We Gather Together

Thanksgiving at Steve and Shelley's 2008

Happy Birthday to Lovely Lovable Liz!

A few thoughts about Liz:

She gives amazing, thoughtful gifts. (Carefully prepared vintage photo albums come to mind).
She enjoys her boys and is great mom and teacher to them. (She decided early on to let her kids have fun outside--even getting muddy!)
She makes great cookies! (Her famous chocolate chip cookie recipe survived the fire.) :)
She is happy to hear from me, even when she is probably too busy to talk.
She is an exemplary big sister.
Liz is a graceful presence.
Fun family trivia facts: Noelle was born on Liz's 8th birthday and they share a name in common. Also Liz was born one day before Brian.

HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY!!! We love you!

youieeeeeeeeee! do it.

happy happy birthday. you're the bomb diggity and you always make me laugh and you are so nice and you are the smartest of us all (even though we won't admit it). i love you and hope you have a super fun day.
sienna

Youie? its me, Austie, I just wanted to say happy birthday, cause yous the bestest sister. Im sad that we are not together right now but I hope that you have a great day and have fun and be safe and wink at some cute guys and just be super. Thanks for being the best!

So Lucky We Live Hawaii

It's the day after Thanksgiving.

Even with all of its issues... Can I really live anywhere else?

Chelsea is Thirty!

Chelsea is beautiful and fun, intelligent and honest too. She remembers special days and sends cards that get there on time. She is a great mom to Monet and I know first hand that she is a great roommate. Missing you and wishing you a very happy day!!!

pudgeland

so I've been thinking a lot about Isaiah. Mostly because I love him and because he loves to give me long hugs, but also because he is so funny. Sometimes when I need to laugh I think about his hot pocket routine. "And then there's the vegetarian hot pocket for those of us who don't eat meat but would still like diarrhea." He has a blog called "pudgeland" with one post called "kenyon." I love this boy.

Mimi's Book Group

About a month ago, Mimi said, "Come here, Karen, I need to tell you something. I've done something foolish." (That got my attention.) She had been to her book group and when they passed around the sign-up for future meetings, she was the last to get it and noticed that no one had signed up for November for hosting or for reviewing a book. So she had signed up to have the group to our house and signed me up to give the book. She chose the book (poetry anthology) and most of the poems and I was her reader. This group has been meeting about once a month since the 60's which is impressive. Of course quite a few have come and gone (died or moved or just moved on). Natalie is the youngest member; she joined as a twenty-something new married. She wasn't here that day though. (She and David are in Canada where she has been getting experimental treatment for her cough :) Also, two of the longtime members couldn't make it that day. The book is Harvest: Contemporary Mormon Poems and includes poetry by M. D. Palmer.

Mud football

Hawaii wedding photography at
Http://www.adamapalmer.com

Christmas Shopping

I want to get my christmas shopping done before thanksgiving because I don't want to deal with the craze and because I don't have time to deal with the craze.

I am also planning on getting most of my shopping done on my favorite website EVER...the one and only ETSY. If you read my blog you know that I host etsy giveaways every Tuesday. It's fun because I end up getting lots of free stuff...but today I saw this

and it's not food related which means that I can't host a giveaway. But it's so dang cute. It's an advent calendar. I might have to get this for myself as an early Christmas present.

What are your plans for Christmas shopping and what is your favorite place to shop? Also...on a helpful note what are somethings that maybe you want or your family members wants? I would love to know what I should get the people we drew names for Christmas.

Christian's Apple Pie

THE. BEST. APPLE. PIE. EVER and I am seriously not exaggerating.

One more month....

So... Wedding planning is a ton of fun, and has been pretty stress-free for me! Thanks so much to everyone for your kind words and all your help, Ben and I really appreciate it...

I wanted to show you what we've done so far. Let me know what you think :)

Wedding dress: http://www.beautifullymodest.com/store/wedding-dresses/princess-cut/38102m/

Wedding cake:
http://galleries.weddingchannel.com/odb/themes/weddingchannel/detailView.
aspx?id=25140&type=19&WC%20Galleries=Cakes&pageIndex=8

**If you need to log in: username is yeseniaarevalo@gmail.com and the password is: hawaii127

Maid of Honor: http://www.davidsbridal.com/bridesmaids_detail.jsp?stid=3688&
prodgroup=110&sid=26789
**in canary yellow

Bridesmaid dresses:
http://www.davidsbridal.com/bridesmaids_detail.jsp?stid=2986&
prodgroup=110&sid=19089
**in clover green

Engagement ring:


I am SO happy and I can't wait until this day comes!!

-Ben&Sen

My boys...

rock my world

BBC News

There are reasons why I read international newspapers and this picture says it all. This is a shot of the clouds of smoke from LA featured on BBC.com

The Stats Are In

The boys were weighed and measured at WIC this month.
Gio is now 38" and 30 lbs, growing 1 inch and 1 pound since his birthday.
Zeke is now 33" and 23 lbs, growing 3 inches and 3 pounds since his birthday.

YAY! They are growing steadily and there is nothing to worry about. Now, if I could just get Gio to request more than gum at mealtime...

Happy Birthday, Charlie!

Today is Charlie's 25th Birthday. We had a HUGE family party. Charlie is very popular around here. He is huggable. Very talented with anything technological and musical. He is generous with his time and energy. Helps people without any fanfare. Genuine. Good company. Atleast 25 aunts, uncles, grandmas, sisters and cousins as well as a brother-in-law and his two adorable nephews came to celebrate. (Now I'm wondering what the gift was.) We wish you a fabulous year!

Secret Santa and other stuffs

other stuffs first...
thanks for the e-mails and comments. I was feeling better yesterday and today and then at church I completely fell apart and felt crappy all over again. I think my hormones are wacky and that I am going to feel sad for a while. Right now I'm trying to function the best I can which to be honest is pretty pathetic. I had this whole secret santa thing organized but I've been so NOT on top of things that sending out individual e-mails right now telling you who your secret santa is sounds like an impossible task so I'm going to make it public

____GIVES TO____
Karen- Noelle
Sienna-Yesenia
Kaity-Mariah
Noelle-Sienna
Yesenia-Damaris
Mariah-Pammy
Pammy-Karen
Colleen-Kaity
Damaris-Colleen

I hope this makes sense. I am SO looking forward to Christmas break.

Amaya

Happy Birthday Karen (bubs)

Having Karen around makes EVERYTHING better! Karen you have been a sister and a mom and I can not tell you how much I appreciate who you are and the loving ways you serve all in your family and your circle of friends. We are all better because of your great example! Looking forward to going to the temple with you on your special day!
CELEBRATE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!





Three of my most favorite people! Karen, Dave and Jake! Our family adores you Karen and we feel so blessed to be loved by you!

Karen.......you are a beauty inside and out! We are lucky to call you sister, aunt, cousin and daughter!!!!!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BUBS!

update

unfortunately our happiness was very short lived. I wrote a quick post about my miscarriage on my blog.

right now I'm feeling very vulnerable and still very sick so excuse me if I don't blog for a while.

viva león león león

We went on a Bing study trip to León, about 4 hours north of Madrid, this past weekend. It's called a "Bing" trip because the Bings are an incredibly rich family that funds all of the Stanford study abroad programs (along with half of the library "the Bing Wing," a nursery school, hospital, etc, etc) and pay for all of our study trips within Spain. We stayed in a 5 star hotel that used to be a castle (oh how much I am over hostals), ate dinner in a restaurante located in a cave somewhere in the mountains, saw a beautiful cathedral and monestarios. (P.S. If you're wondering how the devil the Bings have sooooo much money, I was too, so I asked and apparently Mr. Bing worked in real estate in New York...hmmm...) Anyway, León was a wee bit chilly, but fun because we went on a really beautiful 10 kilometer hike into the mountains and got to play in snow. My first snow ball fight (albeit a lame and embarrassing one). I for sure need more practice. I would be three feet away from someone and still miss when I tried to hit them. We actually played snow dodgeball and split into two groups on opposite sides of the road. There were some game fouls, blood split, some people cried, but we all got out okay.