2009 Update (So Far)

Well, it has been a really long time since I added anything here. To catch up, we had a wonderful Christmas, and safe and Happy New Year. Fast forward to April 2009, the boys are off track till the end of the month. I am attending school twice a week, and taking an online class. I found out that this summer, I will be getting two Associates degrees, an AA and an AS. Then I will be on to a Bachelors program. Shane's 13th birthday is coming up, and it is hard to believe he will be a teenager. Kevin is just enjoying being out of school for a few weeks. Tim, as always, is working hard, and planning for a couple of days off before the boys go back to school.

We have a new family member, a young Boxer named Jaws. The name is very fitting as Jaws is only 10 months old, so he tries to chew on everything. Tigger is very excited to have a friend, and we are hoping it might help keep her inside our yard when we are gone. Either that, or she will teach the new dog to follow her over the fence when she wants out.

We are looking forward to Easter next week, and will be thinking of all our family members out of state. Mom told us recently that all of my siblings and their families will be here in July (for Claire's wedding) so we are anxiously awaiting that visit. Love you all, and talk to you soon.

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.