Happy New Year!

We had a wonderful 2 wks. First Gary's sis, Karen and her family, including 5 boys crashed at our house one night. Then throughout the week we got together... Rockband, Pool, Legos, Magic Mtn, Hollywood Walk of Fame, Hollywood Sign, Griffith Park...all kept us pretty busy. We went to Tehachapi for Christmas day to visit them at Gary's parents. We had a great time. It snowed, so the kids had a great time building a snowman and having a snowball fight with cousins. The power went out over our really nice Christmas Dinner. It was fine, we visited by candelight for a few hours then decided to take off back home, where there was power and heat and a bed to sleep in! My family came for New Years!!! We spent time with cousins for a few days at home and then...We spent 5 days, yes I said 5, at Disneyland! We had a great time. It was crowded, but it was fun to spend time with my parents, my sis and family and my bro and 2 of his kids. Other than some sort of fluke food poisoning or something with Gary and Jess, we had a really good time. Jessie loved our hotel room. She had her own "Tinker Bell" room.

Merry Christmas!

I wanted to post the words to one of the my favorite Christmas Carols growing up. It reminds us why we celebrate Christmas.

C is for the Christ child born upon this day

H is for Herald Angels in the night

R is for our Redeemer

I is for Israel

S is for the Star the shone so bright

T is for Three Wisemen, they who traveled far

M is for the manger where He lay

A is for all He stands for

S means shepherds came.

And that's why there's a CHRISTMAS Day!

I'm thankful at this time for the Savior and his sacrifice. I'm thankful for our family and friends and I'm thankful for all the great blessings we have received this year in our family.

Merry Christmas to everyone and Happy New Year!

Jessie's new smile!

I took Jessica to the dentist on Tuesday. YEAH no cavities! which is a miracle with all the work we had done last year. That night, her tooth was loose and bleeding. She was crying and complaining and really worried about it. I calmed her down and sent her to bed, hoping it wouldn't fall out during the night. The next morning, it was really loose and bleeding again, so I took a kleenex and pulled it out-UGH. She is pretty proud and the tooth fairy feeling bad about all the drama left her $2.00!

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California Firestorm

They really come up with the best names for these fires when they call them a storm. The wind was so strong, up to 70 mph when the fires broke out. This is a view from the Sylmar/Sayer fire from my backyard. My camera doesn't do it justice. Later that night, the flames were huge, but my camera won't take night pics. 500 mobile homes along with 6 single family homes were completely destroyed, many homes and structures were damamged. The say this firestorm is one of the worst in California history since 1961. Even though the fire was still about 5 miles away...As always, I panic a little and pack my bag. I would hate to pray for safety and then not be somewhat prepared to leave in a moment's notice if needed.

Vegas

While I was in Utah, Gary let me know that his dad was sick and I wasn't sure if I would still be headed to Vegas, but Gary's mom reassured us that all would be well and that I should go ahead and meet Gary in Vegas. We had a great time. I got there Sat AM from Utah and spent the day with my sis and her family. Gary got there that night. We stayed at the Bellagio, we had a view of the fountains from our room. We had a fun time between classes. We shopped, we saw "KA" at the MGM- very good and ate at some great restaurants. It's nice when the tab is being picked up. It was nice to get away for a few days and relax.

Utah

The nice thing about funerals is getting together with family. All the years growing up, we would get together at grandma and grandpa's for a few weeks during the summer. There were 19 grandkids. I was one of the oldest. I remember "babysitting" the younger ones so that the adults could go out to dinner and to the temple at least one time. There are 49 great grandchildren (all but 6 were at the funeral) It was one of the rare times that actually ALL of my siblings were together with my parents. I really enjoyed catching up with my cousins that I hadn't seen in awhile. Grandma is certainly in a better place and we will all miss her. We love you grandma and grandpa.