These past few months have been pretty busy for our family. October was spent with me and the boys in California with Blake in Hawaii by himself. November brought us back together along with Blake's friends, the Huangs, from Bakersfield. Then there was Thanksgiving and Blake left a couple days later for Training in Missouri. He came back in December the same day his parents came to visit us. The day they left, we left too. Back to California. My Dad passed away on December 5th and we had the Memorial Service on December 21st. It was a bittersweet thing. I'm sad that he is no longer with us but he has absolutely no pain and I'm glad for that. I'm so grateful for the knowledge of the Plan of Salvation. We will see him again and that is comforting. We got to celebrate Christmas 3 times. We had a Christmas on December 18th - we opened our gifts to each other. We had Christmas with my mom, brother, sister and her family on December 23rd. (Santa came early for the kids.) And then we went to Bakersfield to visit Blake's family and had Christmas on the 27th. (Santa came again.) We made it home in time for the New Year and then Blake left again. This time for the whole month. He's at NTC (training) and will be home near the beginning of February. Crazy busy!!
At the Memorial Service, Jacob, Aiden and Tia sang "I Am A Child of God" (You can't see Tia)
On the way to the cemetary for the grave dedication (Dad was already buried earlier in the month) the kids fell asleep so we left them in the car.
When Blake's parents were with us, Susan found a coconut somewhere outside so we decided to open it. We don't own any machettes (yet) so we used a saw, hammer and a screwdriver to bust it open. Blake became frustrated at how long it took.
Christmas #1 - Jacob and our tree. (No real tree since we were going back mainland)
Daddy reading the Christmas Story from a picture book.
Joshie's first Christmas! And of course all he wants to do is eat the wrapper.
Someone (Aunt Melissa) gave Josh his first lick of a fruit bar.
Too cold!!
Jacob tried on Grandpa Termeer's cowboy hat and of course hammed it up.
Jacob LOVES to help Josh.
I got Josh's food ready and left it on the table to check on dinner. I hear a noise and this is what I find:
