Friday, February 17, 2012

FIRST SUMMER IN CALI...


THE BEACH
Sooooo, yes, it has been an adjustment moving to California, BUT, oh how we've adjusted :) So many fun things to do here, ONE being my very favorite, going to Newport Beach! Being only 10 miles away makes it very hard NOT to go :) So that's what we basically did all summer... Go to the beach and play. Kids ABSOLUTELY loved it! Brielle goes out into the ocean a little too far and Bryce crashes into the waves like hes a bulldozer! So yes, without Scott there with us, I don't really get to relax. These kids just LOVE water and the ocean was a big hit with them this summer!
Scott and Brielle making their way out into the water....

Sand!! What would we do without the sand! Sandy bathing suits, sandy hands, sand in eyes and throwing wet sand (Bryce) oh how I love it! Kids could play in the sand for hours.

Awe, me and my babies. They sure do keep me busy, but I love them to pieces! We sure had a fun day this day.

Brielle loves to write and enjoyed writing lots of words in the sand. First she wrote "Brielle"

Dad and Bryce...

And this one I cant really make out in the pic or remember... It was probably something like,"Mom, Brielle, Dad and Bryce" Since that's what she LOVES to write :)
Woke up early, went to the gym as a family, ate lunch and off to the beach by 11am! A perfect start to the day and a BEAUTIFUL day at the beach! Love days like this one!



IRVINE SPECTRUM
So there's this really cool mall called the Irvine Spectrum, in Irvine of course, and its just a really neat mall. Like a small amusement park, great shopping, lots of dinning, and movie theater all in one. Went there lots this summer since the kids really like it and there's a target attached so of course I really like it too! *turned into a target girl since moving to CA, sure miss my Walmart :(

So, on this particular summer afternoon we met a good friend of mine Brittany and her darling little girl Joli at the spectrum for the day. It was so so so so HOT so we walked around, rode a couple rides and shopped a little then went straight to the SPLASH PAD they have there to get nice and WET! That splash pad saves you on a hot sunny day!

This mall is beautiful! It has lots of pretty fountains the kids kept stopping to play at..

That's cute Joli and she looks as if something got her hand in the water!! :)

Cant NOT ride the carousel when going to this mall. Always, ALWAYS do we stop here for a ride :)

Brielle being goofy like her mother of course.. Bryce looks a little unsure of himself :)

I just want to squeeze these two!!!! :)

Splash pad!!! Time to cool off! Cant wait for summer to go all over again, and again, and again!!

Sunday, January 29, 2012

Randomness

Bryce and his ice cream catastrophe!! I think hes a litte sad that its all gone! :)

Showing me its all gone :(

Every Tuesday its trash day and at 7:30 am on the dot we are outside on the porch to watch the "trash truck" dump everyone's trash cans. Bryce is obsessed with trash trucks.

Starring and watching the trash tuck dump away. I shoulda got a shot of the truck! What was I thinking!! :)

Just some random fun playing with toys. Bryce and Brielle love to play together!!
P.S. the binki is finally gone!!!!! Bye bye binki!!!

Turning 28

Happy birthday to me!! :) So, back in April, I turned 28. So weird.... I seriously still feel 23.. but I am not... I am 28!! Almost 29 now!!!! We celebrated by eating dinner at Red Robin and eating lots of ice cream.

I just love this little girl!!!! I like to call her my little clone cause we are honestly the same exact person in so many ways!!!

Like I said, the exact same!!

Kids getting a little restless. 28 was a sweet, simple and fun Bday and I am so glad I got to spend it with these guys!!!! Love them to pieces!! Thanks for taking me out family!!

Friday, January 6, 2012

Easter at Christmas?

Wow, am I behind!!! Well, almost a year ago in 2011, we celebrated Easter. Although I should be posting our Christmas from 2011, I just have to post Easter first. So I will :) Easter was really a neat time for us cause we got to spend it with my side of the family, which we have never done before. We literally moved to CA weeks before and were able to spend Easter with my family. It was really fun.

Easter morning we were at our place and started the day off with searching for the kids Easter baskets. Every year we fill em up with the kids favorite candy and hide them in the house for them to find. Its so exciting for them!


Together, Bryce and Brielle searched and searched..... until finally...


They found them!!!


Then it was off to church in our new ward, which was really a wonderful 3 hours filled with teachings of our Savior and his Resurrection.. Then off to my moms of course to celebrate the rest of Easter with family!! :)


Tried to get some shots of the kids together....


and some cousins too..


me and Brielle....


more cousins...


A pretend family picture! Why didn't we try for another shot? I am not sure, but here's our family pic for now.


Here's the Hoyal side of the family. We decided that we should get a pic together since its not every that day that everyone in the family is together like this. I think that's everyone... oh wait, Ladd, you are missing cause our side of the family is sooooo impatient and couldn't wait 10 more minutes for you to get there!!! That's what you get for being in the bishopric and having meetings after church!! Lol!! We still love you :)


After family pictures and Easter dinner, there was of course an Easter egg hunt!!! There was 2 groups. The hunt for the little kiddos, and the hunt for the big kids who steal all the eggs and are wild and crazy together :) You can see why we separated them into two groups :)


Bryce man found lots of eggs. It was a fun day filled with food, candy, family, and reflection on our Savior. Happy Easter!!

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

THE BIG MOVE


Oh boy, I am sure late on getting this post out! :) Ill just get right to it. So about 8 months ago, our little family moved to good ol' California!! We lived in Utah for about 6-7 years and a new job brought us to Orange county were we are currently. It was such a bitter-sweet feeling about moving, at least for me... I absolutely love California since that is where I am from and all my immediate family is there, but I also love Utah for that is were I met my husband and had both my kids and have many close friends and family there too. Totally torn! Being torn and having bitter-sweet feelings, I was still excited to move and start on a new adventure. The one thing I wasn't excited for was the actual MOVE!! Wow, moving is a TON of work! I am so glad we had lots of awesome friends and family to help us move out as fast as we did!!!! What a fun, goofy, exhausting, frustrating, hilarious time we had moving!!!

The Penske moving truck. Man, once this thing was in our driveway, the move really felt real :( What a huge thing to drive!!! Bryce LOVED it!!! After he saw Scott driving it the whole way to CA he couldn't get enough of big yellow trucks! He thought every big yellow truck was a "daddy truck" ..super cute that boy.


This was the highlight for the kids!! Running up and down the length of the truck!! This is Taeya, Brielle, Bryce and Anastyn. Taeya and Anastyn are my great friend Brandalyns kids who are also our neighbors across the street. The crew of 4 were always together, especially Taeya and Brielle. They were the best of buds!!! We will miss you guys so much!!!


Bryce and Anastyn in the corner trying to get away at this point. These two are so cute together. Since they were little, people have asked if they were twins. So funny cause they look alike, but they really don't :) So cute! We will miss you Anastyn! Its okay though cause Brandalyn and I are convinced that her and Bryce will marry when they grow up so they will be together again someday! :)


Our garage through this whole process! Box after box after box..... serane wrap after bubble wrap... after tape after more boxes after finally just throwing things in the back of the truck and who cares!!!!


Oh how I miss this girl!!! This is Sara T. who was assigned to wrap everything in sight in serane wrap. She honestly made packing so much fun. In this pic she was about DONE wrapping and fed up with the crappy roller wrap thing we had. It kept breaking and was driving us nuts!! I am thinking it was attacking her at this point!!


And what am I gonna do without this girl!!! This is Erin and honestly, she made me laugh so hard when she came to me wrapped up in serane wrap like this!!! Sara was serious about wrapping everything in sight and Erin was convinced she was coming with us to CA so Sara got her ready to be loaded up in the truck!!!! LOL!! Miss them...


Late night pizza party at the Milligans!! I think the last few nights of packing was just one big goofy party with pizza, candy, and tears!!! I of course had to post this one of scott, proving that I am not the only goof ball in our family :)


And this girl?? This girl I will miss more than she knows! This is Brandalyn who is honestly one of my very best friends!! She helped me sooooooo so so much getting packed and ready for this move. Physically and emotionally! She is just amazing and I love her and her family so much!!!! We have decided that maybe 4 times a year is good to visit!! And we did it! Its December and we've seen each other 4 times since the move!


This is Sarah L., Sara T. and Erin. These are my gym girls :) I love them to pieces! I don't have any individual shots of Sarah L. but she was so awesome and helped me out a ton with my garage sale and the deep cleaning of my house!! Thanks so much Sarah!!! These 3 helped me in so many ways! They are such sweet and loving people who I am so glad to know and be friends with.


We love you Brandalyn!!! Just so you know, Scott still hasn't found someone who can cut his hair as good as you!!!! Its a problem :) lol!!! You are honestly the best out there!! Scott will miss you and your last minute hair cuts!


One last hug from everyone :( Couldn't have done this move without everyone's help!! There were so many others who helped out too!! Another person who saved me over and over again was my adorable friend Alyson (wish I had a pic). Alyson watched my kids for hours on end while I packed and worked in that house! She always offered and took such great care of them. My kids LOVE Alyson and still talk about her today. I will miss Alyson so very much. There were so many others who helped out with my kids, thank you so much! Grandma Sue, Aunt Emily and Uncle Steven... Aunt Cindy and your darling family, all my sweet neighbors..THANK YOU! Mary, thank you for taking Bryce for me so many times! Heather, thank you too even though you weren't here cause I know if you were, you woulda been right there by my side 24/7 and just knowing that makes me so thankful!!! Sure miss you too! Everyone else that I may have left out, thank you thank you and know that we love and miss you all :)


Almost time to close up!! The house was so empty... so weird.. Getting the last of things together is probably the hardest. I swear the little gidgets and gadgets were never ending! I threw so much stuff away at that point!! My trash can was overflowing and I was filling up the all my neighbors trash cans as well.


A few more items to load up and we were ready to leave :( So sad to leave our house and everyone!! I loved living in Utah! What an amazing place to be. We have met so many special people that we will never forget.


One last shot of the kids from inside the moving truck. This is our farewell :) Would I ever recommend moving to anyone? I would have to say a big fat NO!! To get rid of junk and really clean house, YES cause it was seriously crazy how much crap I got rid of.. but moving was really hard in so many ways. Wheew, I am just glad its over!! Want to thank everyone again for everything!! We miss and love you all!! Who knows, maybe we will be back to Utah someday.. hmmmm.. ya never know! ;)

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Bryce swimming lessons...

So back at the beginning of this year, Bryce took 2 months of intense swimming lessons at O'neal Aquatics. Starts at 5 days a week, 40 min lessons and slowly moves to 3 to 4 days a week 20-40 min lessons. Bryce is now the best little swimmer and seriously is the craziest kid in the pool I have ever seen. He is currently doing front flips into the pool with his sister and about gives me a heart attack every time he does it! Bryce has always loved the water but when swimming lessons started, he HATED swimming.. then about a week in, he was enjoying it again. and now the kid will jump in any pool, clothes on, without warning. Its quite the adventure watching this little guy in the pool!

Bryce floating on his back... this one took awhile but he got it!!

Noodle and kick-board across the pool all by himself... well, almost :)

You can see his goggle eyes in some of these pics!! He is so glad to get them off at the end of each lesson!

All by himself this time!!

Mommy says, "Yay, good job Bryce Man!" and Bryce is thinking, "Not so sure about this mommy.."

warming up...

And of course the little pros to set the example!! Taeya and Brielle are such great swimmers!!!

Floating FOREVER!!! Good job Bryce!

Still floating...

...and still floating!
Bryce floating and floating some more until he hits the edge, grabs the side and turns himself over. Mommy did lessons with Bryce this time so I could learn and practice with him. Its a lot to know and teach!!!

And at the end of each lesson, its diving sticks!! Bryce loves to "pick up the sticks" to end the day. I kinda got a smile out of him in this one :)