May 15, 2008

  • My oldest daughter turned 17 over the weekend!!!  Yay!

    Happy Birthday, Baby!!


    We love you!!

    She's gonna hate that picture!

    We celebrated with a bonfire party at the beach. It was a blast!!

     Our school year is winding down, but our summer plans are ramping up!  We have many things to do this summer: 2 camping trips, my brother's wedding in the SF Bay Area, and a worship conference in Maryland!!!  Can't wait -- too much fun!!

    Other than that, not a lot going on.
    Catcha on the flip side!
    ~Di

May 9, 2008

April 21, 2008

  • Hi Everyone.

    First off, here's a shout out to a dear old friend of mine, John Marvin, aka Nhoj.  We worked together as software engineers in Silicon Valley 1000 years ago -- together with a rag-tag group of programmers, Ken, Dale, Shaio, Peter, Hitoshi, Jim, and Mark, our boss.  I didn't always like the stuff I was working on, but there was never a day I didn't look forward to going to work just to be with these people.  Good times; Great memories. 

    Well -- last week we adopted 3 little babies - baby kitties, that is!!  They are all females - 9 weeks old.   There are two calico's Kona & Ariel and an all white one named Waikiki or "kiki" for short.

    Here are some pictures of our little darlings!


    This is Kitty Kitty Kona.


    Here's Ellie with Ms. Kitty Ariel


    And here is Waikiki or "Kiki"

    Too much fun!!

    ~Di

April 5, 2008

  • Today we had a birthday party for Julie.  Lots of fun -- lots of running around.

         
    Julie & Sammi


    I had each girl decorate their own cupcake.


    Here are the decorated cupcakes!  Aren't these girls creative!!!


    These were the gift bags.  Julie did an origami flower and stem and we glued them to each bag.



    We played "How Well Do You Know Julie" - a multiple choice quiz.  These were the two that got the lowest and highest scores, Kendall & Jessica.


    Next we played a game similar to hot potato, only you hold each other's hands in a circle and you move the hula hoop from person to person without unclasping hands!!  Very ticky!!


    If the music stops and you have the hula hoop around part of your body, you're out!





    I like this shot a lot!  Julie out and Gracie in!!


    My older girls went to a party recently where they were taught how to swing dance and then played another "hot potato" type game dancing.  So we thought that would be fun to do at Julie's party.  First we taught the girls the basic steps. Then we split the group into two and gave 1/2 the girls a napkin to wear.  Then we started the music and the girls paired up, a napkin girl to a non-napkin girl, dancing.  Then I yell "SWITCH" and the they have to switch partners (can't have the same partner two times in a row), again the non-napikin girls have to find a napkin girl to partner with.  And one of the times I call "SWITCH" I also stop the music (like two seconds after I call it out) and whoever doesn't have a partner is out (so 2 get out at a time- sometimes 4). This was a blast!


    Here they are learning the steps.


    We had carnitas and salad for lunch.


    Then we played a game where the girls put shower caps on their heads with shaving cream on them.   We had three teams.  The members of the team chuck cheeseballs (or cheetos) at their heads for 30 seconds.  The winner is the team that got the most to stick!!



    Here we are singing Happy Birthday to Julie!


    Then she blows out the candles.

    We also had a rely race, but I didn't get any pictures.  Again three teams -- the girls had to pass and orange from team member to team member holding it under their chins, everything else they did they needed to be all be holding hands as they ran from thing to thing.  They had to run to a stop sign down the street, come back and find two mismatched spoons in my silverware drawer, then blow up 10 balloons, then run back out to touch a street sign down the street, then back to get 3 pieces of toilet paper each.  They were all exhausted be the end of that one!!!

    We had a great day.  Lots of fun and I'm sure all the girls will sleep well tonight!!
    ~Di

March 27, 2008

March 25, 2008

  • Ok! As promised here are some more pictures of our Julie girl....

     

    11/97 With Uncle Mike at Disneyland
    2 years old

     
    9/98 Apple picking in Oak Glenn
    3 years old


    3/99 Julie's 4th Birthday


    12/98 Christmas picture with Grandpa
    4 years old


    2/00 Ice Skating Lessons
    Almost 5


    5/01 Elizabeth's 10th bday at Knotts Berry Farm
    6 years old


    8/02 in Nevada
    7 years old


    4/03
    8 years old


    6/03 Backyard Circus


    7/03 with our kitty with Squeekers

    That's all for now!
    ~Di

March 24, 2008

  • Happy Resurrection Day!

    Christ has risen! 
    Christ has risen indeed!


    I was just looking at some of your guys xanga photos.  Julie, I can't believe the amount of snow you guys have!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  My nephew called (from Idaho) and it was snowing there too!  I can't image!

    Not to rub it in , but here today was a beautiful day -- It hit around 90 degrees here in Westminster.  We didn't really have any plans after church today.  Some friends come over in the afternoon and we swam.   The pool was pretty warm, 83 degrees -- even I got in the water for like 45 minutes! My friend gave me a turkey; so this was the first time to try to cook one.  It was much easier than I thought and came out good!  Later in the evening some other friends came over and we swam some more. It was a warm evening, too -- arm enough to stay out without a jacket until like 9pm, and even now at almost midnight, it's still 61 degrees!

    Gotta love So Cal weather!

    Here are some picture from today.



    Hope you had a blessed day!
    ~Di

March 21, 2008

  • Life's moving fast!! My third born, Julie, will be a teenager in 7 days!  So I thought I'd take this time to share some pictures of her over the next few days!!

    As with my other girls, Julie couldn't wait to make her appearance.  She was born 2 1/2 weeks early -- which was pretty good - Elizabeth was 4 1/2 weeks early and Valerie was 3 1/2 weeks early -- so at least we were moving in the right direction.

    She was born in the afternoon (I think around 2pm) -- my water broke in the middle of the night with her - it was a slow labor, but not difficult.


    Big sisters come to visit at the hospital.

    Julie didn't have name for a few days.  We really thought she was a boy, so we had the name William Andrew picked out.  No girl name, so she wasn't named until we right before we left the hospital.  Steve picked her name and I immediately loved it.  Still we were stuck on a middle name.  I had considered Julianna for a first name, and then we thought of Julie Hannah.  It fit!!


    Julie was a VERY happy baby.  People used to stop me in the store all the time - she smiled at everyone!!

    Getting too big for sister to hold!!

    Around 4 months old when Julie started to take a bit of apple juice, Elizabeth nicked named her Jucy Girl -- and that just stuck.  We call her Juce, Jucy, Juls -- and Julie Ulie!


    Julie's first Christmas.


    My mom and dad and us.


    The girls at a wedding in Stockton.


    Julie at my brother Mike's house.


    Baby sister, Gracie is born.

    Julie was not thrilled with baby Grace at first she wanted NOTHING to do with her.  After a few days she warmed up to her.

    Here we are at the Wild Animal Park in San Diego.


    Well that's all for now... more to come!
    ~Di   

     


February 25, 2008

  • HAPPY BIRTHDAY VALERIE!

    Can't believe you're 15!!
    Love you!!

    Here are some pictures today:



    We got her a ukulele!


    This has become a family tradition -- we use the white board to make a huge birthday card and all sign it.


    This afternoon we had some friends over.  One of the other girls turned 15 today, too, so we had a double birthday!  We went to the beach for about an hour or so -- we took a walk down the beach to the Huntington Beach Pier -- the kids (briefly) ran in the waves (up to their knees/thighs) and then played some vollyball.


    There was a beautiful sunset!!


    The silly group!


    1 - 2 - 3 - JUMP!

          

    We are singing happy birthday to the birthday girls.  We had ice cream sundays for dessert!!

    We also had a surprise party for Val on Friday.  I hardly have any picture from it, but I know others took pictures - so I'll post those later when I get them.  For now, here's at least one:


    My friend, Rebecca let us have the party at her house.  We told Val we were going to have youth worship rehearsal that night (we usually have it at their home).  She was so surprised! Not a clue!  It was fun.

    I fell and sprained my ankle last Monday.  I was on crutches for a few days, but seem to be getting around without them pretty good, although it still really hurts.

    Well - that's about it!
    Have a good week.
    ~Di

     

February 13, 2008

  • Wow -- time flies.  Here we are mid-Feb already! My mom just celebrated her 70th birthday yesterday - way to go MOM! 

    I've had a rough month so far because of illness.  Caught the dang flu the last Wednesday in January!  I was down and out for like 6 days -- then just barely creeping along for another 4 or 5.  Finally Monday I started feeling more like myself.  But now -- NOW it feels like I'm catching another cold.... noooooooooooooooooo it cannot be!!!

    The good news is that because I was down so much I finished the first course in my counseling training.  Yes, course 101 "Introduction to Biblical Counseling" complete:     20 hours of lectures and 2 books behind me.  Now just 14 more courses: 180 hours of lectures and 32 books left to go........

    I'm reading a good book on the organization of the Scriptures.  The first part is on how New Testament is set up (what the purpose of each book is/was - what the main points are in each book).  It's very helpful.  I think I will make a chart and introduce this to my girls.  It would be a great resource to know where to look for things in the Bible.  The book's name is What to Do on Thursday by Jay Adams.  It's $7 and well worth it!

    Here's a funny.  Our kitty died (that's not the funny part) so we are looking into getting another kitten.  While looking around I got in touch with a place that fosters out kittens to be taken care of until they can get placed.  I thought it would be a neat experience for my girls to do this.  So last night I was going to talk to Steve about it.  I got the words out "I was talking to a woman about the possibility of foster care--" when one of the kids interrupted us. At the point of interruption Steve gave me this odd look. It was probably another 4 or 5 minutes before we were able to continue the conversation. During that time I was trying to figure out why he gave me that look, and then realized I didn't mention it was for a kitten -- he thought I was talking to someone about the foster care of another child!  HA!  It was pretty funny when I explained.

    Well, that's about it for me.  Hope you all are keeping well!!
    ~Di