Merry Christmas

Not everyone will be home for christmas this year so I thought that I would bring a little bit of our christmas home to YOU!

This year I have added a christmas TRAIN that goes around the tree. It is cute and plays fun music as it goes.

It is under my smores tree which is decorated with smores ornaments and other ornaments that remind me of the outdoors such as fishing gear, camping gear, bears, stars, lanterns, gingerbread men, winnie the pooh looking for honey in a hive, a moose in a canoe and of course some santas!

This hangs on our front door.

Our formal tree. . . looks very pretty with the lights all on!

One of my favorites is our CARTOON tree. Look and see if one of your favorite disney and cartoon characters are on the tree. If not then you better request that I find one! We have ornaments for "CARS", "The Incredibles", "Dora", "Finding NEMO", "Scooby Doo", "Star Wars", "Batman & Robin", "Bob the Builder", "The Ginch", "Cat in the Hat" and other Dr. Seuss characters, "Monsters Inc.", "Toy Story", "Blues Clues", and a few others! The kids love this tree.

My Singapore tree with ornaments from the chinese new year that I got while living there. Plus a wooden reindeer that belongs to Katie given to her from our neighbor in Folsom.

Some of our nativity sets collected over the years.

Good all Cowboy Santa and Fireman Santa, and don't forget Mr. and Mrs. Claus. Tory gifted me Mrs. Claus one year :)

As you can see Christmas decor is everywhere.

My Red, White and Blue Patriotic Tree! It has everything red, white and blue to include white house ornaments, santas in USA themed dress, flags, colonial ornaments, stars, etc.

Don't forget good old Santa and our bamboo nativity set from Indonesia.

Hope you all have a very Merry Christmas

and a Happy Holiday!

And The Grand Canyon with Katie!

You can barely see it but there are people over on top of that cliff to the left! That gives you a idea how awesomely large the Grand Canyon

really is!!!

Hopi Point . . . a favorite place to view the canyon. Hopi Point is one of the most popular viewpoints for watching the sunset and sunrise because of its wide vistas. The Colorado River comes into view to the west.

Ok, it looks pretty simple that Katie is "just" sitting there looking out

over the canyon . . . BUT it was kinda of scary

because there really wasn't much ground below you

if you were to slip and fall. I told Katie

I don't want to go home from the Grand Canyon and say oh, yeah

we lost Katie to the CANYON! BE CAREFUL

Tom almost freaked OUT!

Okay, so Tom isn't freaking out here. I was cuz I didn't want him to lean on me and stumble and knock me over. It was a beautiful sight though!

Again, here you can see little tiny tiny people over on the next cliff over from us. The canyon is just plain MASSIVE!

This is the scary point where Tom was pacing!

This was taken at Hermits Rest located at the far West end of the Grand Canyon National Park. It is here that there is a beautiful building with a awesome fireplace built by . . . . Mary Colter, one of Grand Canyon's most famous architects, built Hermits Rest in 1914 to look like an old miner's cabin, complete with a giant fireplace and front porch.

The Colorado River as it winds

down through the Grand Canyon

This is taken at the East end of the National Park looking Northward. At Desert View.

Sunset on the Grand Canyon east end at Desert View.

We had a nice time. It was a beautiful day. We wish we could have taken Kim with us too but that was not to be. Glad we were able to spend the weekend with the twins and now they are back in Utah and we are back in California. Hope you all had a lovely Thanksgiving Week too!

Thanksgiving in Flagstaff, AZ

This Thanksgiving we drove to Flagstaff, AZ to be with Kim and watch her as she played in a couple of games against Northern Arizona and Kent State. We lost the first game to NAU but beat Kent State. In the first game Kim was high point with 14 and high rebounder with 7 all while coming off the bench and only playing 16 minutes of the 40 minute

game. We were proud of her efforts and the next game she had a team high 12 rebounds in a one point victory! We love you Kimmie and keep up the hard work!

A Second Birth

Katie was the lead in this play performed Oct. 20.

She was outstanding! Tom and I were both able to be there

to see her perform. I really enjoyed watching. We got to see it three

times and Katie did a great job all three times.

Way to go Katie . . . . Can't wait to see you in another!

Katie plays a bright young girl who has been raised as a boy since the age of 5.

Having no boys in the family she dresses in characteristic male

clothing and does all that a male would do. But when she turns of

age is required to be female again and marry. Having

played the role of a male it is believed that she will have a better

chance for having male children to carry on the family name.

A very interesting subject as she does not want to give up the

opportunity that she has been given, to get an education, hold a job

and go about freely. She is very smart and wants to continue

going to school. She doesn't know how to do female tasks.

It is a huge transformation! Well played Katie.

Old Car / New Car

Ok, I really loved this old VW Van we owned way back when.

(Yes, that is parked outside the old Wymount Terrace Apartments in Provo!

Tom holding little Tommy).

What do you think this van or . . . .

This new Kia Sorento?

Actually they don't really compare very well.

Totally different cars but I loved my VW van and

now I love my new Kia Sorento! :)

Old House/ New House

We traded this sweet home in VA which had loads of

space and a sweet kitchen for . . . .

. . . a super sweet home in CA full of new spaces to love!

BUT most of all I get on my new sweet . . .

Beach Cruiser Bike

and ride for 5, 6 maybe 7 minutes and

where do I find myself?

Oh, yes on a SUPER SWEET BEACH!

Gotta love it!!!

Huntington Beach!

The slide pool for the kids.

The beautiful Hyatt Regency Huntington Beach.

Our room was very nice. We could see the big

swimming pool and some of the beach

from off our balcony. :)

This photo was taken with my phone camera

and it still looks great. Thats how wonderful

of a place it was. Sweet!

Finally! Huntington Beach!

This is our fabulous hotel that we stayed in for

the first week in California.

It was very nice. The walkway took us right over

to the beach. We parked our CRV in the parking lot right

at the foot of this bridge with all of our beach gear

in it. . . umbrellas, beach chairs, mats, etc. so it

was very easy access. And straight on the beach.

This is a picture of Huntington Beach Pier.

Kim and Katie lovin it!

We all got a lot of sun. So we tried to protect our faces

at least a little. Katie rocks this hat!

Oh, the twins are so much fun!

Even sighted a few dolphins. Not a very good photo of it but

saw 3-4 together one day not far off the beach.

Beautiful waves, beautiful water, beautiful place!

Tommy, Shayna, Ashton and Weston came down for the day to

play with us. We played all day in the pool area where there

were fun slides for the boys, warm pools and yummy food. I can't find my

photos of the slide but if you look at Shayna's blog you will see some there.

:( but later that night we made yummy smores over the fire pit!

Ashton is checkin out his marshmallow on his stick!

Here is the whole gang!

Notice we are in the middle of August wearing our sweatshirts

by the warm fire pit. Oh, life is beautiful!

Sticky fingers you can be sure!

We had a great day. Thanks for coming to join us!