It's that time of year again!

t seems like every spring we spend a few weeks practicing our swim strokes at the pool (by "we" I mean the kids). The girls think they are"expert" swimmers, so this spring it's just Tyson in lessons. Luckily his lessons are at 5:30pm and open swim starts at 6pm, so the girls get to practice their swimming too! They have a lot of fun swimming together, and the pool is shallow enough that I don't worry about Tyson swimming without me!

Grant me the serenity...

...to accept the things I can not change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.

I know this is the well known Serenity Prayer from the AA crowd, but I really think it can apply to marriage:) As we go through married life, we are constantly learning things about our spouse...some good, some bad. Well, I don't know that I will ever accept the fact that my husband is a "napper" or that he just can't "hear" me when he is doing something else, but wouldn't life be better if I could? The good news for me is that recently I discovered something I COULD change about my wonderful husband...not that he needs changing:)

When I was dating, my list of qualifications for a husband did not have any where on it "must be able to cook". It really wasn't even a thought that crossed my mind (I even thought it was funny that Mike's idea of making dinner was Hamburger Helper or Top Ramen). Well, after being married and cooking meal after meal after meal for picky children, I starting thinking "I should have married someone who could cook." Long story short, for Christmas this year I bought Mike a "Grilling Cook Book." Can I tell you that he has made it his goal to cook every Saturday night?! So far we have had TWO AMAZING meals!

I am one happy girl. Now if I could just accept the whole napping thing...

This is the first meal he made for us. BBQ baked potatoes, grilled chicken breast, asparagus, and pineapple--so so so good!!

Easter Best

This is what you get when you force your kids to pose for a picture:
This is what you get when you let them do what they want:
And this is what you get when you zoom in:
Perfect:)

Happy Easter!!

Rise and Shout

I don't know why I ever go to any sporting event!! I get so emotionally invested in every game, that when my team loses, I am just angry for hours afterward. Last night we traveled out to UCLA to watch them battle BYU in a men's volleyball game. We were down two games, and then came back to win...only to have our win taken back...and given to UCLA. Yeah, it was all controversial! They even ended up replaying the end of the game today...and BYU won this time (thank you very much)!! It really is cool to cheer for BYU. To watch my kids cheer for BYU is even cooler. They get so into it, screaming and jumping and trying to get on camera. We really are lucky to live where we can see BYU play....although, next time I may have to take a sedative before the game:)

These pictures were taken with Jordan's Itouch (not the best quality)

Beach Day NOT a Bust

Okay, so we have been having some seriously nice weather for spring break. I packed up the kiddos and headed to Redondo beach to check out the pier...it was LAME...and awesome at the same time:

The Lame Stuff vs The Awesome Stuff

#1. The pier was the most pathetic pier I had ever been to...no good shops, rides or restaurants!!

While on the pier, we saw some amazing waves travel under us!!


#2. Because there were no good places to eat on the pier, we had to drive around and find somewhere to have lunch before playing at the beach.

We ended up eating at a "healthy" pizza place that had face painting and pizza dough to play with..oh and yummy pizza too:)


#3. Redondo beach had the lamest, rockiest sand that actually hurt to kneel in:(

We ended up digging a hole and burying Tyson! We also found some cool rocks and shells.


#4. Jordan ended up stepping on a bee at the playground beside the beach--ouch!

Kya and Tyson had the most fun ever spinning until even I was dizzy just from watching them.


#5. The weather turned out to be warmer and sunnier than I expected, BUT I forgot sunscreen...I got a little sunburned.

The weather was beautiful and we got to lay in the sun and soak it all in!!!


#6. We left the beach hot and hungry.

We stopped at McDonald's on the way home for ice cream sundaes:)

Even though everything didn't go as planned...I say it was a pretty AWESOME day.

90210

Even though we've lived in LA more that 3 years now, there are still some "touristy" things we haven't done. Since this week is Spring Break and we aren't going out of town, I decided to try to go to some places we haven't been yet (oh, and I didn't want to spend any money...so no Universal Studios for us). Here's what I came up with:

First we stopped at Subway to pick up sandwiches for a picnic.
Then, we parked right next to this great tree that had hundreds of peoples initials/names carved all over it.We decided to add our name to the mix
Next, we had to get in line to take pictures at the "Beverly Hills" sign!!Then we headed down the street and saw the flower garden......and the cactus garden....
...and the fountain...
...which is the same fountain from one of my favorite movies (Clueless).And of course we couldn't leave without a little excitement:) Tyson dropped his flip flop in the fountain and I had to use my pocket knife to cut a palm branch down to fetch it!!