December 2010 in a Thousand Words

In December, we kept busy!  We went to the ward Christmas party, the school posada, and grocery shopping.  We were lucky to host Grandpa Garner for a little over a week, the little over thanks to Delta canceling his flight home.  We were glad he was here and filled our time with fun, work and relaxation.  We had an enjoyable Christmas Eve program, watching the nativity in shadow as Dewain read selections from the Bible, and ate the same meal Mary and Joseph would have eaten- well, close enough.  We had bread, goat cheese, figs, dates, olives, and water.  Merry Christmas!

November 2010 in a thousand words

Click the picture to view larger.  November is long over, and my post is finally here!  We took a Veteran's Day trip to the Oakland Zoo, celebrated Gideon's 1st birthday, and finished up the soccer season.  For Thanksgiving this year, we were able to go to my parent's house in Arizona.  We cut a few hours off our long drive by making a welcome stop at Ford's, who lived a few houses down from us in Winfield Village.  It's been four years since we saw them, in Wisconsin.  We were glad to get the chance to visit, but it was WAY too short.  We visited the Mesa temple and celebrated our anniversaries together- our 12th and their 17th (right Jenni?).  Thanks Jacob and Zach for giving up your room for us.  After a long Sunday (8:30 church makes the day a whole lot different than 1:00 meetings) and a sleep-in Monday, we reluctantly headed out.  It was the first time Dewain had ever been to my parents house; they've lived in that house for about six years.  We got to visit Saguaro National Park, Cochise Stronghold, and the Tucson Children's Museum.  We had a very enjoyable trip, despite the drive (so many Californians can't drive in the rain!).  Good times!

October 2010 in a Thousand Words

Lucky for all of us, I have another brother who is on a mission and needs a monthly letter, with photos. For those of you wondering, Peter (not my youngest brother) is currently in the MTC and will be heading for the North Carolina, Charlotte Mission is just a few short weeks. We are very excited for him and know that he will make a wonderful missionary, as soon as he gets the language down.

For us, October was a month of soccer! We did get one game called for rain (and played one in the rain), but otherwise our days were filled with practices and games for both Daniel and Joshua. We sang "Happy Birthday!" to Nathan, who insisted the only thing he wanted was a cake with a rat on top. Dewain made a very cute little rat from a snickers bar, licorice and a tootsie roll, but Nathan's face made it obvious that what the boy meant was really the large, plastic rat we hid in the bottom of a package we mailed to Grandma Jorgensen. Nathan loved all of the sharks he got from Grandpa and has used his new Mack to continuously haul around his well-loved Lightning McQueen.

For Halloween, Gideon used one of our 10c costumes-(I will always have fond memories of half the women in the ward raiding the Halloween aisle as word of the 10c costume sale spread), Nathan dressed as "Superman to the Rescue!," Joshua was Pikachu, the faithful creature that is side kick to Ash Ketchum, the Pokemon trainer Daniel dressed as. We had a fun month, even if it started out with Dewain spending almost every spare moment being trained as or acting as the Scoutmaster.

September 2010

I know I've skipped July & August, but eventually they'll come.  Turns out we've been busy around here.

We went to the Ripon Balloon Festival, where we enjoyed watching the balloons take off, the boys participated in the fun run, and were amazed by the parachuters coming in to land.  Daniel was awarded his Bobcat at our first Cub Scout Pack Meeting, well our first pack meeting where one of the boys was the scouter, not Dewain or myself.  Soccer is in full swing now and both boys are filling our evenings and enjoying the exercise.  Work on the house continues, we've added some baseboard and subtracted the hideous railing.  We ride our bikes to school, 3 times a day, 3 days a week.  I cave and drive the other two.  The two youngest boys often fall asleep on the way.  Nathan got a filling and stitches (fell on the marble hearth).  We canned applesauce and apple rings, and froze some apple pie filling- thanks Aunt Holly!  The stake had a county fair, which we enjoyed.  I got to take pictures at our ward's "photo booth," though my art definitely played second fiddle to the wonderful artwork of the backdrop.  And that is all the time for today, here's hoping I don't take any more pictures this month that really should have been in this collage.

June in a Thousand Words

First up: Swim Lessons! The boys were scared at first, but progressed rapidly.  It helped a lot to have just two kids per session.  The boys wanted to do lessons with Coach Nicole again at the end of the summer, but we never got the chance.

Uncle Cameron, Lisa, and cousin Madison came to visit.  We had fun at the beach, in the pool, and visiting the Jelly Belly factory.  There were also numerous MarioKart races and other Wii games.  Poor Gideon got an ear infection and had to miss out on some of the fun.  We had lots of fun and hope they come again soon.

The Jorgensens came.  We hung out at home, went bowling, visited the jelly belly factory (again), and repaired all the things that Peter broke.

June 2010.  Finally got rid of the puke purple in the living room, did a lot of swimming, enjoyed visits from family, and celebrated Daniel's 8th birthday.  Daniel broke his nose (we assume) after a "head-on" collision, we canned lots of cherries (yum, yum), and couldn't take a good Father's Day picture to save ourselves.

As usual, if you want to see something bigger, click on the collage.  If you want to see the photos individually, and more of them, visit the family site.  If you don't know where or how, let me know and I'll hook you up.