Mud Bowl

Tess' high school soccer team had a game during a down pour this past week.
It turned into a mud bowl. Tess said she was exfoliating. It didn't matter that they lost, because they had a great time in the mud.

Carden Activities

Carden does a fun country fair every year. Faye had a fun time and is learning to come out of her shyness. It is great to see.

Faye and Ms. Winker

At Carden they give awards out every month for a certain value.
Faye received the award for December. The value for December was
generosity. She is very giving to the other students in her class.

Homecoming 2010

The kids love being in the Dana Hills Homecoming Festivities.
This year Tess had a great time!

A Couple More Birthdays

We had 3 more birthdays in the fall.
Chelsea was 22 on December 1st. This photo has nothing to do with her birthday, but I knew Glen would be pleased to see this picture again.

Noah turned 14 in October. He received a RC car thta he had been wishing for. We teased him with the small package that sent him on a hunt for his real gift.

My mom turned 80 and we traveled to San Jose to celebrate with her.
She is a wonderful lady and taught me so much while I was growing up.
I am grateful for those things.

Brooke is 25!

When it comes time for Chelsea and Dane to go after the birthday celebration weekend,
Brooke won't let Chelsea go.

There are scientific findings that the brain is not fully developed until a person is 25. We have said this to Brooke for many years especially after she would do or say something that was a little immature. Are these episodes in the past time? Time will only tell.

We threw Brooke a surprise party and she was truly surprised. It was a fun night with all her friends and their spouses. To top it all off Chelsea and Dane came down too.

Finally Relief

Finally after 8 months of pain, Tess had her foot operated on.
She had hurt the back of her ankle back in January.
We thought it was an achilles injury, but it just didn't get better. Xrays and MRI's didn't show anything either. Then the Doctor suggested it might be a fracture in her Talus bone.
She went in for surgery and sure enough there was a fracture in this tiny little bone on the inside of her ankle area. What a Relief! she was walking on it in about 3 weeks and running
after 5 weeks. She was a new person.

Her lovely scar.

Halloween - 2010

We had a fun Halloween this year. Halloween was on a Sunday so our ward had a
trunk-or-treat at the church on Saturday. Then on Sunday we had a special Halloween dinner with a barfing pumpkin, and rack of lamb with a knife thru the heart and some yummy cupcakes that Faye created. We ended the night by skyping with Dane and Chelsea. Their screen kept freezing and I totally got the giggles, Chelsea didn't think it was so funny, but my immaturity came out and I couldn't stop laughing.

Tess was a rocker and her friend Brady was a nerd.

Noah was a Ipod, with speakers and all.

Reese as a beautiful Rapunzel. Brooke made the wig, it was awesome.

Charlee as a shy ladybug.

Faye as a pretty and charming southern belle.

Back to School

Back to school is always such a bitter sweet moment for me. I love the extra time I have to myself but I really miss the kids and like keeping them with me in our little nest away from the harms of the world. I am so grateful for the gospel in our lives and the direction it gives the the children. Everyday they have to hold on tight to the iron rod. Tess is as beautiful as ever. I am grateful for her character and values.

Noah is all smiles pretty much no matter what he is doing. He has such a great positive attitude.

Back to school is a little harder on Faye than it is on me. But after the first few minutes in the morning she is ready to go. She has to come up with a quality every morning and she is usually very thoughtful. The first day she was going to be helpful, just incase someone was scared and needed some help.

The carpool moms are great (caught you Michelle). I couldn't do as much as I do with out the help of friends.

Summer 2010 recap

Seems like you can't have summer without watermelon.

We visited the Orange County Fair.

At the Fair we ate deep fried Klondike Bar and Snickers bar.
Below Tess is eating a foot long corndog.

Faye and I enjoying a yummy cinnamon roll.

We had a great time when Chelsea and Dane came for a week and stayed 10 days instead.

We hit the beach a couple of times and one day we rented a paddle board and took it out in the harbor. It was alot of fun. It is something I would like to do again.

Dane and Chelsea tandem

Brooke and Bret kinda tandem

Faye looks like a natural here with Glen.

The Word of Wisdom says to eat meat sparingly. Does every 2 years count for sparingly?

Bret told Glen of a great place for pastrami sandwiches and Glen and I went there for a date. Glen has a weakness for a good pastrami sandwich.

In a couple of years, maybe we will go back.

The onion rings weren't bad either.

Of course, you can't have summer without Monday nights at San O.

We have a fantastic time there with friends and family. I think if you asked the kids they would say this is there favorite tradition. It is just so relaxing and so fun to be with everyone.

Tess and McKay enjoying the bonfire.

The sun setting on our summer.

The waves were really good this night.

This might have been the night that there was a great white shark sighting.

Come Labor Day it is time for our annual scone breakfast.

This year we had everyone over to our house in the front yard instead of Doheny.

It made things a little easier for Glen.

After the scone fry, Glen had a fish fry.

It was a great summer, I love having the kids home from school and being relaxed and having fun together. Only 9 months to go til next summer. I am already looking forward to it.

Grandma Camp

We had Gigi Fairy Camp for the past 2 days. Reese came over on Thursday after lunch and we played. Faye, of course, got to play too. Everything was fairies with a little swimming pool and beach mixed in. It was so fun to be with the girls and just do girly things. They love girly things. We tried to include Noah and made him a big, bad troll, but he wanted nothing to do with it.

First a few pictures of fairies running through the trees.

Faye and Reese are becoming really good friends, even though there are times Faye will ask to be called "Aunt Faye".

Fairies can be a little camera shy.

But not all fairies, some take after their mommies.

Fairies like to flutter and run.

We made fairy star cookies and left them at friends and neighbors.

Karch, Kendall and Sandon caught the fairies outside their door.

The fairies I made and they played with for hours.
Fairy houses to put in their backyards.