2009: Year In Review

The year kicked off in January with a road trip to Mesa, Arizona and Las Vegas. In Mesa we witnessed Justin & Mallory's sealing and visited family. Then we headed to Vegas for a weekend with Dan, Megan & Hadley. Good times, I tell ya.


February brought Jacob's 3rd birthday. He was so excited to be 3. Everything he asks for comes in 3's now, "can I have 3 cookies", "I need three because I'm three", and on and on. It's adorable... he's adorable.


In March we celebrated Georgia's 1st birthday with family and friends. It's hard to believe how quickly that first year went by, she's growing and changing on a daily basis. She really is the sweetest little girl.


At the end of April we packed the car and headed to the Sierra's with my Dad & Cheri for the opening of trout season.


In May we headed to Utah to meet our newest nephew, Alec Daniel, and be a part of his blessing. While we were there, not only did we get to visit with family, we spent an evening with Melly and Tom.


In June John & I were able to get away for a day... it was wonderful.


The Fourth of July took us to our community parade and then fireworks in Ventura overlooking the harbor.


August was a much anticipated month as I had trained all summer with Heather to ride in the Ventura Cool Breeze bike ride. It also brought a trip to Vancouver as well as the much anticipated and rejoiced but dreaded first trimester of pregnancy.


In September our baby boy started pre-school and has not looked back. He thoroughly enjoys his time at school and is always looking forward to the next time he gets to go.


October was all that October should be: trips to the pumpkin patch, Halloween parties, trick or treating, cool weather, and cooler nights.


November reminded us all of we have to be thankful for, including a new baby on the way and the end of morning sickness, as well as a midwife that comes to our home for my appointments.


We finished the year with many special memories made in December with family both near and far. It's been a year to remember.

We have been blessed and have so much to look forward to. As we reflect on the last year its easy to see the hand of the Lord in our lives. And as we look forward to 2010 there are things already to be excited for: the kids will celebrate another birthday, another year of life as an eternal family, by mid-May we'll have a new little spirit in our lives straight from Heavenly Father, and come the end of June Gramma will be finished with her chemo and radiation, she will be cured.

I am sure that there will be many other wonderful and important events that will take place, not only in our family but in this world we live in. We look forward to them and know that with the Lord all things are possible.

May 2010 bring you peace and joy... and your wildest dreams fulfilled.

With love,
John, Kelsi, Jacob, & Georgia

Christmas at Home

This morning when we woke up we noticed that Santa had indeed stopped at our house too. To say Jacob was excited is an understatement.

Santa left exactly what he had asked for... a car race track! He also left a new bike for Jake and a tricycle for Georgia.

She hopped right on and pedaled away. She was pretty darn happy and pleased with herself.

The rest of the morning was spent helping Daddy put together that new race track. They were pretty pleased with all that Santa had left behind.

*******
Later this afternoon (after I went with Gram to her oncology appointment) we headed to Gram's house for Christmas with her. Both kids were very anxious to open gifts & started snooping around the tree.

Neither one came up empty handed.


Georgie loved the shopping cart & Jake was so happy to see the 'Dragon Castle' he had played with for nearly a half an hour in Target one afternoon.

We sure love that Gram of ours!!


John was pretty excited about his gift too...


The next morning Georgie wanted to try on one of her new dress-up outfits. I'm pretty sure I now have an idea of what she's going to look like at 15.


It's been a wonderful holiday season.
Filled with family and fun times.
We couldn't have asked for more.
Everything was perfect.
Merry Christmas

Our Week in Vancouver

We arrived home tonight after driving 954 miles in 16 hours, 10 minutes with two kids under the age of 4 in one day... it was a long drive, but well worth it to be home.

We've spent the last week in Vancouver, Washington with Grandma & Papa along with Dan, Megan, Hadley, & Alec and Scott, Gretchen, Sterling, Abi {which she has decided is the way she is going to spell her name... again.}, Miles & Ashton. It was a wonderful week filled with lots of fun & happy memories. I loved seeing the kids all play together and spending time as a family.

We left here Friday afternoon around 1:15 and started the long drive up the 5. As soon as we dropped down the other side of the Grapevine we were in the fog. We never saw the sun again, it was so foggy and dark. Somewhere, out in the middle of nowhere, Georgie got sick and we had to make an unplanned stop to clean her up. Poor baby girl. We're thinking she gets sick from watching movies in the car. About an hour north of Sacramento we called it a night & got a hotel, it was just too foggy to keep going. We weren't even half-way to Vancouver so it was a little discouraging knowing we'd got such a great start time and would still have such a long drive ahead of us on Saturday, but we settled in for the night & got a good nights sleep.

The next morning we got ready & back on the road. It was still foggy, but not as bad as it had been the night before. The only time we saw sunshine all day was at the top of Mt. Shasta... and it was absolutely beautiful! Our half-way point would be Medford, Oregon, which was perfect since we were already planning to stop & visit with my Grandma, Aunt & her family!

{Stacy, Brit, Derek, Tyler, Allisan, Chrissy, Fred, & Brooklin}

It was a quick, but nice visit. We had lunch, let the kids play, visited and caught up, and then got back in the car for the rest of the drive. The kids took a nice long afternoon nap, we stopped for dinner, saw the lights of Downtown Portland along with the Christmas lights on the houseboats on the Columbia River, crossed over a few bridges, and pulled into Grandma & Papa's driveway about 8:30pm. And we were ready to be out of the car for awhile!!

The week got off to a great start on Sunday with church, making ornaments, trying on costumes for the up-coming Christmas Eve play, and Jake & Hadley having "fashion shows".

Monday John & I were able to leave the kids with Grandma & Papa and head out for some last-minute, tax-free shopping over the border. We had a great time together... it was almost like a real date! It was such a fun afternoon. We ran from store to store in the rain, braved Barnes & Noble, Target and Toys-R-Us, had lunch {and dessert}, and had almost 4 hours of alone time. {thank you, George & Judith!!}

On Tuesday we headed out to the Portland Childrens Museum {and we forgot our camera}.The kids absolutely loved the museum and we had fun watching them discover so many new & exciting things. We'll have to go back there someday. When we got back that afternoon they helped Grandma start the sugar cookies. They are always such helpful helpers.

Wednesday was a very laid back day. George & Judith had their regularly scheduled shift at the Portland Temple that afternoon so we spent the majority of the day hanging out at the house & visiting with them. In the morning Jake, Georgie & Hadley helped Grandma cut out the sugar cookies. And they were oh, so helpful.

Later, after they had decorated some of the cookies

{Hadley, Georgie, & Jacob... some were a little more careful with the sprinkles...}

and once George & Judith had left for their assignment, John took Jake out to get some things for me and I stayed home with Georgie while she napped. Once the boys got home Megan & I hopped in the car and headed to Battle Ground to visit one of my all-time favorite stores, Aunt Tam's. {I discovered it this past summer on our vacation and fell in love... all that cute fabric and creative ideas... it's almost too much cuteness!} Then we came home & waited for George & Judith's return and the arrival of Scott, Gretchen and the kids.

It ended up being a really long night for them. We were worried about their connecting flight in San Francisco, but there was nothing to worry about there-- clear skies and moon light. The problem came in Portland. The airport was shut down due to fog... and boy was it bad. On my drive home from Aunt Tam's I could hardly see in front of me. It was almost midnight when the airline let them know they would not be leaving San Francisco so, they pretty much slept in the airport. Thankfully a new flight was added the next morning at 7 instead of having to spend all of Christmas Eve in the airport & land in Seattle {instead of Portland} at midnight. I was worried about that 7am flight though... on Thursday morning we woke up to thick, thick fog.

Prayers were answered though, the flight came anyway, and by 11am all the cousins were running around Grandma & Papa's house playing together. It was a sight to behold. Thursday, Christmas Eve was a great day. Papa is friends with Santa & Mrs. Claus so they stopped by before heading home to the North Pole to pack his sleigh for the big night. My kids were still very unimpressed with the big guy in red.

As were Ashton and Miles, but Hadley... she loved him! She talked & talked to him and asked all kinds of questions like, "Santa, why do you have a naughty list?" It was classic. That girl comes up with the best things.

{Jacob, Ashton, Abi, Miles, Sterling, Santa, Hadley, Alec, Mrs. Claus, & Georgia}
-Notice who's on Santa's lap and who is as far away as possible.-

Once Santa left we played for awhile longer, had dinner, and then got ready for the evenings events. Grandma bought each of the kids special costumes to re-enact the story of Christ's birth. The kids all learned their parts and were very excited to have costumes as well.

Once the show got going they weren't all thrilled to be there. Alec {Baby Jesus} did not want to be held, Sterling {Joseph} didn't seem too happy about being married to his sister, Georgie {the shepherd} decided to ride in on "Filbert" {John's childhood friend}. They all did a great job and were as cute as can be. After they finished their play, Papa read from Luke 2, we sang Silent Night, and then we got a 'formal' picture of them in front of the Christmas tree.

{The Wise-guys, er Wisemen,- Jacob, Miles & Ashton
The Shepherd- Georgia
The Angel- Hadley
Joseph- Sterling
Mary- Abigail
Baby Jesus- Alec}

Then those costumes came off & they were ready to open their Christmas Eve presents under the tree... new jammies!! {I got some too.}

And they were all off to bed. Surprisingly most of them went down without a struggle. They were very excited about Santa's mid-night arrival and the gifts he would leave. Just before I headed to bed I snapped these three pictures:

Grandma & Papa's beautiful Christmas tree

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care...
And the dad's {John & Scott} trying out one of the kids' new gifts

Christmas morning didn't come as early as I feared it might. With the big kids being exhausted from hardly sleeping the night before, everyone slept in until about 7:30 {when the sun actually starts to rise in the Pacific Northwest}. As we headed downstairs you could feel all of the kids excitement in the air. It was magical.

We all took turns opening gifts and handing each other gifts, at least it started off that way, and then... well then it pretty much became a free-for-all.

Jacob was so excited about the Tag Tails game Santa brought for he & Georgie to share, I'm so glad.

And he loved the airport Santa brought as well.

{Jacob and Miles}

Georgie loved just about every gift, but these sunglasses were the first thing she wanted to try out.

Once she got dressed she was all over the place playing with everything all at the same time. She always had to have a tail on - whether she was playing tag with the other kids or not- she had to have a tail... or she was very, very upset.

The rest of Christmas Day was filled with lots of playing, visiting, lots and lots of pictures - including many of the grand kids all together- and a delicious Christmas dinner. It was a wonderfully relaxing day. I'm so grateful that we were all able to be there together to share the day.

Grandma & Papa with their 8 grandchildren (5 boys, 3 girls):
Alec (7 months), Georgia (20 months), Jacob (3 years, 10 months), Ashton (16 months) , Miles (3 years, 8 months), Sterling (8 years, 5 months), Abigail (6 years, 4 months), & Hadley (3 years, 2 months)


{The 2006 Babes:
Miles, Jacob, and Hadley}

Saturday was our last day together and we started the day with formal family pictures and then Dan, Megan, Hadley & Alec were back in their car headed to Salt Lake. The rest of us had lunch and then headed for downtown Vancouver to Esther Short Park to let the kids run and play outside for a change. It was cold, cold, cold and thankfully Georgie was asleep in the car so I didn't have to get out. :)

John & Jake had a great time though with Sterling, Abi and Ashton.


Then it was back to Grandma & Papa's to prepare for our drive home.

Sunday morning we pulled out of the driveway at 6:15. It was dark and cold and we had a long day ahead of us. The rode got really icy & slick around Eugene so we stopped and had breakfast. Then we were off again. Somewhere near the top of the Siskiyous Georgie got sick again and we pulled off, in the drizzle, and got her cleaned off. We had lunch just south of Redding and decided that we'd just drive all the way home. The rest of the drive was fairly uneventful. The Central Valley was clear & beautiful. Dinner was in a dirty, dirty Taco Bell somewhere between Los Banos and Bakersfield. We pulled into our driveway at 10:25pm -- 16 hours and 10 minutes later than we'd left that morning.

We had a wonderful Christmas week...
It's good to be home!

Hokey-Pokey

Today was Jacob's last day of pre-school for the semester. He has really loved going to school & learning new things, especially during arts & craft time. He's made some new friends & loved having Kyle & Ian in his class. Those three boys are inseparable, seriously. They even save seats for each other at the tables & hold places in line when its time to go outside or back inside. It's funny. They really do love each other.

During their final Singing Time together, they sang the all-time favorite, "Hokey Pokey".
It started a little slow...

then got a little more intense...

and then they meant serious Hokey Pokey business... you put your whole self in!!


and finally, some quiet time as they listened to Ms. Diane's good-bye.

We have really enjoyed having Ms. Diane & Ms. Linda as Jake's teachers this semester and are looking forward to seeing our boy continue to learn & grow as the winter semester begins in January.


** the little girl next to Jacob is Samantha. They've become good friends at school. Apparently she & Jake are together most of the time... along with Kyle & Ian. Her mom told me once that they were 'snuggley' during Singing Time (which doesn't surprise me with Jake at all, he's a total snuggle bug with me & Georgie!), but I've had some talks with him about whats appropriate with friends... and at school. Hopefully he & Samantha won't be snuggling at school anymore... or at all... ever. :)

{all photos courtesy of Heather Keil Photography}