2-9-2009 Monday - A Valentines FHE!

Luke and Shera were in charge of our Family Night the other night.
They had made an FHE kit up in their ward primary activity with a Valentines Theme.

They both conducted the meeting and prepared everything for it!

Even Sasha and Heidi were in attendance!

Shera read from the scriptures.

They had visual aids for the song, "Love One Another".

They had a fun game to play with us.

Noel had her heart for the game.

Their kit even included a cookie mix and they made the cookies themselves! It was a really cute family night that we all really enjoyed!

2-8-2009 Sunday - The Duet...

Last summer, our ward had a fundraiser for the youth. It was where people shared their talents by auctioning them off to others in the ward. Holly auctioned off singing a special musical number with someone during a sacrament meeting. This Sunday was the day it all came together. Laney (Delaney) Whitaker got to sing a beautiful primary song with Holly. It was, "I'm Trying To Be Like Jesus" with a wonderful arrangement that Sister Fawn Penrod accompanied them with. She was so cute and they had a great time. Holly said she would love to do it again. She loves being with children and will be a great mom someday.

2-7-2009 Saturday - A Weekend With The Starr's!

We always love it when Brad and Berta and the cousins come to visit us! This weekend they came for just a quick overnighter. We went to Outback Steakhouse for dinner. Yummo!

The kids ate at one table and the adults were next to them. They felt pretty independent doing it that way. And it was a lot easier to get 2 tables of 6 and 7 also! Brad and Berta's new little girl, Talia, was a doll and the kids had so much fun together too!

But earlier on Saturday, we had run into a little trouble with Dallan's finger. He put a ball bearing ring onto it, but it was a little too tight. His finger started turning red and swelled up on him. We couldn't get it off!

So, who ya gonna call??? Our dentist and good friend, Carey Penrod. Luckily, they weren't too busy (Only just about to have 25 kids over for Trabuco's Winter Formal dinner!) But he was so sweet - he drove Dallan over to his office and cut that ring off with some dangerous tool that only dentists like to use! Ha! Ha!

It was a good thing too, because once it was off,
we could see just how much damage it had made in only a few short hours!

Dallan says he's keeping it for a memory.
Aren't memories fun to make???

Thank you Dr. Penrod for saving the day
and helping us to enjoy the rest of our weekend!

2-6-2009 Friday - Shera Cheers at MVHS

Shera cheered at the MVHS home basketball game on Friday with her friend, Sloane Werner. They have done this for several years now and always look forward to a fun evening of pizza, singing songs, and learning new cheers and a dance to perform for the fans!

They wear a colored wristband to keep them in the same group. They were in the orange group this year. They loved to hang out with the cheerleaders.

The girls performed during the intermission. Since they are getting older, they are more in the back now. They are both in 3rd grade and have been friends since they were in the same 3 year old preschool!

Even though we lost that night, the diablos are still winners in our book!

1-31-2009 Saturday - Holly Goes To Winter Formal

Holly went to Winter Formal with Michael Klapp from the Live Oak Ward in our stake. He is a really fun boy and they have been good friends for a long time. He's kind of like another brother to Holly. And that's okay with Drew, because he and Michael are great friends too!

This was such a sweet photo of them together. We went to the RSM City Center to take group photos and this was taken while waiting for everyone to arrive.

Here they all are with their dates and beautiful gowns and corsages. After the picture taking, they went to one of the kids homes for an Italian dinner, then off to the dance.

They had all different fun poses. I had suggested the girls looking over the guys shoulders and it turned out really cute!

The girls shoes were so cool! Some of them were really fashionable and wild! Holly's were outrageous! She had a 4 1/2 inch heel black satin platform shoe with a giant clear square stone on the toe. The shoes didn't stay on for long though. Most of the girls take them off once they arrive at the dance. Holly made it halfway through it at least! Ha! Ha!

The after party was at our home. They had turkey chili and creamy potato soup, rolls and warm bread sticks, and three different cheesecakes and eclairs for dessert! About 40 people came and they all left by about 2am! Whew!!!!

1-29-2009 Thursday - Luke The Teddy Bear

Luke was a teddy bear in his first grade class play, "The Little Engine That Could" today. Holly did his make up for him before school.

He looked so cute. He was really worried that no one else would be all dressed up with makeup on and he kept asking me, "Mom, are you sure everyone else will have their faces done before school?" I assured him that they would and that he would not be the only one coming to school looking like that! Sure enough, there were plenty of other children that day who looked just as "done up" and he was just fine! The other little boy in his class that was a teddy bear had his face copied to look just like Luke's so they matched too. Good going Holly!!!

All the kids costumes were so clever and cute! They sang the most darling songs too!

Luke and his other teddy friend said a line in unison and then hugged. The audience all said, "Ahhhhhh". It was adorable!

The family came to watch too including grandma and Drago. Luke's number one fan, Brookyn, came to watch him too!

One of Luke's best friend's is Drew from his class.
They made some happy memories that day.

1-20-2009 Tuesday - Noel Gets Her Braces! :)

Well, Noel finally got her braces today! On our way to the ortho, she had her "last apple" and enjoyed it to the fullest! She was not really sure about me leaving and asked if I would stay by her while Dr. Meister did the procedure. She did very well even though she was quite nervous!

Here she is checking them out once they were on! Her first look at her new mouth for the next two years! Yikes!!!

Noel was excited afterward with her pink bands and started texting all her friends to let them know she had new braces!

1-19-2009 Monday - So Cal Sunsets!

We were on our way home from the river and when we got off the freeway, we saw one of our gorgeous So Cal Sunsets! Sometimes they are so beautiful people will stop on the side of the road and take photos. I got this one while Jeff was driving and I was in the front passenger seat. They don't even look real at times and seem like a painting, especially with the pinks and purples. We love our sunsets here and think they are even better than Hawaiian Sunsets!

The next day I got this photo when I was leaving my mother's house in Newport Beach. She lives right by the temple and I did snap this while driving to go home.

1-17-2009 Saturday - The River House!

We love going to the river. It's our second home and the only place where we all can truly relax.

We make toaster waffles (the kids love 'em)! They can cook just about anything in that toaster oven. Everything in our river house is compact and quick and easy to get to.We love to make pizza and salad in the winter too!



We walk our dogs and they love to run around by the river and play with the other dogs!Luke and Shera played with Mariah, our next door neighbor who's family we bought our river house from.

1-13-2009 Tuesday - Holly's Musical Tryouts

Today began the start of Holly's high school musical tryouts. They are doing Singin' In The Rain this year. She got the part of the hairdresser. Not the one she tried out for, but she's alright with it. She will be more of a character actor and she has the right look for it. I'll think she'll have fun with it actually.

1-3-2009 Saturday - Shabu Shabu!

We had our "Last Supper" as a family Saturday night before Drew left the next day to back up to school. His choice... He chose a Japanese restaurant called "Shabu Shabu". This means "Swish Swish" in Japanese. You get the raw food you ordered placed before you and then you cook it by swishing it with your chopsticks in a pot of boiling water. Then you dip it in different sauces - Delish!!! We took up half of the restaurant's counter space and had a great time! My favorite is the sauce for the rice. Holly always gets the vegetarian and Drew goes for the double steak! How ironic. :)

1-2-09 Friday - Gigantic Tangerines!

Our tangerines went supersized this year! I'm not sure what was different because it seemed like we did the exact same thing to that funny little potted tangerine tree up on our back balcony! Anyway, the kids got a kick out of it. You can see the comparison of the size we normally get and the ginormous ones we got also! But the best part was they were delicious at ANY SIZE!!!