Flute

My little budding flute player. Isn't he cute?

I love playing my flute. It's one of my happy times. (:

This time of year I get an extra excuse to practice because I get extra opportunities to perform. I am very amateur but I enjoy playing and sharing what bit of gift I have to share. Tomorrow I will play "What Child is This" along with Linnea on her violin and her friend, Soraya, on her violin and our friend, Lexi, singing. I will also play an obbligato part along with the congregation singing "Silent Night". I hope I don't mess up. I need to be confident. Next Sunday we will also play for another congregation that heard about our little group and asked us to please play for them.

I get to play on a new flute that my Dad gave to me. (:

Christmas Letter

Christmastime 2013

            As another year draws to a close, we wish you a happy Christmas! Please know that our thoughts and prayers are with you. We are settled in Clovis, CA and we love it here! We moved the last day of May and made it through the shocking heat as we unpacked and settled in between swim days, spending time with extended family nearby and trips to the lake. Micah loved picking apricots and ollalaberries and making jam and all the kids loved the water park! They enjoyed bare feet and popsicles. They are now enjoying their new schools. Albert and I had the opportunity to go to Hawaii this summer for a very late honeymoon and we loved it! I’m so blessed to be married to Him.

            Jacen is a Senior at Buchanan High School. He has straight A grades and is enjoying working out at his uncle Chris’ house. He recently ran a half marathon. He also enjoys playing the guitar with his extra time. He is so ready to move on to the next stage in his life! He plans on submitting papers for his church mission in early spring to leave after he graduates. He received his Eagle Scout award last May and will have his court of honor for it in December. It is a huge accomplishment! He still keeps in contact with many of the Fijians he served. We are so proud of him.

            Linnea is in 8^th grade and is a social butterfly! She loves spending time with her new friends and attending parties. She helped establish a CTR club (stands for “choose the right”) at school and loves it. She is a great student and continues to play the violin beautifully. She is such a sweet helper around the house and we are so blessed to have her in our family.

            Gavin is in 4^th grade and stays busy with sports and scouts and school and friends. He likes having friends in the neighborhood to play with. He loves riding his bike, jumping on the trampoline, playing basketball and ping pong. He is our soccer star! He is a high honor roll student and such a great big brother to Micah.

            Micah is four and we are enjoying our days together before he starts kindergarten next year. I love spending time with him. We enjoy reading and gardening and taking walks. He is such a sweet boy. I love being a mother. I also love teaching the 14 and 15 year old girls at church. I love to read, play my flute and piano and lots of kind of activities such as tennis and weight lifting and running.

            Albert has recently spent his time outside of work coaching Gavin’s soccer team, working out, serving as the executive secretary at church and lots of basketball games and walks with the family and our Newfoundland puppy, Henry.

            We are so grateful for the peace and love in our lives and in our family and know that his peace only comes through our Savior, Jesus Christ. This is the true spirit of Christmas. We hope this letter finds you healthy and happy. We love you.

The Zuniga Family

Albert, Jaime, Jacen, Linnea, Gavin and Micah

October/November

 Linnea has been busily working on her personal progress. Here she had me teach her to make lasagna. Then we invited Grama and Grampa over to eat it with us. I have such a testimony of personal progress! It's such a great program, helping girls to become the young women God intends them to be. I am working alongside Linnea and I love it.

Micah was a ninja for Halloween. Yay--he gets to wear Gavin's old costumes! My Mom threw a cute Halloween party for lots of the grandchildren.

Below is Micah's jack-o-lantern that he carved all by himself. Seriously, I was inside the house the whole time making dinner. I think he did a great job!

For Veteran's Day, Fresno had a huge, great parade. The band is always my favorite part.

I guess the flags make it festive but really, how much talent does it require to twirl a flag compared with playing a musical instrument?

My birthday came rolling along in November. I went to the temple with my Dad and Micah hung out with my Mom doing birthday party preparations. He said that I needed a new doormat. He picked out this one. Cute, huh.

I also got pine nuts. I love pine nuts, really. Albert got me some cute new dishes from my favorite store, Anthropologie. Tera gave me a beautiful vase from the same store.

My Dad's birthday is right after mine. Tera came over and brought this yummy cake from Layers that was seriously so good. We had a party at my house. Chris and his family was there and Erica, my niece and her girls.

We had a nice Thanksgiving at Albert's parents house. I don't have any pictures, unfortunately. The next day we decorated gingerbread houses. I have such great memories of doing this as a child with my best friend. I used to make all the gingerbread from scratch and it would take me all day when Jacen and Linnea were little but now I just buy the kits. My favorite is the one from Trader Joes from Germany (Micah's). I love how each of the kids decorated according to their personality. If I hadn't seen them decorating and then had to guess who's was who's, I totally would have known. I am missing a picture of Linnea's.  It totally looks like what she was do...very neat and orderly and color coordinating with patterns all over. (:

Gavin was spending the day with my mom (its nice living near them!) and he called me up and asked if he could bring home a leopard gecko. He'd been asking me for a while to let him have one. (I wanted a bearded dragon.) I somewhat reluctantly agreed. He is pretty cool. I haven't held him yet. I think the bearded dragons are less scary looking. Anyway, I like him. His name is Spiker. He is still alive. Oh, and I didn't realize I would have to also keep crickets alive. I HATE crickets. I have not been as successful at keeping them alive, although I have tried. I let Gavin deal with the feeding. The fun things about having boys! (: