trev wouldn't do it. Santa tried getting him to come up and help him ring the jingle bells. Trev wouldn't do it. He did however go up when Santa pulled his present out of his bag.

Paityn and Santa. Paityn, well, let's just say pictures say a thousand words. She was not having it. There was no way she was going to sit on that strange man's lap. She got her present anyway and maybe she'll warm up to the idea of sitting on Santa's lap before next Christmas.



Here's Paityn opening up her birthday presents. Trevor and Tanner and Daddy were helping of course. She loved all of her cute presents this year.

This is the present from Jim and Kathy. It's a little purple dog from Leap Frog that sings songs, plays games and even says her name. So cute and she LOVES it.


Blowing out the candle. She could have cared less about the singing and blowing out the candle. All she wanted was the cupcake.

So that's exactly what she got. She was hesitant at first but slowly started digging in.

Then she realized that this thing she had was so very tasty. She liked it.

Down to the last crumb that she licked off the highchair tray.

Paityn's Birthday

For paityn's birthday we had a busy day. We got to celebrate her birthday together as a family and then after that we went over to the King's to celebrate her birthday with them and also have our family Christmas party. It was fun to watch Pait open her presents. She didn't really get it, at all really, but with the help of her brother and sisters, she was able to open up all of her presents.

Isn't she so cute? I got her and cute little tu-tu and then made the shirt to match. She was such a cutie in her birthday outfit.

My neighbor and good friend Angie made the flower on the headband. SO STINKIN CUTE! She is so talented at making things. She threw this little one together in less then a day.

She looks a little overwhelmed but I assure you she was having a good time.