Wow, snow day 12/7/09, In Cameron Park CA

Thanksgiving '09

A great Thurs / Fri at Rosemary's house in Morgan Hill. Great dinner and fun conversations as always. Devin at the "kids" table was hilarious. I'm sure Denise and I will be there :). Cummins barely pulled out a football victory in the annual turkey bowl.

Leigh's 4th Birthday Celebration

Halloween 2009

Excellent Sunset in Carmel

Jeff's Birthday...

BYU Football Game, Before and after the FSU Game

Unbridled enthusiasm

Jeff, being Jeff

Leigha Loves to Take Pictures

Very pretty girl....

Happy 19th Anniversary

This is our quick weekend to Angora Lake and Lake Tahoe Aug 28 and 29th for our 19th wedding anniversary. We enjoyed a quiet day watching the nice lake and I jumped in off a 35 foot cliff. I forgot to show Denise how to push the record button on the cam corder so you will have to take my word for it. We than had a great dinner at Hard Rock Cafe and then walked to the beach for a nice sunset. Sunday we had a the buffet and Harrah's and I'm still full. We enjoyed the view from the 18th floor and than drove home back to our kids. Good friends helped look after the kids for the eve. It is nice to have a quiet night out.

Dad at Bayside, Aug '09

Mom Smiling in the background. This right befor a pretty girl shaved Dad's stubbly beard. He looked 10 years younger after. He kept looking for a black cap, notice his fingers as he tried to describe it. We carried on this conversation for a few minutes than he starting crying, said I love you and than wanted to say a prayer. He than proceeded to say a wonderful, clear prayer blessing the family and being thankful. I love you Dad.

Hawaii was GREAT

This is us happy with no kids for 10 whole days...wow, we WERE relaxed. Then, rentry and kids. We love them but man, what is wrong with going to bed on time, or cleaning a room once in awhile?? Good times.

I warned him...smile or else

Jor and Jer at Devin's wedding. We tried taking family pictures and we all couldn't smile at the same time. Jordan was stuggling with his handsome smile. So...you get his scrunch face :)

Happy 4th of July

Leigha with a few American Flags we have to celebrate the 4th of July. Denise is working tonight and then we drive to Nani's house on the 4th. Brendan and Jeff have been there this week so we need to pick them up. Fun day today...bike ride in the am and than the gym and pool in the afternoon. We just had to hit the pool one more time this eve...still warm out.

Anybody reading this?

Still having fun with my new camera. No shortage of kids to pose for shots. You have to look closely, but not TOO close, that is Jordan "bailing" out of the raft. Some think he was tossed out but he claims he jumped out on purpose. He and Jeremy are off to EFY this week.

Jeremy moves on to High School

So, I'm standing by where Jeremy was sitting at his 8th grade graduation and it happens to be by the teachers. Jeremy gets his little promotion / diploma thing, poses for pictures from the folks who will charge us big bucks to get them, he walks around and I'm trying to get him to slow down and take a picture. He's like "dad" in that don't bother me voice. He relents and gives me is best I'm too cool for you to take my picture look. The teachers start cracking up and say that pose and half smirky smile is SOOOOO Jeremy. Funny. Congrats Jeremy. I knew you could do it...and I knew you could smile.

Jeff finished Kindergarten

Jeff is wearing his shirt he made...nice butterflies. The teacher said he was the best "learner" in class. He made great progress this year. Jeremy is up next for his 8th grade graduation. This Wed he moves on and becomes a Freshmen in high school. Wow, two kids in high school.

Memorial Day '09 was spent at Lotus Park checking out the American River. Managed to get Jeremy to ben in a photo. Jeff hamming it up for the camera. We hung there for a few hours throwing and skipping rocks and watching the boaters go by. Then it was home for some barbie que and movies. Good times.

Summer has started and the pool is open. I'm not sure if summer has "officially" started but it was 95 degrees here over the weekend. So time for swimming and trying out the new camera. Brendan also had his 10th birthday a few weeks back. Kids are growing up fast. Fun to read all the other blogs, well, those who are writing and keeping them up (good job Kari) :).

Denise came back from her dream vacation a few weeks back again. Check out this GREAT shot of the Coliseum. I think they had a great time.

Now isn't this CUTE. Leigha Michelle hamming it up for the camera in Cambria.

Great times in Monterey. Family photo on at Dennis the Menace park. Notice Jeff could not be bothered to join us in the picture as he was too busy climbing the smoke stack and standing up. Making us all very nervous. We then visited Mom and Dad in Cambria.

It took only a short 3 weeks...Jordan is busted from driving. How did this happen? What was he thinking? Does he think we would not find out? See previous post on driving is a priveledge and not a right. Well..Jordan met some friends at the movies. They didn't have money for the movies so they were hanging around and got bored. Than a friend said, hey, drop me at my friends house. So boom, Jordan drives two friends around for a few minutes. Ouch. Busted. Than...he was not forthcoming when confronted. Yikes. GROUNDED for 4 weeks. Lets summarize what he is missing - Date night this weekend for Mormon Prom and Sadies Dance are the biggies. We are tough parnets...even grounded from My Space and iPod (I think Apple stock is going down as a result). He does have his buddies calling us saying we are too harsh and lobbying for a break...nope, we are sending a message. Don't mess with us. Plus, we are already spending a bundle in gas money.

Jordan Gets His License...Hide For Your Life

It's official...Jordan is driving among us. Yep, scary on many levels. One, I am old. Two, it's Jordan driving 3) Insurance is outrageous. 4) Jordan thinks he can leave anytime now 5)It's still Jordan. There are upsides however. I don't have to get up at 6:15 and get him to seminary. He's already done a few errands for us. So, as long as he realizes it is a privilege and not a right we'll be ok. :) Why is the preceeding all underlined? Why did he just change. Weird. Signing out now.

Snow day...6 inches of snow fell in Cameron Park and it was a slushy wonderland for a few hours. School would have been a "snow day" but as luck would have it, they were already on a school holiday for President's Day weekend. Bummer for them. The first picture is me waking up Brian to go look at the snow. He eventually got dressed and went outside. I got to use my 4 wheel drive and blasted by a few nieghbors who had their BMWs and sedans stuck in the snow and trying shovel their way out. I shouted something like do you need help? They said no and I said it is twice a year I get to use my 4 wheel drive. I than peeled out and sprayed them with snow...just kidding. I missed them.

feb 09 037

feb 09 037, originally uploaded by mgcc31268.

Now she is cute...even with a fractured elbow

We have had our first broken bone, a fracture really, but it counts. You would think that it would be a bone on one of the five boys, but no, it is on our sweet princess. So here is the story. I was at work--the story is a little sketchy but this is the version I got--Jordan was on the phone, Michael asked him to get leigha who was going down the stairs. This is the sketchy part, Jordan isn't forthcoming with details, whatever happened she got picked up by the one arm on the stairs and crying happened. I called home to say goodnight and heard Leigha crying out in her sleep, so I came home. I couldn't stay at work knowing she was in pain. We all assumed it was Nurse's elbow, we have had that in our home before. So yesterday (28th) I took her to the doctor, they immediately sent us for x-rays--then they wanted more x-rays (should have been a clue), back to the doctor who said she has a fractured elbow and needs to see the Orthopedic surgeon right away, like today. We went over there and he said it didn't look bad enough to need surgery (whew!) but she did get a pretty pink cast (she picked pink, not mommy :) ). We will do more x-rays next week. the cast needs to stay on for at least 3 wks. Leigha is much happier now that the cast in on, her arm doesn't seem as much. I'm very relieved, relieved that she is feeling better and that it as of now does not require surgery. Jordan feels bad so we aren't rubbing it in too much.