Why I Love the Monterey Peninsula

I just feel so blessed to live in what I feel is the closest thing to heaven! This morning I hurried and drove Albert to work and then came home and got the children ready for the day and hurried out the door again to drive Jacen out to Carmel Valley to his soccer camp and then came home. I got out of the car and happened to look out the driveway at the ocean and it was so beautiful! The clouds were golden with the rising sun and I could hear the sea lions barking and the waves sparkling with light. I am constantly amazed at the beauty that surrounds me.

Reasons why I simply LOVE it here:
1. waking up in the early morning to the sound of the sea lions barking.
2. walking down to the ocean for a morning run or with my children in the day.
3. the norfolk island pine trees that grow so well here--they are amazingly beautiful! Jacen was the one to draw my attention to them.
4. the rare and miraculous moments when I get to see up close the ocean scenes: once at Lovers Point while I was watching my kids swim in the ocean, about 50 seals came to feed right at the waters edge--it was incredible!! Their tactics and agility and just seeing them up close was a treasured moment. Another time I loved seeing a whale off the coast of Pacific Grove. I saw it's head rise a bit above the water and water coming out of its blow hole.
5. Driving along highway 1 towards Big Sur is out of this world beautiful!
6. I love the eco-friendly people that live here and the people that border on "hippies"--I seem to liken to them well.
7. I love the bike trail that follows the coastline where I can run and bike with the children and not have to worry about crossing streets and cars, etc.
8. I love being able to walk nearly everywhere I go...the school, the bank, many stores, the post office, the library, the many great parks. I could go days without driving. Of course I have to drive to Trader Joes and Whole Foods Market--that is my next one.
9. I love being close to Trader Joes and Whole Foods. In Coalinga, I drove 3 hours round trip to go to those stores. I love being 5 minutes away from them. Never again will I have to patronize Save Mart!
10. I love how the forest meets the beach. The beach is beautiful--more beautiful here then most places, and the forest is beautiful too, but together they are amazingly beautiful.
11. I love walking in Pebble Beach along the boardwalk trail and listening to the Bagpiper.

I could go on and on all night but it's ten o'clock now and I must get ready for bed. I'm just so grateful for living in Monterey.

Happy Christmas!!

"As Christmas comes, let it be a time that lights the eyes of children and puts laughter on their lips." --Elder Richard L. Evans
We made sugar cookies earlier Christmas day to have some special cookies to leave out for Santa Claus..and of course a carrot for his reindeer. In the morning, of course they were gone and some of the cookie crumbled up on the floor where the cat had eaten her part of the treat.
Linnea was so very excited to get an American Girl this year. Her big doll in the picture is Felicity, a historic girl living in Virginia during the Revolutionary War. The two mini American Girl dolls are Kit (from the historic time of the 1930's during the depression years) and Kirsten (immigrated from Sweden to Minnesota). Linnea also got Felicity's movie and several books from the girls to learn about their historic time period. I loved this books when I was a girl and so I admit, I am living through my daughter in giving them to her. I was as excited as she was! It's great for her to be able to learn about history through these great books and dolls and movies.One of our Christmas traditions ever since I was a little girl was to enact the play of the Nativity, including reading from the scriptures. The children really love doing this and it really helps us to focus on the true meaning of Christmas. We went over to Grampa Neufeld's house on Christmas Eve afternoon to have dinner and enact this Christmas play.
"As we think of the happiness of Christmases past and the joy of this Christmas, may we savor and perpetuate the Christmas traditions which express our endearment and love to each other." --President James E. Faust
"Traditions offer opportunities to create memories, share love, and build strong bonds between family members. They will not only help your family life be more peaceful and rewarding, they will also give your children memories they can draw on no matter where they go or who they grow up to be." --Linda and Richard Eyre

We had such a fantastic Christmas and since we finished our shopping and wrapping and planning before December, we were able to really appreciate being together and doing activities together without quite so much stress. On Christmas Day, Grampa and Grama Sirman and Great Grampa Neufeld and the missionaries from our ward came over to have Christmas dinner with us. We appreciated their company and the sweet spirit of Christmas they brought with them. We had a candle lighting activity with scripture reading that was nice. We also sang Christmas songs together while Sister Richardson and I played our flutes for the accompaniment. I loved having someone to play my flute with--it was so much fun! All in all, we had a wonderful Christmas at home. The next day Gavin put his stocking out again for Santa. We had to explain that Christmas comes only once a year!

Here Comes Santa Claus!!

I wasn't sure how Gavin was going to feel about sitting on Santa's lap. He is very wary of strangers but I guess after reading about Santa and singing about Santa and talking about Santa coming with presents, he didn't feel like such a stranger. We were at our ward christmas party at church and as the dinner wrapped up, Gavin was in the other part of the building playing with Jacen and the big boys. I went to tell him that Santa was there and he ran so fast down the hall yelling, "Santa's here! Santa's here!" It was so cute to see his great enthusiasm! He told Santa that he had been very good (a bit of an exaggeration!<:) and wanted a race track. We have been using Santa as motivation for the past few months to encourage Gavin to behave!
Linnea was so sweet sitting on Santa's lap and talking with him. Santa was also very sweet. (He was actually Brother Spencer!) Linnea told him that she would like a doll. I think every year she says that--it makes it easier on Santa anyway! This year; however, she will be surprised with a very special American Girl doll. Santa passed out delicious Lula Chocolate Peppermint Bark (thanks to Brother Lund). The parents were envious of that!
I'm so glad that Jacen is still not too old to sit on Santa's lap! I remember sitting on his lap when I was twelve or thirteen still. Jacen very nicely told Santa that for Christmas he wanted a nice Christmas dinner and time with his family. I was so proud of him! What a mature and sweet boy I have!

It was a very fun night with our friends and ward members. The dinner was delicious and the decorations were beautiful. Our friends, the Nilsson family, came and met us there. We sang Christmas songs and Jacen did such an outstanding job playing his trumpet! He played "The First Noel", "Joy to the World" and "Good King Wenceslas." He performed for about 300 people and just did it wonderfully! I'm so proud of him for developing and sharing his talent! We ended on a spiritual note before Santa arrived. Santa was a perfect santa and entertained close to 60 children before leaving...instead of his reindeer, I think he exited on one of his many cool cars...perhaps it was his porche that night. "Merry Christmas to all...and to all a good night!"

Snow in the Park in PG

This big mountain of snow behind us is part of the snow hill made in Caledonia Park. It is an annual festivity that we are sure to attend! As I write this I wonder if my relatives in Sweden are grinning about the fact that we have to make our snow to play in because we don't have any! It is kind of funny. The kids have so much fun! And their is much more to the festivity then snow. (My camera batteries ran out so I couldn't take pictures of the rest of our day!) We played in snow for a couple of hours..I have got to say that we are not very adept at dressing for the snow! I guess that comes with experience. We had to take a little intermission for some of us to go home and change into dry clothes! Then we were back. The kids loved the bounce houses, park toys, visiting with the Snow Queen, the excitement of watching Santa ride in on a fire truck, pony rides, horse drawn carriage ride, and petting zoo. Gavin wants to go back to the snow. Maybe we'll have to wait until next year...or drive up to some mountains somewhere after it snows. As for me, I like the moderate temperatures and not having to deal with any snow--just playing in it and then walking home.

The Beach in November?!

These pictures were taken towards the end of November! It was very warm--warm enough to go to the beach and go in the water. The Pacific Ocean is very cold so it has to be pretty warm to want to go in (unless you have a wet suit which I had to eventually buy for Jacen so he wouldn't turn blue!). We had so much fun. That is something that I love about this area. Sometimes during the middle of winter, we can have a crazy warm day and on those days, I try to just drop everything and go to the beach. It is one of my most favorite things. I love relaxing on the sand and watching the waves and the beautiful seascape. I feel as if my heart is just soaring! I feel so full of gratitude for this beautiful world! I also love to play with the kids there. It's heaven for them--one big gigantic sandbox to play in! So anyway, we had a blast! Then in a matter of a week...winter came. We'll have to wait for one of those crazy warm days to come again.

Thanksgiving 2007

I feel like I am going backworks chronologically. However, I do want to include a post about Thanksgiving. We had a nice little intimate Thanksgiving at home this year. I enjoyed making our feast with some help from Albert with the turkey. I have a hard enough time eating meat, let alone cleaning it. I hope in the next life, we don't need to eat meat. Anyway, we had a nice dinner and the children helped. I got out the china and crystal and the children were excited about feeling "grown up" because they were allowed to use it. We are so grateful for our family and home and life and the gospel. We truly have so much to be thankful for.

Dad and My Birthday Dinner at Chili's

Dad and I had a combined birthday dinner this year. Every birthday Grampa Neufeld lets the birthday person pick where they want to go out to eat for their birthday dinner. It's so nice not to have to cook on those nights! Here are some pictures of that dinner that Marilyn took.

Family Picture Time

No one without a family of at least a few children can understand the struggles of taking a family picture. I wanted so badly to just get one good picture this year. I really wanted one to put on my wall. Anyway, here is the whole story... at my birthday party at Chili's in November, I was admiring Aunt Marilyn's super nice camera and had the great idea of her taking pictures of us on the beach. So she came over Thanksgiving Day when we were all home and we drove down to take a fantastic picture--or so were my hopes! First of all, the sun was shining in Linnea's eyes and she had a fit and took off her shoes and threw them into the rec trail and ran away. Here is a great pouty picture of her! So I had to try to lure her back to take a picture. I did so by bribing her with a Lulu chocolate from a box that Tera and Jared had given me for my birthday. (By the way, they are wonderful! Brother Lund, from our ward, moved here from Utah to become a chocolatier). Girls will be girls, with their attitudes and love of chocolate! Maybe, just maybe, she gets that from her mom. Then we get Linnea back and Gavin is fooling around during the picture. So Jacen hits him to try to get him to pay attention. Jacen was trying to help me; however, of course it just made Gavin start crying! So now I had to settle Gavin down. By the time we all got situated again, the kids were very tired of posing for a picture and we were working with trying to get the light right. Gavin closed his eyes and just refused to open them! Albert had his glasses on and forgot that they were the ones that turned dark in the sun. It was all just so frustrating that now that I look back on it, it's kind of comical. Marilyn was very patient and I got a nice picture of Marilyn and the kids. As for our family picture, I settled on the only picture that we are all looking halfway decent. So I developed them and the company way overdeveloped it and it's super dark. Oh well. At this point, I'm just going to deal with it and hope next year is better. It makes me wonder how my Mom ever got all the pictures she got of us! Of course we've got some funny ones--one little girl sticking out her tongue. I wonder who that was?

Happy Halloween!!

We had great fun last night trick-or-treating! Jacen was a soccer player, Linnea was a witch, and Gavin was a vampire. Jacen went trick-or-treating with some friends, so that picture is at his friends house before they left. The rest of us went to homes of friends in Pacific Grove. This morning Gavin woke up and the first thing he said to me was, "Let's go trick-or-treating again today!" He was very excited about just being able to go to houses and get more candy then he sees in an entire year!

The End of Our Fun Day at Disney

At the end of our fun day, as we left the park, we got a picture of the kids with both grama's. Grampa Jim had already left a few minutes earlier to the car. Gavin was sleeping in the stroller. He sacked out right at the end of the fireworks show. Thank you Grampa and Grama Sirman and Grama Maria for going with us and sharing the fun day with us!