Best of 2010

This past year has been a great one! Looking back, I had so much fun! I am blessed with a wonderful family and such amazing friends! Here are some of my favorite pictures from 2010. (okay most of them... it was too hard to narrow it down!)
Jan - June

July - Dec

New Years Eve

New Years Eve in Utah consisted of a homemade Mexican fiesta, lots of game playing, and then at midnight.... Going outside to do fireworks and bang on pans to welcome in the new year! Most of the kids even stayed awake until midnight! Evan was the only exception in our family... he lasted until 10:30. :)

Courtney's 8th birthday

Courtney celebrated her 8th birthday while we were visiting relatives in Utah. We played birthday bingo with the cousins, made ice cream sundaes, had pizza and opened gifts. She had so much fun!

Catching snowflakes

After church on Sunday the biggest, whitest snowflakes began to fall. Love these pictures of the kids out trying to catch them with their tongues!

Christmas Day

We didn't take many pictures Christmas morning... I am sad about that. I think it was because we were anxious to get on the road to Utah and see family! We had a nice Christmas morning. The kids got the things they asked for from Santa and everyone was happy! Here are some of the pictures we did get... Hope everyone had a great Christmas!

Christmas eve

We had a wonderful Christmas eve! We opened our presents early since we knew we were going to be leaving for Utah the next morning.( The kids loved that idea so that they could have time to play with their gifts before we left.) We also went to my mom's house that evening. We had tons of yummy food, sang carols, and opened gifts. As always, my mom and step dad were WAY to generous! Thank you mom and Gary for the wonderful evening!

Santa Cops

We came home from church at the same time they were doing Santa Cops on our street! The kids love to see the emergency vehicles driving past our house with all their lights on! Firemen were handing out candy canes too. Santa was getting a ride on the back of one of the police cars and waved at all the kids. It was pretty cold, but I was still glad that our town takes the time to do that for the kids.

Echo Park Guest Designer

I am so excited! I entered a contest to be featured as a guest designer for my new favorite scrapbook paper company, Echo Park...... and I made it! I was so excited to see my project chosen! Go here to check it out: http://echoparkpaper.blogspot.com/2010/12/hi-my-name-is-angela-alexander.html

Guess what ornament goes to who...

My kids get to pick out an ornament every year representing something they like. If you know my kids at all, it will be easy to guess which ornament belongs to which kid.

Thanksgiving

We had Thanksgiving this year at my mom's house. She is a great cook and I feel lucky to get to eat all the yummy food she prepared! It is quite the feast! This year, Brian fried one of the turkeys and my mom cooked one in the oven. Both were so good! After we ate, my step dad did the dishes even though we tried to help. He is a great guy! The rest of the day we looked through Black Friday ads, played ping pong, played some games, and visited with everyone. What a great day! I have so much to be thankful for.

Jacob's party

Jacob wanted all of his friends to dress up like pirates for his birthday party and it was a riot! They really got into it! Jacob even went over to his Grandma's house before the party to make each of them matching pirate headbands with their names embroidered on them. They turned out so cool! (Thanks mom!) They also ate lots of yummy food and played a ton of games together. The party went by way too fast! One thing I have to say is that Jacob has a GREAT group of friends. They are all well mannered and such a joy to be around. Happy birthday to my sweet Jacob! I am in no hurry to see you grow up, but at the same time I am so proud of who you are becoming.

Jacob is 12!

Jacob turned 12 years old! Here is a photo of when he was a baby, and then one taken on his 12th birthday. I love this kid! He and I can butt heads at times, but that is because we are so alike! We both are very clumsy.... We both have an odd sense of humor that when we get together, we can laugh for a long time!... We both love doing crafty things too! He is just an all around great kid and I am so proud of him!

CA Birthday Trip!

My husband surprised me and bought me tickets to CA for my birthday present! I was so excited to see my sister in laws, my brother in law and my nephews and nieces! The first day, we played games, then Lauri (one of my sister in laws) and I went on a tour of the NBC Studios thanks to my friend Scott Lucas. We saw behind the scenes for Minute to Win It, Access Hollywood, and Days of Our Lives. It was pretty interesting stuff! Then we took a quick break, grabbed a bite to eat at In and Out, and headed back for the Jay Leno show that Scott had also got us tickets for! Diane Keaton and Keven McHale (Arty from GLEE) were the guests and Switchfoot was the band. We had seats up in the front, but since they were over by the band, they never panned that far over to get us on camera. I guess I was never meant to be famous anyways... Ha ha ha! After Leno was over we went to IKEA to mess around and shop. That is an awesome store! Every time I go, I could spend hours there!

The next day we played more games, then went to Disneyland for some fun! We rode Tower of Terror with Scott and that was awesome! (It was his first time..) I can't get enough of that ride! It is on my top 5 at the parks for sure! I also loved how they had the whole park decorated for the holidays already. It was beautiful!

That night Scott had arranged through one of his friends for us to go to the very exclusive Club 33 at Disneyland. It was a super fancy place! You walked in and took an old fashioned elevator to the top floor overlooking New Orleans square. We had a crab and shrimp appetizer, this really yummy sourdough bread, a French onion soup with baked cheese, the Fillet of Chateaubriand with a Shallot Sabayon sauce for the main course, and for dessert I had a custard and raspberry tart in a baked sugar crust with sorbet on the side. It was all so delicious!!!

They also have really cool toilets and I just had to take a picture! I thought they were funny!

This last picture is of my niece and nephews in CA. I had just given them haircuts and they were being silly for me! They are really funny kids!

My kitchen helper

Evan loves to help me in the kitchen, even with the clean up part! Just thought he was so cute with his yellow rubber gloves on and in such a good mood! Love this guy!

We love fall!

We only have 1 tree in our yard, but we love when it changes colors and all the beautiful leaves are here!

Way to go Courtney!

Courtney has been asking for a Zhu Zhu pet for awhile, and so I promised her that once she got 100% on 10 spelling tests, that I would buy her one. She was so happy once that 10th spelling test came back with a 100%! I loved seeing her work for something that she really wanted.

Climbing tree

We finally have a tree that the kids can climb in and they are in heaven! Here is my favorite picture of Evan just enjoying being up high in the tree.

Pumpkin time

I can hardly believe that it is time to carve pumpkins, dress up, and go trick or treating again! We have to stick with tradition though and get our hands down in the pumpkin goo! I bet you can guess which pumpkin belongs to who if you know my kids at all! Yea for fall and all the fun things that go along with it!

Dillon's day out

The Friday after Dillon's birthday, I took him and 2 of his friends out for a little fun. We first went to see Legends of the Guardians. Dillon really loved it since he loves owls! After the movie, he opened his gifts. He got some great owl books and a cute stuffed owl from the movie! Then I took them all out to lunch at Gunther Toody's for ice cream, corn dogs and fries! I know, healthy right??? :) Dillon had a great time with his friends and hated for it to come to and end. To tell you the truth, I had just as much fun myself if not more! He and his friends were so great!

Dillon's GOLDEN birthday

Dillon turned 10 on 10-10-10! That morning we thought it would be fun to take his picture holding out clock that showed 10:10 and 10 seconds! We also had a little celebration that night. My mom and step dad wrapped his presents in 10 boxes that went from biggest to smallest and he loved to open each one. What a cool idea! We also played BINGO and since it was his GOLDEN birthday, we had prizes like GOLDfish, GOLDen oreos, GOLD nuggest gum, GOLD silly putty... and well, you get the idea. :) His cake was a big number "10" and of course entirely out of chocolate just like he requested. :) Here are some of the pictures from the day:

Pizza month

October is national pizza month! I don't know who comes up with these silly things, but since we love pizza so much, Evan, my mom, my sister Kendra and I went out and celebrated!

San Fran with my man

Day 1

Brian went on a business trip to San Francisco and I decided to meet up with him for the tale end of it. We went to the big party and had so much fun! It felt like we were on a really awesome date! They had rented out this huge arcade that you could play anything for free and we played alot of fun games! Brian beat me at most of them, so I guess I need to work on my skills! They had a TON of food all over the Moscone Center and it was all pretty good. Everything from shrimp, to sliders, pizza, tacos, crab cakes, roast.. you name it. Later we tried out the human sphere balls and those were so much fun! Brian and I got in them and got to run across the carpet and slam into each other. I felt like a giant gerbil! :) I had never done anything like that before! After that Brian took some pictures of me on the giant bungee trampoline! (I was the only girl that I saw wanting to do this). I did flips and it felt like I was way up there! When we were done with the outside stuff, we went down to the concert level and listened to INXS. I was never a huge fan, but do have one of their CD's. I recognized about 4 songs, but still had a good time just watching some of the other people REALLY get into it! Could have been the alcohol too though... Free beer = alot of drunk people by the end of the night!

Day 2

The next morning, Brian had a meeting and so I just wandered around the conference center for a little while just looking around. I had a man approach me and obviously thought I was alot smarter than I am! He started to go on and on all about how his product could make my job so much easier. He went into full detail about it for about 7-8 minutes. I didn't have the heart to tell him that everything he had just said went completely over my head! So instead, I just nodded alot, said "right" and "okay". At the end when he wanted my information, I just said "I may have a team member that may be more interested in this than I am." It was pretty funny...

After that, we had lunch and went for a drive to the Japanese Tea Gardens, the Golden Gate Park, the Tulip Gardens and then to Ocean Beach. We saw alot of beautiful scenery and enjoyed just being together. That evening we walked along Fisherman's Wharf, shopped a little, and ate at Boudin's. Love their clam chowder bread bowls! Yum!

The next morning we had to get ready for the airport to head back home, but we also stopped by See's Candies and Trader Joe's for some souvenirs for the kids. Thanks for letting me come to San Francisco with you honey! I loved being with you, seeing what you do and our time together.

Pioneer day fun!

We celebrated Pioneer day by having alot of games and activities that were done in the pioneer days. I took a ton of pictures, but these were the ones I got of our family. There was pie eating contests, bobbing for apples, kite making, square dancing, horseshoes, watermelon seed spitting, bow and arrows, and alot more! We had such a fun time together!

Good friends... Good times!

We had the chance to leave our kids with a babysitter and go out to a nice restaurant with our good friends the Lowrys! We had the best food and ate until we just couldn't eat anymore. Thanks Scott and Liz for the great evening together!!!

Zoo pals!

We went to the zoo with our best friends and had alot of fun! (Well, besides some of the smells we encountered in the hippo and giraffe house!) Blake and Evan got to see their favorite animals, we rode the train and had a picnic lunch with some more of our friends that just happened to be at the zoo too! It was the perfect weather and we had a great time!

Birthday, Baseball, and Buddies!

I had a VERY FUN night out with my girlfriends at the Rockies game! We were there to celebrate my best friend, Liz's birthday and it was a blast! We spent the whole night eating, watching the game, and laughing so hard! Thanks for the great night out Liz and all the fun memories!

Another school year has started

I have a middle schooler! Man, time has gone by so fast! Also, Dillon is in 4th grade and Courtney in 2nd. They have great teachers and good friends to be around again this year. I think both of those are so important to doing well in school. I have one more year until Evan is in Kindergarten and I am trying to soak in every minute of him being home with me.

Water slide fun!

We were invited to a birthday party recently and had a blast on the water slides! As far as I am concerned, you are never too old for water slides!

Relaxing in the mountains

We got in the van and drove up to the mountains and found this great spot to put your feet in the water and cool off. The mountains are one of my favorite places to visit when I just want to relax. My kids love it too. I feel so lucky that we live so close!

LPS display

Courtney is so excited to have her Littlest Pet Shop collection on display at the local library for the month of August. If you are nearby, check it out the next time you are there! She has been collecting them since she was 3 years old. I didn't think she had that much stuff until we started compiling it for the display! I think we can stop now...

Here are some more pictures! We should count sometime how many she has!

A day at the park

We spent the afternoon at the park with some friends. They all loved being outside in the warm weather and running through the sprinklers!

Utah trip...

What a great time we had in Utah visiting family! From top left going clockwise: Our newest family member Xandra was just born, (and what a cute little girl she is) Jacob and William helped put together a computer, fun times being bounced by Brian on the trampoline, visiting Casper's ice cream store, and enjoying smores in Grandma and Grandpa's backyard.

One day we drove up to Logan, had a picnic lunch and played in the river. The water was cold, but didn't stop us from having fun! Thank you once again to Lynn & Sharon for letting us stay with them and for all they did for us while we were there. We love you!

Sparklers = instant fun!

We did our family fireworks on the night of the 5th since the 4th was so windy and rainy! We did smoke bombs, flower blossoms, sparklers, fountains, snakes, and lightning flashers! We had a great time together even though we got bit my mosquitoes quite a bit. (even with bug spray!)

We love watermelon!

Need I say more? My kids LOVE watermelon! It's one of my favorite summer treats too!

My brother's house

My brother moved into a cute new home and we finally made it over there to visit! He and his wife made us dinner too! It was super tasty! I love having my brother live not too far away from me. I really enjoy being around him and his family. Thanks again for the wonderful night!

Fun in the pool

We spent Monday in Boulder at Brian's brother's house. They have a pool and the kids loved to jump off the diving board and play with their cousins! We all had a great day having fun in the sun! Thanks Dave and Marna!

Father's Day

For Father's day I grilled steaks, made homemade french fries, and a salad. We also had old fashioned strawberry milkshakes for a special treat. Everything was yummy! I am so thankful for the great dad that Brian is to his kids. He is so patient with them and loving. I am also thankful for the dad's in my life. My dad, my father-in-law, and my step dad. They have all been an example to me in different ways and I love them all. They are great grandpa's to my children as well. Thank you men for being who you are and doing a great job at it!

Favorite summer treat!

These were easy to make and my kids loved them! For some reason, they just taste better when they are rainbow colored!

School's out for summer

I have to say that I loved all my kids' teachers this year! They all inspired them to do the best they can and some big improvements were made. I haven't always had teachers that were so involved with my children in the past, so this was a real blessing! I am going to miss each of them! Good bye to 5th, 3rd and 1st grade and hello to summer break!

Best Friends

Love this picture with Jacob and his 2 best friends! They are all smiling! (that is hard to get in a picture lately!) I like to say that who your friends are have a big influence on who you are and who you will become. I love both of Jacob friends and I hope he continues to make good friend choices!