March 6-18

     It's been quite the week!  Ethan had his band concert this past Wednesday.  I asked him how it went and he said,"Awesome!"  Phoebe had her egg drop project at school on Friday.  The teacher starts the contest by dropping the protected eggs from a chair.  They eventually end up dropping them off the school roof.  Phoebe won!  Her design was a simple box with foam inside.  Olivia also had a big day on Friday.  They had Junior Olympics.  She competed in the 100m dash and the discus.  She had a great time.  We are now in Utah visiting family for spring break!  We took off after school on Friday and drove through the night. Ug!  
     Saturday we had an early egg hunt/St. Patrick's day feast.  Since the whole family was together we took a picture.  Today has been nice.  We had a relaxing morning and then we went to church. After  that we had a nice meal with Grandma.  The kids are hoping for a little snow to come along too.  Ok, that's all for now!  Hooray for spring break!

March 5-11

     This is our friend Josh.  He's spent a lot of time with us the past two years.  His family moved to Las Vegas.  This past Monday was our last day with him.  We are grateful for the fun times we've had.

     Here are some of our highlights this past week:

Ethan- I've almost mastered "Linus and Lucy" on the piano.  It's the theme song for Charlie Brown.

Olivia and Phoebe- We went to our friends house(Bal's) and they had an adventure for us!  They also had popcorn for snack.

Gina-  She's had a rough end of the week.  She's been sick with a low grade fever and a horrible cough.

Dad-  I tiled the little hallway leading to our family room and took a bunch of junk to the dump!

Mom-  I cleaned my craft room and went to our Stake R.S Conference!  The conference was awesome!  We have the missionaries coming for dinner tonight, we love it!

That's all for now!

2011 In Review

Hello there!
I know I said I would blog...well, better late than never right? Here are the highlights for 2011. I'm not going to make any promises for this year and maybe it will happen. Enjoy!

Ethan's 5th grade trip to Santa Cruz

Family Hike to Needles Lookout

Mom at Camp. We only had the Beehives this year because we also did a trek!
Hope, Believe, Endure

Ma and Pa Bates on the trek : Remember

Family Summer Vaction: Bear Lake and Yellowstone

Ethan's Highlights: Started Middle School and is the beginning band percussionist, received his Arrow of Light and crossed over to 11 year old scouts, piano recitals, received perfect scores on his star testing in math and science!

Olivia's Highlights: Piano recitals, scored well on star testing and went to Night of the Stars at her school, had her birthday in Utah for the 1st time, and rode our friends horses!

Phoebe and Gina's Highlights: Joyschool, being creatve, singing for 4th of July, learning to ride bikes and scooters, having fun!

Happy New Year!

After an eight month blog hibernation, we are back! We had a great Christmas and New Year's holiday. Here is what happened this past week:

Monday: Snow Day! The kids were supposed to start school, but, it snowed so much on Sunday and Monday that school was cancelled! Only in California, right? We don't mind. The kids played to their hearts content.

Tuesday: Back to the regular routines of school and work.

Wednesday: Piano lessons started again! Yeah!

Thursday: Pack meeting for the family.

Friday: Game night with friends! Whoo hoo!

It's been a great week. Over the holidays, my Husband and my Dad installed in my kitchen a new sliding glass door and a window! Our outlook is much brighter and it is very nice to watch the kids in the back yard. Thanks so much!

It's a Pink, Pink, Pink Birthday!

My little baby is 3! She said she wanted a pink cake, with pink frosting, and pink everything! Obviously pink is her favorite color. Happy Birthday Princess!

Cookies!

I want to make some cookies today.

What's your favorite cookie?

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! We had a great time celebrating Christmas and ringing in the New Year. I'm looking forward to all the things my family and I will learn this year.