White Christmas? Almost

Hello family! Well I think we have come as close to a white Christmas as we will get here in sunny So Cal. These are pictures from our front yard and back yard after the most recent storm came through. The news said the snow level was down to 1500 feet, which is entirely possible judging by these pics. This is exactly the way we enjoy the snow, close enough to visit, but far enough away that we do not actually live in it.

Here is our Christmas tree, which the boys had a great time decorating.

We are looking forward to Christmas, and seeing all the Laytons we missed on Thanksgiving.

The boys are enjoying their long break from school, and cannot wait for Christmas. We wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a safe and Happy New Year 2009. We love you guys.

Almost Thanksgiving!

Hello family! Thanksgiving is almost here, and I realized I haven't posted anything for quite a long time.

The boys just went off track from school last week, so they are off until about January 5, 2009. Before they tracked off, Shane had his first middle school band concert. Here he is with his best friend Romie before they performed.

Kevin just finished a round of flag football. His team, the Bulldogs, did pretty well. They ended up winning more than losing, so we counted that as a positive season. He learned a lot and had a great time.

I am doing fine in school, my semester ends in mid-December, and I am pretty sure I will have straight A's. Yay! Tim is working hard, as always, and we are hoping for the best in his job. Since he sells auto parts, his job may be affected, if any or all of the Big Three automakers go under. Time will tell, and we are hoping for the best.

We had some fires recently, one of which started in Corona and proceeded to burn down parts of Anaheim Hills and Yorba Linda. Here are a couple pictures of the smoke we could see, the first one is the view from our street.

We wish you all a wonderful Thanksgiving, and we will be thinking of you. We will be at the Kilbournes in Prescott, AZ, so we hope you all have a great holiday in Arlington Heights, and in California. We are so thankful to have such a large, loving family.

Happy, Happy Thanksgiving!

NazFam Visit

You all know that the Nazzaros and Wells were here in June/July. I thought I had taken some pics of the Wells cousins, but I cannot find any, so Midge, if you have some of my boys with your kids, can you email me copies? I do have a couple of the Naz cousins, so I will post them here. There are a couple at Mom and Dads, and a few at the beach. There is one will all the Naz & Kilbourne cousins all in one frame, though none of them are looking at me. Oh well!

May-June 2008

I have not been a very good blogger lately, but will try to update you guys now. Let's see, Kevin made his First Communion in May, and had a wonderful time. He is thrilled that now the whole family gets to go to receive communion at Mass every week.

Shane had a band performance at his elementary school before he graduated, and he did great on his sax. He will be moving into the Intermediate band at his middle school later this summer.

Of course, we have been out riding and out to Palm Desert in the past couple months. On Fathers Day, we took Tim down to San Diego to the Automotive Museum to see some really neat vehicles, and we all had a picnic in Balboa Park. It was gorgeous!

At the end of June, Shane graduated from the 6th grade and was promoted to 7th grade. He has started middle school and seems to be enjoying it so far. We have also had visits from all our out of state siblings and families, but I will post pictures from that on the next blog. Talk to you soon!

April 2008

Hello family! Well, it looks like I almost missed the entire month of April, but I am finally posting something. The boys have been off track for the last month and just went back to school this last Monday. Shane had a great 12th birthday, we kept it pretty small, he invited a friend over and we had birthday cake. Thank you to all of you for your birthday wishes for him.

Kevin is ready to make his First Communion this Saturday, and we are looking forward to seeing most of our "local" family members to celebrate. He is very excited, although he said the sip of wine was "gross" when he went to a practice run last weekend.

We all went to the rodeo in Norco a couple weeks ago. The boys had a great time, although I am convinced those bull riders are crazy. We got to see barrel racers, bronco riders, bull riding and calf roping.

We took the boys to the Superbike races at California Speedway last weekend. These bikes race at around 200 mph, so the boys thought it was great. It was supposed to be unbearably hot, but we ended up with some cloud cover, so it turned out to be a really fun time.

Finally, I got a replacement for my street bike, which we sold last year. I know most of you are not "bikers", but I am really excited with my new ride. I am now the proud owner of a 2006 Triumph Thruxton, and it is really pretty. I have only had it out twice, but it is soo much fun, and I am looking forward to Tim and I being able to get out for some Saturday rides in the near future. Also, I have taken assessment tests to go back to school to get my AA (for now) and I managed to qualify for college level classes, Yay! Tim is working hard, and looking forward to taking the boys out camping in the next couple of months. We cannot wait to see the Nazzaros, Wells, and Laytons in June. We are really looking forward to it. Love you all.

Snow Trip / Bike Riding

Hello family! Somehow, I managed to miss posting anything for the entire the month of February. Oh well, our family has managed to avoid most of the flu. Tim and Kevin had very mild versions, but were only down for a day or so. So maybe it wasn't the flu that everyone else has been suffering through. I am hoping we are done with it and we will all stay healthy. We hope all of you who have been sick are feeling better.



We took the kids to the snow about a month ago. We all had a blast, and best of all, got to leave the snow behind when we decided to head home. We filled the bed of our truck with snow before heading down the mountain, so all the neighborhood kids got to play with it when we got home.

I had a wonderful 40th birthday, thank you for all the birthday wishes. I got to go to lunch with Mom and Dad and Michael, and then had birthday cake at home with my boys. Tim and I went to a really nice dinner, just the two of us, a few days after the fact. I had a wonderful day, and I am trying not to focus too much on the fact that I am now halfway to 80 years old.

Two weeks ago, we took the boys dirt bike riding. The weather was less than perfect, as the wind was blowing a sustained 30-40 MPH, which made a lot of dust. So Tim and I didn't ride our bikes, but the boys got in a couple of hours on their bikes.


I hope you all have a blessed Easter. We hope to see our CA family at Chris' house on Easter afternoon. We are also preparing Kevin to make his First Communion on Saturday, May 3. He is pretty excited about it. He made his First Confession a couple of weeks ago. He was kind of nervous beforehand, but was so happy after he went.





Happy Birthday, Dyanamaria! We will talk to you all soon.

Ready to Get Lost?

Hello family! I still haven't downloaded any new pics yet, but I will do it sometime soon. Just wanted to check and make sure all my sibs who are "Lost" fans are ready to watch tonite. Last night, they re-aired the season finale from last season, with little tidbits of info scrolled across the bottom of the screen. Pretty interesting. Michael, did you see all the Star Wars references? I will want to hear what you all think after you see it. Talk to you soon.

Happy 2008!

Happy New Year 2008, all! I do not have any new pictures to post, but wanted to add an update. Our boys are back in school (Yay!), although they do have a holiday this coming week on Monday. We all had a wonderful Christmas. We visited the Kilbournes in Costa Mesa, and finished the day at Mom and Dad's. It was great to see everyone from both families, and we really missed all the out of state siblings and families.

On one of my first postings on this blog, I told you about Kelso, our new doggy. Well, we had to turn her back into our local (no-kill) shelter. I tried to walk her to the kids' school to get the boys, and she completely freaked out at the sight of another dog. She was barking madly and trying to attack the other dog. Needless to say, it was not a good experience (which all the students coming out of school and their parents witnessed). So, we turned her back in, and told them she doesn't seem to tolerate other dogs, although she got along fine with Tigger in our yard. We miss her, but the liability issue was just too great with her. So, we are now back to being a one dog family, with our boxer Tigger, whose behavior has gone back to being exemplary now that she is the only puppy again.

Tim will be flying to Eagan, MN, on Jan 30 and staying till Super Bowl Sunday. I don't know how he will do in the cold weather there, but he only needs to last for four-five days. He hates the cold, so I am sure it will be a struggle for him, but hey, whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger, right? We are really looking forward to seeing the Wells family when they arrive next month. The boys are really excited to see their cousins again, especially their buddy Donny. Everybody make sure to send Grandpa Clyde a birthday card, as it is his 95th (I think) birthday on Saturday, January 27, 2008. He would really love to get birthday wishes from all of us, particularly the grandkids he hasn't seen for awhile. Talk to all you soon.