Christmas 2012

We were fortunate this year to be able to have everyone home for Christmas.  It was wonderful!  We were able to do a lot of fun things together.  Since we are not able to get the whole family together very often, we made plans to get a family portrait taken on December 22nd.  Our Bishop does photography as a side job so we invited him to photograph our family.  We were able to take the photo in our own home, which was nice since the weather was rather cool and we didn't want to have to take Milo (11 days old) out into the cold weather.

We have only received one of the photos so far...only because I requested a photo that I could use for a Christmas e-mail greeting.  Evidently, Bishop Richardson combined 4 different photos to create this one photo.  At least everyone is smiling.  

On Sunday, December 23rd, Milo received a name and blessing from his father in our Sacrament Meeting.  It was a very special occasion since everyone in our family could be in attendance, although  Eric's family was a little late. They lost track of time and arrived just seconds too late for him to participate in the blessing, but they were able to hear it from the lobby. It was a wonderful blessing and Milo didn't make a peep.

On Christmas Eve day (December 24th), several of us went to a shooting range to try out different rifles, shotguns, and handguns with the help of Nicole's father, Rulon Beesley, who owns all of the guns. The morning was very cold and windy so I was quite miserable much of the time even though I was bundled up pretty good. Even with being cold, I still managed to enjoy the family activity. Here are a few of my favorite pics:

This shows the table with handguns on it. There was a separate table for shotguns and another for rifles.  Rulon allowed us to use any gun that we wanted to shoot.

Our family's favorite gun was the high powered laser sniper rifle. I didn't shoot it for two reasons - I didn't want to lie down on the ground and it costs too much for the ammunition (I think it is $1 a shot)

With this gun you can get a deer from 1,200 ft. away. Pretty amazing (and expensive) gun.

 Jared above and Eric below using the sniper rifle with Alan looking on.

Kyle trying his hand at the shotgun

Alan using a shotgun

I think I enjoyed the 357 magnum the most but I liked trying out the different rifles and shotguns too.

Cheryl using a handgun

We did something different before opening gifts this year.  Kyle and Emily favored us with a Christmas musical number, using magnifying glasses for microphones.  Unfortunately, I didn't capture the beginning of the song.  Our front door entryway makes a perfect stage.

I don't usually have many surprises when it comes to Christmas gifts, but I think I got the biggest surprise of anyone this year. I purchased a waffle iron from a seller on Amazon and when I opened the box, this is what I found:

a used Dell computer.  I don't know what it is worth, but I wish I had received my waffle iron instead.  I had to return it to the seller and will get reimbursed for the postage and the cost of the waffle iron.  When the person who lives in United Arab Emirates returns the waffle iron, I can repurchase it if I would like to.  What a mess!

It was a lot of fun to have the grandchildren around for over a week and to welcome Milo into the family. I have the best family in the world!

Milo had some cute Christmas outfits!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and I hope that the New Year 

will bring you much joy and happiness.

Welcome to the World, Milo

On December 11, 2012 at 4:04 p.m. (Central Time) our newest grandson, Milo Andrew Stott, was born by emergency c-section.  He was a week past his due date, but even so, his birth weight was still less than any of my children.  He weighed 7lbs. 5 oz. and was 19 1/2" long.  He is such a cute little guy and I can't wait to meet him in person next week (if Emily is feeling well enough to travel from Memphis to L.A.).  Here are some pictures shared by his parents - Kyle and Emily.

Minutes old

Emily's first view of Milo

Snuggled soundly in his mother's arms

The proud father

Satisfying the desire to suckle

Milo looks so tiny in his father's arms

Bonding time

Milo matches the quilt I made for him

How to shuffle fatherhood and finals

Emily will be a wonderful mother!

Ready to go home

According to Kyle, except for being tired, Emily is feeling pretty well and they are very hopeful of being able to travel to California for Christmas next week.  I am hopeful of that too. It would be very disappointing for us if they couldn't come, but of course we would understand if they decided they couldn't make it.  Emily's health at this time is top priority.....along with taking care of the needs of little Milo.  Welcome to the world, Milo.  We gladly accept you into our family!



For fun, as a comparison, here is Kyle as a newborn - all 11lbs. 11oz. of him.

Thanksgiving in Scottsbluff

For Thanksgiving this year we decided to drive to Scottsbluff, Nebraska to celebrate it with Eric & Nicole's family.  Yes, we were aware that driving to their house would be a 19 hr. trip each way. However, that didn't deter us even though we would be pulling a trailer full of items that Eric's family wanted.  These items included water barrels, pool table (small one), and foosball table.  Alan was glad to get them out of our garage and Ethan, Ella, and Olivia were happy to include them in their basement play area.  Unfortunately, I forgot to take pictures of them playing with them to include here.

Salt Lake City is actually on the way to Scottsbluff from our house, and since Cheryl wanted to join us on our road trip, it worked out perfectly for us to stop there to pick her up. Except for Alan getting motion sickness the first day, things went well as far as traveling went.  The weather was very agreeable.

Once we got to Scottsbluff, we were able to finally have some fun.  One fun thing we did was take a walk along the North Platte river. It was such a pleasant day and the walk was very enjoyable.

Olivia found this stick that she was very proud of and wanted her picture taken with it.

Another fun thing we did was shoot Eric's crossbow.  That thing is very powerful.  Eric set up a target in his back yard and let us have at it.  Yes, the children were inside so it was safe.

We also went shopping for clothing to wear for our upcoming family photo.  Olivia was a crack-up.  She entertained us by trying on Cheryl's sun glasses and ear muffs in Target

Oh, and yes, we ate a wonderful, delicious, Thanksgiving meal prepared mostly by Nicole.  The Bagley's (friends of Eric & Nicole) were invited as well and we had a great time.  I stole this picture from Nicole.  I hope she will forgive me.

It took two more days to drive home so we were very tired of being in the car, but all in all, it was a great trip, especially since we got to spend so much time with Eric's family.  Thanks for letting us share Thanksgiving with you!!!

Santa Barbara Zoo

A couple of weeks ago Alan and I decided to get away for the day by visiting the Santa Barbara Zoo.  We had heard from others who had been there that it was a nice zoo.  Wanting to go somewhere we had never visited before, we decided to check it out.  I meant to take a picture at the entrance of the zoo, but neglected to do so.  Although the zoo is pretty small, we had a great time.  Here are some highlights from our trip.

This little penguin was injured and had a "boot" on its foot. His name is "Lucky".  He didn't seem so lucky to me...I felt sorry for him as he had a difficult time swimming around.

I thought these two birds were beautiful.

Watching this gorilla lie on his back grabbing his feet reminded me of when my children were young and used to do the same thing while playing on the floor.  Very interesting!

A woman kindly offered to take a photo of us with the giraffe in the background.  Unfortunately, you can barely even see the giraffe.  Oh well. At least she tried.

 We just happened to be right next to the Piranha aquarium at feeding time. They feed only two times per week so we felt fortunate to be able to view the feeding.  According to the caretaker, piranha's aren't as aggressive as seen on movies.  He said you can put your hand in the water and they won't even bite you.  I had a video that I wanted to insert here, but it would not download.

The elephant closest to the building kept picking up and dropping a log.  I guess he was hungry.  He would throw it down onto the ground and then try to get to the "husk" that was inside.

All in all, we had a great time at the zoo.  Afterwards, we went to the pier and also had a great time there. 

Feelings of Gratitude

On Friday evening (September 28, 2012), Alan and I narrowly escaped a head-on collision.  Since that time, the way I view my life has changed.  In the blink of an eye, our lives could have been altered forever.  Because of that fact and the knowledge that for some reason our lives were spared, I am having extreme feelings of gratitude - not only for our spared lives, but for other things as well.

Just prior to this near collision, my mind was occupied in thought with regard to what if Alan and I were involved in a car accident and we were both killed.  I had a vision of sorts.  I saw cops on the scene going through our car/bodies looking for our identification and then upon finding our last name they would find my cell phone and look through my contacts to find someone with the same last name so they could call to inform our "next of kin" about our demise.  This was a grim picture I had in my head.  Since this premonition or vision almost came to pass, I am filled with gratitude for a loving Heavenly Father who spared our lives and let us continue living here on the earth, at least for a little while longer.  I feel we have much unfinished business here on earth to complete.

Here are some things I am feeling gratitude for:
* That I know about our Heavenly Father's plan for his children here on the earth. God's Plan of Happiness gives me reason to celebrate life.
* That our children didn't have to lose both parents at the same time.
* That our children didn't have to plan a funeral or come to our house to sort out all of our belongings and decide what to do with everything. That would be a HUGE mess for them!
* That I can continue to be an ordinance worker in the Los Angeles Temple and do that important work that can only be done on this side of the veil.
* That Alan and I can, hopefully, live long enough to serve a mission together.
* That we can be around for future weddings, births, blessings, baptisms, missions, ordinations, etc. of our posterity.  Family is everything to us and we want to be around as long as possible to share in our family member's lives.


For some who may not know the details of this incident, here is a summary of events:

Coming home from a day trip to visit the Santa Barbara Zoo, we were on a two-lane highway going east when a car coming toward us suddenly veered into our lane. We were literally within moments of impact when Alan had to swerve off the highway onto a gravel shoulder. We were traveling the speed limit (60) and if the other car was traveling the same speed, we would have had a 120 mph crash. I don't believe we could have survived that kind of impact. Thank goodness Alan had the presence of mind to suddenly swerve off the road in time. By having to exit our lane so quickly, we easily could have rolled the car or crashed into a pole or something, but fortunately Alan safely maneuvered the car to a stop. As a nice gesture, the truck behind us pulled over to make sure we were ok. We called him our Good Samaritan.   The sad thing is that a few miles down the highway, our Good Samaritan got impatient I guess and decided to pass us and another car in front of us. He had to go over the speed limit to do this. A Highway patrolman going west saw him, turned his car around, and pulled our Good Samaritan over. It broke our hearts! 

Feeling a Little More Prepared

The prophets have been warning us forever to get prepared for the chaos and turbulent times ahead as the Milennium approaches.  We have been working overtime trying to get as prepared as we possibly can. Although it is hard to know at what point you are completely prepared for anything that may come your way, I am starting to feel more confident about being able to handle an emergency.  Last weekend we got this delivered to us:

 

This is a behemoth water tank.  It holds 500 gallons! This should last us a long time (as long as it is just the two of us using it). We plan to use our pool water to wash clothes and bathe with.  As you can see in this pic, we also have several portable water containers in case we have to evacuate quickly.  Much of our food storage is dehydrated food. Therefore, having water available is a must! We live in the desert so we have no natural water sources available to us in an emergency.

Here is Alan busily filling up our smaller water containers. I am grateful that Alan takes on the responsibility of storing and rotating our water supply along with our fuel supply. I married a great man!

 

 

 

I am an active participant on our Ward's emergency preparedness committee.  I am an area captain and third in line to be the incident commander in an emergency.  This is a big responsibility and we are constantly having meetings and we hold emergency drills a couple of times per year. We are having one this coming Saturday.  Each Sunday evening at 6 pm those of us who have a ham radio license get on our Stake Net to practice emergency procedures and communication skills.  Because of this I needed a better antenna so a brother in the ward recently installed this for me:

 

 

This new antenna works much better than the antenna I had before. It is very sturdy and reliable.  I love it! After it was installed I said to Alan - "today feels like Christmas."

 

Well, I hope that anyone who may be reading this blog is making sure that they are getting prepared for an emergency. We know that following the Prophet is important whether we have to endure an emergency or not.  With all of the natural disasters that are hitting cities throughout the country and throughout the world, why would anyone not want to prepare for such an event, especially those who have small children still in the home? Now get going! Start adding a few items each month and before you know it, you will feel prepared just like I do.



Coeur d'Alene

 

In my last post, I talked about the triathlon that Jared, Cheryl, and Kyle participated in last July while we were visiting Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. Coeur d'Alene is a very beautiful city in the Pacific Northwest. This was my third visit there. I don't think I will ever grow tired of that awesome town. The triathlon wasn't the only thing we did while there.  The kids wanted to do some cliff jumping so we headed out for a little hike. 

 

 Here is the view of Coeur d'Alene from the cliff jumping area.

 

Cheryl should be in this picture, but she is behind the camera.

 

Jared jumping. If you look closely, you can see Kyle already in the water.

 

The beach area is more rocky than the type of beaches we are used to in California, but

Coeur d'Alenenians seem to really enjoy it and we did too.

 

I thought this pic was cute of Kyle & Emily!

 

 

Bocce ball action at the Crandall home.  Fun times!

 

We were able to visit a couple of "falls". This was taken at Post Falls.

 

 Then Idaho Falls

 

 See the temple in the background?

 

 

Sure wish we could have gone into the Idaho Falls Temple. We were only in Idaho Falls long enough to sleep overnight and this was taken on Sunday morning when the temple was obviously closed. I hope to return there some day to go inside and enjoy it even more.