Kam's 13th!

The 21st of December is a big day...Kamryn's Birthday.  This year it was supposed to be the end of the world because of the Mayan Calendar or some such thing.  We were also remembering that Kamryn was born in December of 1999, right during the Y2K scare.  But we all survived and we know that God is in control. :)  Anyway, we had a great day celebrating Kam.  This year it happened to be the last day of school before Christmas break.  So bowling and a half day of school with her classmates made for a nice day.  We went out to Riverside for a family dinner and she answered some phone calls to top it off.  Congratulations on reaching teenager-hood, Kam!  You're a great daughter, friend, sister, student, athlete and much more!  It's been fun to watch you become more of a leader this year.  I also love your sensitive side in regards to others.  Awesome!  I know you have a fun year ahead!  Thanks for being such a blessing to us!  The last two pictures are of a late birthday trip to Santa Monica with her friend, Ellen.  We had a great day shopping, sight-seeing and people watching!

RCS Christmas Concert

We just had the annual RCS Christmas concert at the University chapel.  It is a beautiful place to have a concert.  I always forget how loud it is, though.  I need to snap a picture of the whole auditorium sometime to show the vastness of this place.  It's huge and we fill it!  Each year that we have been here, Scott has been invited to join the stage crew, so that means that he does a little work and we get to sit up front.  Score!  This year Scott had a special costume.  There was a shepherd. There were sheep.  And Scott was the donkey!  (Many people enjoyed substituting the other name for the animal.)  Anyway, we are thankful for our talented music teachers and the time they put in to enable our kids to worship through music.  Pretty cool!

Christmas Concert #1

We had our church Christmas program last Sunday evening.  It was, as usual, full of cute kids and beautiful music. Troy and Kam played in the handbell choir and Troy was the letter X in the alphabet line up.  (He said, "My word doesn't even start with X."  It was something about I will exalt Him.)  It was a wonderful evening celebrating Jesus' birth. (Apparently to play handbells you need to look VERY serious!)

  

  

Katie Comes Home!

This Christmas, besides the birth of our Savior, we celebrate having Katie home from college! :)  We were anxiously awaiting her arrive the other night at Ontario Airport.  Kamryn got a sign ready and we watched Katie's plane approach on Scott's i-phone.  It was fun to hear Troy's "take" on the situation.  "I bet she's off the plane now and running to see us!" ..."Is Katie riding in first class so she can get off first?"  The horrified look on the escalator is when Katie realized she was being videoed by her loving father and that he was going to put it on facebook.  It's been fun having Katie home and having our family all together again!

  

Kristin's Birthday

I kicked off the family December birthdays earlier this month.  I had a good day celebrating being another year older.  Scott and the kids had gifts.  There were phone calls and a couple of dinners out.  Fun times!  Kamryn made me a banner.  Unfortunately she was confused by my youthfulness and judged me a year younger.  So, to correct her mistake, she crossed it out and added a year. Thanks, Kam!  

End of Another Soccer Season

This montage of pictures is from today.  Today was a full day of AYSO soccer-two games this morning and two in the afternoon. Troy and Kamryn's teams both made it to the championship games of the play-offs. Troy's team ended up taking first and Kam's took second.  All of the games were pretty intense and competitive.  Troy and Kamryn are both excellent soccer players.  They got their dad's drive to compete and win.  I do not only love watching them play because of their athleticism on the field, though.  I love hearing the compliments of other parents and coaches that our kids are great people.  Kamryn, after their last game today, had 13 year old girls come up and hug her and tell her they are going to miss her.  Troy has a love for helping the other boys score who haven't been as successful at it.  The kids have also learned a lot about dealing with others. In Kamryn's two games today there was a lot of tripping and some dirty play.  One time another girl who did it to Kam got caught and received a yellow card, but many times it was ignored.  After the tough loss, Kamryn through her tears asked us, "Why do cheaters always win?"  Bummer.  I loved how her coach turned it around, though, and brought smiles to their faces and complimented his players on still being winners.  Life lessons for sure. And now we get our Saturdays back...until softball and baseball season! .