A Wonderful Year!

This is our Christmas letter for the year. Sorry I'm not sending each one of you Christmas cards, but we decided not to spend money on one extra thing. Jeremy and I have had a wonderful year. A year of growing together, learning new things and trying to be better parents and spouses!

It seems like my brain doesn't remember too many details any more, but we did go to Disneyland a lot this year which really has been a highlight! I'm planning on doing a post dedicated only to that! I think we went at least once a month, maybe even twice in some months. We did our usual desert trips with Jeremy's family during Easter Break and Thanksgiving. We are always fortunate to be able to go and spend time with his parents and see the kids getting better and better at riding their dirt bikes! Cozette is loving riding the XR50 by herself and Wyatt asks anybody for a ride on his bike or theirs! I love their enthusiasm! This Thanksgiving, we even got to go on our very first "family ride" including Scotty (he was strapped to my chest with a Snuggly).

At the beginning of the summer, we had a great Beecroft Family Reunion where all of my mom's family came in to town. We dominated the Beecroft Run that is held every Memorial Day and had a great time at the beach and at Disneyland with everyone. We also were able to spend a week in Carpenteria where we camp every year with the Lassens'! We are truly blessed to have so much family close by.

Another fun trip we had was going along the coast to visit friends and family in Santa Barbara, Pismo Beach and San Francisco. Everyone was so good to us and made room for our growing family!

Jeremy and I were able to have a getaway of our own to Avila Beach and we really enjoyed our time together, just the two of us! What a necessary way to grow and put each other first! I love him more and more! He works hard everyday for us at Verizon to take care of our needs and wants. I'm so grateful to have married such a hard worker and devoted father and husband.

I have enjoyed my time playing the piano in Primary at church, but starting next week, I will be teaching the 7-8 year kids. The kids who are getting baptized this year, including Atalie! They are terrific kids and I hope I can be a good teacher for them.

Cozette is 9 an really loves 4th grade. She is doing well with Spanish and loves her school friends and activity days at church. She also loves to practice the piano and making arts and crafts. She didn't get that from me!

Atalie is 7 and is so smart and enjoys reading and school. Her and I have read Little Women together and have no started reading Anne of Green Gables. She is very excited to have me with her for all three hours of church!

Wyatt is a big bundle of energy at 4 years old. He wakes up everyday and gets himself dressed then asks if he gets to go to "pweschool". He wasn't so sure about it at first and cried the first two days, but now he loves it. He also asks me almost everyday if I can wrestle with him. He sure has brought so much joy and love to our family. He is a good sharer and loves to help me cook in the kitchen.

Scotty is 15 months and is the cutest thing ever! He loves to play with anything electronic: phones, remotes, etc... He just learned to walk around this last month and is really enjoying his new found freedom. He still loves his pacifier and loves to flirt with people. He is really a happy and cheerful guy and we are so happy to have him in our family, too.

We are so grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ and hope you all have had a wonderful Christmas and will have a wonderful New Year. Thank you for your friendship and love!

Love,

Jeremy, Ditte, Cozette, Atalie, Wyatt, and Scotty

Blood For Life!

For anyone who is able to, our school is having a blood drive for our principal, Linda Ngarupe on Wednesday, December 16 between 1-6PM. You can make appointments online at blood4life.org and type in Ngarupe for the sponsor code. This is such a loving and selfless gift that most of us can do with little sacrifice! Please consider this probably one of the best Christmas gifts you can give. Thanks for your support!

Trouble!

Scotty is now officially walking! It's so funny to see him standing there with his sippy cup and trying to walk around. He still manages to get his pants really dirty, crawling is faster sometimes. He's so proud of himself!

Sunday morning Cinnamon Rolls!

I wanted to post this last week, but didn't get the chance. Here is the family making cinnamon rolls together last Sunday. It was very fun! Jeremy is a great chef and it's fun to see him in there with the kids. What a good dad!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Avila Beach

Jeremy and I were able to go away this weekend and it was so great! We dropped the girls off at school where they would be picked up by Aunt Kirsten, then the boys went to my parents house. Then Jeremy's parents took them for the Saturday and Sunday. It was so nice to have them do that for us. Thank you everyone for your help!

We drove up to Oceano first where we went horseback riding out on the dunes. It was your typical walking the horse, not running ride, but we saw some beautiful scenes. It was just fun to do something different together as well. Jeremy and I like to try new things. After that, we went to our "resort" and checked in. It was nestled into the hillsides of Avila, among tons of Sycamore and scrub oak trees. It was pretty tranquil. Each room came with it's own hot tub that we filled up each time with stinky sulphur water, but it was very relaxing and warm. Especially since it was pretty cool up there. Saturday we took a Pilates class in the morning. I was so proud of Jeremy for doing it with me. :) We hiked up to the top of the hill which was about 1 1/2 miles up a pretty steep hill that overlooked the Avila Bay. It was really pretty. It was just so nice to not really have a schedule and to be able to read and just enjoy each other. We also got a massage later that day which was heavenly!

Sunday we went home and stopped by to see a good friend on our way. Monday we went to Disneyland with Jeremy's brother and his girlfriend. We went on all the rides we couldn't go on with little kids and it was fun to act like a big dork! We also got to eat at the Blue Bayou in the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. I would say eat there once for the experience. It was pretty good food and since we were right next to the water, I thought it'd be really mischievous to throw rolls at the passing boats, but we didn't!

I love Jeremy so much! He really is my best friend and so good to me. I'm so grateful to celebrate 11 years with him and look forward to many more.

Overlooking some really pretty coast line in Pismo.

Our anniversary dinner at the Garden's of Avila restaurant.
On our hike overlooking Avila.
Horses, horses, horses...

San Francisco

Cozette on her stead at the carousel.

Ben was such a good sport with Wyatt hanging all over him. I'm sure he had sore shoulders the next day!

All our yummy fruit! I love summer!

We went to San Francisco to visit my brother who is going to dental school. On the way up, we made a few stops on Santa Barbara to visit Ben and Alex and then to Pismo before going the rest of the way. We had a great time with our family and friends. They all made us feel so comfortable and well fed! Thanks you guys! Just wanted to post a few picture from the trip. Wyatt became Ben's best friend. He was so good to Wyatt and carried him around on his shoulders and played with him at the park. He even helped him hold a turtle at this park we went to!

Gracie and Cozette near the Bay

Atalie in front of the Aquatic park where people swim laps.

This is on top of the fort that is right under the Golden Gate bridge.

Our van jammed full of all of us while we drove around the city. Thank you tour guide Christian! Cool shot from Baker Beach! That bridge is just so cool!

Wow!

Cute Scotty at the park! His feet and hands are always moving and he is just so happy!

This one is for Erin and Tom. This was at California Adventure in line for the Toy Story 2 ride.

Beecroft reunion we had over Memorial Day. What a great reunion!

Wyatt petting a bat ray at the Aquarium of the Pacific. Atalie had a field trip there last month.

Atalie missing her two top teeth!

School's out and I haven't been on here in forever! I can't believe it! I have been gardening and we went out of town last weekend and had a great time with friends and family. I haven't even put our pictures on the computer yet. Boy am I out of touch.

Tomorrow is Jeremy's birthday and we are finally going to see "Up!" I can't wait to here our kids giggle and laugh at it!

Scotty is as cute as ever! He is army crawling right now and he's fast! Nothing is safe anymore on our house!

Random videos from the last two weeks

Just testing out our camera and getting Wyatt riding the bike with Jerm. I love his little voice.

Spring Break

We had a great Spring Break these last two weeks. I'm sad that the girls have to go back to school tomorrow, but it will be nice to have some sort of routine again. The first week we got to go to the Getty Museum in LA. I loved the architecture and the garden tour was very nice. Kirsten and her kids came, too, as well as Else and Haans, Tyson and Esther. It was great, but a little exhausting. Especially trying to keep tabs on Wyatt when we went into the West Pavilion to look at the impressionist artwork. What a burden it would be to have too much money!

Some "kangaroo pods" in the garden that I thought looked cool up against the roman stone in the background.

Easter was nice with a dinner and egg hunt at my parents home. Kirsten and I made these really cute cupcakes that had banana and crushed pineapple in them with cream cheese frosting, green died coconut on top and candy covered Hershey eggs that Kirsten decorated to look like little chicks. They were really yummy!

Wyatt is trying to make Luke look at the camera. Thanks, Luke, for putting up with Wyatt!Aunt Gayle wanted this picture of us since she, my mom and Aunt Anna had a similar one when Jacob, Candace and Christian were about this age or younger, I think.

The girls and I also got to see the Hannah Montana movie which I really enjoyed. It was not annoying like the TV show, but cute, clean, silly and fun. The music was great as well.

This last week we went camping in the desert and went dirt bike riding. Thanks to Cristin for watching our boys and Jerm's parents for taking the girls on a ride, Jeremy and I got to make a date out of a ride we went one. We took a trail that headed us north west of our camp towards a place called Jawbone. It took us through a flock of sheep and across some really cool sand dunes that were so clean, there were no other tracks on them. It was so interesting to see the sand drifted like that over the trail. It reminded me of snow. The only downer about this kind of date is that you don't really get to talk to each other unless you stop. But I had a good time and Jeremy is very patient with my riding. I even took this jump where I felt kind of like Miss Piggy as she jumped a motorcycle through a glass window in the Great Muppet Caper, except I went through a bush! I even had branches stuck in my goggle strap! It was pretty funny.

Cozette really took to riding her little 50 this trip. She asked Jerm to ride it and off she went. He taught her how to shift and she would frequent 2nd and 3rd gears. She's not afraid to turn or anything and even liked going over the whoops. Atalie had fun on the ATC and riding in her Nana's buggy. We had a little incident with that: Cozette was driving the buggy with her cousin Audrey in it. Atalie was riding a bicycle on the rode and got nervous as Cozette was coming up on her. Atalie turned around to tell Cozette to slow down, but somehow jerked the handle bars making herself fall right in the road, right in the way of the buggy. Sure enough, thump, thump, Cozette ran her over. When Hans came running back to tell me, I didn't believe it at first, you know how kids get dramatic, but Cozette lovingly had picked her up and put her in the buggy. I was pretty angry at Cozette because I didn't understand what had happened. I drove Atalie back and brought her in to the trailer where Brian was packing to go. Since he is a fireman, he was able to check her out and clean her scratches. We didn't really know the extent of her injuries because she had some scratches on her back and knee and her denim shorts were totally ripped in the back, to the point where I have to throw them away. She was so distraught and hysterical, but eventually she calmed down and we realized nothing was broken or squished. I'm going to take her to the chiropractor tomorrow just to be sure. She is acting just fine and I am so grateful for the guardian angels that surround my kids! I guess I go into survival mode because I don't dwell too much on what could have happened. I am so glad that it wasn't worse and there doesn't seem to be any permanent damage!

Kirsten on my bike. She did great! Jeremy was very impressed with how well she rode!
Cristin and her boys in the buggy.

Scotty on his first long ride. It's pretty scary riding through sand when you are alone, but put a baby or a child with you and it's even scarier! But we made it just fine. He even dropped his pacifier once, but Atalie and Jason stopped to pick it up, then his hat flew off and Jeremy and Wyatt picked it up.

So we are home now and trying to get through mounds of dirty laundry from the desert and eating off what we have in the house. Since I didn't make it to the store in time yesterday, we had to bust open some rice milk to eat with this morning. I would much rather have that than canned milk or dry milk.

Anyway, enjoy the pictures and I'm going to see if the videos from my new camera work! Have a great week!

Shabby Shores

This is for Ari! The stuff on her shabby shores blog is so cute! I love the little kid shoes as well! Enjoy!

Some fun pictures!

Angel food cake at Auntie Doris trailer at the beach! It was for Candace's birthday!

We've done a lot in a month! Scotty is now 6 months old and I can't believe it. He cut his first tooth today, rolls onto his stomach from back and vice versa, scoots, and loves to eat his rice cereal! He can't get it in his mouth fast enough! He is such a sweet baby and so beautiful! We are all so in love with him. Some of my favorite moments with him are when he first wakes up and sees me come into his room, he starts laughing and acting so cute. As if I need convincing to pick up this adorable child! I also love when it's early in the morning and I have the chance to lay there in bed and nurse him. He's so great!

This is a typical face of our sweet boy! He's so happy!

We went to Arizona last weekend for my cousin Dustin's wedding and had a great time out there. The kids couldn't get enough of their cousins. The wedding was very nice at the Wright House in Mesa and Jeremy even got to participate at the end when Dustin had some buddies and his Dad ride up on all their dirt bikes. Dustin hopped on one and Brittaney got on the back with a sign on her back saying "Just Married" and they rode off with the posse behind them. It was very cute.

Eating our Haagen Daz bars at a truck stop in Quartzsite.

Another highlight of the month was St. Patrick's Day. Cozette was able to borrow a Leprechaun trap from Audrey. Audrey built a trap in a box using a doll bed, a drawing of a girl leprechaun, for obvious reasons and some money. Since Audrey was able to get some treats in her trap, Cozette thought it would be worth a shot. Sure enough, after she set it up with the help of Atalie, they found some candy bars in it the next morning. The best part was that the Leprechaun signed his name on a post it: Patrick O'Hullahan. So exciting! I had to smile when Cozette came in and told me what they had caught and that she had observed that the Leprechaun's writing looked a lot like her Daddy's! Smart girls! Santa better watch out!

Hope you enjoy these pictures from all these events! We are excited for spring break and hope for good weather when we are camping in the desert!