Patriarchal Blessing

Grandma Vogt made a quick weekend visit from Utah to be here to celebrate Gabe receiving his Patriarchal Blessing. It was a wonderful experience to be able to witness this special blessing from Patriarch Coleman! I am so proud of the possibilities of blessings in Gabe's life if he continues to follow a righteous path.

We also took the opportunity to take some family pictures! The kids are changing so quickly and only when I look at photographs does it occur to me that our whole family is almost the same height!

Water Heater Horror!

On President's Day, we returned from the movie theatre to discover that our water heater died. It burst it's seems and leaked hot water all over the floor of our garage. I'm disgusted at myself for allowing our garage to maintain it's clutter -- including boxes, papers and books on the floor, that are now ruined. Most of the containers holding precious photos, Halloween costumes and holiday decor are plastic, so they remain safe. And most of our food storage is on shelves that are off the floor.

I do feel blessed, however, that our water heater is in our garage, instead of in our house. I can't imagine the damage that would have been done to our flooring/carpet, furniture and walls! I also am very thankful to our contractor friend, Ray Hemming, who dropped everything and met us at Home Depot to buy a new water heater and helped up replace our old one.

These are the woes of home ownership... dealing with repairs. Ugh.

Happy New Year!

Fireworks at the Space Needle, Seattle WA

We spent our New Year's Eve at home enjoying games, movies and food - lot's of food!

A YEAR IN REVIEW:

Gabe turned 16 yrs old. He got braces. He can now date and will learn to drive this year. He's taking Japanese at school.

Sam is now taller than I am. He was diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome. He likes to play video games and watch tv.

Carly got glasses, matured beyond belief, and continues to do well in school.

I earned my Associates Degree (finally), deal with arthritis in my knee, and serve as the nursery leader in our ward.

Daniel continues to work with Boy Scouts/YM, the ward choir, and officially became the Assistant Chief (and acting Chief) of the Respiratory Care Department of the VA-Puget Sound Healthcare System.

Can't wait to see what the coming year brings our way. Welcome 2012!

Merry Christmas!

Time again for family pictures! (SAM): "Why do we have to have a family picture?" (GABE): "Why do I need to change out of my pajamas?" (He didn't, I just cropped his PJ bottoms out of the "official" photo! (DANIEL): "Why do I need to be in the picture? Can't we just send out a picture of the kids?" (He took pictures of just the kids while waiting for me to be ready).
It's always such a struggle to get everyone together for a simple photo around the tree... but it has been accomplished!

We tried to get our dog, Rainbow, in the picture, but she wasn't good at smiling on cue. Also, we had to make sure that our new Yoda tree topper was included!
HO-HO-HO!

Soccer Season!

Another soccer season has come to an end. Gabe and Carly really enjoy the sport and usually play indoor and outdoor soccer. We are proud to watch them play, but it will be nice to have our Saturdays back!

Go UPSC Arsenal! Go UPSC Jaguars!