Our California Trip

We just got home from California for my Papa's funeral. It was an emotional weekend for me because I realized that my Papa was really gone and was not there to do all of the Califonia fun things that we do whenever we are out to visit! I loved him so much and he was just such an incredible person! The funeral was actually great and my dad and uncle did an amazing job speaking about Papa. The girls played 2 musical numbers that sounded great as well. My mom, sisters and I made food for 200 people for everyone to eat lunch after the funeral the day before which was fun to cook in the kitchen all day with them!
One of the days we were in California, we were able to go to San Francisco as a family and see the sights and sounds of the city! We made our usual stops: Golden Gate Bridge, Fishermans Wharf, Pier 39, The Glass Elevator, Boudin's Bread shop, and of course my favorite, Ghiradelli Chocolate Shop! By looking at this picture, you can tell that Riley LOVED every bite of his hot fudge and ice cream!
It was a good trip because we all had a chance to remember our Papa, have a good time in California with family, stay in my Aunt's amazing house in Hollister together and have a blast, and come home with one of Papa's hats that he always wore!!!
We came home to TONS and TONS of Snow so everyone...drive safe!!

The True Meaning of the Season!

This post is pretty awesome if you ask me! I have been visiting this lady in our ward for a year now. Until now, I guess I never really thought that I was getting through to her, or even doing anything worthwhile. She doesn't attend church and never really lets me into her house when I come to visit her every month. We end up having really good conversations, but I never really thought much of it. Well, last week, her and her husband came over to my house to have me open a present. I knew her husband was really good at crosstitching, and liked to do it as a hobby, but I never thought that they would give me one of his crosstitches.

As I opened the present, I realized that it was one of his crosstitches, and that he had litteraly spent hours and hours and hours making this for me! I started to cry because I have never really recieved a gift from someone who spent 3 months preparing it! What a memorable gift from someone! They wanted to give this gift to me because he knew that I appreciated his work and that I had gotten to know his wife throughout the year. Talk about a humbling experience. I am usually the one that gives homemade gifts that take me hours and hours, so to be the one on the recieving end was pretty amazing and overwhelming. Another reason why it was a humbling experience is because I just never thought that I was getting through to this lady. I wanted her to know that I was her friend by coming by monthly to visit teach her, but never thought I was doing anything great for her! This showed me that she at least appreciated something that I did!

This is a gift that I will treasure for Christmas's to come because it will remind me that this man spent 3 months and numerous hours to create something beautiful for me!

December so far...

Here are a few random December pictures. The first is of our chubby little girl who is growing so much every day!! (love that double chin!) The next is of Elle with Poochy, the American Family Insurance Dog mascot at the christmas party!

THe next one of Riley needs some explanation. I don't know if any of you have ever seen the new show on PBS called SId the Science Kid, but Riley absolutly loves it! It comes on every morning while we are getting ready for preschool, and basically Sid is a kid who loves science and does science experiments all of the time. Riley is so intruiged by these experiements that he wants to do them himself. So this picture is what I see every time he watches this show. He sits on the chair and draws a detailed picture of the experiement that Sid is doing. This particular day Sid was talking about Teeth, so Riley is drawing a picture of a teeth (circles all over the place) and then puts his own little twist on the experiment. He is such a cute little guy and is so interested in everything these days!

Here Comes Santa Claus

Here is our annual picture with Santa. The kids were so excited to talk to Santa, and didn't freak out at all! Riley told Santa that he wants Star Wars guys, Sunny told him that she wants a baby dolly and Ellie just smiled away! The only bad thing about this is that a new company took over the mall production of Santa Claus and the new policy is that you can't take a picture with your own camera unless you buy a picture from them---the 4x6 picture was the cheapest and it was $15!! I call that a major rip off to the American People who just want to have their kids to get a photo with good old ST. NiCK!