Christmas fun and unbelieveable rainstorms

We had an absolutely wonderful time visiting with everyone. Thank you all for coming and making the sacrifice to travel here. I know it was a challenge with little ones.

Christmas Eve found us at South Landpark looking for Fairy Tale Land to be open. But it was closed so we walked around a lake and fed the ducks. Sadly, this is where Jake and Kerrie lost their camera as seen hanging around her neck in this photo.

Hannah's favorite plaything was the container of pine cones on the hearth. She loved climbing up there and throwing the pine cones down to the floor.




Hailey knows how to smile pretty for the camera.

Sam and Dominic and David and Jill were able to come over on Christmas Eve so we could have one time all together. David had to work onChristmas and New Years Day.
Little Hannah and her daddy opening up her gift on Christmas Eve.

Allie was happy with her gift. I love her huge smile. Kaden got to be "Santa Claus" handing out everyone's gift from under the tree.

CHRISTMAS EVE AND CHRISTMAS DAY WAS WONDERFUL AND BUSY. SANTA CAME AND EVERYONE RECEIVED FANTASTIC GIFTS. THE CHILDREN WERE ADORABLE. WE MISSED THE STEVENS FAMILY ESPECIALLY THAT DAY.

Left, Thayne and Ella sweet dreaming. Right, the girls were caught playing Barbies. :) Oops, Kaden is there too.

After everyone else left, Jake and Kerrie and Allie got to do a little more with us. Here is Allie on Sunday wearing her new Christmas dress. She looked so cute in it.

Allie decided to lay in the middle of the floor medallion while she was helping Grandma "undecorate" the house. Then she and Tigger made friends.

It may be hard to see from these photos but these are trees that were blown over in the storm. The big one is from the front of our house in the stream bed. Two other trees of the same variety inside the fence and on the corner also blew over. We also lost two tall eucalyptus trees on the back of our property. Dave spent hours cutting the branches off that were against the window (media room) and over on the back neighbor's property. This Saturday, we are the ward's service project. Hopefully, the trees will all be gone and cleaned up.

A Proud Momma

Last Friday the 7th Dave and I had the honor of attending David's pinning ceremony for his promotion to Engineer. There were a couple of hundred people there and I was very proud of him (and Jill too for her support). The kids were adorable on stage. They had the parents stand up in the audience. David looked very handsome in his uniform.

Our wonderful trip to Utah.

What better way to open the blog than to see a little cutie dressed in her pink coat. This was Hannah at Dallin's baptism. We drove up there and back before the snow hit the Sierras, leaving Friday Nov. 30th and returning Tuesday, Dec. 4th. A quick, but wonderful trip to visit Jarin and Hollie and kids and Scott and Maran and Hannah.

We woke up to a very white Saturday and it continued to snow all day long. Grampa D had fun with the kids in the snow.

Little Hannah with mom and dad in the snow. She is a cutie.

This was the whole reason we drove up there for Dallin's baptism. It was very sweet. Hollie will blog more on it. Grampa and Grandma were very proud of Dallin. Saturday evening we went to a Christmas Party at their church and had a wonderful lasagna dinner with tons of goodies for dessert! I have to say I indulged in the gooey chocolate cake.

We went to Jo and Jim's house Sunday night after the First Presidency Christmas Fireside to celebrate a foursome of birthdays!! The party was for Jim 11/29; Ross, Angela and me. We were all born on the 5th. Saggitariuses Rule! Thank you to Scott and Maran for the Paul Mitchell hair products and Hollie and Jarin for the soft new bath robe. Thanks to Jo and family for the party. Hanging out with you guys was fun. Saturday was a very busy day!

On Monday night, we opened up presents after dinner. I wish I had gotten photos of the girls posing in their new dresses. They looked like Princesses. Taylor got in line skates and a book, Dallin got a large animated Dinosaur and the girls got dresses and books and "nake-up". Hollie and Jarin got the things on their lists and Dave and I got beautiful photos in a gorgeous frame and The Testament video. We loved it.

(This part is out of order but oh well you guys can figure it out :)

Monday was a fun day. Jarin took off work and we all hung around together. We did the Costco thing and the kids had lunch there. Jarin and I ate at Beto's . His shrimp taco actually looked good and I actually took a bite of the shrimp. Then we went home and I made an Italian spaghetti dinner with sausage and cheese bread and onions and peppers. (Used Rachael Ray's recipes) We all smelled like garlic.

It was now time to open presents and make rice-flour sugar cookies.

Halloween Festivities

We went over to David and Jill's house to see how Sam and Dominic looked in their costumes. They were very cute. Samantha was so excited about Halloween. Dominic didn't really know what was going on at first but had fun and loved his sucker.We went home around 7 because Virginia was answering the door for us and we had no idea how many trick or treaters would come (since it is our first Halloween here) We actually had about 20 which surprised me. But I have a ton of mini play doughs left over. We'll have to use it when the grandkids come over.

On Monday we went to our Singles Ward Halloween party. It was a lot of fun. Even though you don't know thesepeople you can see some of the things we did. Dave and the Bishop and first counselor were made into mummies using toilet paper. He was covered head to toe.

Dave won the prize for the best mummy. The kids had fun covering him withT.P.




This was the chubby bunny eating contest and the doughnut on a string contest. Scott C. is in the middle.
We also had a pie eating contest, a cake walk, face painting and ice cream sundaes on top of all the other sweets. I didn't eat a thing. Its been a challenge. I even won a plate of cookies in the cake walk but put them back on the table.

These are the eyeball cupcakes with filling that I made for the cake walk.

This is the pumpkin carving table. I don't know what Dave was looking at in the background.

WE DID A WHOLE LOT OF DRIVING

This is going to be a long blog with lots of pictures. So hang in there! Tito's Tacos was our first stop. It took 5 1/2 hours to drive to our favorite spot to eat Mexican food in Culver City. There are always lines inside and out. Dave and I found out that we both ate there in the 1970's when we didn't know each other. They have the best tacos ever! The burritos are fab too!

After Tito's we drove down to Carlsbad to visit with Aunt Dot (sorry , forgot to get a photo of her during dinner). This beach was clean and beautiful and the water was even warm. I like to snap the sea weed. We went to a pizza restaurant with Aunt Dot and then drove to San Diego to spend the night in a hotel.

These photos were taken on the road from San Diego to Az. Tons of boulders and very little vegetation. In fact, it was pure sand at one point. We'd never been on this road.

When we got there Friday evening we went out to eat at Sweet Tomatoes, one of our favorite places to eat.

We were so happy to be at Kaden's baptism. We are very proud of his decision. In the photo are: Crystal, Donae and her hubby Darrin (Thayne's brother); Hailey, Gramps, me; Kaden's friend, Kaden, Jen; Ella; Thayne; Neil and Heather and their three kids. It was a beautiful and busy day.

Kaden and Hailey at his soccer game Sat. morning. Grandpa was the horse for the better part of our stay, I don't who was having more fun, him or them:) Ella showing me how she climbs up the stairs. She goes all the way up.

We drove over the Hoover Dam on our way to Maran's house from Az. on Wed. It was crowded with tourists. They are building a huge bridge to bypass the dam from traffic.

We got to Utah on Wednesday night and stayed with Scott and Maran and Hannah until Sat. night. We got to babysit Hannah while Maran and Scott attended Sat morning conference. She was a sweeheart.

We stayed at Jarin and Hollie's house Sat and Sun night. On Sunday evening Hannah had her first birthday party there. The cake was adorable and delicious. She got some nice presents and was wearing the pants set that David and Jill sent up.

Dallin and Kamrie at the birthday party. We all loved the cake and ice cream. Yum.

Sisi's at Hannah's birthday party and checking out the presents.

Taylor checking out the cake at the birthday party.

Sweet little Hannah enjoying her cake. She was very dainty about it.

We enjoyed our Utah visit. We got to stay with our kids and grandkids and visit with Aunt Jo and her family and eat her home made pizza. It was nice to watch all four conference sessions with the Stevens family. Their spare room was very comfy. I caught a picture of Hannah looking straight at me with cake on her face.

We also got to meet and hold Taylor and Dallin's pet mini hamsters. (I forgot their names). On Monday we drove the long drive home. We look forward to our next visit in Dec.