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!!!

1-1-2009 Thursday - Happy New Year!

Well, here I am behind two months already on my blogging for the new year! But that's okay, because I am going to do as our Starr Mantra states: Plan my work. Work my plan. I will be trying something new this year and making this blog a little more like a journal. I will still have my photos and slide shows and will let friends and family know of our updates.

12-31-08 New Year's Eve at the Beach!

New Year's Eve morning, we went to
Laguna Beach and took the dogs with us.

Here's my boys - so cute together!

Heidi got wet and sandy and had a great time!

It was quite foggy and damp so we had on
sweats and some of us even had our PJ's on!

Sasha and Heidi ran all over chasing each other.

It was so fun having Drew home for a
few days. We've missed him so much!
It'll be hard for him to go again...

Here's my darling girls :)

12-28-09 The River!

The day after Christmas we headed out
to the river for a nice relaxing time.

It was cool out there so we would
bundle up to take walks with the puppies.

We went to our favorite restaurant, Crossroads Cafe
in Parker, Arizona. This was Noel's request
since it was her 13th birthday!
Chili Cheese Fries!!! Yay!!!

She chose Texas Chocolate Sheet Cake too!
It's her favorite!!!

We went riding in the desert right behind the trailer park.

Our friends, the Penrods, came out and stayed a
few days too. We roasted hot dogs one night.
We love seeing the stars. Sometimes we hear the
coyotes howling too. We lit fireworks another night also.

We did a fun Santa puzzle!

Here's Jeff and I by the river with the dogs.

The kids had a great time just hanging out.

We all did a massage train,
which eventually made a whole circle!

And last but not least - we loved Shera and Luke's
"Magic Show" they put on for us!

12-25-09 Christmas Day

The kids were ready to go down Christmas morning!
Afterward, we had a big deep fried turkey for dinner!

Some of our fun Christmas gifts were:

Santa brought a trampoline!

Drew got gloves and scarfs for BYU

Luke and Shera got blankets for the river.

Jeff loves Cheerios and got an ornament of it.

Santa brought us rice bowls and chopsticks!

The puppies got a Juicy doggie cookie jar.

Luke got a soccer outfit with his name on it.

Holly got her guitar she'd been asking for.

12-24-08 Christmas Eve!

Our Christmas Eve was a fun traditional one as always!

Luke and Shera got potato guns for their table gifts
at the Melting Pot Christmas Eve.

We made a play dough nativity scene.

Jeff read "The Nativity Story" to us afterwards.

Then we went up to the computer to see
where in the world Santa was before bedtime.
He was in Texas!

We put cookies, milk, and carrots
out for Santa and his reindeer!

The kids had their traditional "sleepover"
together in Drew's room and of course
played Risk that night too!