The Gallup Family

Our "Christmas Card"

2010-12-22T08:11:00.000-08:00

Dearest Friends and Family,

Merry Christmas!!

We are so grateful for the gift our Savior.

"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." John 3:16

We have had quite a year. We’ve had many trials, but more blessings. Suzy’s dad passed away which was VERY hard. But it strengthened our testimonies of the Savior and the resurrection. We know we will be with Grandpa Harold (and Grandma Olga) again thanks to the Savior. Craig was laid off, but we were blessed to have enough work to tide us over and then he was invited back by the district that laid him off, but to a different and better school. In the summer, we had a wonderful vacation to Sequioa National Park. Suzy continues to home school the older girls-- Bella, 9, and Olivia, 7. They started horseback-riding, continue with piano lessons and they love both. Cecilia, 4, took a ballet & tap class this fall which she really enjoyed. The class ended with a tap performance to "Woody's Roundup," which was adorable. We were honored to be asked to be Mary, Joseph, shepherds and an angel at our ward Christmas party. Suzy got to sing lullabies to baby Jesus. Look at Ceci sucking her thumb! Suzy got called to be the ward choir director and planned the Sunday Christmas program which was a big challenge for her (much to learn!) With divine help, the choir and program were beautiful! We are a blessed family and wish you all a very Christ-filled Christmas! Much Love, The Gallups

To those of you who send us Christmas cards: Thank you! We love them!!

"Thy gentle head shall wear a crown
For thy Father is the King
Thy tender hands so tiny now
Have blessings great to bring
Let all creation join my song
For peace and love this night are born
Lullaby, lullaby my little one
Lullaby my child so dear"

We love and miss Grandpa!!

Life is so busy!

2010-12-19T22:08:00.000-08:00

Well, I was trying to catch up on this blog, and life just got too busy again! I got called to be the choir director in my ward on top of all my other responsibilities. I really do plan to catch up when I can!

I plan to blog Halloween, Dia de los Muertos, some field trips, Ceci's show and more.

October

2010-12-01T19:41:00.000-08:00

On October 4th, Ceci started a ballet/tap class! She loves it and does such a good job!

October 6 was a beautiful rainy day. The girls enjoy putting on their boots so much and splashing in puddles!

On October 7, Bella and Olivia started horseback-riding lessons. They LOVE it! They spent the first 45 minutes grooming the horses and the next 45 minutes learning to mount and ride. It's like a dream come true for them!

October 11, we celebrated Alex's birthday!

October 15, we took a field trip to the San Gabriel Mission as we are learning about local geography and history. We learned about the Gabrielino (Tongva) Indians and about mission life. We live less than one mile from the mission! We had a great time and learned so much!!

That same night, we went to our friend Susan Lopez' wedding. I was asked to sing "Dream a Little Dream of Me" for their first dance. It was so much fun! The girls had a blast making friends and dancing all night with them! It was a beautiful reception.

On October 22, we had our first of THREE Halloween parties. It had been pretty rainy, so we almost cancelled this one. Thank heavens we didn't because it was only misty and the party was a BLAST! We had a circle with lots of Halloween songs and verses. Each of us moms had a station with something fun to do. We did a "Dia de los Muertos" altar. Elizabeth told some awesome scary stories and Lucy brought body parts of her "friend" which were funny different food things like noodles dyed red for guts! AnnMarie had some fun games and Anne told a pirate story and gave out candy from her pirate chest. We had a delicious potluck and the kids had so much fun just playing together. The day before, I spent lots of time sewing Olivia's pirate costume. I made the skirt, sash, and vest. I sewed lace onto a blouse we (thankfully) already had. I thought she looked pretty darn cute!! I think I spent about $15 on the fabric and I copied the costume from a fancy catalog that was selling the costume for $75! I'm so glad Bella and Ceci's costumes were so easy. Notice that Ceci dressed up in four different costumes for each party-- Cinderella, a ladybug, a fairy and a cat. We have so much dress-up that she could do that! :)

On the 23rd, we went to Underwood Family Farms for their Harvest Festival. It was so much fun! It also started out rainy, but then became sunny! We saw a flea circus, pig races, an animal show, fed lots of animals, Ceci rode a pony, we got lost in the corn maze and took a tractor pulled trailor ride. We've been going here for a few years now and we love it! We love the pumpkin patch with pumpkins of all sizes including the huge ones!!

We had our next Halloween Party on the 26th with our Tuesday home school group. We had a potluck and a parade! It was really sweet. We love our home school group sooooo much!

Our next Halloween Party was at our ward on the 30th. Earlier in the day, Craig helped the girls carve their little pumpkins and then he carved our big pumpkin. We brought it to the party and he won first prize for it! At the party, we had a trick or treat in the rooms, lots of games, a parade, and even a spook alley! Some people dressed sooooo cute! I loved the Vincent's as Daphne and Scooby and then the Alvarez' dressed as the Toy Story characters! SO CUTE!

For Halloween, we stayed home and handed out candy (I was trying to sort of keep the Sabbath Day holy by not going trick or treating) I made a "Witches Brew" soup which was like a black bean chicken chili. The girls were so excited to make it because it was from a recipe we got from Trader Joes where each of the ingredients were described in a creepy way-- Like "gargoyle tears" was chicken stock, the black beans were "bat kidneys," and the corn was "Frankenstien teeth!" We all got dressed up and for fun, we made a table with a box with a hole in the bottom so that we could hand out our candy like "Thing" from the Addams family! The girls loved being under the table to hand out candy! Grandma was with us and I dressed her up like a witch! She came up to surprise the girls! We had a busy, awesome October. So busy, that that's why I can't keep up with this blog! The last picture is of the Haunted House pictures the girls made. They made doors and windows that open and drew witches, monsters, ghosts etc behind each window and door. They came out so cute!

LA County Fair!

2010-11-28T20:40:00.000-08:00

On September 30th, we went to the fair. Wow, we had fun!! And as home schoolers, we got in free with the school groups. (Even free parking!) First, we met Courtney, Mya, Wynn and Paige and we hung out in Heritage Square where there were people spinning yarn, weaving, knitting and felting. We also saw handmade quilts, broom-making, and soap-making. We made ragdolls there!

The fair had a special program where you could get 3 free ride vouchers for every 2 book reports written (limited to 6.) So for the past month, the girls had all worked hard writing book reports to get free ride vouchers. My girls each wrote 6 book reports and got 9 ride vouchers. They were all so excited to ride some rides!!

The first one we did was the Sky Ride. It was so fun to ride over the whole fair! Then, the girls rode LOTS of rides until Mya, Wynn and Paige had to go.

After they left, we met up with our friends AnnMarie, Asher and Clover. We looked at lots of farm animals in the big barn with them. The girls milked goats again this year!

Soon, Daddy came to meet us!! We made rope, watched a blacksmith demonstration and then went and rode more rides!! When I figured it out, it turned out we got over $100 worth of free rides. It was a long day! But it was sooo much fun! We love going to the LA county fair! Can't wait until next year!

More September

2010-11-28T19:28:00.000-08:00

September 27- We got an awesome kids Yoga DVD and my girls LOVE it! I loved how cute they looked doing this pose together! :)
September 26- Alex made us a delicious Korean dinner-- bulgoki. Yum! We also had the Korean sister missionaries over. September 23- We did this cool crystal growing kit! It grew really fast! In a matter of a few hours!
September 21- We went on a field trip with Sky Mountain Charter School to the Arboretum. We joined our friends Mya, Wynn and Paige and all the girls had an absolute blast!!!
September 20- We made an apple pie from scratch with the apples we picked at Los Rio Ranchos.
Sept 17- We celebrated Constitution Day!! We read scriptures about it, read an awesome book about the history of it called "A More Perfect Union," by Betsy Maestro, we wrote out the preamble, and then looked at this awesome replica that I bought. We then watched all the schoolhouse rock videos on the government. We LOVE the constitution! That night, we got to celebrate Kippy's birthday with a DELICIOUS dinner at her house!! Happy Birthday, my wonderful friend!!

El Pueblo de Los Angeles Tour, Dia de Independencia and our new exchange student

2010-11-28T17:32:00.000-08:00

On the 16th of September we went to El Pueblo de Los Angeles, aka Olvera street. We LOVE to go there, and go there often, but today we went for an official tour which we have never done before. This was part of the local history and geography that we are working on. I was AMAZED at the history of LA that I only knew a little bit about. We toured the Avila adobe house, which is right on Olvera Street and is the first house built in LA. (Built in 1818!) We also toured LA's first firehouse, saw "The Pico House," ( LA's first grand hotel) and learned about the Leo Politi mural-- "The Blessing of the Animals." All of these are in the plaza right next to Olvera Street. We also learned about the 11 families that traveled from Mexico to settle the Los Angeles area in 1781 under the rule of Juan Carlos III.

We picked September 16th to come because it is Mexico's day of Independence from Spain. On this day in 1810 Father Hidalgo led the indigenous peasants of Mexico in a revolt against Spain. It took 11 years, and a few wars, but Mexico finally won their independence in 1821. The blue and yellow mural is a depiction of the revolt, by Eduardo Carillo. It was fun to be at Olvera Street for the celebrating! I love Mexico's history and culture which I proudly claim as my own.

By the way, an exchange student came to live with us on Sept. 14th. She is all the way from Korea. Her name is Bokyung, but her nickname is Alex. She came with us to Olvera Street. She is awesome, we love her!

Union Station

2010-11-28T17:18:00.000-08:00

This year, we are studying local history and geography. So on Sept 14th, we went with some friends to Union Station for a guided tour. It was really fun. We got to hear the whole history of the station and even got to go to some places that are not open to the public such as the old ticket counters and the now-closed restaurant. The architecture of Union Station is soooooo beautiful. I LOVE the art deco style and the tile work is some of the best that you can find!

A Beach Day

2010-11-28T16:52:00.000-08:00

The whole summer went by and I realized that we never went to the beach together as a family. My girls had gone with my sisters, but Craig and I didn't go! So I decided that we needed to go. On September 11, we left a sunny Alhambra and all went out to Hermosa Beach. We picked up Grandma Ginny too. It was totally cold and overcast!! I stayed in my jacket the whole time. But my girls swam, Daddy buried them, and they made a big sandcastle. The girls had a great time. Afterwards, we went back home to Grandma's for some hot chocolate!

Los Rio Ranchos Apple Farm

2010-11-22T05:35:00.000-08:00

On September 8th, we had the MOST beautiful day at this wonderful farm/orchard in Yucaipa! It was homeschool day and we went with our good friends Almitra, Wynn, Mya and Paige. We did so many fun things!! We got to write our names with a quill, we got to grind coffee by pounding it in a bag, we got to saw wood, and we hung apple slices for drying. My girls FAVORITE was hand washing and hanging the clothes! We also got to make corn husk dollies! Then we got to wash apples, help press them in a cider press, and then taste the cider and it was DELICIOUS!! Olivia tried out some archery too. This place was so fun and so beautiful! We then got to pick raspberries, blackberries and apples. The highlight for my girls though, had to be finding these gorgeous black kittens! They played with them as long as they could. We had such a sweet time!! And we brought home some cider and some apple pie to Daddy when we got home. What a wonderful day!

Butterfly Pavilion on Labor Day

2010-11-21T22:25:00.001-08:00

We LOVE to go to the Butterfly Pavilion at the Natural History Museum. We finally went this year on Labor Day which was its last day! We're so glad we made it!

When we first got there, a butterfly (a "Morning Cloak") landed on Bella. It was so cute! Then, Olivia wanted one to land on her! We hung out in there for quite a while waiting and hoping one would land on Olivia too. In the meantime, one landed on me! And then one land on Ceci too, but too briefly for a picture. FINALLY, after some stress, another Morning Cloak landed on Olivia. And he ended up staying on her for a good little while. SHE WAS SO HAPPY!! And we were too. Believe me, you don't want an unhappy Olivia! Then, one landed on Daddy too. It was really fun. We learned from one of the guides there that butterflies are very territorial and that if they land on you, it's because they want you to leave!! :) I hated to leave the Pavilion and all the beautiful butterflies!! By the way, we finally got a new camera!! We gave up on finding the old one. So I had a great time taking these pictures with our new camera. It was a beautiful day! :)

Beginning of the Year Celebration

2010-11-21T21:15:00.000-08:00

We had a beginning of the year celebration with some of our home school friends. A week prior, some of us moms got together and needle-felted gifts for our children. I made each of my girls a flower. Each of our children walked under our bridge and each mom welcomed them to the grade they were entering. It was really fun and cute. (Would have been nicer if Ceci would have not been sick and grumpy, though.) We had a lovely ceremony and a yummy potluck. Later, some of us went swimming at my place!

We met Los Lobos!!

2010-11-21T20:17:00.000-08:00

This was sooooo fun! On August 25th, we went to see Los Lobos for free at Amoeba records! We were so lucky that our friend AnnMarie watched our girls at the last second! We had soooo much fun!! They played an AWESOME concert of old and new songs and they were all great. They even did "How will the wolf survive?" from the 80's. They were ROCKIN'!!

Then, we got to meet all the guys and get their autographs!! They were so nice!! Even though Cesar Rosas puts on a "what up" face, he is totally sweet, friendly and funny. His voice is sooooooo BEAUTIFUL!! I've been listening to Los Lobos like crazy ever since. I can't wait to see them play again. And their new album is great!!

Sequoia

2010-11-21T18:40:00.001-08:00

The day after my family left, we packed up to go camping at Sequoia National Park. Wow!!!!!! We had a BLAST!! We had never been there before. It was so much fun, I wish I could write every detail of every day. We were there August 9-13. We saw bears EVERY DAY!! Our pictures aren't too great though because they're from a cell phone (it's all we had!!) We hiked through the most gorgeous meadows and forests every day!!! I am now IN LOVE with Sequoia trees! I also had SO MUCH fun cooking-- I love camp cooking. We had campfires every night and s'mores every night. (Still trying to lose that weight.) What a wonderful camping trip!

Our first day, we set up camp, went swimming in the stream just next to our site, went to the visitor's center where we saw a movie about bears and then later hiked to "Tharp's Log" a cabin made from a tree trunk. We saw our first bear at the cabin! (But he was too far to get a picture with a cell phone!) :) We were scared at first!

Our second day, we hiked down to the Crystal Cave and went on the tour! On the way back to camp, we followed a bear in our van that was going along the road on a hill!

Our third day, we were laying in our tent looking out the door and I spotted a bear across the stream! It was pretty far away, but it was exciting and we got out and tried to get a better look. Later, we went to see the "General Sherman" (the biggest tree in volume in the world!) It was huge!!!! We also went to the Beetle Rock discovery center for the afternoon which was a fun kid's science center with lots of fun activities for kids. Then I took Bella and Olivia on a hike to this gorgeous waterfall.

Our fourth day, we had to clean up and pack up to go. But after that, we went swimming in a beautiful part of the stream and then went on a guided hike through forest and meadows. We learned so much! At the end, we saw FIVE BEARS in the meadow!! They were eating flowers! We saw a mama and a baby and then another mama and a baby!! We saw the second little cub climb quickly up a tree after it's mom snorted at it!! It turned out there was a male bear coming!! (Did you know a male bear will kill a cub so that it can mate with the mom?) Before we left, the girls became "junior rangers." They worked very hard over the trip doing a workbook that they got on our first day. They got badges!

We had so much fun! We hated to leave! But we were going to Fresno so that we could take a tour the next day of our dairy farm that we get our milk from, Organic Pastures.

We got a tour from the owner, Mark McAffee!! Here we are with Mark and our cows that eat organic grass!! :) We had such a wonderful vacation!!

Summer

2010-11-15T18:40:00.001-08:00

We started June 1st with getting the house repiped. Wow! What an adventure! Next thing I knew, there were guys in almost every room of the house breaking the walls open. Then, other guys digging ditches in the yard. It lasted for 4 days. Our water pressure is now amazing.

I took the girls on a field trip with our home school friends to a local Buddhist temple in Pasadena. It was neat. We got to do a meditation class and got to meet some of the monks. I forgot to take pictures, so I took this one when we left!

My birthday was on June 7th. I'm at the age where it's not fun to say how old! Craig and I were blessed with a chance to go out to dinner for Thai food. We hadn't planned a thing, but my sister had sent me a gift of $ to go out and at the last second our neighbors watched our kids. It was nice, and we really needed it. Craig was bummed for getting laid off and we were thinking that we were moving which felt very stressful! It was a nice birthday. My sweet friend from church had a cake baked for me by another (professional cake maker) friend from church. It was soooo nice! I felt like the Lord gave me a very nice birthday and I hadn't planned a thing!

I took pictures when we went up to Leona Valley to pick cherries with Grandma Ginny and also when we had a fun summer solstice swim party with a bunch of home school friends, but they got lost with my lost camera! :( I also lost some cute pictures from the day we went to Chinatown. Thankfully, I got this one from Craig's cell phone. We'd been wanting to go to Chinatown ever since Chinese New Year but could never find the time. We finally made it at the end of June and had so much fun!! It is so fun to see all the unique treasures from China. We definitely want to go there next year for the Chinese New Year parade!

In July, we got 3 exchange students from Taiwan! Wow! We did it because we really needed the extra income that it brought. They stayed with us for two weeks and I made them breakfast and dinner and drove them to and from school every day. We had to rearrange our house a bit to accommodate them. We gave my girls my dad's queen bed and gave the exchange students a day bed from the garage and the girl's bunk beds. We put them in our school room. We had a lot of fun with them and they were very cute. They were 13 and 14--Betty, Lucy and Starly were their American nicknames.

I got to help give my dear friend Brieanne a blessingway, which is like a baby shower only more spiritual and supportive of the birth. Brieanne requested home made gifts and so I made her this needle-felted tapestry. I enjoyed making it so much!! I was surprised that I put so many pink roses on it when Brieanne doesn't really care for pink, but by the end of the shower, we all were positive that she was having a girl. (Not by an ultrasound!) I made a salad and deviled eggs. Brieanne got her tummy henna-tattooed and we all got henna tattoos. It was such a beautiful blessingway! I'm so happy for Brieanne! (By the way, she did indeed have a girl which I'll post more of later.)

I let my exchange students have a swim party with all of the friends from their school one night. It was a little crazy, but I survived it!

A few nights later, their time with us ended. This is from their last night that they were here and then from a dinner we got to go to to say goodbye to them. Our girls had fallen so in love with them, it was hard to say goodbye!

We had lots of swim parties, big and small, but I didn't get too many pictures because of the lost camera. Somehow I got this one, when the Nielsen girls came over to play. They are our super-good friends as you will see in more pictures/blog posts to come.

On July 31st, my sweet niece, Arianna, turned eight and was baptized. It was a beautiful baptism! I only got this one picture because we all rushed home to my brother's place. Then, it turned into a total party! We even ended up at the beach at the end!

In the middle, we got to give my youngest sister Cindy a baby shower. She was expecting a baby girl (who was born October 1st!) She got one of the most beautiful showers I've ever been to! My sister-in-law, Sandra, went all out. It was so pretty and the gifts were amazing!! I made her matching pearl and pink crystal bracelets for herself and for the baby and the little outfit she's holding. My gifts paled in comparison to all the other gorgeous outfits she got!!

This was the start of a week with almost all my family visiting. Cindy and Yvonne stayed for the week and Harold came up for a day. We did a lot of cleaning out (lots of my parents books, papers, etc.) We also had a lot of fun. We had a beach day, and we also celebrated Yvonne's birthday. I made her some cupcakes. We also got to go to an awesome Dodger game where they won 9-0!! That was a blast!! :)

While my family was visiting, Craig's cousin also came to visit. I only have this tiny blurry picture that was sent to us from a cell phone!! But we saw cousin Vince, his wife Patti, their kids Andrew and Elizabeth, cousin Richie and Aunt Mary. It was so nice because we don't get to see these cousins very often!!

One of the last things I did with my family was visit my mom and dad's graves. I miss them so much!! It has been a bit hard without them. We sang lots of songs about families and how families can be together forever.

After that, we went to a birthday party for Tristan!!

This last picture was right before the Kleven's drove away. These two love each other so much! Almost as much as they love their thumbs!!

Spring

2010-11-14T21:09:00.000-08:00

Even before my dad passed away, I wasn't caught up on this blog. So after he passed away, and life got really crazy, (we thought we were going to move & spent a lot of time looking for places AND Craig got laid off!) the blog just became the last thing on my mind.

Anyways, I thought I would post some pictures of some of the highlights from spring (March, April and May.) Some stuff is from before my dad passed away. The birthday party was the day before his passing. (By the way, we were blessed with work during the summer from Craig's old job and then he got a new teaching job in Pomona up until the 1st of November when he started working for Compton Unified again. This time, at Dominguez Hills High School. He is very happy there.)

We spent a couple times at Vroman's book store selling girl scout cookies.

Our Strawberries came in very nicely.

On March 27th, we had a super-fun birthday tea party with face-painting, tea and sandwiches, a flower treasure hunt and cupcakes. We made felted necklaces to give for favors.

We were getting ready for Easter.

We sprouted 5 different kinds of tomato seeds.

We continued to work at our Organic Pastures dairy co-op.

We had a May 1st party at our house with a May pole!

We were part of another May faire and got to be in a play!

We celebrated Mother's day on May 9th and Craig's birthday on May 11th.

On May 15th, our friends, the Rices, were sealed as a family in the Redlands temple for time and all eternity. That was one of the most special days of my life!!!

We went to the Corona Rennaisannce Faire for FREE through their reading program. (The girls read books to get themselves and us in free. They got to go on a "learning hunt" and were made ladies by the French King.

The talk I promised

2010-11-14T19:41:00.000-08:00

It's been 7 months since I blogged!! I can't believe it. But more so, I can't believe I'm blogging now. I just don't have the time. I am sooooo busy home schooling. And I spent the summer just in a daze over the loss of my dad and the changes that came with that.

Anyways, I thought I would post the talk that I gave at my dad's funeral and then try to catch up with just a few pictures from spring, summer, and fall so far. Let's see if I do it!! I promised my sister Cindy some pictures.

Here is my talk:

As much as I am truly heartbroken to have lost my daddy, today I want to celebrate his wonderful life! I want to pay tribute to the kindest, friendliest, and most loving and generous man I know. I want to thank my Heavenly Father for giving me the best daddy in the whole world! And I want to thank Heavenly Father for the blessing of eternal families-- for the sealing power that binds my family together for eternity if we prove worthy. And I am SO THANKFUL to my Savior that He made it possible that we will all resurrect, and that I KNOW I will see my daddy again.

What a wonderful man my father is! As many of you know, I've lived with my him for the past 6 years. I am so happy and proud of how he spent his time and how he lived his life during his time on earth. Just in the time I've lived with him most recently, he diligently served as a bishop of a Spanish-speaking singles ward for three years. I know he was beloved by his ward of young single adults. He attended all their activities and genuinely enjoyed them. He then became a high councilman and I watched him go to his various early meetings and saw him go to give the many talks he was assigned to give.

I was fortunate to be with him all the way until the very end. I am happy to report that his last week was spent doing the things he loved, eating out and socializing, and serving. I'm not positive about everything he did in his last week, but I'm so glad to know that he got to eat at Porto's in Glendale and get a "ropa vieja" sandwich which is a really yummy shredded beef sandwich. As we all know, my daddy LOVED to eat! He had brought his food home, and I remember smelling the sandwich, and saying "that smells good!" and then he tore off a little piece and gave it to me! That was him, always sharing. He then said that he had gotten 4 potato balls which are little rolled balls of shepherd's pie, and he said-- "since I've already had the sandwich, why don't you and your girls have these?" I tried to say no, but he generously insisted. This was the kind of man my daddy was, always sharing, even off his own plate!

During his last week, he helped ME a lot-- I didn't usually want him to watch my three daughters that are 9, 7, and 3, because he usually allowed them to destroy the house! But I had a birthday party to get ready for and many things to do. On Wednesday, he watched my kids for several hours while I did my errands. Then on Thursday, he again watched my girls while I went to prepare for a Relief Society Dinner at the ward since my husband was working late. He NEVER hesitated to help me when I asked even if he had to change his plans. When my husband came home that night, my dad got to eat his last meal at his very favorite restaurant, "El Sombrero." I'm so glad he got to enjoy a meal at his favorite place!

He spent his last couple of days very active. I know he went to a church activity on Friday night and another on Saturday afternoon. He's a social butterfly and I know he loved being out, talking with his friends and eating.

On Sunday morning, he got up early and made it to his high council meeting. He then stayed at the Arroyo ward meeting because he is the liaison over that ward and they were having a bishopric change. He then went to his own branch, El Sereno. At least three people told me that they got to talk with him that afternoon. I think he stayed until around 4pm.

When he came home, he broke his fast, had some lunch and we all got to talk a little. He told me about his day, asked about mine and my girls got to spend time with him. He and my oldest love to read the comics together. He seemed happy as usual. I never would have dreamed it was his last day, he seemed perfectly fine.

He then went into his room and called a friend and they talked for a while. At around 9:30, he started to breathe very hard and I could hear it from a distance. I went to check on him asked him if he was in pain, but he said no, he just needed to "catch his breath." I became worried and even told him I wanted to take him to the hospital and he said adamantly that he was not going to the hospital! He was pretty calm. But then the hard breathing became harder until he laid down and soon slipped into unconsciousness. He had, I believe, a relatively pain-free heart-attack.

I share these last moments, because I want to tell you that it was EXTREMELY hard and scary to watch my wonderful daddy pass on. I wasn't ready, I still am not. And in a moment like that, you feel DESPERATE! But it is in a moment like that that you truly realize what the VERY MOST IMPORTANT THINGS ARE. That the two most precious, wonderful gifts we've been given are:

1. the gift of the resurrection
and
2. the power of sealing that binds families together forever.

I already knew this,

BUT

watching my dad slip away made me DESPERATE to have him back. It was all I wanted!!

And it made me realize that nothing else in the whole world matters more than being with your family. I realized even more fully how blessed I am to have the knowledge of the gospel, the knowledge of the resurrection, the knowledge that I WILL see my wonderful daddy again and that we are sealed in the temple as a family. I realize that there is nothing more important than being sealed. I am so grateful that my parents were sealed in the temple for time and all eternity, I want to shout "Hallelujah" about it! I know I will see my mommy and my daddy again. What a comforting knowledge.

I got to sit with my beautiful daddy's body for a couple hours that night. I feel like I was allowed to envision him reuniting with my mom, and then his own mom, and then his little brother who died at only 8 in 1942 when my dad was 10. I then imagined uncles, aunts and other family members welcoming him home, even his dad who was not a big part of his life.

As I caressed his still-warm body and hands, I reviewed all my favorite moments of my life with my dad--

I remembered the way he used to hold me when I was very little, how tall he was! And how high I felt and he would pat my back and I would pat his.

I remembered how he let me sneak into his and my mom's bed when I had a bad dream. There is no greater sense of security that I have ever felt in my life than to sleep on my dad's big strong arm as a child. I knew that absolutely nothing could hurt me there. To this day, I've not felt a better feeling.

I remembered the time when I had the chicken pox and he bought me three new books and he read all three of them to me. I loved getting his that special treatment.

I remembered how every morning when he would leave for work, or when he'd drop us off at seminary, he always had a kiss for us. When he got home from work, he again gave us each a kiss, and then at bedtime, we'd get our goodnight kiss. It was wonderful having an affectionate and loving daddy!

I also sadly reviewed my not-so-favorite moments, more recent moments, when we got on each other's nerves living together and I wasn't as patient as I should have been. But I also remembered how forgiving he was. That every time I did get impatient, he always accepted my apologies and we would always kiss and hug and make up. He quickly would forget and move on. I am so grateful that he was always quick to forgive and I know he forgives me for my shortcomings. I'm so grateful for the atonement that allows us to repent.

My favorite story about my dad is when I was already in my 20's and we were going to Olvera St. for dinner. As we were getting off the freeway, we saw a man with a sign that said "Hungry." We went to go park and when we got out of the car my dad said he wanted to take this man some money. My dad started to walk a couple blocks down and if you can believe it, the man with the sign started to walk away! He didn't know my dad was coming! If you can believe it, my dad CHASED this man so he could give him some money. When my dad came back he said to me with tears in his eyes "aren't we all beggars?" the scripture from Mosiah 4. What an amazing man.

I want to tell you daddy, that I have the utmost respect and admiration for you. It is an honor to be your daughter. It was an honor to live with you these past few years and to help you when you needed it. Thank you for being steadfast, for being a perfect example of kindness, generosity, friendliness and love. I love you with all my heart and soul and anxiously await the day that we are all reunited as a family. I miss you and I will miss you every day until then. I'm so glad you are with mom.

I bear my testimony that I know that the Atonement of Jesus Christ is real. I know that through Him we can return to live with our Heavenly Father. I know that through Him we will all resurrect and if we take advantage of the blessings of the Temple, our families can be together forever.

My Dad

2010-04-18T20:39:00.000-07:00

My wonderful Dad passed away. I am a little numb. We have lived with him for the past six years. He has been the best Grandpa and Dad in the world. It has been three weeks today (he passed Sunday, March 28th) and I have still not quite grasped it. He had not been in good shape for a while, but his death still came as quite a shock. He was overweight, had high blood pressure, but he still led a very busy and active life. Even on the day of his passing, he went to an early morning church meeting (high council meeting) and then visited another ward and attended his own. When he came home, he was his normal self. Talkative, happy, no sign of any problems.

At about 9:30 pm, I could hear him breathing hard. I went to check on him and he said he was out of breath. I told him I was worried, that maybe it was his heart. He said he had no pain but just needed to catch his breath. I told him maybe I should take him to the ER, but he adamantly said he would not go, he was fine. Very shortly after, his hard breathing got worse until he slipped into unconsciousness. It was really scary! :( I had already called 911 and the ambulance came only minutes later. They put him in the ambulance but it was on the way to the hospital when his heart stopped.

I got to sit with his body in the ER where I imagined his Spirit reuniting with my mom, his mom, and his brother who died at 8 when my dad was only 10. In spite of my devestation, it was truly VERY comforting.

The past three weeks have been an emotional roller coaster for me and my family. It's been heart-wrenching and chaotic but overwhelmingly comforting and beautiful. I am filled with gratitude for having had the best dad in the world. Overall, I am just so grateful that he was so wonderful and that he lived such a good life. I was sooooooo blessed that he was MY Dad.

Longtime friends, people in my church and in my home school group instantly rallied around me, visiting, calling, bringing food. Most of my family came on the Wednesday after. Brenda traveled from Japan and Cindy from Utah.

We had only two days to plan the funeral, but it turned out beautifully.

How wonderful that the weekend was Easter and that we could celebrate the resurrection! Also, how wonderful that it was general conference and that we got to hear wonderful messages from our prophet, President Monson and the apostsles. There were many talks about the resurrection which strengthened our faith.

The past couple of weeks my sisters have been here and we've been going through TONS of important documents, figuring out all the bills, and making sure everything is paid! :) We are hugely blessed that my dad left us this home (the one I live in) and another building-- a four-unit apartment complex. He set it up as a living trust so now my four siblings and I own them together. After going back and forth, we have decided to hold off on the idea of selling for a couple of years. We are all too attached to this home. It will be HARD to part with it when the time comes although we know it will be coming.

I was already so behind on our blog, and then this obviously put me much more behind. I'm going to try to catch up, because I really do love having a blog and writing down feelings and posting pictures. I'm going to put up some posts from all that we've been up to for the past 8 weeks or so with the dates that they happened. I think I just have to put up way less pictures than I usually do since uploading them takes so much time! :)

This picture was taken in 2008 when I was privileged to give a talk on Father's day and got to speak about my dad. I LOVE his cute smile! How I love him and miss him! I took him so for granted. I'm a little afraid of how much I'm going to miss him. What I would give to have him back! How I would love to just sit and listen to a story and hug and kiss the sweetest dad I could have ever asked for! I'm so glad he's my dad forvever and that I KNOW I will be with him again.

A Life Well-Lived

2010-04-18T18:17:00.000-07:00

Ceci's 4th Birthday!

2010-04-10T21:43:00.000-07:00

Easter

2010-04-04T21:00:00.000-07:00

The Funeral

2010-04-02T21:47:00.000-07:00

I'm going to write all about the funeral and post the talk I gave when I have more time.

Bella's 9th Birthday

2010-03-31T23:26:00.000-07:00

In a way, Bella was lucky. She had no idea she would get to have almost all of her cousins over on her birthday. Too bad my sisters and I spent most of the day at the mortuary planning and preparing for the funeral. We barely squeezed in this cake at around 10pm. Still, Bella was very happy!

And, she got a razor scooter!!

*More posts coming!*

Happy Chinese New Year!

2010-02-20T21:06:00.000-08:00

Chinese New Year was officially last Sunday, on Valentines Day, but most of the festivities took place today. Today Craig took the girls to the Huntington Library to enjoy all the wonderful things they had planned. They have a gorgeous Chinese garden there. They met up with their friend Karina, and her mom, Karin.

I had to stay home. :( I've had the stomach flu for the past 4 days! I wish I could have gone! But, alas, I can only picture myself there in a wheelchair! :)

Olivia and Ceci got dressed in their outfits that our friend brought us back from China a few years back. I got Bella her dress just last Monday in China town. I had been eagerly anticipating today!

They all got to watch the Lion dance. They also got to see how their names are written in Chinese characters. They got to hear some live music. I know they had a very fun time!

On another note, I just wanted to wish my mama a "Happy Birthday!" I am really missing you today . . .

Home School Valentines Party!

2010-02-16T21:07:00.000-08:00

It seems like the partying never stops around here! Today we had our Valentines party with our home school group! We had to make 40 Valentines each! It was really fun passing them out. There were so many yummy treats! My girls had a BLAST! Happy Valentines Day! . . . Is it really over?! :)

Fun

2010-02-15T22:12:00.000-08:00

We watched the first two hours of Emma last night and then the last two hours this morning. It's a great version! You MUST see it if you have not!

We had a super-fun day. It was sunny and warm in Hermosa Beach! We drove along the coast a bit but didn't get out because it was really crowded!!

We went to one of our very favorite places, Olvera Street. We just like it there. I was also on a quest for a new red blouse!! We wandered Olvera and it was really fun. I tried on at least 6 red blouses! :)

But then, we decided to check out China town!! It was soooooooo much fun to go there! We haven't been in ages, I almost forgot how wonderful it is there!! They have the most attractive trinkets and bright things for sale! Paper lanterns, lucky cats, paper dragons, china doll shoes! I can't wait to bring the girls back here! And I found a totally beautiful red Chinese blouse that I had to have for a very small price. I LOVE LA!!

We then went back to Olvera. I got the other red blouse I wanted-- had to give Mexico my support! :) We got some delicious unhealthy Mexican food-- (bad for the body, good for the soul!) We soaked in the ambience as much as we could before we ran off to see "The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus." It was pretty good! Story was a little shaky, but the art direction and TOM WAITS made up for that. Not to mention Heath Ledger!

We had a fun 12th! Happy Anniversary to us! :)

Valentines Day and our 12th Anniversary!

2010-02-14T20:22:00.000-08:00

Like I said before, we really like Valentine's Day around here! We started our day making Valentines for our friends at church. The girls helped cut them and stamped them. It was fun to hand them out to our friends!

After church we made lots of Valentines for each other. I love making Valentines!

Later, Grandpa gave a card and some $ to Olivia for her birthday. Then he gave the girls each a See's truffle heart and they gave him his Valentines. Then, Grandma gave Olivia her birthday gift-- fairy paper dolls! Then the girls and Grandma exchanged Valentines.

Then, I gave the girls their Valentines and they gave Craig and I our Valentines. Today is our 12th anniversary!! We are going to celebrate by taking a small break from three wild girls and spend the night at Grandma's house. We are going to watch my new BBC Emma DVD that my sister sent me! Craig has tomorrow off so we're going to celebrate some more!

This is the Valentine I made Craig. :)

More Birthday with Grandma and Grandpa

2010-02-13T21:14:00.000-08:00

Today we celebrated Olivia's birthday more with Grandma and Grandpa. Grandpa took us to Twohey's for the best Sundaes you can get! We got to sing "Happy Birthday" to her again. Then Bella, Olivia and Grandma and I went to see "The Princess and the Frog" at the $2 Academy theater in Pasadena which I thought was really cute. We had a great time!

Olivia's 7th Birthday!!

2010-02-12T22:26:00.000-08:00

Olivia had a great birthday! We started the day by letting her open the present that her cousins, Yazi, Ari and Harold sent her-- it was a "Chipettes" DVD! She LOVED it! She then opened a present from Daddy and I-- a t-shirt (second-hand, but brand-new looking!) that says "Birthday Girl." :)

We then got ourselves ready for a trip to the snow! We drove up to Mt. Baldy. It was a great time. Not without some difficulties, but overall, very nice. We sledded, made a snow-girl and Bella even dug a "polar bear hole."

We stayed for quite a while until the girls were worn out!

We then came home to some chicken soup! We also baked a yummy cake. We sang to Olivia and let her open her special present from Daddy and I. It is a fairy treasure box that she chose herself so she LOVES it!

Believe it or not, we also went to a wedding reception tonight for our friend Scott Elder. He and Craig went to school together and we are sooooooo happy for him! He found himself a gorgeous wife! The reception was REALLY fun because we got to see tons of our friends from BYU! It was especially cool to see our friends, Drew Champion, Ken and Anna Foutz, and Holly Chase!!

What a full day!

Our Valentine Party!

2010-02-10T21:20:00.000-08:00

Today we had our Valentine party. It was a beautiful day and a lot of fun! We went to our milk co-op and then came back with Tamar and Calista! Soon, Nathalia and Isabella arrived. We started by baking a yummy chocolate cake and putting it in the oven. Then we made Valentine heart boxes. We cut them out, folded and glued them and then decorated them with stickers.

Then Lucy told the girls a Valentines story while I got out cakes and put chocolate sauce on them. Then the girls all came in and we had the cakes, chocolate fondue with fruit and heart sandwiches. YUM!!

We made sure to sing "Happy Birthday" to Olivia who's birthday is in TWO DAYS! She loved it!

After the cake, we exchanged Valentines with each other. They were beautiful and the little molded hearts are home made crayons!! :)

It was a super-fun party!

If you can believe it, Bella, Olivia and I went to our ward cooking night where we learned to make these. FUN!!

Getting Ready for Valentines Day!

2010-02-09T21:50:00.000-08:00

Today was a beautiful, gloomy, rainy day. In the morning, we decided to take a walk in all the gloom and it was lovely and refreshing! We loved all the winter trees.

When we got home, we needed to get our house ready for a Valentines Day. Tomorrow we are having a little Valentines day party with a few friends! We went outside and gathered some BEAUTIFUL camellias from our bushes. We made some beautiful bouquets. When we went back inside, it started POURING!

We then changed our seasonal table from winter to Valentines day. It was very fun!

Later, we made some Valentines to give to our friends. We love Valentines day at our house so this is only the beginning! :)

What a BEAUTIFUL movie!

2010-02-07T19:56:00.000-08:00

I rented this movie this weekend and was totally ENCHANTED. I fell in love with love watching it! I recommend it very highly, it is soooooo sweet and so breath-takingly beautiful. I will admit, it is heart-breaking, but it is wonderful. I watched it twice!

Painting

2010-02-05T19:36:00.000-08:00

Today we went to our friend Lucy's place to have a painting class. It was taught by a trained Waldorf teacher with years of experience which was so neat for us. She was also super-nice. The girls painted the first 4 days of the creation. It was a beautiful rainy day. After lots of painting, the girls played outside in the rain. Then they came in and played dress-up. What a super-fun day!

Organic Pastures

2010-02-03T22:10:00.000-08:00

Today was awesome. The girls and I went to volunteer at our co-op and had a great time. We helped do the eggs again and it was a lot of fun. Today was special though because we had a visit from Mark McAffee again, the owner of the dairy where we get our organic raw milk. He came to speak to us at our co-op, and then in the evening at my Holistic Moms group. So I got to hear him twice today!! He is a GREAT speaker. He is so knowledgeable and articulate! He is also very down-to-earth and funny. Before he left, we all got to drink milk together and then he gave some of us t-shirts! This photos is of my good friend Melissa, and me with two of my heros-- Steve Plog who runs our co-op and helps us get healthy food, and then Mark McAffee.

KIDSPACE! and LOST!

2010-02-03T21:59:00.000-08:00

Last night we took the girls to Kidspace. It's a children's science discovery center at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena and the first Tuesday evening of the month is their free night. We LOVE it there, but we haven't been able to go for a loooong time. So we finally made it up there last night. We had a great time, as usual, the only thing was that it was more crowded than I remembered!! I was hoping to do some fun science learning together, but our kids sort of ran around wild! I could hardly keep track of them! We also ran into a ton of friends there from our ward so our kids had fun playing with them and I socialized with my mom friends too! I did get to look at this neat bug collection with Bella for a while and later she got to pet a cockroach!! Yikes!!

We then hurried home just in time to put the girls down and watch the season premier of LOST! WOW!!! It was amazing. I LOVE this crazy show!!

New Boots!

2010-02-01T17:03:00.000-08:00

After our snow day, I realized the girls needed some boots and so I found some great ones on sale for half-price from Crocs!! Well they came last Saturday and the girls were super-excited to wear them. So today, we took our walk wearing them and they loved it!! I had to get a picture to capture their excitement!

Because it was such a beautiful day, I felt inspired to have a science lesson and work in the garden. We put our snap peas onto tomato cages (they were on the ground) and thinned and transplanted the romaine and butter lettuce along with the swiss chard. We also did some weeding. Our garden looks sooooo much better, but I still need to take an "after" picture of the lettuce! We are excited to see the snap peas wrap their vines around the cage!

It was sooo fun gardening in the beautiful sun today!

Being examples to our children

2010-01-31T16:52:00.000-08:00

Craig and I were asked to give talks in church today! Yikes! It is always a wonderful blessing and opportunity to give a talk, but it is also a bit scary. We spent the past weekend getting as prepared as we could!

Since I wrote my whole talk out, I thought I might post it here for anyone interested. I feel I found some pretty great things to share.

Being an example to our children
Good morning my dear brothers and sisters, I am grateful for this opportunity to speak to you today. For those of you who might not know us, I'll give just a very brief introduction. As an almost lifetime Alhambra resident, I basically grew up in this ward from the time I was a child, eventually leaving to go to school, serve a mission, and get married. I've now been back in the ward with my own family for the past 6 years. Craig and I live in my childhood home with my father where we all take care of each other. We are about to celebrate our 12th wedding anniversary this Valentines day. We have been blessed with 3 daughters, Isabella, almost 9, Olivia, almost 7, and Cecilia going on 4. I am a stay at home mom and I home school our two older girls. Craig is a high school Spanish teacher at Centennial High School in Compton. Sooo that means. . . that if anybody knows of a Spanish teaching opening at another school, please see us after the meeting! :)

Last week, we were taught about our perfect example, Jesus Christ.

Today, Craig and I have been asked to talk about "being an example to our children." I find this to be an extremely important topic as it is something I literally am every day, every moment: An example to my children.

Every day, every moment, no matter what, we are examples to our children. Everything single thing we do is seen by our children, good or bad. If we speak kindly, they see it. If we speak harshly, they see it. If we are patient, they see it, if we are angry, they see it. If we are loving and forgiving, they see it. They learn these attributes from us, from our example.

Children imitate us no matter what. Have you ever heard your kids use words that you use and then feel a little shocked at how it sounds? For example, we might say "Oh, I hate doing laundry!" to a friend, and then later, when we hear our kids use the word "hate," it can sound pretty harsh. Especially coming from a three year old! That is a perfect illustration of how children learn from and imitate what they see and hear from us. So we need to be on our best behavior! Because whether we like it or not, we are ALWAYS setting an example.

Thinking about this, I was reminded of a beautiful poem written by Amanda Cater that illustrates this well, called "If a Child"

IF A CHILD....
If a child lives with criticism,
he learns to condemn.
If a child lives with hostility,
he learns to fight.
If a child lives with ridicule,
he learns to be shy.
If a child lives with shame,
he learns to feel guilty.
If a child lives with tolerance,
he learns to be patient.
If a child lives with encouragement,
he learns confidence.
If a child lives with praise,
he learns to appreciate.
If a child lives with fairness,
he learns justice.
If a child lives with security,
he learns to have faith.
If a child lives with approval,
he learns to like himself.
If a child lives with acceptance and friendship,
He learns to find love in the world.

In the Doctrine and Covenants, section 93, verse 40 the Lord says “I have commanded you to bring up your children in light and truth.”

Also in the Doctrine and Covenants, in section 68, verse 28, we read "and they shall also teach their children to pray and to walk uprightly before the Lord."

In "The Family: A Proclamation to the World" we read: "Husband and wife have a solemn responsibility to love and care for each other and for their children. "Children are an heritage of the Lord" (Psalms 127:3). Parents have a sacred duty to rear their children in love and righteousness, to provide for their physical and spiritual needs, to teach them to love and serve one another, to observe the commandments of God and to be law-abiding citizens wherever they live. Husbands and wives—mothers and fathers—will be held accountable before God for the discharge of these obligations."

From these scriptures and the proclamation we can see that, it is truly our sacred duty to set the right example for our children.

Recently, I was singing the words to "I am a Child of God" and rather than thinking of myself being the child of God, which I guess I've always done, I was thinking of a child singing it to her parents, and how the song is literally a child pleading with her parents to teach her and lead her. Listen to the words, and imagine your own child asking you to lead and guide them and help them find the way.

I am a child of God,
And he has sent me here,
Has given me an earthly home
With parents kind and dear.

Lead me, guide me, walk beside me,
Help me find the way.
Teach me all that I must do
To live with him someday.

If we are blessed to be parents, we certainly must lead, guide, help and teach our children all that they must do so that we all can return to live with our Heavenly Father someday.

I really liked an Ensign article by Ruth B. Wright, a former counselor in the general primary presidency, called "Teaching Children to walk uprightly before the Lord"
She said:
"What does it mean to walk uprightly before the Lord? The word upright is defined as honest, honorable, straightforward. Thus, to walk uprightly, our children need to choose to live in an honest, honorable, straightforward manner. Children who understand and live the gospel today can walk with assurance and joy and someday will enter the presence of the Lord, walking uprightly.
Sometimes it isn’t easy as parents to teach our children. Sometimes we make mistakes. Our children may react with opposition to what we are teaching them. As parents, we should keep our desire to do our best, constantly show our love, and not blame ourselves if our children choose another way."
She goes on to say: "In our efforts to help our children desire to walk uprightly before the Lord, we can ask ourselves three questions:
One: What do we teach our children? It is essential that we teach them the gospel of Jesus Christ. “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me” (John 14:6). The scriptures are the main source to help us teach our children to walk uprightly.
Question two: Where do we teach our children? The best place to teach our children the gospel is in our homes. We can provide a safe, comfortable environment for them so they can feel free to learn and to develop their own personal testimonies.”
We teach our children everywhere we are with them. We have opportunities many times a day to teach them as we walk together, drive in the car, work side by side, kneel in prayer, talk at the dinner table and even while changing diapers!
Question three: How do we teach our children? We teach by example. Our children will learn far more by observing us walk uprightly than any other way. We teach children to walk uprightly a step at a time, over and over again.
Our children respond best when taught with respect and love. In the eighth chapter of Moroni, the prophet Mormon has written a letter giving counsel to his son, Moroni, and expresses his devotion to his son: “My beloved son, Moroni, . . . I am mindful of you always in my prayers, continually praying unto God the Father in the name of his Holy Child, Jesus, that he, through … grace, will keep you through the endurance of faith on his name to the end” (Moro. 8:2–3). When our children first know they are loved, they are more likely to listen and be taught.
Our children will be more able to survive the challenges that will come to them when they know and understand that keeping God’s commandments can bring them peace and joy in their lives and enable them to walk uprightly."
Sister Wright ends her talk by sharing the words to the song "How dear to God are little Children"

How dear to God are little children; 
With him their spirit life began. 
So priceless their security, 
Their innocence and purity; 
They are a part of his eternal plan.

To earthly parents God sends children
 To guide and teach, protect and love.
 Oh, let us keep the sacred trust  
That he has placed with each of us  
And help to guide them back to God above.

I made a list of things we should be good examples of and hopefully we are all (myself included) striving towards this:

Make sure that as a family you:
Have morning and evening family prayer, have family scripture study, and have Family Home Evening. Strive to have dinner and as many meals as possible together. Bring your children to all meetings regularly. Make sure and attend ward and stake activities. Strive to take your children to visit someone who is sick, or lonely. Strive to help those in need by taking meals to them, or supplying whatever help they need, child care, care with their home, helping people move, etc. Strive to possibly have your children be a part of this help.

Make sure your children see you having your own personal prayer, having personal scripture study, bearing your testimony, fulfilling callings, such as preparing lessons, preparing for an activity making posters or visual aids. Make sure you are attending the Temple regularly and that they know that going there is special and important. Let your children see you pay your tithing faithfully and help them to pay theirs. Make sure to fast monthly and help children that are old enough to fast too. Make sure your children see you going to do your home teaching and visiting teaching. Make sure that your children are given priesthood blessings when needed and let all the family hear it and be a part of it. Also, teach your children the importance of living within our means. Pray for your children and make sure they hear you praying for them. Along with this, teach your children to say "I'm sorry." Teach them that we all need to repent, even us parents.

Perhaps most important and not as easy, is to make sure that you teach your children to speak kindly, to use a soft voice, and not to use harsh words. We need to teach them to be patient and loving with each other and not fight. I think this behavior is especially taught by our example.

We also need to show our children that we are HAPPY to live the gospel and follow the commandments!

I'm personally grateful for the example my own parents set for me and my siblings. My parents were wonderful and lived what they taught us. I can't think of better examples of service than them. When they had a calling, they magnified it. They taught me to pray, read the scriptures, fast, pay tithing, attend meetings diligently, (pretty much everything I've already mentioned!) They weren't perfect, but my parents LIVED what they believed. To this day, at 76, and not even in perfect health, my dad is a high councilman and diligently goes to his meetings and gives the talks he is assigned to do. He is still an example to me of magnifying his calling!

And just this past Christmas, I remembered a wonderful example that my mother, (who has now been gone for almost 5 years,) set for me back when we were young. I remember going to go visit a family of people in need on Christmas Eve and taking them food and other things. I think we might have basically brought them their entire Christmas and I remember that it felt really good to help them. For probably all of the Christmases I've had with my kids, we've always just stayed home on Christmas eve and had a nice dinner together as a family. So, this past Christmas, I remembered my mom's example and decided to start a tradition of taking things to people as the spirit inspired on Christmas eve, rather than just staying at home. We made a few deliveries to various people that we love and it felt very good.

Another thing I thought I should mention about my mom, is that when I broke her heart and went through a period of rebelliousness and inactivity, she NEVER GAVE UP ON ME. She exercised faith, prayed non-stop for me, and put my name on the Temple roll consistently. I know these things helped me to come back into the church and I know I was blessed because of her faith and pleadings. My mom was a great example of faith.

To close, I want to share this quote by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland from his talk called "A Prayer for the Children" He says:
"Live the gospel as conspicuously as you can. Keep the covenants your children know you have made. Give priesthood blessings. And bear your testimony! Don’t just assume your children will somehow get the drift of your beliefs on their own. The prophet Nephi said near the end of his life that they had written their record of Christ and preserved their convictions regarding His gospel in order “to persuade our children … that our children may know … [and believe] the right way.”
Nephi-like, might we ask ourselves what our children know? From us? Personally? Do our children know that we love the scriptures? Do they see us reading them and marking them and clinging to them in daily life? Have our children ever unexpectedly opened a closed door and found us on our knees in prayer? Have they heard us not only pray with them but also pray for them out of nothing more than sheer parental love? Do our children know we believe in fasting as something more than an obligatory first-Sunday-of-the-month hardship? Do they know that we have fasted for them and for their future on days about which they knew nothing? Do they know we love being in the temple, not least because it provides a bond to them that neither death nor the legions of hell can break? Do they know we love and sustain local and general leaders, imperfect as they are, for their willingness to accept callings they did not seek in order to preserve a standard of righteousness they did not create? Do those children know that we love God with all our heart and that we long to see the face—and fall at the feet—of His Only Begotten Son? I pray that they know this."
I pray that we all, myself included, can be the examples to our children that we should be so that we can "teach them all that they must do" to live with our Father in heaven someday.

Farmer's Market & Play Group

2010-01-29T20:35:00.000-08:00

After getting totally rained out last week, we were happy to have a sunny Thursday for our Farmer's Market yesterday. What made it even better, was running into our friends, Julie from our home school group, Janet from church and then their kids who are our friends! We had a great time playing at the banyan tree, and playing music with this fun guy. I also got a lot of shopping done!

Then today we went to a really fun Waldorf-inspired play group at our friend Karin's house and led by Robin. There were lots of kids there, ranging from 3-9 years old. The big kids played jumprope and other games, like "red light green light." We also planted bulbs that we're going to watch grow over the next few weeks.

We ended with an awesome story told by Robin with puppets. She did a fantastic job.

After some of the older kids left, my friend AnnMarie came with her kids. They, my kids and Karin's daughter Karina went crazy playing dress-up! It was so much fun, I could hardly get my girls to leave!! :)

Co-Op Fun

2010-01-27T20:04:00.000-08:00

I've been a part of a wonderful food co-op for a little over a year now. I am sooooo blessed!! I get perfect, delicious organic raw milk, raw cheese, free-range organic eggs, and lots of great organic produce at super low prices. My friend Claudia recently joined our co-op too and it has turned into a great playdate for our kids. Today we decided to volunteer together and our kids got to help put the eggs in their cartons. It was so much fun!

Afterwards Claudia and her girls came over to our place for lunch and playing. We're thinking about making it a regular thing with a scheduled craft or handwork. Today, the girls just played. They had SO MUCH fun!!

Hannah's Birthday!

2010-01-26T21:53:00.000-08:00

Today we got to help Hannah Ross celebrate her 10th birthday! My girls had a total blast at Chuck E. Cheese. We haven't been there in ages so the girls were THRILLED to play all the games, win tickets, choose prizes, etc. Of course, it was just fun to be with their dear friends. I think Hannah had a great birthday!!

Congrats to Anthony!

2010-01-24T21:30:00.000-08:00

Today I went with my dad, Bella, and Ceci to visit my cousins Lisa and David and my Tia Lula and my Uncle Larry. Lisa lives with her family in Beaumont and my Uncle, Tia, and cousin David live in Utah! (Craig and Olivia stayed home because Craig had to finish his grades and Olivia wanted to stay with Grandma Ginny.)

We got together because Lisa's son, Anthony, was ordained to the Melchizedek priesthood to the office of an Elder! He is just putting his papers in to serve his mission and this is a very special occasion.

The drive out to Beaumont was GORGEOUS. I don't think I've ever been out that way. I've only been as far as Yucaipa to the apple orchards. The snow on Mt. Baldy was BEAUTIFUL.

We had a wonderful time attending church with my family and spending the afternoon together hanging out and having dinner. My aunt always makes me miss my mom!

Bella and Ceci loved playing with my cousin David. He is always sooooo much fun! It was great to get together.

Snow Day at Lacy Park!

2010-01-24T18:39:00.000-08:00

With all the rain we've been having, I've been REALLY wanting to take the girls to the snow. (I even got them these really cute snowsuits at a second hand store!) BUT with all the rain, I understand that there is a little TOO MUCH snow and we don't have chains for our tires!

So can you imagine my happiness when I found out that they were going to have a snow day yesterday at Lacy park!? It was soooo much fun!! They had sledding and snow to just play around in. My girls LOVED it! The sledding was so much fun. I got to do it with Ceci! After sledding, Craig took the girls on shovel rides and helped them make snowballs with out hurting each other too much. Ceci made a tiny snowman. Later, Craig helped them make a super-cute snowgirl. We even packed a carrot and a hat just to make her!

What a totally fun time we had. And when we got home, I had some chicken soup with rice ready to eat which was so nice to warm up with.

Later, sweet Grandma Ginny came over so that Craig and I could go to our ward temple night which was a very special experience. We got to hear a wonderful speaker before our session who reminded us that the people we do temple work for are there and are very grateful. It made the session very sweet.

A Rainbow!!

2010-01-22T21:19:00.000-08:00

Today is the fourth day of rain and it was really neat to look out the window and see some sun, while it was still raining!! I knew that there had to be a rainbow somewhere and so we went out to check-- and there it was, over our across-the-street neighbors house!! I was lucky to catch this picture before it quickly faded away! I LOVE rainbows and the symbol that they are, that God always keeps his promises. What a beautiful example of his power!

Rainy Day

2010-01-20T21:11:00.000-08:00

Today is actually the third day in a row that it has rained quite a bit! We had to go to the Monrovia library where we meet with our Educational Specialist through our charter school. It was a great meeting and the girls loved getting to run around in the rain to get to the library and then back to the car again! The rain is sooooo beautiful and I know our garden is LOVING it.

2010-01-19T18:56:00.000-08:00

Today I took the girls to their Girl Scout meeting and it was all about selling the cookies!! This was the part of Girl Scouts that I dreaded the most-- I'm so afraid of losing peoples' money or something like that!

Anyways, the girls are THIRLLED! They think they're going to sell hundreds of boxes. Anybody wanna buy some?

Happy Martin Luther King Day!

2010-01-18T21:27:00.000-08:00

Today Craig and I taught the girls about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. We read a really great biography on him together and also watched a short DVD. It wasn't easy to explain to our little girls about how awful and unfair things used to be. I am so grateful that MLK fought for civil rights. What a powerful and inspiring man!

Hannah's Baptism

2010-01-17T21:12:00.000-08:00

Today was a super special day for us. My friend Gary, who I went to primary with as a child, baptized his little girl Hannah who is now Bella's good friend! Gary and his family have recently become more active in our church again and it is wonderful to see them enjoying the blessings of the gospel. The baptism was beautiful. I was able to sing " I am a Child of God" which was a privilege to me.

Afterwards, we went to Gary's for lunch. It was wonderful to hang out with him and his family while our girls played like crazy together. I loved being able to talk also to Gary's brother, David, who I was also good friends with, and in fact had a huge crush on when I was 9! We had so much fun remembering people and events from so long ago. It was a wonderful day!

By the way, the picture is a card Ceci made for Hannah. Isn't she a great little artist for 3? :)

The Huntington

2010-01-15T20:50:00.000-08:00

Today we met with some of our friends at the Huntington. It was a gorgeous day! We had a picnic before we went in and then we played in the children's garden and then the Chinese garden. We are so blessed to be near such a beautiful place and to have such great friends to go with!

Bella's Haircut

2010-01-14T21:22:00.000-08:00

Today Bella got a big haircut. I did not want her to get it done, I LOVE her hair long. But she's been asking for a long time. She LOVES it, she is so happy. She's been brushing it all day. No matter what, she's adorable to me. But I hope I won't miss her long hair too much!

Happy Birthday, Grandma Ginny!

2010-01-09T21:37:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was Grandma Ginny's 83rd birthday!! She is doing great! We went out to her house and started a roast dinner. We then took a walk out on the Hermosa Pier and watched the sunset. It was beautiful.

We went back home and made mashed potatoes, gravy, artichokes and a salad. It was very nice. We then brought out a boysenberry pie (which is her favorite) and ice cream. We sang to her and enjoyed the pie.

Later, we gave her a gift we'd worked on all morning. We made her a 2010 calendar that we put pictures in for every month. Almost every picture had her in it from something we'd all done together from last year. The girls put in the numbers for each month and decorated around each picture. We tried to make it very special and I think it was. We hope she liked it!

Happy Birthday Grandma!!

Junk Sculptures

2010-01-05T21:39:00.000-08:00

Today we went back to our park day and had Girl Scouts. The girls had a BLAST making these sculptures out of junk that their leader had collected.

My girls seriously spent close to two hours working on them and loved it!! Since I do happen to be a fan of sculpture, I was really proud of them! :)

New Years Goals 2010

2010-01-03T20:53:00.000-08:00

1. Attend the Temple monthly (12 times)
2. Fast monthly (12 times)
3. Pay tithing every paycheck (no forgetting and paying it later!)
4. Have Family Home Evening every Monday
5. Live frugally and pay off debt!
6. Pray and read scriptures daily (before kids wake up)
7. Eat better, exercise more and lose weight (so that my clothes fit me again)
8. God willing, get pregnant.

Did I really just write all this for the whole world to see?

Happy New Year!

2010-01-02T20:56:00.000-08:00

We had a very fun New Year's day. It was fun to wake up to so many cousins and the Frasers too! We had a yummy breakfast of bacon, eggs, tamales that Yvonne had made, and I also made a Spanish tortilla. We watched the parade like a million times and the kids played and played. Grandma Ginny came up and we all helped her make her traditional New Year sandwiches made of grated cheddar cheese, olives, green chiles, sauteed onions, tomato sauce and hard boiled egg on a toasted roll. She also made her perfect potato salad. YUMMY!

While we finished getting the meal together, Harold and Yvonne took all the kids to the park to play. Yvonne got some really cute pictures of the cousins!!

Besides all of us, we had the missionaries over too. It was so nice to have them! The food was excellent as usual. It's a yummy meal we only have on New Year's day.

Everyone left that night. It was weird to go from such a full house to such a quiet house, but at least we had a really good time! Happy New Year to all!

New Years Eve

2010-01-02T20:47:00.000-08:00

We had a very eventful New Year's Eve and it was really fun! First, we went to Forest Lawn to visit my beautiful Mama's grave. We met my brother and his family and my sister and her family there. We brought a bouquet of flowers that we gathered from around our yard, some of which my mom herself planted! We love to sit on the grass there and the kids LOVE running around gathering pine cones and other things that they find to decorate the gravestone.

When we got home, our dear friends, the Frasers were here (from La Jolla!) and they took us out to dinner at our local Indian restaurant, Mahan. It was delicious, they have excellent food!

We then drove up Garfield to Huntington Drive thinking we might see some floats and would you believe, while stopped at a red light at Huntington, we saw about 6-8 floats go by? It was so cool, that we drove up to Fair Oaks, got out of the car, and waited for them all to come by again. It was really fun and pretty to see them so close!

When we got home, we found Aunt Yvonne leading all the kids in a dance/aerobics class-- they were dancing to "All the Single Ladies." When "Zero Gravity" came on, I HAD to join in with them!!!!!!

Soon it was time to get ready to go to the New Year's dance that my Dad's stake was having. We got there around 11 so that we could dance a bit and then be able to welcome the new year. They were playing some good tunes! Some good 80's disco and some good latin music.

The kids were all such troopers for how late it was! They danced and had a good time. Only Ceci was sleepy, but she stayed up until midnight with the rest of us. At midnight, we counted down and then some balloons dropped from the ceiling. It was very cool! We all gave each other New Year kisses. I think 2010 is going to be a very good year! Happy New Year to all!!

The Huntington

2009-12-29T22:12:00.000-08:00

It was a beautiful day and fun to walk around one of our favorite places. We especially enjoyed the cactus garden and the lily pond!

The Squeakquel!!

2009-12-28T22:06:00.000-08:00

Today we took the girls to see the movie they've been dying to see for weeks-- Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel. They LOVED it and I have to admit, I really didn't mind it myself! We had a lot of fun and they even got to hug them after the movie! Leave it to my kids to go behind the rope like that (and me to photograph it!)

The Day after Christmas

2009-12-26T21:42:00.000-08:00

We had an awesome day after Christmas. Craig and I asked Grandma if she would watch the kids for us so that we could go to the Temple. It was a beautiful thing to be in the Temple as a part of Christmas. We then got to have lunch at probably the best Jewish deli in L.A. Yum!

We had fun driving around trying to find the house my dad grew up in, but didn't find it. :)

When we got home, we took Grandma and the girls on a Christmas lights drive. It was awesome! We started by going up Christmas tree lane. Then we went to the Balian Mansion which is crazy! On the way home we found a couple houses off Allen that were pretty amazing. It was a really fun night!

Christmas Day!

2009-12-26T21:03:00.000-08:00

We had a wonderful Christmas. We were happy to find that Santa indeed visited our home. He ate the cookies we left and filled the girls' stockings with wonderful treasures. He also left them a Kinderkram Witch and a Prince Charming! They go with the toys he brought last year-- the mushroom house and Snow White and the seven dwarves.

The girls were soooooo excited and happy! But Ceci was still sound asleep when Bella and Olivia got up and so they decided to wait for her so she could be a part of the action. Luckily, Santa had brought some little Dover activity books that were right on the top of the stockings-- sticker books, and magic invisible picture books that when you rub a pencil over it, the picture shows up! Olivia LOVED that! So the older girls played with their books while waiting for Ceci.

Soon little Ceci woke up and the girls were able to take down their stockings and enjoy the wonderful things Santa had brought them. The stocking is one of my favorite parts of Christmas, so I REALLY enjoyed the cute tiny things Santa had brought--rainbow crayons, peacock stones, angel earrings, a butterfly necklace for Ceci, polished gems, an amethyst crystal for Ceci, giant apples and oranges from the North Pole, and of course, chocolate! The highlight of the stockings were the tiny capsules of colored pencils and the tiny blank book to color in. The pencils are two inches tall! The girls LOVED them!

They played with everything very happily until Grandma and Grandpa woke up and joined us. We then did lots of present exchanging. Craig and I gave them piggy banks, because somehow they all decided they REALLY wanted them. (Olivia BEGGED and CRIED for one at Cost Plus the other night.) They LOVED them! We also gave them some tiny dolls that I made little necklace pouches for. Grandma opened all her presents from the girls and she LOVED them! Then came time for them to open what Grandma got for the girls-- she got them Peanuts coloring books which they truly loved and then ADORABLE fairy furniture and a little bridge and pond for their mushroom house! This led to bringing in the mushroom house and then hours and hours of play for the rest of the day. It was fantastic! We did take time to give Grandpa his presents-- I had gotten him a book about Olvera Street and Olivia had made him a pin of a baseball, mit and bat. It was so creative, and so cute. She totally made it all herself. Then Grandpa gave the girls an Alvin doll that sings the Christmas song! They went crazy for it! (My girls are crazy about the Chipmunks.) He also gave them a coupon good for going to see "The Squeakquel." They were thrilled!

We made a yummy egg casserole for a late breakfast and then later we had a roast, mashed potatoes, salad, and creamed corn for dinner. My favorite part of the day was probably great nap I got in the middle of the day! After dinner we read the Christmas story while Bella acted it out with our wooden Nativity. We also sang lots of carols which was so nice. We had a wonderful Christmas Day! We hope you all did too!

Christmas Eve

2009-12-26T20:10:00.000-08:00

We had a great Christmas eve. We spent the morning making presents for each other with some awesome craft kits that came in just in time! (We had ordered them through our Charter School.) Craig helped Ceci make a snowman pin for Grandma, a necklace with felted balls for Bella, she made a beaded bracelet for Olivia and a flower pin for me. Olivia made tons of stuff, a bracelet for me, a hair clip for Ceci, earrings for Bella, a pin for Grandma. She also made bracelets for Ceci and Bella. Bella made me some red felted ball earrings, she sewed beads on them. She then made purple ones for Olivia and a flower hair clip for Bella. We tried not to say what was for who to keep it a surprise, but it was a little easy to guess! :) By the way, Lala does NOT have a punch mustache, she has chapped lips :(

We literally crafted for hours!

We discovered that somehow Ceci had taken door #24 off of our Advent Calendar to reveal the baby Jesus without us doing it with her! I thought this nativity picture was soooooo adorable.

Later, we went out and delivered some Christmas treats to some of our friends and the people that Craig home teaches. We had a blast leaving some things on peoples doorsteps and then visiting others. It just felt good to share with others and be able to see our various friends on Christmas eve. A huge highlight for me was visiting my friends, Gary (left) and David Ross (right), friends from my early childhood. I've been in touch with Gary recently, which has been very special, we went to primary together 30 plus years ago! I am now friends with his wife and Bella is good friends with their daughter at church. But tonight was my first time seeing David!! He was one of my very first crushes (I was 9) and it was so great to see him again! I was sad that we couldn't stay longer.

We came home to have a wonderful dinner of pasta and meatballs that Craig and his mom had worked on before we left. We lit our advent wreath and the candle in the middle as well which was so pretty.

Afterwards, we decorated our tree with dried apples and oranges we had made along with our popcorn chain, paper chain, and other ornaments we have made over the past couple years. We finished by putting the angel Olivia made last year on the top!

We were all so tired, we did not do the Nativity story. Instead, we read "The Night before Christmas," put out cookies and went to bed! I hoped that the girls had visions of sugar plum fairies dancing in their heads!

Merry Christmas from the Gallups!!

2009-12-24T13:49:00.000-08:00

We finally sent out a Christmas email this morning. I used to always send cards, usually handmade, but as life has gotten busier, I've realized the cards stress me out too much!! So I sent an email last year and now this year. Here it is, because if I didn't send you an email, then I'm sending YOU this message now!

Treasured Friends and Family,

Merry Christmas!

How we love this time of year when we can celebrate the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ. How grateful we are to Him for His sweet humble birth, His perfect life and example, His vital teachings and especially His atoning sacrifice.

"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." John 3:16

We are a very blessed family. Life can be full of challenges, but also, full of many blessings and we strive to focus on the blessings. We have a family blog which tells you much more than a Christmas letter could. It's not always up-to-date, but if you would like to see our happenings, you can check it out here:

thegallupfamily2.blogspot.com

We are so grateful for the blessing of dear friendships. We sincerely wish all of you love and peace at this time and in the coming new year.

With much love,
The Gallups
Craig, Suzy, Isabella, Olivia, and Cecilia

P.S. Please forgive us that we really like sending emails for Christmas! (Especially to those of you who have taken the time to send us such gorgeous cards with beautiful family pictures through the mail.) We love your cards and hope you'll keep sending them. We have just realized that we get too overwhelmed by the thought of them. Life is so busy! Please feel the love that is coming through this email! :)

Las Posadas

2009-12-23T21:47:00.000-08:00

What a special night! We had so much fun participating in the "Las Posadas" (the inns) procession at Olvera Street tonight.

The festivities started with some dancing by folklorico dancers, and then a pinata! It was seriously raining candy.

Soon the Posadas procession started-- where we, along with shepherds, angels, and musicians, got to sing and help Mary and Joseph look for lodging. Tonight they asked at the Candle Shop which is one of our favorite stores at Olvera. The musicians and the songs were so beautiful-- it was really fun to sing "Los Peces" and "Noche Buena" which were songs that I learned while on my mission in Spain. We also sang "Noche de paz" (Silent Night) which was wonderful. In the end, we all got to enjoy some delicious pandulce (sweet bread) and champurrada (a hot cinnamon drink.) Yum!! This was a first for us, but I hope we can make this a Christmas tradition! We finished the night with some sweet tamales (with pineapple.) I can't resist a good tamale at Christmas time! :) !!Feliz Navidad!!

Advent Spiral

2009-12-21T22:07:00.000-08:00

Tonight we joined some of our home school friends for an advent spiral. It was a beautiful night. My girls had so much fun with their friends! We started with a beautiful story that united the celebrations of Solstice, Chanukah, Kwanza, and Christmas. We did the spiral last year too and if you click here, you can learn in more detail about what it is. After all the kids lit their candles and put them on the path, we had dinner. The kids especially loved the trampoline! It was a sweet gathering.

Christmas Dinner

2009-12-20T13:46:00.000-08:00

Today Brieanne came over with her cute kids and we made a delicious dinner of chicken soup with rice. While we cooked, the kids partied and dressed up as they love to do!

We lit our fourth advent candle which was so nice. Our chicken soup was possibly the best I've ever had!!!

Later, the missionaries joined us for carob brownies with carob sauce for dessert. I know Brieanne was sooooo happy to see Elder Neves after so many months! We were sad that Eric couldn't join us, but he had to stay at the farm to take care of the animals. :(

Christmas Island

2009-12-19T22:44:00.000-08:00

Today Bella and Olivia were in their dance studio's Christmas show. They performed a Hawaiian hula to the song "Christmas Island." They were sooooo adorable, and I was a beaming, proud parent. Craig videotaped, I snapped, and Grandpa and Ceci watched. It was a lot of fun. There were so many cute performances by lots of cute little ones!

I seriously finished their costumes this morning!! I tried to make their tops a little more modest by making them longer, but I think it just made them more puffy and they still are way more uncovered than I liked! Oh well. I also made the purple crowns and their bell bracelets.

Here the girls are with their group and with their sweet, beautiful teacher. She was so patient with my girls, (especially when they would fight in class!) I don't think I'll be putting them in the same class again.

After the show, we went home to relax after such a big day.

I went back to the dance studio for the later show with the adult dancers. I HAD to see the Flamenco dancers that I would watch practicing while the girls were in their class. They were FANTASTIC!!! They had a live Flamenco guitarist that was amazing, he could play and sing. And the Flamenco dance teacher also sang. She sings wonderfully! Then, after several dances, she got up and danced for us and blew us away to end the night! Wow! What a fun night!

Christmas Shopping

2009-12-18T21:22:00.000-08:00

What a fun shopping night we had! We didn't really buy much, but it was still fun to look. We went to one of my most favorite stores, 10,000 Villages, where everything is Fair Trade. What a BEAUTIFUL store! All that they sell is made in other countries such as Peru, India, the Philippines, etc. and the people who make the items are paid a fair wage. There were many beautiful things-jewelry, scarves, baskets, linens, etc. But my favorite were all the NATIVITY SETS. (Wish I would have taken a picture of one.) I LOVED them and loved knowing they were made all around the world and some in the countries I just mentioned. Somehow, I could feel the love that the creators must have felt making their nativity sets as I looked at them. It felt neat to think of all the people around the world that celebrate Christ's birth.

The girls had a blast playing with the jewelry, scarves and baskets!

There was beautiful World Christmas music playing and it was so nice, I had to buy the CD. It's made by Putumayo and we LOVE it! I highly recommend it. We also shared a divine raspberry chocolate bar! If you are a local, you must do some shopping at this store!

We then went to Stats. What a magical store!! We had a great time looking at the Christmas miniature villages, the nativity sets, the beautiful ornaments and the AMAZING decorated trees. What a gorgeous place, we can't let a Christmas go by without visiting. They girls had a great time playing with this talking parrot that repeats what you say over and over.

We ended the night at Cost Plus, another favorite store. What a fun night!!

Farmer's Market & Hanukkah Treats

2009-12-17T21:06:00.000-08:00

Tonight we went to the Farmer's Market and were so happy to meet up with Brieanne and our friend John. Brieanne is up here with her family for the holidays. My girls were THRILLED to be able to play with Tristan, Eathan and Maya. After they had to go, we got to sing some Christmas songs with the accordion player.

When we got home, we had some yummy Jewish food for our dinner. We had chicken soup, and I made matzo balls for the first time! (Probably could have come out better, but they were still really good!) We also had some Trader Joe's potato latkes with sour cream and applesauce. They were sooooo yummy! For dessert, we had DELICIOUS doughnuts called Sufganiot that are traditionally eaten at Hanukkah. We got them at a pretty highly regarded doughnut shop called Stan's and they were even Kosher! We only got one each, but I wish we would have gotten more! (I was trying to be good.) Next year, an even dozen! :)

Temple Lights

2009-12-16T22:28:00.000-08:00

So because we were out on the west side, we decided to go to the temple and enjoy the beautiful lights. What a gorgeous night! It was actually pretty warm and the girls had a blast running around. We love to be on the grounds of the temple all year, but especially during Christmas with the lights and the nativity up! What a wonderful night!

2009-12-16T22:15:00.000-08:00

We had a total blast visiting the Skirball Museum on the west side today! It is a Jewish Cultural museum. They have the most awesome Noah's Ark exhibit for kids! There is so much fun to do there that I could hardly take the time to describe all of it. Two highlights were a drumming dancing activity and a craft making scrolls on burlap with fabric. Suffice to say that it is SUPER FUN, my kids didn't want to leave, and I understand every Thursday is free if you are a local.

We also really enjoyed the Visions and Values exhibit that displayed tons of beautiful religious items such as seder plates, menorahs, etc. (No pictures were allowed, or I would have some.) We really liked learning more about the Jewish culture and religion. I enjoyed so much learning about Hanukkah that it makes me wish we had time to celebrate it along with Christmas! It is indeed a beautiful story to think that oil that would have normally lasted only one day lasted for eight while burning in the Temple.

After a great visit at the museum, we went into Westwood to get some really yummy ice cream cookie sandwiches at Diddy Riese. My children are so spoiled!

Home School Christmas Potluck

2009-12-15T21:21:00.000-08:00

We had a wonderful potluck with our home school group today. Before we went, the girls made "Ojos de Dios" ornaments for an ornament exchange they were doing with their girl scout troop. We also made some black bean chili to share.

It was a beautiful day up at Alta Loma park!! For girl scouts, the girls made these super cute Christmas carolers out of toilet paper rolls. Olivia made one too, but lost it before I could even get a picture of her with it! They also made some cute "candles" out of cookies!

The potluck was awesome. People brought so many delicious things. My friend made the CUTEST snowman cake!! One of my favorites was my friend's pumpkin & chili sauce enchiladas. There was also some really good mexican-style rice. My other friend brought some delicious baklava!

Most of my friends from my Waldorf group also came today. It was great to have them all join us. (I wish they would every week!) My girls were soooooo happy to see their friends!

The highlight of the party was when we got to hear the Christmas story. The kids loved it and listened very intently.

I feel so blessed to be a part of such a wonderful home school group. What a blessing to me and to my kids!

We then had to rush off to Bella's Activitiy Days meeting where they made Christmas cards. Olivia and I drove around and looked at lights while listening to Christmas music during the meeting. (Ceci napped.) We've been listening to Paul McCartney's "Wonderful Christmastime" a lot this year! We really are "simply having a wonderful Christmastime!" Hope you are too!

With all that I have to do . . .

2009-12-14T21:13:00.000-08:00

I also get to sew some hula costumes for Bella and Olivia's dance performance this Saturday. I feel a little overwhelmed by all this fabric right now with all that I need to to to get ready for Christmas, but (hopefully,) I'll get them done!

The Missionaries came to dinner!

2009-12-13T21:03:00.000-08:00

Tonight we had the privilege of having the missionaries over for dinner. We had signed up to have them over a few weeks ago, not knowing that Elder Neves was going to be transfered into our ward. What a wonderful surprise!! Elder Neves feels like family to us because he taught my friend Brieanne and her family. How wonderful it was to have them over. We lit our third advent candle and sang some Christmas songs with the Elders. It was a great dinner, but they always have to leave too soon!

Our church Christmas Party

2009-12-13T20:35:00.000-08:00

Our Christmas party was wonderful!! It started with a yummy dinner and a BEAUTIFUL and DELICIOUS dessert buffet. We then had a program with a nativity play where my girls got to be singing angels. I was lucky to be able to sing "Still, still, still," (one of my favorite Christmas songs) and then a duet with my friend Amy of "What Child is this?" My girls did a great job singing "Joy to the World," "Away in a Manger," and "Angels we have heard on high." After the play, we had a visit from Santa which was a lot of fun. I was also overjoyed to see that Elder Neves, an Elder who had taught my friends Brieanne and Eric (and baptized Eric!) was transferred into our ward!! Yay! And I'm having them over for dinner tomorrow!!

Stringing Popcorn!

2009-12-09T21:53:00.000-08:00

We've really been enjoying the Christmas season so far. Last night, Craig put up all the Christmas lights. He worked really hard and I think it looks great. I love having a bright nativity on our porch!

Tonight, after a chicken soup dinner we went in the living room to enjoy our tree and decorations. (It now makes three nights in a row that we've done that, looking at the lights and sipping hot chocolate!) It's been pretty cold and so we got to have a fire in the fireplace too!

We decided to also pop some popcorn and string it with cranberries. These are absolutely the moments I live for. I work hard all day so that ultimately we can all sit together as a family be cozy! And how Olivia LOVES stringing popcorn!

Christmas Decorating

2009-12-07T21:41:00.000-08:00

So we brought in the tree and were very happy to find that it was a good size, and as tall as our window, which was a relief! We got out our nativities and set them up which was so much fun. We had great Christmas music playing in the background too! Craig put the lights on the tree and put up our garland around the window. I wanted him to put up the lights outside, but it was still raining quite a lot. I am so happy with how everything turned out! We made some awesome Ybarra hot chocolate and enjoyed it while admiring our tree. We didn't totally decorate it because we like to make our ornaments. We'll be stringing popcorn, drying apples and oranges and hopefully making "gods eyes" with yarn. I wish I could remember what made everybody laugh so hard in this picture, but I love how much my girls love their daddy!

Autumn Goodbye

2009-12-07T20:15:00.000-08:00

Today was a BEAUTIFUL rainy day. The girls really wanted to go and check it out! It was nice to go out after a morning full of math. It was quite cold for sunny Southern California. (They played in it for a very short time!) It was nice to experience a little bit of winter.

We finally started taking out all our Christmas decorations and putting away our Autumn things today. I never seem to get started on decorating over Thanksgiving weekend like so many people do! As I was taking our Autumn things down, I realized I never put up a picture of our seasonal table with all the autumn things that we made and some pictures of some of our favorite autumn things. One of our favorite things that we enjoyed was our pumpkin candle that our local farmer's market honey man made. We loved using it for our circle times! The seasons sure do go fast. I can't believe it's already December 7th!

We got our tree!

2009-12-06T19:46:00.000-08:00

We went to get our tree yesterday. We really wanted to do something different this year rather than get our usual cut tree. A friend of mine told me that her family used to buy potted trees and then bring them in and out of the house year after year until they got too big and then they would plant them. So we decided to try this!

We got it at Osh and we just hope to keep it alive through this year. It's a little smaller than we're used to, and it doesn't smell as wonderful as a cut tree, but how awesome that it's ALIVE!! This morning I woke up very worried that we'd made a weird decision and that it was too small, but hopefully, it will look good when it's decorated. We're going to decorate it tomorrow for Family Home Evening!

Tonight we lit our second Advent candle. We love this season and celebrating Jesus!

Just a small handful of favorites!

2009-12-04T21:03:00.000-08:00