Christmas Fun

Christmas morning our kids had their dreams come true. They went on a scavenger hunt to find our new puppy. The kids have named him "Cosmo". He is a 10 week old Shih Tzu. The kids are having so much fun with him. I was very nervous when I picked Cosmo up on Christmas Eve from my friends houseat 10 PM, who was hiding him. She informed me that the puppy got up every 3 hours during the night to go potty. WHAT???, I guess I needed to do more research before we got the puppy. A new puppy is like a newborn, maybe even more work. Cosmo is a sweet, active puppy. He plays for hours with the kids. I think this is the best Christmas gift they have ever had. I'm not sure about the work on my end. Cosmo is already sleeping 8 hours at night and today he had no accidents in the house. I'm loving the wood floors for potty training a puppy.

Tonight Comso got a bath and hair style. He was very good about letting us do this.

This is the boys with their new NERF guns. They love to have nerf wars with dad and play protect the president game with the guns. We are always finding nerf darts all over the house.

Chirtmas Eve in their new PJ's

Christmas Eve acting out the Nativity

A few weeks before Christmas we decorated a gingerbread house and train.

60th Wedding Anniversary Party

Bruce & Pat celebrated 60 years of marriage today. This is one of the greatest love stories we've been able to watch. Pat has had Alzheimer's for several year but despite her disease, Bruce is at her side constantly and remains totally in love with her. Bruce is always very sweet and tender with her. And Pat still has her fabulous sense of humor and has us always laughing. Tonight Pat had nice moments where she was able to remember. Today was a wonderful celebration of 60 great years as all of their children, spouses, grandchildren and great grandchildren gathered to honor this landmark occasion. We had a wonderful dinner. We then played a fun family trivia game that had everyone laughing and remembering wonderful years together. The evening concluded with a beautiful slide show of Bruce & Pat's life together. It was the perfect evening. We even comment that we enjoyed the 60th Anniversary celebration better than the 50th. Thanks everyone for making the effort to be together!

The Love Birds (that is their nickname at ReCollections)

The 5 Boys

These are pictures of all the people that attended the anniversary party. We were only missing a few. The next morning we spent several hours with Bruce and Pat. It amazed us how Pat kept commenting what a fun party we had last night. She must have asked me several times if I had fun at the party. What a tender mercy that she was so clear for this special celebration.

Fun Day With Family

We had a wonderful day where cousins got to know each other and adult family reunited and caught up. First we took the kids to Newport Beach and let them play in the surf. They had fun watching the fisherman off the pier. We then had lunch at the Crab Cooker. Next we took the ferry over the Balboa Island. And finally we all enjoyed the famous Balboa Ice Cream Bars. A perfect day! It was so fun to have Grandpa & Grandma Carter spend the day with us.

Sea World

We spent one day while in California at Sea World. The park was empty so it was a great day.

Our first stop was to visit the dolphins. The dolphins where so friendly, they wanted to socialize and play with the kids. Brianna had a dolphin splash her and then laugh at her as she wiped the water off her face. The kid enjoyed feeding the dophins and playing with them.

For Brianna, Colton and Caleb the highlight was Atlantis. They were able to ride this ride 15 times. However, they were soaked and freezing by the time the park closed. We all had a terrific day!