Butterfly Beach...again.

We finally made it to the Beach. We havn't been in quite a while by our standards. After thinking that we were never going to get to a beach we finally made it to one of our favorites down in Santa Barbra, Butterfly Beach. I realize that I have posted about this beach before so sorry for the repeat. As most of you know who are living just about anywhere in California, this past week or so has been very cold, again to our standards, like...low 30's and 40's. So when the sun came out and the temperature rose (high 70's) out we went to have some fun on the sand.

Yes, Honey was the sandiest out of all of us, as you can see she has no problem laying herself right down in the wet stuff.

A view up the beach, I loved all the round stones that covered most of the beach.

Mason found a cozy little spot up on the cliff.

I am so proud of Mason, he wrote his own name in the sand for the first time.

And he did a good job too, I think.

Our good friends Elizabeth and Anthony met us there and helped us enjoy the beach and weather. Thanks guys.

I got this idea from my sister-in-law, Wendi. I just had to try it too. We came across the coolest thing. Someone or many stacked rocks on top of each other all over the place, and high too. Like trail markers gone wild. There were at least 10-15 stacks of rocks.

Here is another shot of the rock stacks.

They even made little ones on this old tree. It was amazing that they all stayed up. Very cool.

Towards the end of the day, not quite sunset, but the water looked golden.

Special Moments

Click picture to enlarge.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas,

from the Hockman Family!

Christmas for a Kindergartener

Here are pics from Mason's little Christmas concert at school. They sang songs like Rudolph the red nose reindeer, You better watch out and my favorite, Feliz Navidad! He pretty much just stood there very still and mouthed a few words, while all the rest of the kids bounced around jumping from one step to the next. He is just so calm. It will be very interesting and different to watch when Honey starts school.

Christmas with the Bennetts

We had an early Christmas with my Brothers family ( the Bennetts) last night. What a great time we had, eatting great food, being with family and opening presents, can't be much better. I love the joy dancing across Masons face here.

My brother and his daughter, Alisha, having a slight wrestling moment. Keep trying Alisha, you'll get him eventually.

Honey, screaming, "Merry Christmas", over and over.

Look at the love, Larry and Steve helping Mason set up his car set. Good job boys!

Santa?

Our annual Ward Christmas party was last night, where the kids met Santa with their usual skeptical and wary eyes. In fact, before we even got out of the car to go greet him, Mason asked us if this was the real Santa or just someone dressed up to look like him. I mean, don't I have like 3 or 4 more years of Santa left, he just turned 5 for crying out loud. Or are the kids just getting smarter and we're just getting older? What is the average age kids stop believing in Santa anyway? Cause this is not the first question Mason has come up with this year. Like, "Is Santa really real?, How does the reindeer fly?, Is there really a Rudolph?" and so on. Oh well I guess we'll keep playing the Santa card til we can't no more.

Mason was asked to play a stable animal in the Nativity Story, I think he was a donky? You decide. And Honey was going to play the sheep but there was not enough to go around so she had to give it to an older child, next year Honey. But she made one cute sheep.

You can barely see Mason, but he is sticking out from behind the girl in the middle with her head turned to the left.

No doubt whatsoever

Yes as if the wild crazyness, and playfulness wasn't enough however, it is now officially, documented and confirmed that Honey is My daughter. She and I share a common problem that our pants do not fit us when we bend down or over. Hence the lovely plumbers crack. Sorry Honey, my bad. Its much more cute on her though. Don't worry I won't put up a picture of my plumbers crack, you'll just have to take Larry's word for that.

Todays Pictures

There is a vacant lot just on the other side of our house and the kids like to run around and look for rocks and such out there, here are some pics of our little quest.

j&h Photography

Thanks to the many encouraging, and sweet comments left by my wonderful family and friends on numerous posts about my photos, I have created another blog dedicated to my hobby of photography. I figure that this blog is for the sole purpose of my family updates and should not be confused with my passion and artistic side for photography. I am hoping that I can use and navigate my creative energy toward my other blog and get a more balanced perspective on something else that holds my attention other than cleaning up after my children, right? Please feel free to visit it and leave honest comments and constructive criticism so that I may have another view on what I can do differently or what I did well. Thank you for all of your optimistic words and positive feedback. www.jhphotography2008.blogspot.com