Spring Break at Newport Beach
We spent last week in Newport Beach for spring break-it was awesome!
We only did one day at Disney which is a first for us.We spent the rest of the week at the beach. We have never just done a beach trip and it was awesome!! I highly recommend it!

We take every chance we can to go to a baseball game. We went to an Angel's game. It was such a fun game! Most of the kids have never been to a game so it was fun to see them discover the joys of baseball!!

Evening on the beach. The best!!

Pinewood Derby
We had the pinewood derby a few weeks ago. The boys worked for weeks on their cars with Ricky and couldn't wait to race them tonight. This was Burke's first derby and he loved every minute of it! He made a tank and Brax make a Semi. They both did great!

SNOWMOBILE TRIP
We went on a small trip this weekend. We went to our friends cabin for two nights and it was so much fun!! The snow was unbelievable!! It was so, so deep and so, so fluffy! We left Bradley home with my sister Mandi which was so hard for me. We have never left one of our kids home so it was hard; but he would have been miserable because it was freezing!! I missed him greatly!!Braxton thinks he is old enough to drive a snowmobile, but we're not quite there yet.

Ellie was the only girl up at the cabin. I had to get a picture of her in her pink helmet and goggles! She loves to play hard and can so hang with all the boys!

Burke is a snow lover!! I found him in this pit o' snow. He was just hanging out. The snow was feet deep!

When we were not out in the snow, we played lots of games. We sat in front of the fire and got warm before another round of snowmobile rides.

I had to document this treat. Ellie and Ashton are eating snow ice cream. They love it!! It is simple yummy goodness that they can't get enough of!

Just a shot of the loveliness. It snowed a foot the first night we were there, and then it snowed another foot the second night. The powder was unbelievable! I don't think I have ever played in such deep snow. The snowmobile's got stuck multiple times because it was so deep. It was awesome!!

This is the kids on the front porch of the cabin. Notice the depth of the snow.

Ashton being cute. This is one of the few times he took his helmet off.

Ellie and Ash climbing the snow on the side of the cabin.

Ellie and Burke on the back of the sled getting ready to "mush." These sleds are to haul gear to and from the cabin and to pull kids around on. It is super fun to hold on and mush like a dog sled.

One of the funnest things for the kids is jumping off the balcony into the snow. They would go up and jump over and over again. I tried it myself and it was quite fun.! This is Burke..

This is Braxton..

And this is Ellie. It took her a little longer to work up the nerve to jump but once she did she was hooked!

Ricky spent much time giving rides and having fun. Let's be honest, what is funner than snowmobiling in 3 feet of fresh powder?

Me and Ellie. One of the few pics of me.

Me and Pres. Bratt with all the kids getting ready to head down the mountain.

Ash & Brad. They just got back from and awesome ride!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS
Happy Holidays everyone! I hope you all had great holidays! Ours were great, but I have to admit that I am happy to move on and start the new year!
I had to put this picture in. Bradley has lost his baby look and is so stinkin cute these days!!

One of the best part of our holiday's was our trip to Montana. One of my dreams was fulfilled. We took our whole family skiing for the first time and it was one of the best days of my life. Ricky skiied this time instead of snow boarding. I bringing him to the true snow sport!!

Ashton only went down a couple of times and loved it. It was so, so cold and he loved skiing, but would freeze on the lift, so he spent much time in the lodge.

All the kids had a bad morning, but after they warmed up they tried again and loved it!! Burke went up and down, up and down. He didn't wait for adults or anything. He loved it!

Ellie is so my girl!! Ricky taught the boys, and I got to teach Ellie. We had so much fun! She would fall and get right back up. Her determination paid off big time. About halfway down the run, she wanted to ski by herself without my help so I obliged. She did great and decided that she loves skiing.
I am so happy that we got to do this together! My life is complete, once Brad is old enough to hit the slopes with us!

Brad spent the day in the lodge. He is too little to ski and it was 2 below zero! He could barely stand being outside for a few minutes. He had lots of fun playing with Ash and Briar inside.

One of the other highlights of our trip was ice skating on a frozen lake. We have only ever been on a rink. It was beautiful!! Ellie used this walker to get the hang of skating.

Ashton lasted about 5 minutes on skates. It was bitterly cold and he didn't like it. At least I got one picture with skates on.

Burke was so determined. He fell, and fell and fell, but he never gave up trying. He was out the longest and feel the most, but he did a great job. It was so beautiful out on this lake! I loved every minute of it!

Braxton did a great job as well. He learned how to roller blade, so this was not to hard for him.

Halloween Festivities!!
Our halloween fun started the weekend before halloween with our annual Christianson party. It wasn't quite the same without my parents here, but we still had a fun time!!
This is the only family shot we got all week and it was right before the party.This is one of my favorite pics of the week. Brad is so fun and I smile every time I see this picture!

Burke was Superman for the party, but we soon discovered that it was way to big so it was only worn once. Thank goodness for back up costumes!

Ashton was thrilled with his batman costume which was a last minute purchase. He didn't stop smiling the whole time he wore it.

Ellie was a witch for the party and doesn't she look scary??

Braxton was a ninja for the party but was Indiana Jones for trick or treating. This was a popular costume and Burke was a ninja for trick or treating.

This is Mandi and Tyler. They looked so great! Tyler always puts up a fight about dressing up and then he always looks fantastic!!

This is the majority of the grandkids. They were so excited they ran around like maniacs for the first 45 mintues of the party. It was cheap entertainment!

This is Mandi, Rebecca and me. We are not a complete set without Molly and my mom though.

The Heaps clan.

Mason was so cute I had to throw this picture in. He is so smiley and happy!

A few days before halloween we found the coolest halloween activity! There is this family who sets up this sweet train ride called the Nightmare Express. It was free so we thought we'd check it out. It was so worth it!

This was a little booth set up on the way into the waiting area. You can smell the fear can't you?

While you wait for your train they have this theater set up in this big garage. They have halloween cartoons playing. It was so neat. The kids sat wonderfully!

Then when you train is almost ready they take you out under a tent where they have lights set up singing songs; the best part is that it is all disney themed-we all know how our family feels about disney right?

This is the little train. Is it so cute? I didn't take any pictures while we were riding, but it was themed from the movie Nightmare Before Christmas and they had a Pirates of the Carribean room. I recommend it to anyone next year.

One of my favorite activities this year was carving pumpkins. Ricky's brother was here from Montana with his family and they came over and Ricky's parents. It was spur of the moment really and it ended up being really fun. I think we carved 10 pumpkins all together. It took all afternoon and evening. Ricky and Ryan are pretty intense carvers, and their pumpkins took forever! They ended up awesome though!

Ryan carved Walt Disney and you can see it was great! These pictures were blury and I was bugged, but what can you do?

Ricky carved Albert Einstein and looked really good as well.

The kids all wore their costumes to school for their parties on Friday and were so excited! I didn't get a picture of Brax and Burke before they left, but Ash and Ellie were more than happy to pose for pictures.
I have to say that I loved Ellie's super girl costume!

Brad and Briar wore their costumes to watch the kids in the school parade. They were so cute!

This year I helped with Ellie's class party and it was fun. It is always fun to go to their classroom and see how things work.

Saturday was our big celebration day since halloween was on Sunday.
We went to Hee Haw Farms for some fun. They have this huge slide that was the kids favorite activity I think.

These big go cart thingies were also a favorite.

They are pretty hard to pedal so the kids needed help here and there.

Paityn and Amy ridin' the slide!

This is Ellie jumping off the hay jump! She worked up her courage to jump off the very top. She is my fearless child!

Group shot on the trick or treat hay ride.

This is the animal train ride. The kids were having so much fun they wouldn't look at me. Bradley has been watching the movie Balto and he howled like a wolf the whole ride. It was quite funny!!

This is classic Ashton. His faces are the best!

Ellie, Briar, Bradley and Paityn being silly.

Briar loved the horse ride. She is such a cutie!

Bradley also loved the horse ride and howled like Balto the whole time, again.

Brax, being a farmer!

The best part of the day was the pig chase at the end. All the kids took their turn trying to catch a pig. We laughed and laughed!

Ellie won her age and got free popcorn. The best was when Ricky and Ryan paired up and had to catch a pig and wheelbarrow race the poor thing in between them. I filmed it but couldn't get it on here. I thought for sure I was going to pee my pants! We were dying watching them with this poor piglet being drug around the pen! If you want to watch a video, go to youtube and look up rick and ryan pig wheelbarrow. It is slow at the beginning, but you can get the idea.

Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of trickortreating because it was pouring rain and we were soaking wet!