Warm Weather is SOOOO Nice... and the Cold is For the BIRDS!!!!!

Well... life has been filled with interesting stuff the last couple of weeks! (Hence the lack of posting...) We'll start from the beginning!!

Let's see... Thursday before Lexi's spring break... so March 19th, we had a playdate with Xander. He and his mom came up here and we just played around for a while. They love the Gator and have such a good time on it. I have to say that I missed a good photo op, though, becauseXander somehow managed to fall out while he was driving... he wasn't holding on, obviously, he had both arms in the air, and just slid out and met the asphalt. Not pretty! But he got back up... got bandaged up, and was back on in no time! Fun stuff! They both have a hard time paying very close attention to the ROAD in FRONT of them!
Friday was Lexi's last day of school before a 2 week Spring Break. She got to take her favorite teddy bear to school for the teddy bear picnic! I stayed for a little while after dropping her off because she was part of a reader's theater. She played the part of "Frog". It was so cute and they did such a good job! Cute kids. (I am waiting for some pix from another mom for this...)

We welcomed Grandma Linda, Grandpa Mike, Uncle Eric, and Great-Grandma Liebhardt that evening for the weekend. They had come to play and see Dad's brother, Jack, who was here with his son to ride roller-coasters! It's pretty serious... But I did manage to take my camera to his T-Ball game. I got some good ones! He's #4! He plays for the Phillies! He loves it!

My California girls... basking in the sun as they watch and wait for their brother to finish his game!

Ater the game and a little surprise... that's still on the down-low... we headed up to Anaheim to meet Gpa, Eric, Jack and his son for dinner. Lexi was able to use one of her prizes from reading so many books for school and get free dinner from Claim Jumper. I don't have the pix from this either, but Momma Linda has them... and I'm sure she'll send me a copy... hint, hint! :-) Jack's son, Cory, ended up picking up the entire tab... and we still owe him a great big THANK YOU. And Sunday before everyone headed home... including the kids and me... we had Archi and Ellen over for dinner and fun! The kids always have a great time. We're so fortunate to have them so close to us now!

Archi and Ella... wondering exactly how this whole kite thing is going to work out!

The wind was just right for flying the little kites out in the street! Olivia and Lexi had their own thing going... LAZY BONES!!!! And Ella was just not very happy... but finally warmed up and had a little fun before getting in the car for HOURS on our way to Utah! Our time in Utah was... well, mostly a bust! Even though we got to play and have fun with our family, it was COLD, WINDY, and fairly miserable the last two days! We did manage to see Caroline... she had a random day off in the middle of the week, so she and Gail came down! We went to the library two days in a row, McD's... (with all the gungus kyotis you can even imagine!), we had yummy breakfast at the hospital with Gma Pam, and the kids got to go to the park once. Then Thursday I spent the day literally cleaning up poop! Yep... you heard it right! One of the things I hate the most in life! All the kids got diahhrea... YUCKY! It makes me gag just writing about it!

Despite the fact that this is taken in the Playplace... this is my favorite picture of the sisters! Cutie-pies!

Gma Pam... trying her best to help me get Ella to actually EAT something at the FUN-FILLED eating establishment!Hmmm... maybe you shouldn't climb in something like this! It's actually meant for throwing balls in... and they come OUT at the bottom... rather than kids climbing in the bottom... and coming out the top!WHOA, HAIR! Lexi and Caroline coming out of the slide together!Is this a sign that we've been here too long?Up the wrong way...And down again!Yep... same problem... different child!Definitely a sure sign that we've been here too long!

After saying goodbye to Caroline for this trip, Lexi scavenged and gathered some "friendship" rocks. And since they were just rocks... we decided to wash them... and paint them beautiful for our friends! I'm fairly sure that at least one of them is meant for Caroline!

Here we are... all in on the action!Even Ella! (And Mommy!) Ella had water colors... and no rocks. Lexi and Braeden got the real thing... acrylics! Oooh, fun!Showing Gma her art!And then showing the camera!Notice the difference between Lexi's above and Braeden's below! Each is a masterpiece in its own rite!Then we played games for a while! This is one of my favorites... even though it scares me every time it pops up! (Perfection! Play it sometime if you haven't!)And you wonder where the supervision is? Well... this only takes a matter of a few minutes! And this is what happens EVERY TIME Lexi or Braeden leave markers down where Ella can get ahold of them. If you can't tell what's going on here... you need to click on the picture and blow it up full size to appreciate it!Lovely, Ella! One of these days we're going to have to tell her that her BODY is not the canvas for her artwork!And then before bed... we had a very painful storytime! This is long, so be prepared. Also... a disclaimer: We do NOT promote or condone this type of behavior... but sometimes, we just have to give up and laugh!

This last picture of our time in Utah is likely the most fun they had all day... what with all the pooping that was going on! Grandma Linda had a much milder experience with the bedtime stories! Thank goodness!

Daddy got to spend the night on Sunday after we returned home because he had an opthomology appt. Monday morning in San Diego! This is just a fun thing I caught Ella doing! She is OBSESSED with shoes... her's, your's, anyone's! And the bigger... the BETTER! I think this is as big as it gets around here! (And probably the dirtiest, too, from being sand-blasted out in the windy desert for 4 weeks!)And since we felt like Utah was kind of a bust, we decided to make the very most of the end of spring break! We went to the zoo on Monday!Tree kangaroos... strange creatures. A mix almost between a regular kangaroo and a koala. Crazy marsupials!This poor camel is in much need of a salon!Crazy Lexi in front of the Klispringers.Silly kids... also in front of the Klispringers!Our favorite for the day! They mocked the sound for the rest of the day! What joy!My very own monkeys!And here they are... actually watching the monkeys... and climbing on everything in site themselves! There were actually a couple of ladies that came by and sat on the bench and commented on what fun it was to watch SEVERAL types of monkeys, both inside and out of the CAGE!!! And we got a surprise visit from Daddy after he left his eye appointment! He got to spend a couple of hours with us! And right after this I got like 2 more pix and then my camera died! I seem to have this problem a lot, huh? Well, and I purposely didn't bring the camera bag with the extra battery because I was there alone for most of the time and tried to cut down on all the CRAP that I brought!Then Tuesday, I braved Disneyland alone with them! Here we are waiting for the 3D Muppet Vision show!The new Toy Story Mania ride! It's seriously so fun! I love it! It's also in 3D and is well worth the wait! (Which was PAINFUL! Ella SCREAMED for 45 mins. waiting in line! You may ask why I didn't just give up? Well, I can't always make Lexi and Braeden suffer just because Ella is such a GRUMP!!!)Then we headed out of California Adventure and met some friends from the ward in Disneyland. The kids got to ride Splash Mountain! And here are some of them waiting for Buzz! Lexi and Tori on the left, Braeden and Kimber on the right!Closest to farthest: Kimber, Braeden, Lexi and Tori... making sure that the evil Emperor Zurg doesn't win the battle!Ella is in the business of PAYBACK! For you who don't know... Braeden has such a hard time keeping his hands off Ella, literally since the DAY she was born. He just malls her to death, and now it's time for some revenge. Here you see her getting a little!Lexi and Auntie Leslie... post-Matterhorn! Yep, you see it right! Not only did we get to meet friends there, but Leslie and Josh surprised us by getting passes at Costco and coming to meet us! Unfortunately Josh couldn't stay very long as he was committed to a Home Teaching appointment, but Leslie got to stay with us for the rest of the time, and it was so much fun! I had my bum SAVED by all the nice people that met us there and helped me out! Thank you!Poor Auntie Leslie! This was a painful picture... and there were 3 before it that were just lovely! But this one is so cute, I just couldn't resist! Ella had such a good time laughing with Leslie! She FINALLY gave in and was happy for a little while in the "HAPPIEST Place on Earth"!!Ooohhhh! The jungle cruise at night is a very different experience...And all in all... we had a great time! And some very tired kids! Especially since we had to make a DEAL with Lexi that if we didn't have to wait the 70 mins. to ride Space Mountain that she could hang out at Leslie's for a while, pet the kitty that lives on her porch, and she would get to ride Space Mountain 3 times on her birthday! What a deal, huh? Originally I told them they had 15 mins. at Leslie's... but that turned out to be MUCH longer!

And then they begged to come back up and play the next day... so I gave in! I brought a bunch of my scrapping stuff with me so I could work on calendars (that were supposed to be done at Christmas...), and while I hung out at Colleen's with Ella, Josh and Leslie took Lexi and Braeden... BACK TO DISNEYLAND!!! Fun stuff! We got our spring break's worth! And then they got to play at Colleen's with Josh, Leslie, Sam, and even Amberie for a while! We left after MIDNIGHT!!! Yikes! But so much fun!