Grandpa Larry and Nonni

Grandpa and Nonni are Scott's parents. They have been doing a lot of traveling the past year. They both love going to rock concerts and keeping up with friends.

Please!

Clay came up with this and taught Emmie. This is what he does when he wants a gumball, a popsicle or a new baby brother. Emmie is begging for a new baby sister. What you can't see is how they are batting their eyelashes and saying "Pleeeeeeease!" in their sweetest voices. It doesn't really work because it just makes Scott and Annie laugh. Maybe it will work for a birth mother. :)

Monterey- So much to do!

Monkey see ^

Monkey do^

We chase the kids on foot as they drive the path.

Scott and Emmie as Dad catches his breath.

Good luck Dad you are gonna need it!

There is so much we like to do when we're on vacation. We are usually all exhausted by the time we get home. But given a day or 2 to rest we are dreaming of going again.

Monterey Again!

This is just one of the trips we were able to take last fall. It's always lots of fun for all of us. We'll have to try something new like camping up the coast of California or in the Redwoods next time.

Scott and Annie in Monterey

Emmie actually took this picture. She did a great job! No need to ask strangers to get pictures of Annie and Scott together.

Mr. and Miss Independent

Emmie and Clay were so proud of themselves. They got ready for school without help from anyone. Annie wanted to put a sign on each kid before they went to school that read "Look, I dressed myself today (without mom's help)!"

Scott and the Kids

Scott tries to spend as much of his free time as he can with the kids. He likes to get them outside to hike and explore. The children look forward to Dad Time all day.

Grandma and Grandpa

These are Annie's parents with the kids. Grandpa loves to tease the kids all the time. Grandma lets the kids bake cookies and do all sorts of messy crafts and even plant in her garden.

A Tour of Our Home

Welcome to our home. Here we will take you on a quick tour. We had our house designed and built 3 years ago.

This is our front yard. We have a large open lawn with lots of room to play.

This is the courtyard off the side of the entry. We have had some fun marshmallow roasts and BBQs out here.

It's a great place to sit and read, listen to the birds or look at the stars at night.

This is our living room. It's the first room as you enter the house. It's attached to a dining room with an open plan so we can move out the furniture from this room and put in a giant table for big family dinners. We held Scott's parents' 40th wedding anniversary celebration in here.

Now we enter the family room, the room that gets the most action. We have movie nights, play family games, homework sessions, read to the kids every night before bed time and have family prayer right here.

We have big cupboards for lots of games, a saltwater aquarium and tall windows that look out to the deck where the kids play. We have a terrific view through here as well.

The kitchen is right behind the family room with a breakfast nook right next to it. This is a a big open area for the family to gather in all 3 rooms.

This is the deck right off the family room. It's all enclosed and even has a gate to keep the kids on the deck and not wandering off. They ride their bikes, ride the teeter-totter and have tea parties on the deck.


Here you see why we think this is just about the best place to live. This is just part of the view we have looking off the deck. We love living in the country. We have lots of friendly neighbors a short walk away. The pale white dot in the middle of the picture amongst the trees is a great family with 3 little girls our kids love to play with. Our property goes to almost to where they live.


Being in the country we knew we would need lots of play places designed just for the children. There is a nice park less than a mile away with a little running creek and tennis courts but we wanted to have something the kids could walk to where we knew they would be safe.

Right behind the house and in full view from the inside of the house we have created a fun playground. For each birthday and Christmas we have added an element to the playground creating a safe, shady and interesting play area.

Inside we have taken the office and turned it into a kids' play room. We have toys and games in the cupboards, a dollhouse and race tracks.

We've also put the play kitchen and the artist's corner in here as well. We wanted the kids to have a common social area where they could play with all the toys. They play together more often since we did this and they know the toys are for everyone and they aren't quite as selfish with them as they once were.

The bedrooms are for sleeping and getting dressed. There are just a few toys they keep in there. They also have a desk and lots of books in each. We've made them as nice and peaceful as possible. We have one for the girls and...

...one for the boys.

We hope you like what you see and know that we put the children first in our family. We want them all to get the best head start in life as possible. We want to provide the kids with a safe, happy, loving and comfortable living environment. We want it to be one where we can all learn and build strong family relationships with each other.

The Monterey Bay Aquarium

Can you believe how lucky we were? The aquarium was almost empty and this was over spring break. We have annual passes so we go as often as we can get away. The kids were thrilled to get to play in the touch pool. We found an octopus out to visit. We were enjoying getting a really close look without any crowds. Finally Emmie was ready to move on. She said, "Can we ignore the octopus now?"

Annie and Scott

The best thing we can do is spend time together. We look forward to our days off and days when school is out just so we can hang out together.

Emmie, Clay and Annie

Is there anything more fun than lounging on a beach while the kids are busy building sand castles together? What a great day!

Emmie and Clay

Emmie and Clay would love a baby brother or sister. They are great kids and have a lot of fun together. They have already made room for a new baby and have selected their own favorite baby toys and clothes to share with him or her. They are so excited they can hardly wait to be a big sister and big brother.

Easter Sunday Best

We look great don't we? Everyone is clean and dressed in their finest. Everyone is even happy and smiling. I had to capture it for proof. As usual, we didn't look this way by the time we actually made it to church. We were lucky the kids had on any clothes at all by then but the kids did keep the grumbling to a minimum. That's all we really could hope for a beautiful Easter morning.

Oliver

Poor sad lonely puppy. So what exactly does Ollie do all day while the kids are away at school? Spoiled rotten!

Helper Clay

Try as I might I just can't get Clay organized.

Packing for Vacation

Emmie and Clay have been busy this morning packing for vacation to Monterey. It's their favorite place in the world. I'm sure this is only because we haven't yet taken them to Disneyland. This is Emmie's suitcase so far. These are the things she can't bear to part with for 3 days. There are more toys than clothes AND most of the toys are things she hasn't even touched in months. The Whoopee Cushion is priceless! Em said it was to wake up mom and dad in the middle of the night. This is still a work in progress. She is still sorting through her things for more treasures to stuff in the suitcase.Clay has the bare essentials. He has the otter (we are going to Monterey after all), a bell to also wake up mom and dad, and a game. He packed 1 pair of shorts, 1 pair of jeans and 1 short sleeve shirt. He wasn't sure if it would be warm for shorts or cold for pants. I had to capture this even though we are running crazy this morning trying to get things squared away before General Conference starts.

Child-Proof Depends on the Child

Em's been a little sick lately so we had the medicine and vitamin box down on the counter. She had taken some Tylenol earlier. She came up to me after we had gotten home from taking the car to the shop and declared she had just taken her vitamins. I was a little shocked. I first asked her exactly what she took. It was just her normal bear vitamins and fluoride tablet. We usually keep the pills way up high and I have never even let the kids watch me open the bottles so they wouldn't figure it out on their own. I asked her how she got them open. She said, "Well, I read on the lid. It says 'To open push down and turn.'" We're so glad she can read, but things have just gotten a little more tricky. They should be called 'Non-Reader Proof caps' not 'Child Proof caps'.

Workin' on the Dog Yard

Scott taught Clay how to use the cordless drill and they worked hard putting up the wooden part of the fence. Clay operated the drill and Scott gave it some force. They were a good team and finished quickly. Olliver was excited before he knew what they were really up to.