On Friday we celebrated Christmas with my parents. Ty is out of the goofy picture look but the twins have stepped right up!
We also had a cake for Ty's birthday. 
11 years old. 
Saturday we had a party for Ty, 20 kids and super fun.
Grandma Karen sent the present of the year, a big red photo op chair.
We love the red chair.
Sunday Eric took the boys hiking with a group to Slots Canyon. They loved it. 
Saturday night was the annual Festival of Lights parade downtown Palm Springs. Our friends Kristen and Ethan have a big RV that they bring down and this year it was an ugly sweater party. It's a pot luck and we always have so much fun. 
The kids with the best view in the house on top of the RV, Christmas tree and all.
This is the first year we have seen these!!
Our set up.
Sunday morning we decorated our Gingerbread men. They had fun doing it but I'm pretty sure more candy and frosting ended up in their mouths than on the gingerbread!
 |
| Time to try the treat! |
Sunday afternoon Ty had a baseball clinic so Julie and I took the boys hiking, it was a perfect day for it!
They are great hikers and kept telling Julie and I to speed it up. Happy Monday!!
It's lovely having teacher friends that send us cute pics of the boys during school. They had wonderful parent/teacher conferences, almost perfect report cards and their teacher commented that they had told her that their uncle goes to MIT and she said their math skills must run in the family. We didn't tell her that it's my brother in law...
Thursday morning some girls and I decided to do a 5k in Palm Springs, it was worth the early morning wake up and great pre holiday company.
My boys on Thanksgiving.
The each took money out of their wallets to go shopping and we are shipping care packages to the military. Ty has Army, Luke has Navy and Mason is Air Force. The all wrote thank you letters to go along with the packages. Cutest letters ever.
Saturday we headed to Sierra Madre to celebrate Roman's birthday. While most of the people went to SkyZone, Eric, Kerri, Dalton and I took Luke and Mason to Dave and Busters. It was fun and they are the perfect age.
We found the Grinch downtown Sierra Madre and Mason put on his best Who face.
Luke and his doggie.
Sledding downtown Sierra Madre.
Sunday morning in Kerri and Niko's backyard.
Some sleepers on the way home!!
This past rainy weekend Eric loaded up the bikes and headed out to the Chuckwalla's on Friday. The boys and I joined the group on Saturday morning. I stayed behind with them since Ty had a baseball game on Friday night and all 3 boys had football games Saturday morning. All games were cancelled due to the rain so we had a lovely mommy-boys night on Friday and headed out early-ish on Saturday in the chilly morning.
My Mace.
Julie took Luke, Mace, Zoe and I on a jeep ride to check out the area and collect fire wood. These kids find entertainment in anything. During this time it was find a hunk of dirt and see how long it would stay on Julie's bumper while driving. 
The bikes were the biggest hit. Luke is in grey, Ty on the red bike and Mace in the distance. These bikes were ridden constantly in the day light for these 2 days. 
We had some BB gun and clay time. 
And at night, fire walking!! Thanks Zolt.
After dinner there was an intense few games of poker in the freezing cold. Have I mentioned that it was cold????
It is mating season for tarantulas, we saw a few in the desert and the campsite.
Our home for the weekend.
Robb, Eric and Ames. A wonderful weekend with great friends!
On Halloween night we went to a really cool party in a great, kid-friendly neighborhood with some of Ty's baseball buddies. 
10 boys and Batgirl.
The candy exchange after getting the treats, always a favorite activity (and they usually save my favorites for me!)
Luke and Mason got the award of Math Student of the Month for October, smarties.
This past Saturday I took the littles to the Children's Discovery Museum for Harvest Fest. There was lots to do outside but they wanted the old school grocery store and vet clinic to play in.
Mace the bunny vet.
For the first time in so long we did not have any plans on Saturday night so I was excited to try out a new recipe, Mason helped every step of the way and was so proud of our dinner. 
Sunday there was an antique car show at Jessup Auto and they were celebrating 75 years in business so I took the boys down to check out the cars, have some food and thank some vets. 
I went downtown Sunday evening for a walk, this view never gets old!!
Today Eric had the boys all day and took them up to his friend Sally's in Morongo Valley. A big hit with the boys as she has quads, sheep, horses and lots and lots of chickens!! 
We have been thinking about getting chickens, this kind of solidified the idea!
They were loving the chickens and already have names picked out for our, Mason's is my favorite-'Bacon'! I only hope they don't mind eating chicken after we have some as pets/egg makers!