Christmas in California

The Sunday before Christmas Day, we were able to have the whole family together for dinner. This is a family photo we took. Rick's brother, Steve, and family came for dinner - including a co-worker of Kathie's from Japan. After dinner, we sent to a neighborhood in Brea that goes "all out" with decorations. It's hard to describe. Let's just say there was a live manger scene with live sheep and Steve could see the neighborhood from the air when landing at John Wayne Airport Friday night. It was special to have all the kids and their families together for the holiday's. We aren't sure when this will happen again.

Nathan being stopped by Santa.

Josh being pat on the head by Santa.We ate Christmas Eve dinner at the Masters. All but Nathan and his family were there.

But after the dinner at Masters, all the family met for the "open a gift on Christmas Eve" tradition (usually PJ's, slippers...).

It worked out that everyone was able to be at our home on Christmas morning.

Katelynn & Jen are here!!

Jennifer and Katelynn flew in for the holidays on Sunday. Nathan has finals and will drive down at the end of the week. Katelynn is growing very fast. Her vocabulary is growing and pronunciation becoming easier to understand. It is amazing how much they comprehend at this young age. Of course you can tell, we are not proud grandparents. Nate and Jen are doing a fabulous job.

Katelynn didn't take long to find the ginger bread houses from Jarrod's party (see previous posting)!!

Proud grandparents!!

Jarrod Party

Jarrod had friends over last Friday night for a party. One of the activities was building ginger bread houses. They had a good time. They also played Wii and DDR.n Funny thing-- from the pictures, it's obvious the girls out numbered the boys by about 2 to 1. We just roll our eyes as parents thinking "here we go again through the teenage years" - but with a big smile!

Getting a bit cool but the fire and patio heater helped.

The final masterpieces!!

Katelynn's, I mean Nate & Jen's visit

We spoke with Nate & Jen the Sunday before Thanksgiving. They were spending the holiday with Grandpa and Nancywith Jen's family is Salt Lake. On Tuesday afternoon, Sue was out shopping when she received a call from OUR HOUSE. There was initial panic as to who was calling from our house when I was at work and Jarrod at school. Nathan and Jen had decided to drive down and surprise us. They did. It was wonderful to have them here for a few days.

Katelynn has some of the cutest faces.

Grandma (Sue) saw this at Costco several weeks ago and couldn't resist. When you press the ear the head and tail move and it makes a clopping and naying sound.

Look out, she will be driving before you know it.

What a good looking family.

We went to Rainforest Cafe on Saturday night.

In the restaurant, there are jungle noises every 30 minutes. She imitated the monkeys.

Jarrod Bday/Bookcases

Jarrod's birthday was October 28th. It was the big 15. Only 1 more year to drive, actually less with a learner permit. As evidenced from the photos, he is into tennis. He got new tennis shoes and a ball holder/stand/picker-up thing, plus a t-shirt and Ipod earphones. He's enjoying being the only child at home.

Rick C's beard (seen at the left) was for the "Savior of the World" play. He looks like Santa!! Sue and Jarrod also took part. Sue was the prop manager and Jarrod ran a spotlight. It was very professionally done. There are YouTube versions; but our stake's production was much better (in our humble, unbiased opinion).

Rick started building an entertainment center/bookcase in the family room. Still has a long way to go.

Jarrod Court of Honor/Running

Jarrod received his Personal Management, Personal Fitness, and Camping merit badges at the last court of honor. He has completed his merit badge requirements for Eagle rank. He wrote up his Eagle Project and submitted it to the committee last week. He should hear from soon for corrections. He can then begin his project. He will be building bookshelves for LaVeta Elementary School.

Jarrod ran in the Orange County Invitational at Irvine park on Saturday. His finish time was very impressive. Unfortunately, it rained the night of the race and created heavy mud. The officials changed the course and eliminated a hill. Therefore, their times were 1 - 1.5 minutes faster. But it sure sounds good for a personal record when there is no time for explainations!!!

Jarrod's Cross Country

Jarrod had his first cross country meet this week. He hadn't been planning on doing cross country this year.He thought he would be able to do Tennis but that didn't work out so the only way to have 6th period PE was to do crosscountry. So he ran. He had only been running 1 week prior to the meet. He couldn't hardly walk due to painful muscle the first few days after practice. At the meet he finished 5th for his team of 9 or 10. The coach was very pleased.

That's a tired bobo.

Katelynn & Jennifer visit

Jennifer and Katelynn were visiting this week. They went back to Provo yesterday. It was nice to be with them again. We were sad that Nathan had to stay in Provo. He had to work and started school. By the photo, it's easy to see Grandma loved having her favorite (though only) granddaughter around to spoil.

It was very hot during their visit. Sitting in the front yard eating a popcicle was a welcome relief for the kids. Anna and Katelynn have become very close cousins.

We also were able to go to the park and play on the slide. Grandpa had gone down the slide several times on his lap just fine. Then we let her do it on her own. Though hard to see, you can see she did not care for it much.

This is a video of Katelynn calling Anna.

Utah Vacation

After the trip week to Yosemite and Shaver Lake, Jarrod spent the next week in Utah attending EFY at the BYU campus. Sue's 3 sisters were in Utah at the same time. So she went there for the week to be with her sisters. Rick had the "pleasure" of being a bachlor for a week. He flew up on Saturday. Josh has been in Logan with Hayley's family for the summer so they came down on the weekends. It was a tremendous blessing to see the entire family together again. It doesn't happen very often any more. Nancy had fabulous dinners for us every night.

Sue is playing games with Katelynn. It was great having bonding time with her.

Julie and Bob's family were in Utah for a family reunion for the Spencer's.

Cute!

Rick spent the days working around the condo. He did various things: motion sensing flood lights, new outlet and wall switches, track lights on Nancy's painting, new dining room light.... But at night we had fun. On Wed night we drove to Logan to be with Josh and Hayley. After dinner we went to a fun center in Logan. It had a wave machine to boggie board and surf. Josh and Jarrod did pretty good. Josh says it's nothing like the real thing.

Then we went bowling. Josh's HS bowling class paid off - he won.

Thursday night we went to the Owlz game. It's a farm team for the Angels that play in Orem. It was fun but they had a terrible night. Lost big time. Friday, Nathan, Jennifer and Rick hiked up to Timpanogas Caves. It's a national park between Salt Lake and Provo. It's a 1.5 mile hike with an 1,100 foot rise to the entrance. It was worth the hike.

This shows the elevation. The parking lot in the canyon and the trail are marked.

The edge off the trail is very steep.

Sue helping Katelynn sweep the floor.