Weekend Visitors

Joey's parents came for a visit from Northern California this past weekend. We had a great time! Thanks for the visit, Nonni and Bobpa!

Nonni and Lincoln


Bobpa and Spencer

Our most updated family photo (we got to wear our Easter outfits a week early since General Conference is on Easter Sunday)

We took the kids to Pretend City with Bobpa and Nonni. It's this great children's museum that is a mini-city. They have a grocery store, fire station, farm, doctor's office, etc. It was so fun! Here is Hayden in her BMW convertible.


The kids in the art studio.

Lincoln doing his art project.

Joey keeping Jude happy!

We got to go see the Easter Bunny this weekend too.


Joey making Jude laugh, Joey is Jude's favorite person and I love it when he lights up when Joey is around!

Birthday weekend

I had a great birthday weekend! It started out with Joey writing me the nicest blog post (see post below, if you haven't read it). We went out to dinner on Friday night to begin the festivities. On Saturday I woke up and Joey said, "It's your birthday weekend, we will do whatever you want," so I decided I wanted to go to the beach. We had a wonderful day walking around Balboa Island.

My little man and me.


This pelican was just hanging out on the pier and I got so close to it.


The kids and me making our way down the pier. Joey was on stroller duty.

Three of the four kiddos! Jude was conked out from all the excitement!


The whole family:)
We had to get ice cream at Ruby's! Shooby dooby down to Ruby's!

This little guy was in our front yard when we got home! We named him "Quentin Turtle-tino" (Modern Family watchers will love that one!) and Spencer believes he now has a pet.


I had a great day!!!

Katie Turning Twenty-Eight(ie)

Joey here. I am stealing Katie’s idea of something nice that she did for my birthday this year and hijacking her blog to post a list of 28 things that I love about her, in honor of her 28th birthday (March 20th). This list could go on for miles but I’ll just put 28 of the first ones that come to mind. Here you go:

1) She runs our home like a well-oiled machine.
2) She lets me believe that I am in charge.
3) She is still scared of the dark and, if she goes to bed before I do, she keeps the upstairs hall light on so it’s not too dark in our room.
4) Despite her claims to the contrary, she is an excellent cook.
5) She will do anything for her friends.
6) She is probably the worst person ever at remembering song lyrics and it cracks me up.
7) She is very good at both board and video games (though she claims to hate video games) and is actually one of the best Guitar Hero players I have ever seen.
8) On a related note: She totally could have fronted an awesome girl band, but that ship has probably sailed at this point.
9) She laughs when I tease her about her tramp stamp.
10) She inherited amazing artistic skills from her mother and, among other things, can tole paint like nobody’s business.
11) She has a great sense of style and always looks like a million bucks, even though I usually make her buy her clothes off of clearance racks or from Target.
12) She knows her state capitals.
13) She genuinely enjoys watching sports of virtually all types.
14) She likes my absurdly hairy legs (or at least does a good job of pretending that she does).
15) She has endured three pregnancies (four babies total) and still has a smokin’ hot body.
16) She can’t keep anything from me.
17) She has waitressing in her blood and can’t help but refill my drink when she sees that it’s empty.
18) She loves In-N-Out almost as much as I do (though she opts for the regular cheeseburger instead of the 3x3).
19) We see eye-to-eye on pretty much every parenting issue.
20) She has an uncanny knack for being able to identify celebrities from their childhood pictures. It’s really quite remarkable.
21) She likes watching Jeopardy! with me and is quite good at it.
22) She puts up with my grammar snobbery.
23) She has allowed me to persuade her that Oprah, romantic comedies and the Twilight books are evil and/or ridiculous.
24) She’s an excellent dancer.
25) She never backs down in a wrestling match (though she will plead for mercy, feigning injury, and, once released, proceed to attack me again).
26) She is my favorite person to hang out with and I can talk to her about anything.
27) She understands that being a mother is the most important job in the world and would never put anything above our family.
28) She is the all-around best person I have ever known.

Happy birthday, Babe! I love you.

More Catching-Up

A few weeks ago, we had some of our favorite friends come into town. Joey and Dave served together on their missions in Italy and Dave married one of the most amazing women I have ever met. We loved hanging out with Dave and Marisa back in the newly-married stage of life and now that we have seven kids between the two couples, it's even more fun!

The kids (minus Jude, he was napping in the stroller)
Hayden, Spencer, Lincoln, Noah, Oliver, Sam


A week ago Sunday, Joey, Jude and I were a little under-the-weather, so we stayed home from church and vegged, or should I say, we attempted to veg while Spencer and Lincoln destroyed the house. (Hayden went to church with friends and was not a part of the destroying)