Our St. Patrick's Day!!!!

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We've been Busy!!!!!

Sorry for the long wait for an update. PICS WILL BE COMING SOON (Amber and I are planning on going through them tomorrow)!!!!!!!!! Here is whats been going on in our family since the last update.

On January 11th, Chad and his family were in town from Utah due to a JetBlue meeting. The goup had tickets to a Clippers Basketball game. Since they had extra tickets, Grandpa, Jason, and I were able to go with them (Amber couldnt go because she had to teach the Relief Society lesson that day). It was alot of fun (but I hope, someday, to go to a Lakers game)

The month of February has been busy so far:

Amber and I had a birthday earlier this month, so there has been alot of parties (and cake)!!!!!!!

The fist party was 2 days before our birthday. It was put on by our friend, Leanne.There were quite a few people who showed up. We had a GAME NIGHT. We played a fun game called APPLES TO APPLES and DISNEY SCEEN IT. After everyone left, Amber and I spent about 2 hours just talking to Leanne. It was GREAT!!!!!

The next night Grandpa took us out to eat at TONY ROMA'S!!!!! They have are famous for their ribs. They are EXCELLENT (and messy).

Later that night, we went to a party for a friend who was moving. Since she LOVES pie, instead of it being a good-bye party, it was a good- PIE party. Everyone brought pies. It was alot of fun.

Since Amber and I were going to Disneyland for our birthday the next day, Amber and I opened our presents: Amber gave me a book ONE SINGLE VOICE (it was written by Elder Oaks wife. Its about how to find joy and contentment in being single in a family oriented church), and 2 CD's. One CD is called A CHILD'S PRAYER. It is the CD that Travis and Jenny used as the soundtrack to Jake's memorial dvd (We LOVE and miss you Jake). The other CD is about women and the important role they play.

I got her a Buxton bag (the ones you see on tv), the same CD I got her A CHILD'S PRAYER, and a painting called I WILL NOT FAIL THEE. It shows a girl kneeling against the lap of Jesus (you don't see his face). Amber calls it HER picture. She calls it her picture because the phrase I WILL NOT FAIL THEE is in her Pat. Blessing.

Since Amber and I LOVE to read, grandpa bought us each a Sony e-book reader. Its a electronic device that you can download HUNDREDS of e-books onto. This allows us to read LOTS of books without lugging around all thoes books. We LOVE them!!!!! They get LOTS of use!!!!

The next day was our birthday. Amber, our mom and I spent the day at Disneyland. This year at the Disney Parks, you can get in free on your birthday. But since Amber and I have Annual Passes that let us in free evveryday, we got a gift card worth $69 (the price of a one day ticket) to use toward purchases. I used my gift card to buy a blanket of IT'S A SMALL WORLD and a shirt. Amber used hers to buy 2 figures.

Friday night Grandpa made a cake and we had Dad and Louise and Mom over.

Tomorrow night Amber and I are going over to our friends house. She is going to make us a birthday dinner. That will be last birthday party.

In other news.... We got a new garage door. We couldnt open or close our other garage door due to our new roof. When they put on our new roof, they put the shingles down too far.

Earlier this week I had to get a new laptop because my old one quit working. The guy said that it would cost at least $200 to fix. Grandpa said that we could get a brand new one for a little bit more money. So.....Hello New Laptop!!!!!!!

Last night, Grandpa, Dad, Louise, Jason, Amber and I went to go see the HARLEM GLOBE TROTTERS!!!! It was a WONDERFUL show. It was AMAZING to see all the tricks they could do with a basketball.

It was also REALY funny to see the tricks they pulled on eachother, their opponents THE GENERALS, and on the audience.

In a few weeks Grandpa goes in to have surgery. Because he has REALLY bad knee pain, he is having a pain pump put in. Hopefully this will relieve his pain.

There has also been news of 2 new members joining the family, and the 16th marks 2 years of when we had to say goodbye, for now, to one. First the new additions:

In May Travis, Jenny, Lexi and Jake will be adding Lucy to the family. Welcome Little Lucy!!!!! We can't WAIT to see you!!!!!!

Today we learned that my cousin Derek and his long time girlfriend, Betsy, are engaged. Welcome to the crazy family Betsy. I hope that we will be able to get to know eachother better.

Two years ago,on the 16th, we lost a very special member of the family: Jake. Jake was born with a birth defect called Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia (CDH). CDH is a devestating birth defect where the diaphragm fails to close all the way. This allows the organs that are suppose to be in the abdomin, to escape into the chest cavity. This prevents the lungs and heart to be underdeveloped due to lack of room. He fought for 5 months and 25 days. He spent his ENTIRE life in the NICU. Even though we didnt get a chace to see you, know that we will ALWAYS LOVE and MISS you. We were planning on seeing you after you got out of the hospital, but, sadly, that didnt happen. We LOVE You OUR LITTLE ENGINE THAT COULD!!!!!!!

The past 3 months. Pics will come in the next post.

Once again we are so sorry for the delay in posts. A lot has happened in the past 3 months. Stay tuned for the next post to see picturs of all our activities. First off in October Grandpa, Jason, Robin, Dad and Louise and I went on a 16 day road trip to visit Northern California and family in Idaho and Utah. We spent one week driving through the redwoods. It was AMAZING to see the GIANT trees, I now know how ants feel when they are by us. These trees are more then 5,000 years old and over 300 feet high and each tree drinks more then 200 gallons of water a day (I'm glad I don't have to pay that water bill. HAHAHA). We really enjoyed walking around them and seeing all the touristy things along the way including The Skunk Train.


We also really enjoyed all the family we got to see. In Utah we got to see my Aunt Bonnie, Uncle Mike, my cousins Chad, his wife Meagan and their 2 daughters Ashlin (3) and Tayley (4 months) and my other cousin Jodi. We also visited one on my Grandmas brothers family. We did a lot of fun things including the Heber Creeper and the Kennecott Copper Mine. We also visited a wild mustang and burro ranch, went to Gardners Village and went to one of Ashlins dance recital (she did such a great job). We spent 2 days visiting my Grandpa's family in Idaho. We saw more then 75 relatives living in and around Rigby. It was SO nice to see everyone again.


4 days into our trip, our outside water main pipe broke, allowing water to get into our living room and dining room. It was a HUGE mess. Luckily we had neighbors and members of our ward who cleaned up the mess which allowed us to continue on our vacation. They vacuumed up the water, moved all the furniture, pulled up the carpets and had high powered fans going.

When we got back, we spent the next 6 weeks getting the house back together. We had to repaint the walls, get new carpet and move the furniture out of the family room and kitchen back to where they belonged. Thank goodness the same people who helped clean up the mess while we were gone, helped us get the house back together.

On November 15th, 4 devastating wildfires swept through Southern California, including Yorba Linda. Robin and I were out to lunch at Disneyland with one of our church friends for her birthday. When we first arrived at Disneyland, ash began to fall like snow. After lunch not only was the ground covered in ash, but the sky was the overcast with dark brown smoke. We immediatly left and went home. We learned that there was a fire in Brea (about 8 miles away) and there was another fire at the Yorba Linda/Corona border (3 miles away).

Roads were shut down except for emergency vehicles and 100,000's of people were evacuated, including us. Dad and Louise took our 2 cats and 2 birds while we spent the night in a hotel. While we were leaving our neighborhood we saw flames coming over the hills that was 1/2 mile away from our house. The hotel was filled to capacity with fire evacuees and their pets. We spent the entire night watching the news, seeing streets we know engulfed in flames.


Our house and all the houses in our neighborhood withstood the fire (even though when we got back home live emberes were still in our yard). 118 families in Yorba Linda were not that lucky, including a bishop in our stake. The rest of Yorba Linda are doing all we can to help and support those who lost everything.

The radio station Robin and I listen to was having a private Christmas party at Disneyland on the 20th. For the entire month of December Robin and I had tried everyday trying to get tickets for the party. We went several places where they were holding raffles to win tickets. Finally at the last raffle holding (which was held the day before the party) I was the first name that was pulled and won 4 tickets to the party. Robin and I surprised Jason with the tickets. Robin, Jason, Mom and I had a wonderful time playing at Disneyland from 9 PM-1AM. We can't wait to do it next year.


On Nov. 22, Jason turned 30. We had a family get together with cake and ice cream. We all chipped in to buy Jason an i-Pod. Robin and I put about 50 songs on it for him and a Mickey Mouse skin for it. We taught Jason how to put songs on it and now he has over 100 songs on it. He really likes his i-Pod. He also got some games for his gaming systems.


Robin and I went to our 1st concert (I know... we are almost 29 years old and going to our 1st concert. How sad!). We went to see Celine Dion. We had a WONDERFUL time!!! We thought Celine Dion was great on the radio but she is even more AMAZING in person.


We had a great Christmas!!!! As usual, Dad and Louise came over Christmas Eve and had dinner. After dinner, Robin and I read stories that share the true spirit of Christmas. We also read a poem we found on the internet entitled "Christmas In Heaven". We dedicated it to all the family members we have lost especially Jacob and Grandma. Then we spent several hours unwrapping presents.


We also had a great new year so far. Dad and Louise invited us over to their house (the 1st time they have ever invited us over to their house in 16 years). G-pa, Robin and I (Jason was at work) got there around 9:30 so we could watch the Rose Parade and Rose Bowl. We had hot chocolate and Cinnamon rolls YUMMY!!!! There were BEAUTIFUL floats (as always) this year and USC won the bowl game.

The 2nd is Grandmas 1 year anniversary since she died. It has been a year full of ups and downs with out her but we know that once we get her temple work done (which will probably be in the summer) we will be together with her again. Grandpa has been stuggleing with is knee pain a lot more then usual. The pain is not only in his knees but in his entire legs and hips. He can barely walk without using a walker now. His pain wears him out and spends days on the couch because he cant walk or is too dizzy to move. He has had several testings for a pain pump to be inserted in his spine which will give a contestant flow of heavy pain medication into his spine. All the kinks have been ironed out for him to receive the pain pump on Feb. 27th. Please keep him in your prayers that the pain pump will work and he will be able to enjoy life again.