Dec. 2008: Christmas at our Own Home! Gymnastics highlights, and Lakers Game!

December was very busy and fun this year! Finishing their second full-year of gymnastics, School Christmas performances, Daddy's holiday concert with Voices in Harmony, and decorating our own House and tree for the Holidays kept us very busy, and made for a very exciting time! The kids loved having Santa come to OUR OWN HOUSE for the first time this year!!

.... Oh, and Matt lost his first tooth (surprisingly!!) early in the month. We're STILL waiting for a second tooth to loosen!....

After Christmas, it was off to Los Angeles county to visit G'ma and G'pa Staples for their 61st Anniversary, and to see Aunt Nancy, Uncle Brent, cousins Alyssa and Corrynn, and of course little cousin/grandnephew (!) Tucker!

Daddy and Matthew went to Matt's first LAKER and first NBA game at the STAPLES Center (where else!!??), and Matt had a GREAT time seeing Kobe, Pau and Derek!! Andrew Bynum was still healthy too, and had some big dunks against the Warriors. It was also great to see former Laker, Ronny Turiaf, now on the Golden State Warriors (close to where we now live!).

We finished December with Daddy's "Iron Man" Birthday party and lots of family fun at Aunt Nancy's house and the nearby park. It's very humbling when a SIX-year old like ours can make you run your rear-end off just to keep a lead! I sure hope he joins the track team when he's older!

Oct.-Nov. 2008: Lots More Soccer, Halloween, and Matt begins Tiger Cubs!

Lots of soccer activity continued through November! Soccer season ended with Matt's sharp and athletic team going 13-1, and Sarah's team playing hard and having lots of fun in a very tough division with many older teams.

Matt's brand-new Tiger Cub den got started too! It all begain with "Tiger Cub Safari" in the Santa Cruz mtns., where the scouts learned BB-gun shooting and archery! Den and pack meetings have been great fun too, and a good way to get to know the other parents in Matt's first grade class. Tiger Safari was WAY COOL and WAY FUN, for Matt and for his akela, AKA: Daddy.

Oh, Yeah! We had a great Halloween with THREE parties too!!!

November ended with a wonderful time at Thanksgiving with G'ma and G'pa Androvich, and lots of playing Rock Band at Uncle Mark and Aunt Gigi's hourse, with cousins Wil and Lizzie.

Aug.-Sept. 2008: Swimming, Camping, and Soccer begins again!

The kids did GREAT at swimming this past summer, both advancing to Level 5 -- just one level short of Jr. Life Guard! (which they're not actually old enough to achieve yet.). They showed off their advancing swim skills a lot at G'ma and G'pa Androvich's house too, while Michelle celebrated her 20th High School reunion with old friends!

We also made a trip with our church family group to Big Basin, Santa Cruz, and had a great time among the gorgeous redwoods and a comp site between three huge Giant trees! Many trees in the area were burned hollow at the base by past fires, and made great play areas and hideouts! Banana slugs were abundant too!

Both kids started great second soccer seasons: Sarah on the purple "Wicked", and Matt on the blue and flamed "Blue Lightning!", both with most of their previous teammates, and same coaches as last year.

We said hello to fall and goodbye to summer with a wonderful long weekend trip to Yosemite at the end of September! Gorgeous views from Glacier point, and from the Valley, and lots of wildlife!