Happy New Year 2013

We flew home to Florida on the 31st and figured the best way to spend New Years was to be at the beach!!!  It was a bit windy and chilly, but still warm enough to play in the sand and splash through the water coming to shore!

It's becoming more likely with each passing interview that we will be moving away from this beautiful paradise we have been fortunate enough to call home these last few years.  We have come to LOVE the wonderfully warm weather year round - I mean how many people can wear shorts and t-shirts in December.  Not to mention the BEACH!  While we were in Louisiana anytime Luke would hear a word even close to beach he would look out the window and start pointing outside saying over and over again "beach...my beach."  My kids absolutely LOVE the beach.  We will sure miss this place!

Bounce House

While we were in Louisiana we found the coolest bounce house place.  Justin and I took our kids there a few times and decided it was a place that everyone would LOVE!  The pricing wasn't too bad to rent it privately (and this made it so the grown-ups could bounce too) so we picked a day and BOUNCED!  The kids and kids-at-heart all had a BLAST.  Luckily there was only ONE incident of split pants!

Christmas 2012

Christmas Day finally arrived and our kids were absolutely SPOILED!  It was so much fun to watch their faces and see them so excited.  Luke was pretty funny as he would want each toy/present opened and would NOT even entertain the idea of opening more!  It took forever for us to convince him to open the rest of his presents - I think the last few Taija ended up opening for him.  Pa was ever so helpful in taking care of Mika...he helped her open most of her presents without telling anyone or keeping track of who they were from.  All in All it was a FABULOUS day spent with family and skyping with those who weren't with us!

 Luke and Taija both got scooters from Pa and Grammy - even Daddy had to try them out!

We hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas surrounded by family and loved ones.  It is such a beautiful time of year to remember the Savior's birth and to tell our children of that glorious event that occurred so long ago.  I hope that each year I can teach my children how much they are loved by not only their earthly family, but by their heavenly family who sent them the ultimate gift of our Savior.

Audobon Aquarium - New Orleans

Once Justin's family had all arrived we took the entire crew to the Audobon Aquarium in New Orleans.  It was AMAZING!  The kids had a ball running through the entire place.  They had everything...fish, sharks, turtles, fish, stingrays, seahorses, fish, penguins, and did I mention a ton of FISH!

The few days prior to going all Luke would say was "BIG fish...sharks??"

 When you first walked in you walked through this tunnel which was a huge tank of fish surrounding you

 The entire crew of kids minus William who didn't want to sit still for the pic

 Penguins

 Petting the stingray

 An attempt at a family pic looking over the river

One of the highlights was a bird area where the kids were able to feed parakeets that were flying all around them with food sticks.  I didn't get any pics because I was sitting outside enjoying my wonderful ice cream from the Haagen Daz store!
(Thanks to Uncle Scott here are some pics from the birds)

Thanks to Grammy and Pa for a wonderful day at the Aquarium!