So this who/how we are. Random family fun in the most random order imaginable. Enjoy.
We like to have family movie nights. Sometimes it’s just us, sometimes we invite extra family for extra fun!

Janice making papusas with her brother, sister, and Aunt Maggie. Papusa parties are our favorite.

We always dress up for Halloween. This year was my favorite. Uncle Josh dressed up as Inigo Montoya to pair with Regan dressing as The Dread Pirate Roberts. It made me silly happy how great they looked.

We like to spend time doing “just the girls”, and “just the boys” activities with the children.

These two hug. LOTS. They don’t just love each other, they LIKE each other.

We have the best Dads/Grandpas. Jon’s Dad is such a fun Grandpa. He gets silly with his grandchildren.

Fishing? Yes pleas. Jon’s Dad is great. Have a gardening question? Ask him. He knows EVERYTHING!

When we lived in the country Jon had a bike. When we moved to the city we sold it. Jon and the children loved that thing. I was, eh…, about it.

I LOVE how much this man Loves his children. Melts my heart. And to be honest children melt his heart. He is so sweet and gentle with kids.

I make pinatas for birthday parties. It’s just more fun with a pinata!

Some of Janice’s family. This was taken when brother Barry came home from his mission.

Jon’s mom is AMAZING! She was an ER and Life Flight nurse for years, had 7 children, and currently has 20 grandchildren. She is a ready willing and awesome ear for any and all things. She is such a wealth of knowledge and a great example of thoughtful service and compassion. This woman is patience and love.

Janice’s Dad is the best. He is a high school math teacher. His students like/love him. You can only imagine the amount of love and patience this man has to pull off teaching math to high school students and be liked by them at the same time. He is such a fun and kind Papa. We love the random texts and calls we get from him. Anything from song lyrics (because busting out into song is always a good idea) to simple “I loves you”s. His texts make us all happy.

Janice’s Mom is a ROCKSTAR! She is from El Salvador and immigrated when she was 18, and taught herself English. She is an interpreter for the local hospital. She is stubborn, funny, thoughtful, and wise to name a few. She is teaching Kaylee some basic Greek and Regan some basic Russian. She wants all of her grandchildren to call her grandma in different languages. She loves traveling and learning and shares that love with everyone around her. She and Kaylee are already planning world trips for the future.

We are SciFi geeks around here. So much so that we have children names picked out from favorite shows/movies…….. Kaylee’s name is from Firefly. BEST.SHOW.EVER!

So this picture is one of my favorites with my brother. I love that it shows just how different we look. I was born into a non matchy family. I think non matchy families are extra cute. Jon agrees.

Aunt Linda brings out our inner gammer. Of table games. Not video. We enjoy playing games around the table. And Jon and his brothers game online. Gaming. We are all about it.

We are more often than not silly. We like to have fun. We tend to be laid back, go with the flow kind of people. That’s not to say we don’t get upset/stressed out over life. Because we do, we just try not to.

Janice’s best/favorite pinata to date. Emporer Zurg was pretty awesome too.

The children are our best helpers. We try and let them help out whenever they can. Even when it makes more works for us and takes longer. We know they are learning self sufficiency, and that we believe in them. So the extra work/mess is worth it.

I also find for our kids that it help them not be picky eaters. They are more excited/willing to try a new food when they helped make it. And can I just say that we are enjoying the willing helper stage of life. It is not going to last for much longer, and then it will be like pulling teeth to get them to help empty the dishwasher, and make their beds……..

Below we have Jon’s side of the . There are you know, only a few of them. 😉 Actually this photo is missing two of Jon’s brothers-in-law. They sadly had to work. We are up to 21 grandchildren now. This was just the last time everyone was able to get together. We are hoping to be able to get most everyone together again soon.

Janice’s side of the family. Janice’s Dad is anxiously awaiting more grandchildren to love and spoil. Well they all are…. (He was especially excited to welcome and love on our foster kiddos and claim them while we had them.)

As a side note. Both sides of our family actually LIKE each other and hang out and get along. It’s freaking awesome. It’s not unusual for joint holiday gatherings to happen. I love not having to worry about picking which side to spend holiday time with. For example my little sister sent me this grainy phone picture to rub in my face that she was getting some awesome 4th of July time in with our Mom and Jon’s Mom. Because it’s just more love. So they get together and hang out in Southern Utah while we are farish away in Arizona.

Janice’s older sister went to cosmetology school. Cut, color, and style get changed up often. We like to play around with hair around here. Janice had 4/5 different color, cut, and styles happen within the first month or so of dating Jon. He got used to random and dramatic changes fast!

It doesn’t matter what we are doing. If we are together having family time we are happy. Camping, swimming, movies, jammie days. It’s all good.

We like adventures big and small. We like to try new things, and encourage the children to as well. Kaylee has an animal phobia. Getting in that petting zoo pen was HUGE!

Now that the play set is finished the children all but live in the back yard. We LOVE that thing.

Janice will build a fort for any random reason. Because forts are the best! Cousins are coming over? Build a fort. It’s windy outside? Build a fort. Jammie day? A fort must be built!

Wedding April 2006.

“Just the boys, not the girls.” This was when the boys went to Wet N Wild while the girls stayed home and had a wedding shower for Janice’s sister.