Yellow Tang

This is a Yellow Tang:

This is OUR Yellow Tang:

Earlier this month he decided he has no fear of water, and to our surprise, he even knows how to hold his breath. This is his first day of "swimming" by himself.

Suffice it to say we watch him like a hawk by the pool. We also hope Ashlyn is watching too, because she is still terrified of learning how to swim. As for Jax, he's getting better every time we get in the spa. His favorite is jumping off the ledge and kicking and paddling towards Mom or Dad. Stay tuned for a post about our San Diego trip with the Winkleman's!!

February

Oh man have we been SLACKERS!! Once again I am doing a catch-up post for an entire month. Whoops. So, here is a quick synopsis of our February happenings...

Beginning:

Kids busy tearing apart the house, dumping out drawers and emptying the contents of the pantry. At least they stacked it nicely on the table!

Happy Birthday Mom!!

Middle:

Park day

Valentine's Day. Jason surprised me with a "getaway" in the back house. It's tradition to eat pizza and rent a movie, but this was the first time we ate our pizza on fine china!

End:

Disneyland with the Miyahana's. They came out from Hawaii and we could not pass up on the chance to play with them. We closed down the park. What a fun day!

And last but not least, Ashlyn's new favorite activity...playing Uncle Tay's Wii. She's getting pretty good!

Horspool's have chops

The new decade began in style at Horspool Haven. A tree had to come down, and we had to document the ambitious project. For more background, check out Tami's (our sister in law) blog on New Year's day (click on the link).

[As a disclaimer, this isn't my best edit, but in my defense I was using a subpar program (movie maker) and did it in less than two hours ending at 1am. Anyways, it was meant to be funny, so hopefully you get a little laugh. I just wanted to get it done since I'm a month late... ]

Oh yeah, and it took two days to chop the tree down, but unfortunately on the 2nd day we were on the road to Utah.... sorry that you don't get to see the epic ending to the tree!

Snow Daze

This last Friday it snowed. And snowed. And snowed some more. We woke up to fat flakes falling fast. It snowed so much that school was cancelled! Those of you from less-temperate climates may scoff at this, but here in California we are not used to so much white. Especially on the roads. It usually snows once a year here, but rarely does it stick. So, to take advantage of this rarity, we had to build a snow man.

Unfortunately, our kids do not own snow clothes. I dressed them in the warmest clothing they had, and I think they had a great time. It was the first time either of them really played in the snow. Maybe now that we are back on the mainland for good(?) we better invest in some warmer get-ups. Jaxon especially liked eating the stuff.

The finished product. Doesn't he look so happy?

A little too ironic? Yeah I really do think!

Tang Time!

On Saturday, January 2nd, we made the trek back up to Utah...again...for a Tang Reunion. It was a lot of fun! The last Tang reunion was in Edmonton, Alberta in June of 2007. It had been 2.5 years since I had seen Jason's 2 oldest siblings and their families! That's way too long! Andrew, Liew and their boys weren't able to make it though. Hopefully next go round!

We drove in Saturday night and pretty much went straight to bed. On Sunday, Nate and Mandy Knoebel just happened to be visiting from Boston, so we spent the day with them. Ashlyn and her very first friend, Edie got to play all afternoon. It was so great to be able to talk and laugh and have the kids completely entertained by each other!

Sunday night we headed back over to the Leavitt's (our gracious hosts) to meet up with the Tang clan. Ashlyn and her only girl Tang cousin Lilly hit it off right away. They were inseparable, and now Ashlyn asks to see her Tang cousins often. In the days that followed we went bowling, walked BYU campus, visited Temple Square, and saw Avatar (again). The nights were full of catching up and playing games. Wednesday afternoon we all parted ways, but the Utah adventure didn't end there!

We went up to SLC once again to visit Jason's old roomies, Adam and Russell. We toured Mrs. Cavenaugh's chocolate factory, bowled again, and the dudes went sledding. We came back to sunny California on Sunday. It was an action-packed trip, and I am sure glad to be home!

Fall?

On New Year's Eve Eve, my bro Matty raked all the leaves in the front yard and then offered the pile to Ash and Jax. At first they didn't really know what to do, but Ashlyn soon jumped right in. Jaxon, on the other hand, decided he wanted nothing to do with them.

Merry Christmas!

After 3 years of having children, I still haven't gotten used to the fact that every Christmas and Easter the kids get new Sunday clothes. (And they still get new clothes whenever a big sale is on anyways!!!)

However, they always look so adorable. In fact, this "tradition" is so important to Heather that she spent a whole month looking for Ashlyn's ensemble! And you can't see it, but Jax also got new pinstripe pants and new Sunday shoes. Now bring on Santa!!!