Briana had a birthday!

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Birthday Girl!

Briana just had a birthday! We braved the snow and took a few of her friends to Big Bear for the weekend. There was a larger than life pin the tail on Briana's bottom, a homemade, nearly indestructible pinata (made for big kids), cupcake decorating, shopping, visiting the local arcade straight of the 1980s, and who knows what else these girls got up to without us ;). Good Times!

Hoping to post the pin-the-tail poster soon - it was SWEET!

Pinata Construction

The Finished Product

Friends and Presents, what more can you want?

Pure Entertainment

Stocking Stuffers - I NEED HELP

Last Christmas, Santa brought our house brand new stockings. They are awesome and huge, 3-4 ft long. Sadly, the biggest kid in the house must have made the naughty list, because he only got an empty stocking. Poor guy. Now finding stocking stuffers for kids is fun and kind of easy, but for an adult man, I'm having a tough time. Any good ideas? Remember Brian loves gadgets, extreme sports, flavorful food, and it's got to be semi-unique.

Thanksgiving with Aunt Laura

So I know it's been forever since I last posted. We've been really busy and I've taken lots of pictures, but I have been too lazy to upload them to post. I'm begging my husband to help, because I hate uploading pictures so much, I've never learned how to do it, patheic I know.

Thanks to the main photojournalist of the family, my mom, I have at least 1 photo to post.

Over Thanksgiving, the kids were lucky enough to go to Hawaii with their mom. They had a great time, those lucky kids!!!

Brian and I were lucky enough to get to go to Arizona with my parents and brother and visit my dear Aunt Laura. She and my dad's mom were very close and Aunt Laura has always been like another Grandma to me. She has led an absolutley amazing life, traveling all around the world, fashion shows in Paris, living the high life in NYC (yacht club and all), working in Hollywood at it's height (and even with the beloved Audrey). She is still living it up, dancing with her friend Vic, yoga, winning golf putting tournaments, and giving me her latest Vogue magazines - she is always a lady of style, just look how gorgeous she is below. When meeting the Donald himself (as in Trump) just a few years ago, he summed up my Aunt Laura perfectly, "They don't make them like they used to."

It was Brian's and my first time to Scottsdale. We had a great time.

Highlights:

• Oregano's Pizza - so delicious, we went twice in 2 days and took 2 x-large home for the kids



• Shopping at the outlets on the way. I bought 2 pairs of AG jeans for $39 each AND they came in short just for me!



• Meeting Vic in person.



• Having Thanksgiving dinner with my Aunt Laura and family.



• Going to the USC game and watching the ASU team get severely embarassed.

Lowlights:

• Trying to get Gelato Classico twice, only to have it be closed both times. Brian still has never had it!



• Shopping on Black Friday. We thought about going to Fry's them went to the mall instead. My mom and Brian made out, but nothing for me.

We love the fair

For Brian's birthday, we took him to the LA Fair. It was a full day of feasting on smoked turkey legs, fried foods, and cookies.

Dressing up for the family photo.

Going home with their new pets.

The Birthday Boy.

Fight On for Ol' SC!!!

Yesterday, the DuRocher clan was inititated into a long standing Brown tradition - a day at USC. We visited my sorority house, the libraries, the book store, and topped off the day with the football game. Other than the disappointing defeat, we had a great time. I was pulling my hair out, shouting at the top of my lungs, but there was nothing I could do to help when the game.





Go USC!!!! - The Warriors in the stand.

Joining the Masses

Now that I think I have the basics of Blogging down, I decided to join all of the masses on My Space. I got a quick intro lesson from The Resident Rock Star and she pretty much set it all up for Brian and me. Anyone else have a MySpace? I am totally out of my element and have no idea how to find anyone or even ask them to be my friend if I could locate them. Looks like I need another lesson specifically on requesting friends.

You can find us by searching for Brian&Katie DuRocher.

Sometimes the Action Finds You

Over the Labor Day weekend, we went up to Big Bear planning on getting outside being active in nature. We packed our fishing poles, hiking shoes, and kayacks. The trip became a lot more than we bargained for. We were met with the greater forces of nature. On our hike, we were interupted with a downpour of hail. "The Little One" and I bolted back to the car while the boys took it easy and strolled on back, apparently not bothered by getting pounded by the ice. Just a few hours later, we were greeted with a knock on the cabin door by a kind neighbor warning us that we might need to evacuate due to the fire we could see from our porch. The fire stayed far enough away so we didn't have to cut our weekend short. The next day we attempted kayacking. We found it strange that the local police were patroling the area on the lake close to the dam, not allowing any boat near it. Several minutes later, helicopter after helicopter started arriving to try to put out the fire. It was pretty exciting! We stayed and watched until we got rained out. A great weekend of action!

Trucking along.

Hiking by the lake.

The Coo Foo started running, then decided to hang with his dad instead.

Fire!!! Fire!!!

Chillin' at the cabin

Doing it their own way.

the heros!

Self portrait

The Rest of the Crew

Meet the Little One

Reasons we adore her:
1. She Bops around all of the time. The girl has serious rhythmn.
2. She is 99.9% of the time happy. Who doesn't love that!
3. She's a game playing fool. She'll give anyone a run for their money at Sorry, Boggle, you name it, she wins.

Meet the Resident Rock Star

Why we adore her:

1. She is always up for any adventure.

2. She is very creative and reflects it in her writing and outfits. She totally owns her own style.

3. She is a huge helper and never lets us down.

This is the Coo Foo

Why we adore him:

1. The guy loves to learn. He rocks at school and takes it super seriously.

2. He constantly tries to show up his dad - getting bigger air on the snowboard, bike, you name it he tries to do it better.

3. He is full of energy. We never know what to expect when his door opens in the morning.

It's About Time

It's about time! That's what my husband loves to say. But he is the most patient man alive. Just imagine living with a not so patient wife who always seems to be in need of help and 3 kids to take care of and get out the door for any activity. The man is truly amazing. After months of thinking about capturing my wonderful life on camera and sharing it with my favorite people - here is my family's blog.

You will have to forgive me if the entries are infrequent - but our family motto "out living life" explains it all. I really wanted a picture of the 5 of us together, but I didn't have one on my work computer so this one of Brian and me ziplining will have to do for now. It captures the mood of our life and hopefully our blog perfectly. We look a little tore up at the end of the day, but the smiles on our faces always show we had fun (as the rednecks would say) "gettin' it done"