Desert Camping Trip

Over the weekend we went on our annual desert camping trip.  While it is always quite the adventure, we stepped the adventure part up this year by bringing the baby!  I was a bit worried how it would all go with her (would she cry a lot in the car?  would she sleep as well at night as at home?  would she go down for the night as well as she does at home??), she did great!!  It helped too having many other arms to hold her!

Faith had quite a bit of fun riding on the quad!  She started out with Steve holding onto a rope and running behind her to ensure she could be in control.  Once she demonstrated an ability to drive well, she was able to do so on her own!  She told us it was her favorite part of the trip!

 

Shane loved the quad too, but not quite as much as Faith!  They are trying to talk their dad into buying one for them!

 

Right by where we set up camp there is a little "track" for the young kids to ride on with the quads.  Faith did many, many laps!

 

Shane was "resting" in the motor home on the top bunk.

 

Olivia and Steve at breakfast.  Overall I think she thought camping was a good time!

 

In addition to riding the quads, we all kept busy hiking, talking walks, and even playing volleyball!  The kids were glad Uncle John and Aunt Sue brought Bella along so that they could take her for walks. 

 

On the way home, we stopped at John and Sue's house to clean the motor home before returning it.  Katie brought over Hudson so that the two little cousins, just a month apart in age, could meet for the first time!  We tried hard to snap a cute picture of the two!  The one of them both falling over makes me smile!

Last Week's Recap

It was yet another busy week for us last week!  On Monday we went to a friends house for a Valentine Party!  The kids exchanged valentines and decorated cupcakes.  Of course they had a blast as I think they put every single topping available on their cupcake!  In addition, they had a valentine party at Awana, and Shane had one at school! 

 

On Tuesday Faith got a hair cut!  She wanted it cut to her shoulders, which I think was about four inches!  She loves it, and it looks really cute!

 

And here is the little ballerina!  This is one of those outfits that was bought before Olivia was born and just hanging in her closet waiting for her to grow into it!  While sometimes I can hardly believe how fast she is growing, growing does have it's perks!  She has so many adorable clothes to wear in this size range!  There are bound to be many more cute little outfit pictures to come!

Valentine Cupcakes

Yesterday Faith and I spent the entire morning in the kitchen making, baking, and decorating cupcakes!  In American Heritage Girls, Faith's group is working on their Cake Decorating badge.  The first requirement for the badge is to make two dozen cupcakes.  Since it was our family's turn to bring a snack to church for coffee time, we decided to bring the cupcakes that we made!  But two dozen wasn't going to be enough, so we made 106!!!!  It was just three boxes of cake mix, but since we made some of the mini-cupcakes, the number was big!!  Faith decorated them with candy hearts for Valentine's Day.  One funny side note - I didn't realize until she was decorating them that I had bought Spanish conversation hearts!!  I didn't even know that they came in Spanish!  Faith enjoyed her cake making, and everyone at church this enjoyed eating them!

 

This picture was taken a few days ago, but I thought it was so cute!  Shane put his Buzz Lightyear glove on Olivia, but then he wasn't to happy about it!  I think he also wasn't too happy that he had to have his hair brushed!

 

Shane and Faith were able to go to their friend Miles' house one day last week!  How cute are these two boys??  They just love to play together!

 

"Miles is my best friend" says Shane!

Museum Field Trip

Last week Thursday Shane's preschool class took a field trip to the California Oil Museum located in Santa Paula.  There was a special bug exhibit, so that was the focus of the trip!  The kids were able to look at some live Black Beetles under a magnifying glass along with some dead crickets!  They were also able to go on a "bug hunt" looking at many different type of bugs under glass (like a giant bug collection!).  In addition, we were able to have a tour of the oil industry part of the museum, and we learned quite a bit about how oil is obtained out of the ground.  Even Olivia went on the field trip!  That made it a little bit more of an adventure (for me!), but she did really well! 

 

The kids continue to love putting together the puzzles Aunt Joan gave them!  This picture was taken Saturday morning.  Today I had the kids pick them up so that I could vacuum.  And an hour after I finished cleaning the house, the puzzles were back out and are being put together once again!

 

Olivia continues to grow and just be such a delight!  We all love watching her in the bouncy chair as she loves to look at the characters on top! She smiles at them and every once in a while we hear a little giggle!  It's so cute!  Also in this picture she is wearing an outfit that I bought for my friend Julie's little girl, who is now 2, when she was born.  Julie gave it back to me for Olivia to wear! 

 

On Sunday we went to a birthday party/Super Bowl party at one of our friends houses.  It was fun to watch the game with friends and enjoy some great food!  There were a bunch of kids there of course, and our kids were outside playing the entire five hours we were there, with the exception of grabbing a few snacks!  Olivia is being held in this picture by my friends Nicole, who had the birthday we were celebrating!