New Year's Eve

We had a semi- quiet New Years Eve with Jeff, Kristen & Drew at Moms house. We ate some delicious food & played some games. Around 10 the kids did some sparklers outside & then had some sparkling cider. We went home around 11pm so the kids could get to bed. We are now ready for 2015!!

Game Boys

The family that plays their DS together, stays together!

Summer Girl

My little summer girl does not want to give up her sundresses, so we made a compromise- she can wear them as long as she wears a long sleeve shirt underneath!

Naps

Naps on Dad at church are the best!

Zachary's Eagle Scout Project

We were able to help Zachary with his Eagle Scout Project this morning. His project was to document graves at the East Lawn Sacramento cemetery. We took photos using an app on our phones that imbeds a GPS coordinate in the picture. This will allow people from anywhere in the world to do Family History searching for ancestors buried at this cemetery.

And since the app gives a photo and GPS location of the grave, visitors can easily find the exact burial spot without help from the cemetery workers.

There were about 30 of us there & we teamed up to work on different sections. Cory, Kate & I had 5 rows that we were working on. Kate & I worked ahead of Cory & we cleaned the headstones & then he came through & took a picture of the headstone. We worked for about 3 hours & were able to capture over 6000 images. We were able to do Dads, Grandma Altop & Great Grandma & Grandpa Altop's headstones.

Now we will  be able to transcribe/index the gravestone info from the photos onto a searchable website.

It was a fun morning!

Christmas 2014

We had a wonderful Christmas Day! The kids were happy with all of their gifts & everyone was nice to each other! A miracle indeed!!
Mom, Erin & Courtney joined us for breakfast & stayed while we opened presents. All of my siblings went in on Mom's gift & we got her a new Polaris for her pool, along with a few other things.
When Mom arrived there was a package at the front door addressed to Kate & it was from S. Claus at the North Pole. She opened it up to find her own gold Nintendo DS!!
Grandma & Grandpa Wozniak sent money for all of us to get passports, which was an amazing gift to us! They also sent Carter the Simon Swipe game & Claire & Kate got Elsa & Anna dolls, which are beautiful!
Claire & Kate both received a version of an American Girl doll. Claire got Lily Anna who is dressed in her horse training outfit & she also got a horse. Kate got Riley, who has red hair!
Some other exciting things the kids received:
Carter: 2 more lego sets, Harry Potter complete DVD collection, sweatshirt, arrows, Batman 3 DS game,  & a Star Wars thumb doodle book,
Claire: doll & horse, clothes, accessories & shoes for her doll & some cute boots,
Kate: doll, clothes & accessories, boots & books.

Cory took the kids to Charming Charlie & they each picked out some new jewelry for me. That was exciting!! Cory got me some great stuff for the house: a new Brita, spice rack, Ninja blender, alarm clock, apple peeler, cd/dvd case for the car, spatula, wire basket, indoor retractable clothes line, & a beautiful box which holds gold, frankincense & myrrh (which we can use for the Nativity each year!). We also got a new book called "ites" which is an illustrated book to the people of the Book of Mormon. There are 52 family home evening lessons in it, so we plan on using it for next year! Can't wait!
Cory  received a new basketball, arrows, rotating waffle maker, bike pump, wireless blue tooth speaker, leatherman, mini lantern for camping, wireless presenter, am/fm weather radio & a few other things.
We feel so very blessed for our wonderful family & the many things our Father in Heaven has blessed us with.

Santa Came!

The kids wrote some letters to Santa & left cookies, carrots & egg nog out. Carter built a Santa out of Legos & wrote the following letter:
"Dear Santa,
For Christmas I want:
1. wii U (please)
2. hamster
and anything else you give me is fine.
This is you in Lego- Do not take! (he placed the Lego Santa next to it)
Sign name if you were here"
Santa signed his name too!

Claire wrote:
"Dear Santa, these cookies are for you. Enjoy them. Love Claire. P.S. I hope you like them. Love Claire"
Claire's Christmas list also included the following:
A toy walking horse
An American Doll
A hamster
A trampoline
Love, Claire

Kate's Christmas List:
1. fingernail polish
2. American Girl Doll
3. Ears pierced
4. Phone
5. Tablet
6. Notebook
7. Picture of Grandpa
8. Shampoo
9. 100 pieces of paper
10. Lipstick

I died at Kate's list!!! What is she, a teenager??!!

Well, Santa did come & he left some fun stuff for the kids. They may not have received everything on their list, but they were a happy bunch!

Carter received: Super Spirograph, bungee chair, football, Luigi's Mansion 3 DS game, Spot it!, Star Wars The Jedi Path book, Lego City Police Pursuit set, mechanical pencils, underwear & a bunch of stuff in his stocking.

Claire received: a Nintendo 2DS, Frozen Olaf's Quest DS game, Barbie DS game, tissues, tape dispenser with colored tape, shrinky dinks, Rory's Story Cubes game, Lego Friends Stephanie's Beach House set, socks & underwear, gloves, Annie soundtrack & a bunch of stuff in her stocking.

Kate received: a frog umbrella, Don't Break The Ice, Don't Spill the Beans, Hello Kitty light, Barbie dvd, Disney DJ Shuffle cd, gloves & hat, storage for her stuffed animals & a bunch of stuff in her stocking!