Sunday, December 26, 2010

Christmas Day

Merry Christmas 2010! Our day looked like this...

We opened presents Christmas morning.
Bakugan and Bey Blades were big for Troy this year.
Kamryn containing her excitement.
Hmm, looks like a good Christmas.
Katie trying out a bey blade. Yikes!
New matching jammies.
We got to meet our Secret Santas...The Kimm family!
We got a beautiful palm planted in the corner of our backyard.
We ate and played games with friends.
Scott's got something up his sleeve!
More fun inside.

Major Progress!

Over this Christmas break we've had some "backyard elves" come and do some awesome work at our house. Our backyard has literally been transformed! What was almost a garbage dump-like area now looks like a carefully landscaped yard. We have been blessed and look forward to being able to use this space very soon.

Our yard when we moved in.
Beginning stages of weed control.
Work in December.
Removing all the weeds.

Leveling and laying out plants.
Awesome brick work.
Done for the day. What a transformation!

Friday, December 24, 2010

Merry Christmas Eve

The rain has stopped (for now) and the sun is drying things up nicely here in So. Cal. We had some serious rain for several days and there was quite a bit of damage to many homes, roads and buildings not far from us. We are thankful for a dry house! Since the weather was so nice, the kids and I took a bike ride around the neighborhood and this is what we found on this Christmas Eve day...
beautiful orange groves by our house,
palm trees framing snow-capped mountains,clear blue sky with a clear view of these,
and a green front yard!

Blessings!

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Happy Birthday, Kamryn!

On December 21st we celebrate our second-born, Kamryn Elise. She is a spunky, athletic, tender-hearted, artistic, wonderful daughter! We are so thankful for her 11 years. (We were talking about how Kam was born in December of 1999, right during the whole Y2K scare. Funny memories!) This year she had two friends over. We went to see The Chronicles of Narnia (in 3-D), did a craft, went out for pizza downtown, and had cake at home. A bunch of her Michigan friends called to wish her a happy birthday, too. Special!

The cake I made for Kam. She said it was her best ever! :)
Opening gifts in the morning.
I found a goldfish lava lamp for Kamryn's room. (You have to know her to know what a perfect gift this is!)
Sportin' the 3-D glasses.
Kamryn and her friend, Clara.
Kamryn and her friend, Mia.
Crafting.
Out for pizza.
Happy smiles!

Saturday, December 18, 2010

Secret Santa

We have had another fun thing this Christmas season-someone has been dropping off a gift on our doorstep each day. Each day there is another treat for us for the twelve days before Christmas. The first couple days they were on our porch after dark in the evening. A couple of times we came home to find something left during the day. This morning was the best: warm monkey bread delivered to our door! It's been a lot of fun to find the little treats each day. We're very curious to find out who our gift givers are!


Last Day of School Before Vacation

It was another great day of parties and fun as we finished up school before the Christmas break. Since I'm not teaching this year it was fun to be able to drop in on the kids' parties at school. Being in Troy's first grade classroom brought back many good memories of my many years of teaching first grade. (It's such a fun age!) Here are the highlights.

Gifts ready to bring to school.
Katie wearing a "tacky" Christmas sweater.
Kam in her classroom.
Troy and buddies.
Troy trying to do the craft.
The book exchange.
Troy by the class tree.

Katie's Concert

Katie's school had their Christmas concert last week too. It was nice to see what they have been working so hard on. Katie's choir meets twice a week at 7:00 am before school! Although the school does not have a band, she was able to accompany one song with her oboe (which was beautiful!). She is also in "show choir" which sang one song. She was kind of "forced" into this choir and was not excited about it, but it's turned out to be kind of fun. They did well!


Katie playing her oboe.

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

ACA Soccer

High school soccer season is in full swing here. Katie's team is starting to come together really nicely. They are still recovering from some injuries, but pulled out a great win yesterday. Katie is playing defense this year, which is a switch, but one she is enjoying.

Katie getting instructions from her coach at half.

The team.
Nearing the end of the game.

Christmas Concert #2

A couple nights ago we had our second Christmas program for RCS. It was in the beautiful University of Redlands chapel. It is a huge hall which was all decorated for the season. We are again blessed with wonderful music teachers for our kids. Mr. Mercer and Mrs. Leonard do an awesome job! I'm just so amazed that they can get so many kids organized and singing so beautifully. Kamryn played in the 5th grade band and sang in the choir. Troy sang with his first grade class. Scott sang in the men's chorus and was part of the "stage crew". This year they had costumes to wear!

Kamryn warming up.
Kamryn singing (top row, middle).
Mr. Mercer getting everyone organized.
The first grade angels. (Troy is far right, middle.)
Yikes! Scott in his stage crew costume.
Changing the stage during intermission.