Easter Sunday

After an eventful trip to Park City for Spring Break, we made sure to be back for Easter Sunday where we were able to see sweet little Maggie Staffieri receive her baby blessing. It's a small world - Dan and Matt were best friends growing up in Del Mar, then Dan and I met in Utah, and then a few yeas ago, my parents and Matt's parents ended up in the same ward. Weeks before Easter, our parents' ward split and they split from each other, but the same sweet lady was playing the organ from when I was growing up and some of the kids who were in diapers last time I was around, were passing the sacrament! It was fun to be together again with our families. I hardly recognized Ellie-she looks so old! We sure love this family and were thrilled to hear they are moving back to San Diego from Arizona! We were glad to be a part of their special day. We wouldn't miss it!

  

 The must have "family Easter picture." It was a bit breezy.

 This is why we call him Uncle Matt ;)

 Our handsome little bugger, Cole. Check out those dimples. Lady killer.

 Our darling little Kate. The head cock says it all. *Melt*

 And our sweetheart, Ally. (How does she look so old!)

 

We ended the day with my family as we enjoyed homemade rolls and dinner together. Then the kids played school and Ally was the teacher.  We love living near our cousins!

Birthday bash at Chuck E Cheese

Because our family has a few birthdays within a few weeks, we love to get together for a big birthday celebration.  My brother invited us to Chucky Cheese to celebrate with his son and our two birthday kids.

As usual, there are a few adults who seem to have more fun that the kids. (That would be my dad and my brother's father-in-law.) Always kids at heart.

Even Uncle "J" came to celebrate with us.

They each topped off the night with a visit in the ticket blaster. The hit of the night!

Brown-eyed beauty's birthday

Doesn't she look old?! For Ally's birthday date night we went to her most favorite restaurant -Oggies and then to see Beauty and the Beast in 3D at the theater! 

A birthday isn't complete without a Dixon/Dobron shabang! They start out calm...

The newest addition to the Dixon/Dobron family joined us for our family birthday celebration. Berkley knows how to break in a little girl getting over her fear of dogs. *kiss kiss*

Then the fun begins...

Notice who's at the heart of the fun...

Sometimes it turns violent (See head lock from Gavin).

In an effort to come to the rescue, Shannon gets pulled into the mosh pit.

And then we send the Dixon kids home crying. And that's how the shebang ends. Never a dull moment here at the Dobrons ;) Happy Birthday sweet Ally!

Disneyland

3 weeks of Winter Break calls for strip to Disneyland! We saw some characters we don't typically run into. I think Jasmine's mouth hurt from smiling all day. Not sure she likes her job.

Ally has officially been broken in and LOVES Splash Mountain now. Squeals of joy!

FAVORITE RIDE EVER!

Winter beach break

We squeezed on one fairly warm and sunny day during our winter break before school started up again. Once we get there--with all the effort it takes, it is probably one of the more relaxing things I do with the kids. They are usually really happy and get along well. It's nice to be away from the noise and business of an ordinary day. I'd say a visit to the beach is a great way to start off this new year!

I'll give you $100 if...

Those were famous last words from Dan at a reception we went to. It was a pretty formal affair, as most wedding receptions are. There was the Temecula trolly transporting people who had to park far down the street from the house. Tables were all over the backyard, and then down some stairs by the pool was another bunch of tables. The food spread was delicious and the company was great. As the evening started coming to a close we were chatting near the pool about maybe going somewhere for more appetizers and dessert. As we were there, Dan says to a friend of ours who dipped her foot in the pool to see how warm it was...I'll give you $100 if you jump in that pool right now...and without a blink--in she went, clothes and all. Word got up the stairs quickly and the host, and father of the groom came down with a towel hearing that someone fell in the pool. Needless to say, Dan totally had to pony up the next day at church and she took that hard earned cash without hesitation. It was awesome. I want to be like her one day ;)

We came outside on a calm Sunday afternoon and decided to check on our garden. It was then that we discovered that our bell pepper plant that looked to beautiful with it's large dark green leaves the day before, was devoured from the top down half way. As I looked closer, we discovered these nasty little creatures. They look pretty cool--kinda remind me of the caterpillar on Alice in Wonderland, but they destroyed our plant, leaving nasty black poops all at the base of the plant. (Later, over the next few weeks, they enjoyed the rest of our tomato plants.) Dan took them out to the street and proceeded to bang them with a hammer until their green guts came out. It made me shiver. SO brutal. But those things were literally hissing at us!! I couldn't believe it. We couldn't even pry them off of the stems, we had to cut off the stems they were on to get rid of them. Next year, I will be armed and ready for those nasty green things!!
At least our corn stalks are looking pretty!!