San Francisco

Keith and I finally took a vacation, and decided to see the City. Zach and Morgan came with us, Jonathan was an outstanding host, tour guide and chauffeur.

Lights!

As a productive and illuminating distraction from Keith's exam studies, we decided to install lights in three key areas of our home: our living room, inside our closet, and on our patio by our newly raised-on-pedastal washer and dryer. 

Step One: find the stud. There he is! Wearing David's old Tigger sweater!

Step Two: cause some van-damage and string the wire.

Step Three: patch the damage.

Step Four: employ an out of work artist for the final touch up work.

Step Five: basque in the light of your labors.

This closet light will prevent those fashion mistakes due to pre-dawn dressing in the dark.

Now we can do laundry without straining our eyes.

Oh yea. Morgan wasn't impressed with our ward christmas party's santa. 

Creche Festival

This past weekend we made two trips to the creche festival. We thought of our family when we saw some of these nasimientos (nativity scenes).

This one is for Daddy because its full of hilarious moose in costume.

This one made me think of Randy with its chess theme.

This one is for Hermana Collins who will be transferring from the Argentina MTC to her first area in Uruguay in the next few weeks.

This gourd was carved by a Mexican dentist with his actual dental tools. For Jonathan and Polin of course!

For mommy - the only horse we saw in any nativity scene.

For Ryan - the koala's reminded me of you.

This one was one of Keith's and my favorites because of its swoop design and all in oneness.

Keith thought these penguins were funny, so this is for him.

This nativity was very similar to Daniele's precious moments, so naturally we thought of Daniele when we saw it.

We enjoyed the nativity scenes so much, we decided to become one. As you can see, Joseph and I were joined by a friendly Christmas angel.

Our neighbors the Navarros enjoyed the festival just as much as we did. It certainly put us all in the holiday spirit!

Morgan's New Skills

We caught some cool moments on camera today. Waving, clapping, and talking? Check em out!

Jasper's Cashmere

My sewing skills finally progressed enough to allow me to transform an old cashmere sweater into Jasper's new "Catmere" sweater. Keith thinks it makes him look like an Ivy League kitty.

Tressa's Blessing

Today, we went to Tressa Cruz's blessing in the Euclid Ward, and one of Debi's famous potlucks afterwards. Morgan finally got to meet Tressa and they seemed to hit it off nicely.

Tressa seems to be working towards a promising boxing career.

Morgan was fascinated with the plants surrounding the stake center.

All the girls: Tracy, Morgan, Vanessa and Tressa.

Emily's Farewell Weekend & Trunk or Treat!

Two weekends of festivities: Emily's farewell talk before her mission and then Morgan's first Trunk or Treat.

Our family was kitty themed as you can see.

Zach theorizes that hairless cats are genetically bankrupt because they would be too cold to survive in the wild, but based on Jasper's ability to use available resources to gain the high ground, I'd say he's got all the survival skills he needs.

Grandma treated us to a wonderful meal along Lancaster Blvd.

Oh yea - Jasper is finally potty trained! We just help him avoid temptation by eliminating possible accident sites, while simultaneously storing water for emergencies.

Morgan's First Steps

This week Morgan decided she would start walking.

Sewing

Here is Jasper wearing the first outfit I have made for him tonight. I cleaned my jammed up sewing machine and it lasted long enough to sew this outfit, we are working on getting my grandma's sewing machine restored.

Catch up

Lots to catch up on Morgan and Jasper's play time........

















Morgan has been busy helping daddy study, crawling, walking along furniture, and bubble popping.










































Jasper is obviously more surprised at the court's decision than Keith is.






EMILY'S VISIT!!!


















Conference weekend, hense the lounging in pj's and comforter





Yes Jasper found his new best friend in Emily. He even ditched Keith and I to sleep with her downstairs her second night here.





Home made pizza! We are thinking about making them as part of our family conference tradition...Emily had no complaints:)

















I learned how to do a waterfall braid on you tube and tried it on Emily, all while making the BEST cupcake cookies in the world, thanks to Emily's know how and inspiration!