Merry Christmas!

Hi everyone,
Just a note to friends and family to wish you a very Merry Christmas! You are all very special to us and we love you. We pray you will be blessed with good health, much love, plenty of laughs, more family, more friends, prosperity and jobs today and in 2010.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

The artic air has hit - it's 5 degrees outside. We will warm up this weekend to 30. can't wait. Taylore created this cute Gingerbread House that I just had to share with everyone. So cute.

St. George

Our friends visited St. George Thanksgiving weekend and I just love this picture of their little girl. In Snow Canyon State Park, there are mountains of rocks you can climb and this one is so pretty with the different colored rocks. I just love this picture.

Happy Anniversary Deb and Joe!

Tomorrow is Deb and Joes wedding anniversary. I'm guessing 27-28 years! Enjoy your special day!

Life Motto

I heard this from Beth Moore and may decide to make it my new "life motto".
"Life shouldn't be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather, to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out and loudly shouting, "Wow! What a ride! Thank you Lord!"

Happy Birthday Michele

Yesterday was Michele Seale's Birthday! I want to see some Birthday pictures. We've had our Michelle, little Grace, Michele Seale and later this week, Zeke turns the Big Boy 5!

Happy Birthday Michelle!

Today is Michelle's Birthday! Happy Birthday to you! I'm amazed at how fast time has flown. I hope you get showered in love and celebration today.

New Office

Since Rick went back to work, we swapped offices so he repainted and freshed up his old office for me.

Thankful

This week is the one month mark since Rick's been back to work! We are both thankful for his job. It's annual enrollment time and his choices of health coverage are so much better than what we've had previously. Health insurance is a good thing.

The lawn is covered with leaves and this is the last week of our tomatoes. There's still another 50 or so in various stages of ripening, so we'll need to help them along. It's suppose to get cold this week. I guess its getting to that time of year. Lucky Fran and Shirley are basking in the sun on the Big Island. We're thankful for our family and friends, who so richly bless our lives!

Happy Birthday Shannon

She's so happy! We hope your day tomorrow is Great!

Happy Birthday Sara and Shirley!

Happy Birthday to Shirley (35) and Sara (25). Wow, that gap just seems to get closer each year! We wish you both a Very Happy Birthday! Sara gets Sukiyaki for dinner tonight; it will be a fun evening. Jeff left this morning for beautiful PVR aka Puerto Vallerta, Mexico for his friend Conner's wedding. I wish I were there or anywhere above freezing temperatures in the morning. It's a little different around here with Rick working all day, but it's all good. He now has a uniform that fits (instead of what I refer to as the "half T shirt"), he got a van yesterday, so he's officially on his own effective today. Michelle started seeing patients/clients yesterday, so she's off to a great start with her PHD program. All is well here.

First Day on the Job!

Today, Rick went back to work! Hurray! Jobs are good.

Life is Good

Here's some pictures from golf on Saturday.

I golfed on Sunday. Well, I tried my best to hit that little ball! We saw wild bunnies and a roadrunner. Oh yes, and University of Utah started up a new season with a Win.

Being Silly

Ok, here are a few silly pictures. One tomatoe looked like it was sticking out its tongue. Rick thought that another reminded him of hemorroids!

Tomatoes!

Yeah Baby! We've got some beautiful tomatoes. They are really meaty. We had our first one weighing in over 1 pound!

Group Picture

One more - group picture.

Sleepless in Seattle

We had an AWESOME time in Seattle. What a beautiful area. On the way up to Seattle, we were able to visit for a few minutes with Stomie and Rose and then with Michelle, Jason and their adorable children. There were 33 people on the trip so we broke away from the group going up and then caught up with them after we met the Jensens at their County fair. We caravaned the rest of the way and all the way home. We left Seattle Monday morning at 0530 and arrived home at 10:00 pm last night. Coordinating bladders and lack of bathroom availability added several hours to the trip. I think it's suppose to take 12.5 hours vs. 16. We ran from sun up to way too late each night. Everyone but us slept on the church floor in sleeping bags. We got to sleep at the Pastor's house because we are old ones in the group, as you'll see in the photos. So we had a futon couch in the living area. We were there to support a church planted there a few years ago. They had like 30 people in the church, so we doubled in size for the few days we were there. We painted the front of one house, did work at a second house and invited their church neighbors to a BBQ in the park. I think it changed everyone's life to some degree for the better. We had a free morning/afternoon on Sunday, so we went to the Warf, to the original Starbucks coffee shop (several of those on our trip work at Starbucks), went to Pike's Place fish market and watched them throw fish and they had a great Farmer's Market along the warf area and had a fabulous crab lunch. We even saw a wedding going on at the warf (no one we knew). We rode the monorail from the space needle to the warf. It was fun.

Ok, I'm behind on my blog

Sorry for being a little behind... here's the important stuff...
Aadam and Michele's daughter Emilee turned 7 on Monday!
Shannon's coming to visit on Friday through the weekend!
Shirley's toe is healing well after surgery a few weeks ago.
BBQ tonight at the park with 60 of our friends - Rick's cooking Ya!
BBQ tomorrow night at our house for 6 - Rick's cooking again!
Have I told you lately what an Excellent BBQ-er he is!
Preparing for a trip with 35 from our church to go to Seattle next week.
Very exciting!
I would estimate our tomato plants to be about 7' tall. We took the first fruits from the tomato plant and the jalapeno plant and made some salsa to take to the BBQ tonight. We have about 3-4 eggplant ready to pick and eat by the end of the week!

Happy Anniversary Jason and Michelle

Jason and Michelle just celebrated their 11th year anniversary! whooohoooo

Jeff's Trip to China

Jeff arrived home safely yesterday. Here's two pictures from his trip. I love this one that gives the illusion that he's holding the flag.

Plant Update

Our tomato plants look a lot like last year. We've got some Japanese Egg plant sprouting and a few jalapeno peppers!

Friends are Good for your Soul

In the last few weeks, we got together with some friends who moved to Utah with us and we had a great reunion. Today, we just got back from the bay area and I got to meet with some friends - some since 4th grade and others from Junior High. It was a great opportunity to reconnect with friends again!

Happy Birthday Jeff!

We emailed Jeff last night, because today is tomorrow in China, with the time change. So if he reads this now, his Birthday is almost over. We wish you a Great Birthday! Have fun and look forward to hearing about your experiences there.

Someone gave Dad another Ping putter, just like the one he lost last week, so he's out trying it out, along with his new irons from his Birthday money.

Tomatoe plants are over the top again this year! We're looking forward to the fruit in the few weeks.

We're looking forward to seeing family this week in the Bay Area and I'm going to have dinner with my BFFs (best friends forever-literally), three since 4th grade!

Happy Birthday Rick!

Today's Rick's big day. We celebrated Rick's and Jeff's Birthdays last night because Jeff is leaving for China later this week. So Jeff will never forget this Birthday!

This is the year for Golf for Rick. He's very excited to try out some new courses and hopefully track down some new irons.

Happy Birthday!

Plants

The tomato plants look like they are going to be as big as the ones were last year. I'm excited because they produced a ton of juicy tomatoes. This year, we also got some Japanese eggplant plants from Rick's Aunt Mars and Uncle Tug. They are looking pretty good too. The top picture is a jalapeno plant.

Happy Father's Day to the Dads out there!

Sara invited us over to their place for a Father's Day BBQ. They have a cherry tree! Then it hailed. Then the sun came out and fun was had by all. Other people in the photos are Nick's mom, dad, brother, grandpa and niece.