Spring Break 2013

This year for Spring Break, we were able to get out of town for a couple days.
Neil and I were both embarrassed to admit that although we have both lived in the valley our entire lives, neither of us had been in to Yosemite National Park to do the Yosemite thing.  And, aside from one visit to Badger Pass, our boys had also never been in to experience Yosemite.
So, we decided to take a day trip and do the Yosemite thing.  We drove up in the morning, hiked to see some of the waterfalls, had a picnic in the valley, and enjoyed some great time together.

Then, later in the week, we decided to take a spontaneous trip to the beach.  We branched out and instead of visiting the central coast, we decided to experience Manhattan Beach for the first time together as a family.  We played volleyball on the beach with friends, visited the Santa Monica pier and Third Street Promenade at night, and even played a round of golf with the boys on our hotel's golf course.

My morning run.....heaven

As the boys are growing older and the finish line is beginning to come into view of how long I get to have them at home with me.  It makes it all the more clear that we need to take advantage of every opportunity we have to spend time together making lasting memories and laughing together.

Nicholas's Baptism

Since entering middle school this year, Nicholas has had the opportunity to attend FCA (Fellowship of Christian Athletes) at Alta Sierra Middle School with Coach Paul Babcock.  To say that Nicholas enjoys attending FCA would be a gross understatement. Nicholas is always inviting his friends to attend and he demands to go each week.  In fact,  the only time he missed this year (the day we celebrated the one year anniversary of Brett's accident and the miracles God has blessed us with) he went down with a fight.
Because of Nicholas's involvement with FCA, we have seen him grow in his walk with the Lord, develop greater understanding of the Bible's truths and really learn to trust God in hard situations.  So, it really was no surprise when he came home a couple of weeks ago to inform us that he wanted to get baptized.
Although this was no surprise, it has been a prayer of mine for years and years that my children would develop an authentic faith of their own.  That they would not choose our "religion" because that is what our family does, but that they would really truly love Jesus and desire to follow him with all of their heart.
So, when Nicholas made this decision as a 13 year old, in middle school, when professing your faith is not the most "cool" thing to do, I was very proud.
My prayers will continue...that Nicholas continues to grow in his faith, that he would learn to trust and obey God no matter what, that he would know God's love, His mercy and His grace and that he would seek Him above all.
But, for today, I will take a moment to just say, "Thank you, Jesus.  Carry on."

The Happiest Place on Earth

Enjoying the happiest place on Earth...

 

Of course the boys chose to go on the Rip Roaring Rapids first thing in the morning!!  Why oh why did I even bother straightening my hair??

We even got daddy to go on the swings with us on this trip....by the end of the ride his knuckles were white from holding on so tight!

 

Every time we go to Disneyland we try to do one thing we have never done before...this trip we did three new things...

we rode the canoes for the first time....

we went on the Cars ride for the first time (despite the 2 hour wait!!)

and Nick ate a turkey leg for the first time.  (We all tried a bite and it actually wasn't half bad.)

The Hunts and Casarolis joined us on the trip and all of the kids had a great time together as always...

Check out Nick being a poser on Splash Mountain.

My favorite parts....priceless time with my three favorite boys and

the firework show and snow on Main Street. 

Christmas Highlights

Some Christmas highlights from this year....

 

This year our sweet neighbor, Miss Opal, moved into a retirement facility.  It had been quite a while since we had seen her so we surprised her with a visit and had a fabulous time.  She is the most precious 90 year old who is constantly praying for the boys, telling them they need to follow Jesus and encouraging them to learn to play the piano.  We love her.

Another family tradition....pj's, hot chocolate and Christmas Tree Lane.  This year the Lane was so packed that it took us about 2 hours and the boys fell asleep on Christmas Tree Lane under the blankies in the back of the Suburban.

The best part of Christmas....Santa's visit to Noni's house.  Everyone loves this time, except for Lukie this year.

 

 All of the great grandkids posing for a pic on the couch.

 Noni sitting on Santa's lap.

 

 I love it that my baby boy still likes to sit on Santa's lap!

 

Christmas morning at Mimi and Papa's house...all the kids got animal hats and loved them!

Fall Sports

 Wow...this fall when by like a blur and now looking back at all the pics, I can tell why.






As soon as Bretty was released for full activity, we left the hospital and he went straight to Cross Country practice.  He could not wait to compete!!  Although his first few races were tough as his legs were very weak, he was determined in every race and won the most inspirational runner this year.  (There were often people cheering for him with tears in their eyes!)
I was the proudest mommy out there!!

Cody played soccer for Nelson with his buddies again this year and had a great time on the field.   

Cody played football for Nelson and they took home the area title going undefeated all season!! Cody's favorite thing to do was take a hand off, run all the way down the field and score touchdowns or come from behind the quarterback, sneak up on him and sack him. 

 

Nicholas played on a Crossfire team with some of his buddies from Kastner.  They had a great year and Nick's game improved a lot playing mostly mid field or defender.

 

Cody ended up the year playing basketball for Nelson.  Once again they had a great year and missed the area title by losing one game!!  It was a big bummer, but great year none the less!

 Lastly, Nick tried out for the Kastner 7th grade boys soccer team....they had 40 boys trying out and onlykept 18!  It was a real accomplishment for him just to make the team.  Even though they did not win one game, they had a good time trying and fought hard on the field.