May 2014

Happy May to you all.
As Zak asked just the other day "huh? where has this year gone"?
We are all doing well. Stan is coming along although he still must be very careful and get his rest,he is not taking LATE LATE and all night work,but is still trying to get back into the swing of things and get caught up.

Kids are good,they are coming to the end of the school year and though Zak is NOT looking forward to not being in school,Laurel looks forward to a break. Swim lesons,camp in Washington state for Zak and a visit with cousins in Washington state as well for Laurel and Stan. I took a loss when i transferred jobs,i didnt get the usual summer vacations i was used to having so will be working while the kids are vacationing but my day to day quality of life is much better this way. Kids will take swim lessons and Stan is hopeing to get them into a sailing class this summer as well .

The kids school will be moving to a new and bigger location in the fall,we just voted and learned that we were approved of it all a week or so ago so its going to be a  fast move but we are up for it. There is room for 1,000 kids at the new location and there is talk of a high school,one year at a time to go in with us as well. We are sure hoping for this. Would sure take away alot of our concerns for where the kids would go to High school.

Kids have been their usual busy selves,last night was their "Celebration of the Arts" at their school,singing and dancing and alot of fun.

Laurel has been taking an after school class in American Sign Language and has truly enjoyed it. We are going to try to find her more so that she can keep it up.

We are celebrating Grama's 90th birthday this weekend,Bruce and Julie will be here and we along with the kids,old and young and grandkids as well will get together tomorrow for dinner.

Thats about it for now i think. enjoy the pics and will post again soon.

Last weekend the Kids had their AWANA church youth group Grand Prix car race. Zak had designed and made a shark...the tail even moves and laurel ahd designed a red block with black scrolls with a scroll with her Chinese name and symbols on it. Both turned out beautiful. Zakary won 1st place for design and laurel won 4th for Design. neither were so fast but we had a great time.

Pneumonia 2104

Some of you know i think that Stan has been VERY sick with pneumonia. He is getting better know but has had it about a month or a bit longer,he spent nearly a week in the hospital.
He is home now and getting better daily but its a slow recovery,esp when yu are no longer 30 yrs old.
He sees the doctor again for follow up tomorrow.

Easter 2014

Happy Easter to all!!
This Easter we had a bigger than usual weekend.
We started the weekend with an engagement party for Grandaughter Sierra,Chris's daughter. She and Robert are planning a wedding for one year from now. We gathered at her home in Benicia for a meet and great to get to meet and know the families. Since we will all be related soon,thought it would be nice to get a chance to get to know one another. It was a wonderful sunny warm day and had lunch in the back yard and visited with new family members and got caught up with old family members!Destiny,Chris wife made the cupcakes and the decorative favors for the event.

Isaiah and kate came home with us after the engagement party for the night and to spend Easter with us,Katy and Joe both had to work all day Easter(ugh).
The Easter bunny came to the house over night and then rather than the usual trip to the Mortons home for Easter picnic and egg hunt,we went to Benicia where they had a day in the park,face painting and games and a egg hunt as well. WE ended up having quite a nice afternoon. Isaiah and Kates  cousin Kingston(who had his first Easter today) and his mommy,Claudia came as well. We had a nice time. 

Superbowl Sunday 2014

We spent Super Bowl Sunday with big Chris and Destiny at their house. It rained like crazy so it was a bit of a BBQ challenge but Chris never lets us down. He even did mussels on the BBQ for he and Zak to enjoy together. Something the two brothers have in common.

Happy New Year 2014

Can you believe that it is actually 2014? i cant and i cant believe that already.....yes already i am behind here again. I was going to try to keep up,once or twice a month get in here and update life as it moves along so darn quickly.
Christmas was wonderful as usual. All were happy and healthy and here together so Christmas was wonderful.
Stans daughter Deirdre and her husband Matt and their daughter (almost 3yrs old) welcomed a new baby boy into their family Christmas evening. Stan and laurel leave next week to go to visit and meet him for the first time.
School is going very well for both kids,TaeKwonDo and gymnastics as well.
We had a meeting with the school a couple weeks ago and Zak is so far ahead that they will put him in 5th grade along with Laurel in the fall and totally skip by 4th grade. He is already going to the 5th grade math class and the 8th grade science class where he is able to do science experiments. We are all very proud of him. He is now a Red belt in TaeKwonDO and still really loves it. WE do give alot of credit to that for his progress in all of his areas of life.
Laurel is still loving and living for gymnastics,She had a meet at her own gym today and did VERY well. She had had a tough season and had lost alot of confidence although she had qualified and competed in the Northern Calif state meet, her confidence had slipped away. Today she did so well.....we are so proud of her and hope that this will bring some of that lost confidence back to where it needs to be and where it was her first season. Today she got 2nd in the Vault and the floor routine and 3rd on the bars and 2nd all around. Very proud of her.
Zakary turned 9 yrs old on Feb 3, he wanted a very small party,his closest two friends from school, Camilla and Hekena(yes both girls) and then of course his sister Laurel. He wanted to come to the house,now that there is room,watch a movie,have snacks and then make your own ice cream sundaes. The weekend was rainy so it worked out perfectly and we all had a great time.
Valentines day at school is always fun. Laurels class had a valentines box contest. Laurel didnt win,she did hers with little help(since thats what your supposed to do),it turned out VERY cute but the winners had boxes that were battery operated and did light up things(pretty sure that the 4th grader didnt do that on their own). All in all.....Very cute and alot of fun.
Ok,so im going to attach a lot of pictures and try to get you all caught up here. Hope all of you are doing well and staying healthy

Christmas 2013

Here we are again at the end of another year! it is New years eve as I type. We had an awesome Christmas...Everyone was well and happy. All got what they had asked Santa to bring. Chris wife Destiny was not able to be with us, she had been sick for a week with fever and so on se she stayed at home, we missed her but she certainly didn't feel like travelling and we didn't want what she had. We had a real treat this year.....First grandchild,Sierra,who just turned 17 was able for the first time ever to spend Christmas with us and we sure loved it! She is such a beautiful young lady and we have missed having her all her life and now she was able to be with us and I was even able to get her to stand tall at the measuring door, she is one tall girl. We did our annual Christmas eve dinner at China Wok where we love the family who owns it and the food is delicious. We looked at lights and went home to bed. Christmas morning we all got up and everyone trickled in for presents and coffee cake. Everyone then as they needed to went on their ways and the rest of the day was spent quietly around the house,relaxing,kids playing with new toys and continuing to put things away in the new addition. Grandma Priscilla came over to visit and stayed for a couple hours, she loved to see all the kids together and of course to see was Sierra was a super treat. Enjoy the pictures and Happy New year to you all. I will try (as I say each year to do better with keeping up with pics and blog in the coming year)