January and February Birthdays

Our family tries to get together as often as possible to celebrate birthdays within the family. Friday we came together at Grandma's house to celebrate January and February birthdays, which included Uncle Randy and his wife, Ellie, and my cousins Brandon, Timothy, Kira and Haley. We enjoyed Collins tacos for dinner and then had birthday cake after cards were opened. It was a night full of laughter, which is my favorite kind!

Before the birthdays were celebrated, the guys presented a beautiful display of Grandpa's military service to LeeAnn, who helped Grandpa out a lot during his stay in the hospital and willingly let the other siblings receive the corner symbols from Grandpa's coffin at his funeral. They had another piece and replicas of his medals/badges framed for her, along with a picture.

Grandma and LeeAnn getting the cake ready

The birthday clan

Some family photos...

Ski Trip

Andy went to Colorado for the weekend to ski with Dave at Winter Park and spend some time with his parents. Since I wasn't around, there aren't a lot of pictures - but he did take a few. He was having way too much fun skiing to bother with the camera!

Lifespring! Chili Cook-Off

Tonight was the chili cook-off at Lifespring! Dad, Mike and Mike's Dad all made entries for the competition and they were all delicious!

Dad explaining how to make chili

Some of them were really hot!!

The glowing ice cushion seat

Hanging out with the girls

It was that good!!

Staci

Tanya

Me & Mom

Tanya, Staci and I have had a fun "girls' weekend." Andy is in Colorado for the weekend, so the girls are keeping me busy in his absence! He went skiing with Dave today and will have the day to spend with his parents tomorrow. I'm sure we will be posting pictures of his trip when he gets home.

And on a totally different subject... this is one of the reasons I love our place! We woke up to this last week... this is the view from our apartment.

Big Bear with Steven

Andy took Steven to Big Bear this Saturday for a little bit of skiing/snowboarding. We've been getting tons of rain and snow this year, so they actually had to use chains to get up the mountain! They had a great time and it gave Andy a good warm-up for his trip to Denver in a few weeks.

In the mean time, I was able to see my good friend, Sarah McMullen on Saturday. I went to Valencia to attend her CAbi show. It was nice to see her again and it was fun to see her work. If any of you are interested, they have some beautiful clothes. You can visit her website by clicking here: http://www.sarahmcmullen.cabionline.com/.

Aquarium of the Pacific

Giving Blood

I gave blood the other day. This is the third time I've given - and the third annual drive that we have held at the auction. It didn't go as smoothly this time as it usually does, but it's still worth it. Hopefully it will be able to help someone...

New Years

We had a great time at Steve and LeeAnn's for New Years. We played Bunk-o with friends and then watched the countdown and celebrated with poppers and streamers when the clock struck midnight! Here are some pictures from the party...

Brooke & me

Staci & Mike
At the Bunk-o table
Andy and Johnny... Andy's typical picture expression
Mike and Danielle
Steven and tim with some of their friends Tanya
Me, Mozelle & her girls
Tim filling up on cider