Saying Goodbye

For almost a year Kent has been driving our 1997 Pontiac Grand Prix with the transmission not working very well. It would pop out of gear every time he turned left. Good thing on this way to work in San Jose everyday he only had to turn left once. With baby #3 on the way we decided it was time for a minivan, so we decided to donate Kent's car and keep our other car. It was kind of sad to say goodbye to it. It almost had 200,000 miles on it. It was a great car. We'll miss "Goldie."

Christmas 2009

We had a nice Christmas at home in Palo Alto again this year. We did go to Half Moon Bay on Christmas Eve. It was a beautiful day and had fun exploring around the point near the Ritz. We had a really fun night with our friends the Asays, Steigers, and Johnsons. Janet did an incredible job making her house and the dinner table look so fancy and festive. The kids acted out the nativity and we played a few fun games later. Our little family has started the tradition of opening one present on Christmas Eve and then reading "The Night Before Christmas" right before going to bed. Christmas morning was so much fun. I LOVE watching the kids open their gifts. Jordan would have been set with her stocking full of candy. That occupied her for a long time and she didn't even bother to open some of her presents for a while. Jack on the other hand tore into everything he could as fast as he could. When he first got on his bike in the living room he was a little tippy and unbalanced (it is really big for him), he got off of it and said, "it could be for next year!" He really loves it now and I feel like I have to really cruise along on my bike to keep up with him. Jordan loved her new dolly, dolly clothes, tea set, and cash register. Poor girl came down with a fever on Christmas day and was pretty wiped out by the afternoon. We missed being with family, but love being able to give our own kids lots of time and attention. We had the missionaries over for brunch and walked to a park with them. It was a sunny, beautiful day. Oh, Kent got me work-out clothes (I guess I really have to start working out after the baby comes) and he got me a bluetooth (since I got a ticket for talking on my cell phone while driving my car about a month ago). Kent got a surprise trip to Las Vegas to watch BYU play in their bowl game. He met Kenneth down there and I think they had a great time. Thanks to Emily for arranging that!

Jordan's 3!!!

Jordan and her two friends Abby and Emily had a princess party for their 3rd birhtdays. The three little girls were born just 6 days apart. They got to decorate crowns and have a special visitor from Cinderella (a girl in our ward really did have a job in Disneyland as Cinderella and even has the dress and glass slippers!) The girls were mezmorized by her. Jordan actually isn't into the the Disney princess thing, but did like getting her picture taken with her. The picture of Jordan in the princess dress was only obtained after bribing her to put on the dress. She's funny. She's a bit of a tomboy, but loves the color pink and playing with dollies.

Jordan's Ballet Recital

Jordan and her little ballet group performed a sugar plum fariy dance at a recital in December. They did pretty good performing on the spot. We liked it so much that we had them do it two times. Right in the middle of the second time through, Jordan ran to me announcing to everyone that she needed to go potty! I guess that's better than peeing during a performance!

Christmas in the Park

We've made it a yearly tradition to go down to San Jose to Kent's work to see Santa and then go to Christmas in the Park. They have hundreds of Christmas trees decorated, fun little Christmas scenes, entertainment, and our favorite a ferris wheel ride.

Nolan and Ashley come to town!

We had so much fun with Nolan and Ashley when they came to visit in November. Nolan was working up north of here in Vacaville, so Ashley and kids stayed with us for the week. We had a fun time going to the jr. museum and zoo here in Palo Alto, the San Francisco children's park (in Golden Gate Park) and Japanese Tea Garden, and the Jelly Belly Factory. Ashely is SO helpful and has an amazing talent of seeing a need and just jumping up and taking care of it. I loved having her around and the kids had so much fun playing together. It was great to get to know Gracey girl and Thomas better.

Halloween 2009

Don't pass out, but I'm finally getting around to posting some Halloween pictures. I had to get a few shots of the kids on here. I was pretty happy with how their costumes turned out. Jack looked pretty scary. Jordan decided that she DID NOT want her face painted. We had a great time at the ward trunk-or-treat and trick-or-treating in a nice neighborhood in old town Palo Alto. After that we took the kids to Jim Welch's spookey organ concert.